It is more complex than you'd have thought

And that is just finding the damn place. The directions would have been great if they had been written for someone who had any knowledge of the city outside of the main roads. The issue of alleys was maddening. Most blocks had at least one alley going through it but not all alleys are made the same. You had to back track a few times because a street wasn't a street, or it was but it was smaller than the alley right next to it.

When you found the place and knocked on the door you were only fifty percent sure it was the right house. A man opened it and you said, "Hello, Beth sent me to help her sister." The man regarded your colourful top and your far more brown pants. "I normally dress less ... less." You should have spent longer picking a top, or going for the pants that had been offered.

"Beth told her sister you could help her eye." The man, you assume husband, said. He looked at you very suspiciously. "Her letter also said it would be free." He was blocking the door and you wondered if you'd just put yourself into the middle of sibling, in-law fight.

"Yeah, no charge. It's just an aura absorb and return with some of my magic." You explain, your patience was pretty broad but after finding this place it had been ground slightly down.

"I've given her magic already." He was sounding defensive.

"Who is it?" The shout was not followed by an appearance.

"Beth sent me, I helped heal the injured people at the academy." You shouted back hoping to speed this along.

"Beth?" The question from inside was followed by a face, it's right eye gone along with the right side of their hair and their skin was very red. Must have been a fireball to the face. You felt your right hand tingle, remembering the heat Eve put off last night. There was a shadow over the missing eye but it did look like the skin had healed the eyeball just hadn't grown back.

"Oh that's good." You said cheerily only for the two of them to glare at you. "No, I mean the damage ... Let me start again. I'm Christopher." The man looked inside then back at you and held out his hand. You hesitated to reach for it since it wasn't just a hand shake it was an aura sharing, likely to make sure you were being honest. "Look I'm pretty sure I can hep with your eye, it won't take that long, an hour at most."

The man looked inside at his wife, awaiting her approval. She chewed her lip for a moment and nodded. He stepped out of the door frame and you walked inside. "What do you need?" He asked ushering you deeper in.

"A seat and time." You said and were directed into the kitchen. You sat at the table and asked her to join you. She sat rubbing her face, her aura showing a deep apprehension about this. "So how this works is I will absorb part of your aura."

"Like those Church women have been talking about?" The man asked hovering over his wife. She waved him off and he went to get some drinks.

How far had word of Farrah's church spread? "Yes, though I'm not sure they know the full details. After I've absorbed your aura I will return it with some of my magic, this will trigger your magic to heal your body using my knowledge of anatomy, and since I know how the optic nerve connects to your brain," thank you highschool science class, "You should be able to regrew your eye, working and all."

They both stared at you dumb struck. "What?" She asked and you kicked yourself. The whole point was to set them at ease so you could absorb her aura easily, this wasn't helping.

"Sorry. For this to work I need your aura to open up to me, so we need to chat for a while until you are comfortable. We'll both know when it happens." You lean back in your chair. "To start with why did you join the army?"

The pair looked at each other for a moment, a silence conversation taking place in their auras. He was very distrustful, but she was open, though out of desperation and not belief. "We needed money." She said flatly.

Oh that's a worrying start. You changed to ask about how the two of them met and she started to open up slowly. You friendly questioning was helping but every time her husband neared things moved backwards. You considered asking him to leave but that would just start more issues.

After half an hour there was no luck. She just didn't trust you even close to enough and with her husbands distrust that didn't seem likely to change. You tried to think of an alternative. But so far there were only two circumstance you'd absorbed someone aura, in the presence of someone or in a situation where trust already existed, or sex. You looked at the husband, that last one didn't seem on the table.

"Ok, maybe something different. Maybe if Beth is here things will be easier." You stood up and stretched your legs, you didn't need to but your patience was coming to a close and you were getting frustrated at the lack of progress.

"Is there no other way?" She asked with a bit of worry. She seemed to have come around to this might working but not enough.

"Not unless you wanna have sex." The words slipped out before you had a chance to think about them. "N-no sorry that -"

"With you?" She asked. You and the husband looked at her in shock. She looked at her husband. "Without my eye I can't go back to the army and we need the money."

The man bit his lip. You felt extremely uncomfortable as the whole gender dynamic of this world was thrown back in your face. He didn't actually have all that much of a say in this, she was the head of the house he was just the glorified maid. You wondered if he worked while she was in the field. "We could find other work."

"Work that pays even as close to the army?" Her question made him shrink backwards, away from the table. "Exactly." She cleared her throat and looked at you. "What level of sex?" Her regarding of you had very suddenly shifted as soon as you'd mentioned sex.

"Ok that isn't at all." You sighed and looked at the pair. "We don't have to have sex, you just need to trust me, both of you." That last bit rang a bit hollow at this point. "Unless you can fuck each other." Against your frustration at this situation made the words slip out. Why oh why can you not just shut up.