The Soul Keeper

"You what?" Asher's eyes shot open. Mona seemed like she was about to scream, and Vincent was the person who shouted. Even Alina and Joshua finally seemed somewhat interested in what I was saying.

"I can't say for sure," I continued. "But he was incredibly powerful. I couldn't even move a muscle when he arrived, and the Divine couldn't either."

Silence followed my words. Finally, it was Mona who broke it. "What happened to the Divine?" Her bright green eyes focused on mine. The usual cheerful, curious glitter in her eyes was gone. Now, a deep shadow had replaced it. 

"He killed her." I touched my throat as if I were making a cut. "Just like that, he slit her throat. She didn't even get a chance to fight back – didn't even try." Just that was enough to strike fear into our hearts. If a Divine – one of the most powerful seven Ereths – didn't even try to fight back against the Demon Lord, how did they expect us to stand a chance against him? 

"So, you escaped how, exactly?" Joshua's voice sounded. I turned to look at him. He was sitting by Alina still. His deadly glare and clenched fists made it very obvious just how angry he was. 

"Weren't you here?" Vincent chimed in. "I thought you were paying your full attention to the 'dangerous spells' Asher was casting." 

I raised my eyebrows. Had something happened while I wasn't here? 

The two Kestler brothers glared at each other. I hesitated – was it ok to intervene here?

"I teleported him here – you're not doing a good job at being the person who 'notices things'." Asher intervened, before I had decided yet. "You need to be a lot more aware of your surroundings for that." 

Joshua gritted his teeth. "Shut up! Kai survived against demons how many times now? Don't any of you find this even a little suspicious?" He jumped up on his feet. "Why are you trusting him so much?"

"Joshua-" 

"Shut up!" He shouted at me, cutting me off. I felt my anger well up inside my chest. The souls within me stirred, with anger and annoyance, with sadness and sorrow. "You look like a demon, you keep meeting demons and surviving, how come haven't the Divines killed you off yet?" He was now shouting at the top of his lungs. "Do you really think I wouldn't notice? We don't even know who you are in real life!" 

I flinched. For just a moment, I doubted my memories. I knew I shouldn't. I knew he was only trying to rile me up. But for just a moment, I had trouble discerning my memories from those of the souls that I had taken in. Was I really the same person as I thought myself to be?

"What the hell are you talking about?" A shout startled me. Vincent stepped towards his brother; his face twisted with anger. "Why the hell are you trying to cast him out?" He grabbed his brother from the collar of his clothes. "Don't speak as if you're trustworthy at all!"

Now, if was Joshua's turn to fall silent in confusion and shock. "What-"

"Back when we were fighting the sea serpent, you didn't help at all!" Vincent shouted at the top of his lungs. 

"I told you – some monsters-"

"Lies!" His brother cut him off. "The wounds you have were knife wounds, not claw marks!" Vincent shook his brother back and forth. "You cut yourself and came back from whatever hole you were hiding in!"

My eyes widened as Joshua tried to protest, but Vincent wasn't having any of it. "And that's not all – you didn't help us when we fought that disgusting creature by the lake!" His glare turned to Alina, who seemed more wary than shocked like the rest of us. My brows furrowed slightly.

Asher shot a meaningful look towards me and I replied with a slight nod. Something was off, and Vincent was doing the right thing by finally taking the initiative.

"And you – don't think I haven't noticed." He shouted at the young priestess. "You're not in a daze at all, are you? You're just as sane as any of us, you're just hiding it. You didn't help us either, you didn't heal us fast enough half the time and you didn't even try to help when Asher and Mona were trying to get Kai back!"

"Hey – leave her out of this!" Joshua pushed his furious brother aside. "And stop blaming things on everyone!" Now, his face was also red with anger, though the glimmer in his eyes wasn't that of wrath, but more of panic. The question I had was, what was he panicking about? That their act was discovered, or because a plan had been foiled?

"Then start explaining! What happened to my brother who was so amazed by the new kid who joined our group?" 

Silence followed his words as the two brothers glared at each other. Asher glanced at me and Mona. We were all interested in the answer Joshua was going to give.

"What's going on?" Erik's sleepy voice sounded. He slowly pushed himself to a sitting position and glanced at us with a confused expression. "Why are you all shouting?" 

Having just woken up, he didn't seem aware of the situation – and of how delicate it is – at all. 

"It's nothing." Joshua said, with a tone of voice that made it very clear that it wasn't nothing. "I'll be outside." He brushed past his brother and walked outside the cave. All our gazes turned to Alina. She was as silent as ever. 

Vincent glared at her a little; he almost seemed like he wanted to shout at her too. A few moments later, he decided otherwise and moved away from her. He sat on the ground at the farthest point of the cave. 

Erik glanced at all of us – he had clearly noticed some thing was going on, he had just missed the context.

"Let me see if you've healed completely." Mona said, finally breaking the awkward silence. She knelt by the young paladin and raised her hand. A green light shone from her palm as she held it by his forehead. A few moments later, she smiled and nodded. "You're as healthy as you can be." She got back up and approached me. As she brushed past Asher to approach me, I noticed her give him something.

"Kai, I need your help with something. Can you come with me? It won't take long."

I hesitated, then nodded. "Sure, lead the way. Erik, hold the fort, would you?"

The young paladin grinned and nodded. I followed Mona outside. As we passed by Joshua, who was leaning his back on the nearest tree, he glared at me. I tried to ignore him – getting angry at him now wasn't going to help the situation at all and whatever Mona wanted to talk about seemed more important than this meaningless discussion.

We walked in silence for a while, until we arrived at a narrow creek. There was barely any water flowing, yet this place was more alive than most places I'd seen. Butterflies, other bugs and small critters were everywhere, and they didn't even seem too spooked by us.

"What's going on?" I finally asked. It took quite a lot of effort to not step on the colourful flowers and other plants decorating the place. 

"There's something you need to know. You and Asher." She said, glancing to the direction we came from. "I let him know too, he should be here in a bit."

I hesitated. What was going on? 

"In the meantime, I wanted to show you this." She knelt by the creek and touched one of the colourful flowers by it. 

"I know that…" I mumbled – I recognised the smell. The smell of hyacinth.

"Of course, you do. It's hyacinth." She hesitated. "The same type that exists in our world but doesn't grow naturally in this one."

I raised my brows. "What do you mean?" I was sure I had smelled it before. Where was it though? 

Mona let go of the plant. "It can't live in this world without the help of magic." Green glitter fell from her fingers to the purple flower. "If left alone, untended, it will die." She raised her gaze to meet mine. "Don't you find it weird? I found this one here a few weeks ago. In demon territory."

I flinched. "We're still in demon territory?" I had thought Asher and Mona had taken the others back to Ereth lands before teleporting me out of there. Why had they remained on this side of the border?

She nodded. "We are, I asked Asher to follow me this way."

I felt my body tense up. "Why? What if the demons find us?"

She shook her head. "Right now, the Ereth are a much bigger threat to us." A bitter smile appeared on her lips. "You see," She said as Asher finally stepped out of the woods. "There aren't just seven Divines."