[... Oh. Kratos hadn't been aware Colette had told Raine about her difficulties. She hasn't said anything to Kratos, but for Kratos it's plain to see what's happening. As for 'samples' ...]

More than you know. I'm the only angelic human, aside from the Chosen.

[Is there any point in trying to maintain distance by calling her that? She'd called him on it already, when they left Iselia. ... Not a thought he wants to be thinking. He looks back toward the other side of the ridge and chooses, instead, to answer Raine's question. What's the point in refusing? Raine would only press harder.]

When I undertook the transformation, I had a key crest from the very beginning. The changes came in stages, like they have for the- for Colette, but over time and more insidiously. I'd feel less and less hungry between meals, until finally I realised that I'd stopped eating. I'd stay up later and later, until I stopped going to sleep at all. I'd need to move a log in the fire and unthinkingly reach in with my hand, and not feel the heat or pain. With -- Colette -- her senses are lost nearly as soon as the next stage activates, due to the lack of a key crest, but the process is much the same.