The Soul Keeper

A moment of anxious silence followed his words. 

"It's good to see you, Erik." I said, unsure of how I should greet him.

He hesitated, then sighed and approached our table and collapsed on one of the empty chairs. "Yeah." He mumbled before slouching. "Damn it."

We sat there, not sure of what to say. If not for Alina and Joshua coming down the stairs, our silence would have probably continued.

"Kai?" Alina whispered as soon as she saw me. Joshua's expression darkened a little before he suddenly grinned. "Oh hey." He said with a cheerful voice.

"Hey guys." I said with a faint smile. "It's good to see you."

"I'm so glad you're back!" Alina shouted before running towards me and throwing her arms around my neck. "I thought you'd left – that you'd never come back!" 

"Sorry," I said with a chuckle as she rested her head on my shoulder. "I didn't mean to worry you." 

Joshua coughed and pulled a chair. "Where have you been?" He asked, his expression once again quite serious.

"The Divine Matriarch wanted me to run an errand." I said with a sigh. I didn't want them to know exactly what I had been up to.

"I see." Erik mumbled. He sighed again, there was clearly something in his mind. "I'm sure Vincent has told you already," He opened his interface and showed me the quests panel. A single quest was written there with clear, bold letters. 

'Kill the Cursed Beast that plagues the water source of Baile Chailce'

"The water source is inside demon territory." I clenched my fists. "That quest isn't a good idea." Especially after my encounter with Delthur back at Forlorn Castle, getting close to demon territory sounded like a horrible idea. If the demons mobilised any troops in the area, Erik or the others wouldn't stand a chance.

"Well, we don't exactly have a choice." Erik said with a shrug. "If I don't complete it, my privileges as a champion of the tournament will be revoked, we can't risk losing the support of the Ereth divines."

Joshua nodded. "Besides, the rewards are pretty sweet." He grinned as he pointed towards the rewards listed below the quest.

"That's not the point!" I protested. "That's demon territory. You don't know how powerful demons are!" They had never seen one, let alone fought one. I honestly didn't believe they stood a chance, not in the state they were in right now.

"Like I said," Erik said slowly. "I don't exactly have a choice." 

I couldn't tell whether his anger was directed at me, or the Divine that gave him such a dangerous mission.

"We'll need to be very careful." I said after a sigh. "When do we set off?"

The group hesitated; I didn't think any one of them expected me to come with them. I raised my eyebrows. "What? Didn't you plan at all?"

Erik stumbled around his words for a moment before laughing. "Wait, you're actually offering to come with? You're crazy, I hope you know that!" He stood up and gestured at the others. "Let's head out then, before this insane guy decides he has better things to do."

I chuckled, though the truth in his words hurt quite a bit. I was crazy – with my memory loss and a mess of a mind, I was barely hanging in here.

"Let's meet at the front gate in half an hour." I said as I also pushed the chair back and stood up. "I want to buy a few supplies before we head out."

"Alright." Vincent said before anyone else could chime in. "We'll be there."

With that, I quickly left the inn. I needed to let Victoria know, so she could inform Lucius. My quick steps carried me to her store. As I arrived at the door, it swung open before I could even knock.

"Kai!" Victoria shouted. "What's going on? Where are the other two?"

It took me a few minutes to calm her down and explain everything. As I told her about what happened, I intentionally omitted the detail about me speaking demonic and my memory loss. While I did trust her cooperate with me for Vincent and Joshua's safety, I didn't trust her enough to tell her something as sensitive and dangerous as that.

"I see," She said after I explained. "I thought those two had died or something horrible like that." 

"No, we're ok." I said with a bitter smile. She was clearly still shaken about Samantha. Not because they were close or anything – I doubted they ever spoke – but because how it hit all of us like a truck that death was real.

I told her of the current situation as well as asking her to relay that information to Lucius. Afterwards, I quickly headed out. I dropped by the stores to buy some rations, then met with the others at the gates.

"You're early." Joshua said with a sigh. He was sitting on the grass, fiddling with some small rocks. 

"No point in wasting time, is there?" I asked, forcing a smile. I couldn't help but feel like Joshua was acting somewhat cold – had something happened while I was gone? Did he blame me for Samantha's death?

Before I could think about it too much, Erik arrived. "Alright then," He said, once again taking on the role of leader. It annoyed me a little, though I wasn't sure why. "Let's head off. We'll follow the river to its source, then dispose of whatever cursed beast is there and come back. No detours or anything, ok?"

With those words, we set off. 

It was weird, walking for hours to cover a distance I could fly in minutes. I had gotten so used to the constant flight while traveling with Asher that I now had some trouble guessing how long it would even take us to reach the source of the river.

"So," I heard Vincent's voice. "What have you really been up to?" We were walking behind the group, just out of earshot distance. "Because I can see it clear as day that you weren't running some errand for the Divine Matriarch." 

It took some effort to keep my expression emotionless. "What do you mean? She gave me a quest, so I went to get that done." Technically, I wasn't lying. Then again, I was omitting so many details that I might as well lie.

"Sure, and what exactly was that quest?" He asked, glaring at me. 

"I removed a shiny rock from a pedestal." I said with a grin. "Like I said, it was an errand." 

He rolled his eyes. "Fine, keep it a secret. Don't expect me to believe you though. You're not a good liar, Kai." He hastened his steps to catch up with the others, leaving me behind. My shoulders dropped as I watched them. They were joking around, having fun. I could see their smiles, hear their laughter.

How I wished to be able to do that, but my heart was heavy with sorrow and my mind, filled with fear and despair. As I looked at them, I couldn't help but remember moments spent with friends. Moments that I never lived. Moments from memories that belonged to the dead.

We walked as hours passed. I wanted to just fly there and kill the monster by myself so badly.

A sudden shriek from Alina snapped me back to the present. She was pointing to our side, where a pair of bright yellow eyes blinked from the trees.

"Look out!" I shouted as the owner of these eyes leapt at us. It was a massive snake, with a pair of wings and a twin tail. My sword materialised in my hand as I dashed towards the creature.

Erik suddenly stepped forward, raising his shield. It let out a golden glow as the creature's twin tails hit it. Erik let out a low moan as his feet slid back in the dirt.

"Alina, step back!" Joshua shouted. He pulled the priestess back while Vincent took his place by Erik. I stopped just in time to avoid bumping into Erik and followed the creature with my gaze. It circled around us, looking for an opening. 

"There are more." I whispered. While this particular creature wasn't exactly weak, it wasn't strong enough to take us all on. Now that it had been spotted, there was no way for it to gain anything from attacking us. 

The only logical conclusion was that there were more of them, and this one was just distracting us. My gaze swept through the trees, searching for more of them, but the thick treeline and greenery provided them with ample opportunity to hide. 

"We need to get to the open." I said, gritting my teeth. "There are more of them, I'm sure of it!"

The others hesitated. I glanced at them, my expression showing my confusion and surprise. "What are you waiting for?" I asked, gesturing towards the grassland by the river. "It's right there!"

"Nah, no need." Joshua said with a shrug. "I'm pretty sure this one is alone!"