The Soul Keeper

I woke up with the first light of dawn. Dreams that I could only remember fragments of clouded my mind as I staggered towards the river and washed up. 

"Good morning." I heard Erik's voice. Kneeling by the river shore, I glanced towards him over my shoulder.

"Good morning. Why didn't you wake me up for my shift of the watch?" Though I was asking, I already knew the answer.

"Joshua has some trouble trusting you right now." He said with a bitter smile. "And I'm still processing what we learned yesterday." He almost seemed apologetic as he spoke. Was he expecting me to get angry?

"I get it." I said, splashing some more water to my face. "I wouldn't trust me either." And they didn't even know half of the events.

"Thanks." He said somewhat hesitantly. "The others are still sleeping," He added, glancing at the campsite. "Why are you up so early?"

"I always wake up at dawn." I stepped back to the shadows. The sunlight hurt my eyes. Since when was that happening? A few days, maybe even more. I wondered why, then decided to not think about that right now. "Why are you up? You had the first shift too." 

Erik shrugged. "I woke up maybe half an hour ago, told Vincent to go back to sleep. He seemed tired." 

We stood there, with nothing but an awkward silence to accompany us. "So," He finally said, breaking the silence. "How powerful are you, really?" 

I raised my brows. "Where did that come from?" I asked. 

"The demon, uh, Vixia?" He mumbled, trying to remember her name. "You told her you'd be able to match her strength if you hadn't used up all your mana." He made a vague, meaningless gesture with his hands. "Her presence was suffocating. Yours is not. Are you really that strong, or were you just bluffing?" 

I chuckled. That was quite a thought process, though not necessarily a wrong one. "I am." I watched his expression change as doubt filled his eyes. 

"Then how come being with you doesn't feel the same way?" He asked.

"I don't like making people feel like that." I shook my head. "In a contest of pure magic, I'm no match for her, but a fight very rarely comes to that. I can beat her – I did so before." I raised my hand and released a tiny bit of my aura. Just enough for Erik to notice. 

He visibly flinched and stepped back. I immediately stopped, just proving my power was enough. There was no need to go any further. 

"It's called an 'aura'," I explained. "I'm fairly sure you can do it too, but yours will probably be different since you're a paladin. Your magic and power are all about divine retribution, isn't it?" His deity was the god of Vengeance, Rohir. 

He hesitated before nodding. "You've changed so much, Kai." He said after a short while. He fiddles with his shield's straps. "I remember when we first came here, you were so amazed by everything and everything terrified you. Now, you act and move like you've always lived in this world."

I looked away. "Yeah, I guess I changed a little." How could I tell him that I had more memories of this world than those of the real world? How could I say that I was less me?

I couldn't, so I didn't. Instead, I changed the subject. "Let's prepare breakfast," And headed back to camp without waiting for his response. He followed me wordlessly, but his expression made it clear that he still had plenty to say. I just didn't want to listen. 

He helped me prepare a fairly good and healthy meal, then woke the others up. 

"You're still here." Joshua said as he left his tent. His deadly glare didn't bother me. 

"Can you just stop?" Vincent mumbled as he stretched his legs and then sat by the now burned-out campfire. "Anyways, what's today's plan?" He asked, glancing at me and Erik. Joshua rolled his eyes and helped Alina sit with us as well. The young priestess glanced at me, then quickly averted her eyes.

"We should return to Baile Chailce." Erik declared. "I want to redeem the quest rewards. Then we can check if there are any other quests. Alina can get some rest in the meantime too."

I nodded. I agreed with everything he said, except Alina. She was in no state to fight. The best thing we could do would be to leave her with Victoria. She could take good care of the young woman while we set out to do some more quests and levelled up a bit.

"Sure, why not?" Joshua said as a wicked smile appeared on his face. "Maybe we should let the Divines know about Kai's involvement with demons as well."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, go ahead." Aelith already knew – in fact, I suspected she knew more than I told her. 

Joshua's smile shattered as he noticed I wasn't phased even the slightest by his words. "Maybe I will."

"Stop it." Vincent lightly pinched his brother's arm. "Anyways, if we have decided, we should get going before it's too late. The sun dawned a while ago."

With that, we gathered our things, covered up the firepit with some dirt and set off.

"Why are you on edge?" Erik asked after I glanced at the sky for maybe the hundredth time. 

"Vixia might change her mind. If she does, I'd rather see her coming than be caught off guard." If she did, I wasn't sure if I could protect all of them. If I saw her coming, I would go to her, so Erik and the others could escape.

"You said you could take her on." Erik reminded me with a faint smile. I wasn't sure if he actually believed my words or if he was just making fun of me. 

"I'd still prefer not to get caught off guard. You can never be too safe." I didn't want to say too much, I didn't want to worry him. I didn't think Vixia would come after us anyways, but that didn't help with this feeling of anxiousness. 

Some time passed as we made our way back. At dusk, we set up camp near the shallow river. Once again, Joshua's deadly glare followed me as I helped set up camp. Only once we were seated and started heating our dinner did he stop glaring. 

The hum of low conversations could be heard as we sat around the fire. The others seemed somewhat relaxed. The warmth of the fire and safety of numbers had made them somewhat negligent. 

I, on the other hand, couldn't help but feel like something wasn't quite right. So, I did the only thing that came to mind. "I'll go wash up." After letting them know, I went to the river.

I was dirty from yesterday's fight, so once I found a nice, hidden section of the river, I took my clothes off and stepped into the icy cold water.

I submerged myself completely, letting the cold water calm my nerves. Some time later, as I got dressed and dried my hair with the heat of my flames, I still couldn't shake the feeling of something being off. 

"Asher?" I called out to him as I leaned on a tree and watched the night sky. A short moment later, he responded.

"Kai, did everything go as we planned?" Of course, he was still worried about what happened yesterday.

"Yeah," I smiled. "It went as well as you could expect." I explained yesterday's and today's events. He listened intently, expressing his thoughts when he could. 

"I don't like the way Joshua acts." He finally decided. "He seems to be overreacting. There is no reason for such distrust, especially considering that you have saved them several times before."

I hesitated. What was he getting at? "Do you think there is something else going on?" I asked after a short moment. He pondered a while, then I felt his sigh. "I don't know. I'll need to think about it. In the meantime, please be wary of anything." 

"I know, I will." I sighed. "I'll go back to the others." 

"Alright." His voice still echoing in my mind, he cut off the connection. I took a deep breath, then headed back to the others.

I could hear their laughter from quite a distance. Worried, I glanced around me. Why was I feeling so anxious? 

"Hey," Vincent greeted me as I stepped out of the woods. "You look a lot better than you did a couple hours ago." 

I chuckled. "Getting rid of all the blood and dirt helped." I glanced at the others. Aline was watching as Erik and Joshua played tic tac toe on the dirt. Joshua seemed to be winning more often. 

"Naturally," Vincent smiled, then sighed. "We should probably sleep. It's quite late and we still have a long way to go tomorrow." 

He let the others know of the time as well, and soon, we decided to sleep. As I lied down on the grassy ground, I still felt anxious. I closed my eyes, knowing that Vincent was keeping watch. 

Not too long after I fell asleep, I woke up to the sound of Vincent's painful shout. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was him, tumbling to the ground. My eyes widened as I noticed the source of his pain.

An arrow was sticking out of his right shoulder.