The Soul Keeper

I sat there, confused. What had just happened? He had left in such a hurry and his expression was so weird that I feared the worst. Not that I knew what the worst was, but anyways.

Unsure of what to do now, I looked around the room. Sure, there were a bunch of parchments and books, but I couldn't really care less right now. Fetheion's abrupt departure was still at the front of my mind. 

After a short while passed, I slowly got up and headed to the bathroom he mentioned. As I closed the door behind me, I glanced at the mirror. My eyes widened as I finally saw my reflection for the first time since I had woken up. "The hell…" I whispered. 

I looked like life had been drawn out of me. There were dark circles under my eyes, I was paler than a sheet of paper and I was a lot thinner than before. Skinny even. I looked unhealthy, like someone who hadn't eaten properly for weeks, months even.

Now that I thought about it, I had forgotten to ask – how much time had passed since my 'death'? Days? Weeks? I shook my head. Surely, it couldn't have been too long. Right? 

I splashed some water on my face. 

I left the bathroom soon after and returned to the library. It felt wrong to wander around, Fetheion didn't seem to harbour any ill intent towards me – for now, anyways – and I didn't want to do anything to annoy him.

I stepped closer to the shelves, filled with rolled up parchments. I was wary of touching them as they looked like they could turn to dust at any second. How old were these things? Unsure of the answer, I turned my attention to the leatherbound books. These seemed somewhat newer, so I wasn't as wary when I gently took one and flipped through its pages.

The pages were filled to the brim with a neat handwriting. No, wait.

I had to blink a few times. Why was my vision blurry? I flipped though a few pages. I could see everything else clearly, it was just the writing that was blurry. Yet, I could still read it.

I continued flipping through the pages as my heartbeat quickened. 

I stopped as something caught my eye. A sketch, a simple drawing of two people. 

A man with long, dark hair and another one with long, light hair. Were those smiles on their lips? I couldn't tell. The paper was damaged by water, or something like that. The ink was smudged, and the paper had crumpled a little.

A flash of light blinded me for a moment. Then, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Fetheion gently, but firmly took the leatherbound notebook from me. His gaze lingered on the sketch for just a moment before he placed it back on the shelf.

"Memories of my past – something that can't be recovered." His voice was heavy, filled with bitterness. "My apologies for leaving so abruptly. Something urgent came to my attention." He looked away as he spoke. 

We once again sat on the couches. "So," I said, taking a deep breath. "What happens now?" 

He hesitated. I could see how conflicted he was compared a little while ago. "First of all, you need to heal. Your body needs to regain its old strength and you need to replace the hundreds of souls that were stolen from you. If not more." 

Why wasn't he looking at me as he spoke? What made him leave so suddenly?

"Thousands, but yes." I said after a short moment of silence. "And I'd like my powers back." I glared at him. I didn't like the idea of him having any say on whether I could use my powers or not.

"I will unlock them once your body has returned to a stable state." His tone of voice wasn't really leaving much room for debate here. "Not before. I know you well-" He stopped himself. "I know you want to test your strength and quickly return to your previous level of power. You could very easily strain yourself too much and die."

I wanted to protest, but his glare stopped me. "That is not up for debate Kai." 

I clenched my fists. It was probably clear as day how much I disliked this. "Anyways," He said in a futile attempt to distract me. "What is it that you want to do after?"

I hesitated. Many things came to mind. "Well," I said, pondering. "I'd like to get my scythe and my souls back." I raised my hand a little and looked at my palm. "And I'd like to… have a chat with two people." A wicked smile flashed across my face. "A chat, let's go with that." I directed my gaze at him. "Any objections?" 

I could see his surprise. A moment of silence passed before he shook his head. "None," He sighed. "I can't contact your friends – the paladin and fighter, I mean. The other two are constantly with them."

I raised my brows. "Are you spying on them?" How could he possibly know otherwise?

"Let's just say an… acquaintance of mine is nearby." He chuckled, though it was clearly forced. "Your other allies though, I can probably contact them."

"Are you talking about Asher and Lucius?" He flinched, again. 

"Lucius?" He asked after a moment's hesitation. 

Oh, right. Lucius used another name here. "Luca Morren." I corrected myself.

Fetheion sighed, he had an almost defeated look on his face. "Right. Luca. Lucius. Of course." He mumbled. "I can contact him and Asher Morgan if you want me to." He glanced at his hands. "But I can't bring them here." 

My shoulders dropped. "Because Aelith may notice?" I asked. He nodded. "Indeed. I can't risk being discovered. Not now, not yet."

"I see." I took a deep breath. "I'd appreciate if you could let them know I'm alive, but also make sure they keep it a secret from everyone else." A secret shared by many was bound to get out eventually. I couldn't take that chance. Victoria, Erik and Vincent were going to have to mourn for a while. 

"It won't be quick, but I'll see to it that they learn about what happened to you. What really happened, I mean." I nodded. I understood what he meant. Who knows what Alina and Joshua had told people, what lies they had spouted… 

"What about you?" I asked after a moment. "What did you save me for? You must have had a goal in mind. A backup plan in case my predecessor didn't return since you were even prepared to lock my powers."

He hesitated, again. "Well, I…" He bit his lower lip. "I do have some suggestions, but your path is yours to choose. I won't force you to do anything. But I do hope that you'll at least hear my suggestions." 

A bitter smile flashed across his face. "We can talk about all of that once you feel better."

"Yeah," I said with a sigh. I still couldn't wrap my head around all of this. "But you didn't answer my question." I glared at him. "What was your original plan?"

Silence followed my words as he clearly tried to come up with an answer. He was not a good liar. In fact, the way he showed me a fake smile and fiddled with his hair reminded me of my uncle. Those dreams – memories of my past – were slowly getting to me. 

"Ah, this is nostalgic." He suddenly said. "You could always tell when I was trying to hide something."

I flinched. That was eerily close to what I was just thinking about. "I?" I asked.

"Ah, sorry." He chuckled and fiddled with the hair at the end of his long braid. "I meant your predecessor. He always read me like a book. It was impossible to hide things from him." 

"I know that feeling. My sister could do that to me." I said, not averting my eyes even for a second. "She always knew what I was thinking." I felt my heart sink as he flinched. "Oh, you have a sister?" He didn't even lift his gaze to look at me.

"Yeah," I clenched my fists. What the hell was this? "What about you? Any family?"

He chuckled. "A sister, just like you." He let go of his hair and looked in my eyes. "Though, she's horrible at reading people. But anyways, you should rest some more." Fetheion said, rising on his feet and glancing at the door. "It won't do to push yourself too much."

I clenched my fists. I knew it! There was more to this than he was letting on. He was hiding things from me. Now, admittedly that wasn't a big surprise, I wasn't expecting complete honesty from anyone. But still, that was so annoying!

And on top of all that, I knew he was right – I was already exhausted, and my body was craving for sleep. "Before that, could you tell me how long it's been since then?" How long had I slept? How long ago was it that Alina thrust that blade into my chest?

Fetheion hesitated. "Three months and seven days."