The Soul Keeper

We were once again sitting in Victoria's room. Lucius wasn't here yet – he was meeting with his own network of people, making sure they keep an eye on Erik and the others.

"So," Asher finally said, breaking the heavy silence. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine." I said, showing them a bitter smile. "I'm more worried about you, Victoria." I couldn't help but fear this meeting happened too soon after the funeral. Victoria was a mess. Her eyes were swollen, her face was red, and it was clear she hadn't slept at all.

"I'm fine." She said, then sniffed. "I'll be fine." She stood up and walked to the window. "Vincent and the others are who you should be worried about.

"I'm worried about them as well." I said with a sigh. I recalled how awful they all looked when I peeked inside the inn just a short while ago, after Mona left. "Anyways, what did you find out?" 

She seemed to appreciate the change of subject as a smile flashed across her lips for a fraction of a second. She took a small, leather bound notebook from one of the bookshelves and took her place on the black-clad couch again.

"I deciphered a little bit of one of the notebooks Asher gave me." She explained. "Take this with a grain of salt though, this directly contradicts the Ereth narrative."

She flipped the pages of the notebook and began explaining. "A few centuries ago, a battle took place near a castle that belonged to a then powerful demon family. In their defence against the, uh, 'winged death bringers', the demons suffered many losses and eventually had to retreat, abandoning the castle and the surrounding lands. However," He paused and glanced at Asher. "A very powerful mage sacrificed herself to prevent the winged death bringers from taking over the castle and 'spreading their tainted magic'."

I tilted my head. "Which castle is this?"

"There is no name on the map the Ereth stores sell, but the owner of this notebook called it 'Forlorn Castle'." Victoria explained. She took a map from the shelves and unfolded it on the large coffee table. 

She pointed at a darker coloured spot. "It's somewhere in this area." 

I furrowed my brows. Wasn't that the same spot Matriarch Aelith had ordered me to go and 'cleanse'? And… why was that name so familiar?

Before I could say anything about this, a knock on the door sounded. We stared at the door as it creaked open and Lucius stepped inside. 

"Hey, Kai." He said hesitantly as our gaze met. He seemed somewhat pale.

We quickly explained everything to him and then I told them about the 'cleansing' process Aelith wanted me to do. 

"That's some coincidence." It was Asher who spoke. Lucius nodded immediately. Despite not wanting to, I couldn't help but agree as well. 

"Something feels off." I said, then shrugged. "But I can't afford to not go there." I instinctively touched the earring she'd given me. "I'd understand if you didn't want to come along," I added. Considering they'd just witnessed a person's death; I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to sit this one out.

"We're coming." Lucius said with a clearly forced grin. "When do we set off?" 

Asher pondered a moment, then glanced at the window. "How about now?" He asked. "It's not even noon yet and this is a two-day journey at the very least." 

I nodded. "Works for me. Victoria, would you mind letting Mona's and Vincent's groups know that I'll be out of the city for a while if they come asking?"

She nodded. "I'll also try and keep the boys inside the city or in the nearby woods." She added. "I don't want them to make any rash decisions."

I wasn't sure how she was going to accomplish that, but I believed she was resourceful enough to pull it off. 

"Let's head out then." I said with a sigh and got up.

We bid Victoria farewell and headed for the city gates. Once we were outside, Asher used his spell to grant himself and the very unhappy Lucius flight. I, once again, summoned my wings and leapt into the air.

The wind blowing in my ears and the sunlight warming my back felt good. I could almost forget my worries and fears. Almost. The sight of Samantha's body, burned into my mind, made it impossible to forget.

We flew until dusk, camped through the night and come morning, flew again. It was the next day's evening when the castle entered our view.

"That thing is…" Asher's voice faded as we floated a few hundred meters away from it. 

"It's disgusting." Lucius finished the blond sorcerer's sentence.

"Yeah." I wholeheartedly agreed with them. 

What was once a probably fairly normal castle was now a rather large pile of plant. A red and purple, sticky, clearly very much alive, plant.

"That thing might be carnivorous." Asher said as we watched the massive lump of tendrils, leaves, roots and surprisingly colourful flowers sway in the wind. "Look at the root section." He said, pointing at the centre of the massive lump. "Looks like there are holes filled with some form of liquid."

Lucius turned pale. "Oh gods, no. The last thing I need is man eating plants."

I nodded. Just looking at the thing made me want to puke. I could smell that intoxicating scent from all the way over here.

"Let's tackle this tomorrow." Asher said after a short time. "I want to have all of my mana for this."

With that, we looked for a place to spend the night and eventually decided on a small alcove sufficiently far away from the monster plant.

We set up camp as usual. Lucius and I sparred a little to get our minds off of things, though he became increasingly annoyed that he couldn't win. Eventually, we sat by the fire and enjoyed the meal Asher had prepared for us. 

"So," Lucius explained to the blonde sorcerer, clearly still worked up. "This guy is basically ambidextrous, so he can do that stupidly useful thing where he switches hands mid combat – it's impossible to foresee it!"

I chuckled as Asher just seemed generally confused.

"Mother and sister could easily defeat me." I said, grinning. "You're just not at that level yet."

Lucius nearly choked on his food. "Of course I'm not you idiot." He rolled his eyes. "Not all of us are prodigies like you!" 

I chuckled. "You know that's not what I am." Though, despite my laughter, I looked away. I couldn't quite place my finger on it, but something about his words awakened one of my long-buried memories. I immediately supressed it – my memories of home were not a rabbit hole I could afford to jump into right now.

"Is he that good?" I heard Asher ask. 

"I'm not-"

"Yeah."

Lucius stared at me. "Shut up. You are."

"I literally have one trick up my sleeve." I protested. "And it only works once."

Asher chimed in. "I'd like to hear Lucius' opinion on this, actually." I glared at him while Lucius laughed out loud.

"Kai is better than anyone else our age." Lucius said after his laughter subsided. "He came up with that feint-into-hand-switching move on his own and it's been his signature move since." 

I rolled my eyes. True, I was better than the others of my age, but compared to Sis or Mother, my skill wasn't even worth mentioning.

"I didn't know that." Asher said with a chuckle.

"Ok, that's enough about me." I said with a sigh and opened my status panel.

'Kai Friseal – Level 93 Soul Keeper | Exp: 32467/110000 - - Souls 100/100 + 1970 - - Mana: 2070

Fallen Grace Lv. 5 | Death's Scythe Lv. 5 | Dark Bolt Lv. 5 | Soul's Respite Lv. 5 | Keeper's Haven Lv.1 | Explorer | Crystal Sage

STR: 20 – CON: 11 – DEX: 100 – INT: 100 – WIS: 100'

As soon as I opened the panel, both of them immediately stopped chatting and directed their attention to the pale blue text floating before me.

"93?" Asher smiled. "That's not bad at all." He looked over the other stats, nodding approvingly. I rolled my eyes and switched to the skills panel.

"Let's see…" I mumbled. I had more skill points than I could use, so the first thing I did was level Keeper's Haven to Level 5. 

"Anything new?" Asher asked after a moment of hesitation. I shrugged and checked my available skills.

"Apparently, yes." I said as a whole lot of greyed out skills formed a long list. Lucius immediately leaned forward and began reading.

"Once again," Asher mumbled in disappointment. "These are borderline useless. 'Soul Gust'? You already have the primal core of wind. Just like your flames, once you master to use it, the winds will basically bend to your will." He sighed. "It was like this the first time I saw your list of available skills too. For such an important class, such weak and insignificant skills make no sense."

Lucius nodded, then his eyes suddenly lit up. "What about the other thing?" He asked. "How do you use the souls you have?"

I hesitated, then understanding dawned on me. "Ah, you mean the development path thing." I quickly switched between the different panels of the interface until I found the one I was looking for.

"Oh," I said as I noticed the blue text that wasn't there before.

'New Development Path Available'