Harper's Pathos

Chapter Two: A Tale of Two Souls

The sun had been slowly falling to the west for some time, and finally began to dip behind the rolling sands on the horizon, spitting orange light across the sky and painting the eastern sides of the dunes in purple shadow. A cold wind ran through the bones of Harper and Morgan both as the blazing star took its heat with it, leaving the dry landscape a chilled wasteland. The pair had waited for the sun to calm and the sands to cool before venturing out after their break, which gave them a few hours to wander the sands in relative comfort. However, as it would soon be too dark to travel the desert, the two stopped to set up a small camp.

Perhaps 'camp' was too generous a term. They had managed to build a small fire using the dead branches and shrubs they could find, then layed out whatever extra cloth they had to sit on. Morgan's pack was a few feet away from them, and she planned to use it as a pillow again. It wasn't ideal, but they were surviving. 

Harper lay staring at the stars, bored, as Morgan had been unusually quiet for the past few minutes. She had a book in her hands, but her eyes stared off in one direction or another, not focused on the pages in front of her. It became clear that she wasn't actually reading; the book was only there to give her hands something to fixate on.

As always, Harper's empathetic instincts kicked in, "Morgan, is something wrong?"

"Huh?" the sorceress snapped out of her daze, blinking a few times as if refocusing on everything around her, mainly Harper, "Oh, no, nothing. I was just thinking..."

Harper scooted a little closer to their friend, a pleasant smile spread across their face, "About anything in particular?"

The tall girl's expression became hard to read -not unpleasant, just complicated- and she closed the book, putting to the side and out of the way. "It's about your... wings," she explained, "I've been thinking about this for quite a while now, and I think there's something I might be able to do to get more info-"

"Well let's do it!" Harper interrupted, practically bouncing up and down, "Right now, if we can!"

"Hold it for a second, dolt. You don't even know what it is yet. Let me explain," she responded with feigned annoyance, but in reality Harper's enthusiasm forced her to hide a giggle.

The blonde continued to vibrate with excitement, but managed to clamp their mouth closed for Morgan to explain her proposal.

"So, I didn't think this would reveal anything new initially, but with those markings on your back, I genuinely don't know..." she began, "There's a certain ritual I can perform that makes the souls of those around visible to me. It's primary use is to see spirits that would otherwise be hidden, even to my necromantic senses. However, when I use it on a living creature, I can examine someone's soul, reveal things I wouldn't have known otherwise."

Harper's expression changed several times in quick succession: from excited, to confused, to annoyed. "Why didn't you tell me about this before?" they demanded.

The necromancer sighed at the inconvenience of having to explain further, "As I said, I didn't think it would reveal anything new until now. It's not as if this will allow me to find your lost memories! It will simply allow me to view your true nature."

"Why would my weird, maybe-magic tattoos make you think any different about this?"

Their lack of ability to put together context clues was beginning to annoy Morgan, "Because, you dolt, I'm not sure you're entirely human!"

Harper opened their mouth to say something, but as they began to process that statement, they stuttered, "I- what?" Their brow furrowed and they eyed their friend with suspicion, "What else could I be?" After a brief moment of silence accompanied by Morgan's blank stare, Harper chuckled, "What, you don't think because I have some tattoos of wings that I'm an actual angel, do you?"