yeah, more

"I see. Sagus, can you see souls that are no longer bound to their bodies?"

"Yes, i can. Look over there." Sagus motioned his head toward a group of trees where Marianne found the ethereal form of a young girl looking up to the top of one of them. Sagus didn't look. "Don't worry, she's harmless. Most likely even if she knows we're here, she doesn't care. Can you see her?"

"Yes."

"She's crying right now. My guess is that she died when she fell from that tree." He sighed. "I'm sorry. I should have gone after your attacker. Then you'd have been rid of him." He paused. "No, that's not true. Even if i had gone after him, i couldn't have done anything. I can see souls, but i can't touch them. I wonder. Is the ability to see what causes pain without being able to do anything about it a blessing or a curse?"

"I would call it a curse. If i couldn't soothe some of the souls i've seen, i don't know if i could live with myself."

"You can talk to them?"

"Yes. I can talk to them and in most cases send them away if they're troublesome."

"You can!? Why didn't you send that soul away just now!?"

"Because....i deserve his anger." Sagus looked at her questioningly, but already with the belief that what she had just said was untrue. "Before i joined you, back in my village, i was, well, sought after by the boys and young men. It seemed like every day, someone i barely knew would ask my father for his blessing to marry me when i was of age. He always said the same thing: 'if she approves of you, i will approve of you'. One of the boys a few years older than me, Raeph, asked my father for my hand and he told him to ask me. From the way he looked at me, i knew he only wanted my purity and would dispose of me once he got it. He asked me to marry him right then, and i...i said no."

"Right then? I met you at 16. How old were you then?"

"I was only 11."

Sagus smirked. 'He must have seen some adult propose to a woman and he wanted to emulate him.' "How old was he?"

"Nineteen."

The smirk vanished, replaced with a look of shock and disgust. "What!? That's ****!"

"I know. I told him i was too young to marry him. He was so upset. First he was angry, but then he became depressed. He left town soon after, so i never knew how sad i'd made him, but...." Marianne's voice broke like twigs on the ground. "While i was training with master Meajhun, i heard that he....he'd....oh god...." She began sobbing loudly. She pressed her face into Sagus' shoulder, which absorbed and muffled the agonized sound. "It's all my fault! He took his own life."

Silence weighed heavily on the mages. Marianne's mind became a whirlwind of memories of the boy she felt responsible for killing, while Sagus' had only one thought.

'If he killed himself over her and is stalking her after ****, he's going to become violent, maybe very soon. If he decides to attack, he might break Marianne's mind or soul or both. I can't let that happen, but i can't do anything about it either. What can i do for her?'