Arthur could not stay still.
After the night of the dream and what he had seen in the mirror, the feeling of losing ground had become too strong.
The 30% was no longer an abstract number: it was skin that was too smooth, features that were softening, a scent he could no longer completely mask, and a sensitivity that made even the most ordinary gestures something complicated.
He had to find something.
Anything.
He invented an excuse similar to the one from a few days earlier.
He told Brandt he needed to pick up a small piece of material from a supplier on the other side of the city.
His father nodded without asking too many questions.
Tessa looked at him strangely as he left, but said nothing.
This time he did not go straight back to the small bookstore.
First he walked for a long time through Valenford, trying to figure out whether there were other places where he could gather information without drawing attention.
The main temple was out of the question.
Too official, too many questions.
In the end, however, his steps still led him back toward the old quarter.
The old man was behind the counter, busy repairing the binding of a damaged volume.
He raised his eyes when Arthur entered and, this time, did not seem surprised.
“You again,” he said simply.
Arthur closed the door behind him and approached with caution.
“Last time you spoke to me about Lysara.
About the blood that can awaken.
I wanted to know if there is… a way to slow it down.
Or stop it.”
The man remained silent for a few seconds, then set down the needle and thread.
“Most of those who come to ask about her do not return.
You, on the other hand, came back.”
He stood up and went to retrieve not one, but two thinner books from the back of the shop.
He opened them on the counter, taking care not to damage the yellowed pages.
“There are no clear rituals,” he said as he leafed through them.
Lysara was not a goddess who loved to be placated.
She was a goddess of the cycle.
Once the blood activated, the body had to follow the change through to the end.
Or at least… up to a certain point.”
Arthur felt his stomach tighten.
“Up to a certain point?”
The old man pointed to a line with his thick, knotted finger.
“Here it speaks of ‘thresholds.’ The process happens in phases.
Each phase prepares the body for the next one.
Some darker texts claim that if one manages to resist without feeding the blood—without strong emotions, without intense stimuli, without yielding to the call of the change—the progress can slow down.
Not stop completely.
But slow down.”
Arthur lowered his gaze to the pages.
The words were ancient, written in a somewhat archaic language, but the meaning was clear.
“So… if I avoid certain things…”
“If you manage to keep control,” the man corrected.
“Lysara’s blood reacts to what the body and the mind desire, even when the person tries to refuse it.
The more you struggle in a disordered way, the more it sometimes accelerates.
It is a cycle.
Not a simple curse to be broken with a prayer.”
Arthur remained silent.
The information was sparse, incomplete, and yet it weighed like stones.
There was no easy solution.
There was only the possibility of resisting, of not feeding the process any further.
The old man closed the books.
“Little else that is not legend.
It is said that those who carried the active blood ended up changing completely, and that some, afterward, were no longer entirely human in the way the world looked at them.
Others say that the goddess watched.
And that sometimes… she chose.”
Arthur swallowed.
He paid for the time and the information, thanked him with a nod of the head, and left the shop.
This time he did not stop in the square.
He walked for a long time without a precise direction, the old man’s words buzzing in his head.
Slow it down, not stop it.
Avoid intense stimuli.
The blood reacts even to what one tries to refuse.
He slipped into a quiet alley only when he was sure he was not being watched and called up the Status.
[Name: Arthur Age: 18 Level: 1 Class: Apprentice Blacksmith (Weak) Strength: 4 Agility: 6 Endurance: 5 Magic: 3 Intelligence: 12 Dexterity: 8 Skills: – Basic Sharpening (Lv.2) – Tool Organization (Lv.3) – Excessive Shyness (Passive) [Curse: Gender Transformation – Blood of Lysara] Phase: 1/4 Progress: 32%]
It had risen by another two points.
Just from the stress of the conversation and the fear that followed.
Arthur leaned against the cold wall and closed his eyes.
Now he knew at least one thing: there was no simple solution.
He could only try not to feed the fire any further.
Avoid contacts that were too close.
Avoid emotions that were too intense.
Avoid… everything the dream had shown him was dangerous.
But he also knew, with an uncomfortable clarity, how difficult it would be.
He straightened his jacket, tried to put his expression in order, and started walking back toward the shop.
He had to go back inside.
He had to pretend.
He had to resist.
And hope that resisting would be enough, at least for a while.