The Soul Keeper

"Whoa, that was so weird and trippy!" Mona exclaimed as we stepped out of the rift. She quickly glanced at me. Her eyes widened with amazement as I ended Soul's Aspect and my body returned to normal. "You look really threatening when you use that spell." She grinned. "I'm almost scared!"

I chuckled but didn't really say anything. I wasn't sure of how to respond to her playful attitude. "Oh, look! There's the river!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me towards a wide, shallow river in the distance. I went along while looking around to get my bearings.

We were in the massive sea of long grass. Close to where I killed the two demons chasing us, back when Asher first fell unconscious. 

Felt like ages ago – I wondered, had their kin recovered their bodies? I wished so. "Come on!" Mona's steps quickened as we approached the river.

When we arrived, she let go of my arm and quickly knelt by the shore. "Look!" She pointed at the water. "Come closer, Kai. See?" 

Somewhat confused, I knelt beside her. My gaze followed her finger, then my eyes widened.

"What are those?" I asked as my gaze followed the colourful glowing fish in the water.

"No idea!" Mona giggled. "They're so pretty!" She tiled her head as I she was pondering something. 

"Mona?" I asked, somewhat wary of what mischievous thing she might be planning. "What are you thinking?"

She giggled again and jumped back up on her feet. "Nothing!" She looked around. I noticed her eyes change slightly – they had slits, like that of a cat's eye. "Looks like we're safe here." She said with a smile. 

I nodded after a moment. I didn't sense anything dangerous nearby, no malicious mana, no demonic or divine magic – nothing.

"Explain to me again," I said after a moment. "Why did we come here at night?" I had thought she'd prefer to sleep in a proper bed at Fetheion's home rather than spending the night outside. We didn't even have tents with us!

"I wanted to show you the fish." She stepped closer and hugged me. "And I wanted to spend some time with you – before Laura and Theresa comes. Before we have to fight again."

Her words startled me. For a moment, I didn't know what I was supposed to say, or what I was supposed to do with my hands. 

"Isn't it ok?" She asked with a catch in her voice.

"Of course it is." I said, a weak smile on my lips. I hugged her. "We can spend as much time as you'd like."

I don't know how long we stood like that. Eventually, she pulled herself together – I only noticed she was crying when she stepped back – and suggested we find someplace secluded to spend the night. Just in case demons were patrolling the area. 

We set up a 'camp' at the foot of one of the taller hills. It was difficult to call it a hill though, since it was just relatively large bump on the field and nothing more. Perhaps ten meters in height, it provided us with little to no cover. 

"I'll keep watch," I suggested. I was sure she'd protest but Mona seemed fine with it. She lay down, right next to me and almost immediately fell asleep. I chuckled, then began watching our surroundings.

Keeping watch was boring as always, but it was for the best. I was fine with it as long as it allowed Mona a good night's sleep. Though, maybe ten minutes into my watch, I noticed she wasn't having a good night's sleep as she hugged herself and pulled her knees closer to her chest in her sleep. Was she cold?

I took off my cloak and covered her with it. I wasn't – at least not more than usual. The cloak was of little use to me anyways. Seeing Mona relax a little with the warmth brought a smile to my face. 

I spent a few hours doing nothing, then a few more inspecting the crystal Luhen had given me. I didn't try anything like trying to activate it since I didn't want to wake Mona up, but I tried to learn something from it nonetheless.

At dawn, I carefully got up, making sure I wouldn't wake her up, and knelt by the river right by us. I splashed some water to my face as I tried to get rid of my tiredness.

I heard footsteps not long after, then something yanked me back. 

"Ah, my hair!" I shouted as Mona dragged me away from the river. I lost my balance and fell on my back. Mona's somewhat angry expression quickly filled my view as she poked my chest with every word she spoke. "Why didn't you wake me up?" 

I kind of wanted to laugh, because she just seemed so comically angry, but considering my current position, it was probably not smart to do that. "Sorry," I said as I tried to get up. She quickly pushed me back down. I felt her weight on my legs. "You were sleeping so soundly, and you seemed tired, so I thought it would be ok." I quickly tried to explain myself. "I can stay up for a few days before it starts affecting me."

Mona's expression shifted between several emotions, then settled on… kind of happy? I couldn't really tell. 

"You idiot," She giggled. Yep, I thought to myself, she wasn't too angry with me. I breathed a sigh of relief. "But seriously!" She suddenly exclaimed. "You can't do that – I'm not so fragile and weak that I need your protection!"

Her words startled me a little. I had never thought of her as fragile or weak. "You keep doing that," She said with a calmer, but serious tone. "I need you to realise that I can take care of myself. We can take care of ourselves – Theresa, Laura and me. We're capable." She glared into my eyes. 

"It wasn't my intention-"

"And," She cut me off as a mischievous smile appeared on her lips. "I'd say you are the one we should be looking after since you already proved you can't stay alive on your own."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh please, don't you start too." I had heard enough of this from Fetheion. "But really," I tried to explain again. "I didn't mean to belittle you, Laura or Theresa. Sorry."

She pondered a moment before giggling. "It's fine, as long as you stop doing things like this." 

I sighed and nodded. "Ok, fine. I promise." I hesitated as I felt the presence of magic nearby. It wasn't divine or demonic. Was it Laura and Theresa? "Um, I think the others are coming so, do you mind getting off me?"

Mona's face immediately turned red as she basically leapt up and took several steps back. I couldn't help but laugh as I also pushed myself up. 

"Hey guys!" I heard Laura's voice not a moment later. "Kai!" The two women's steps hastened as they saw us in the distance. "Oh, I couldn't believe it when Mona told us you had somehow survived!" Both her and Theresa gave me a quick hug.

"You two are early!" Mona chimed in. Her cheeks were still red, but at least her voice and expression were normal. "How did you make it here so fast?"

Theresa yawned. "Slept less." She mumbled. "Looks like you rested well though." She glanced at me. "Can't say the same about you – you look like you haven't slept in days."

I shook my head. "I generally just look like that I think." A quick, sheepish glance at Mona was enough to see her rather angry glare. I had failed to mention the lack of sleep I was suffering from these last several days. "It might be a side effect of losing some of my power."

Theresa tilted her head. "Hmm, maybe." She glanced at Mona. "You should still try and get some sleep Kai. Don't let the crazy one keep you up."

I couldn't help but laugh. Mona was really the crazier one among these three. "Don't worry too much about me." I said after my laughter subsided. "I'm fine."

Laura shook her head as she lightly patted my shoulder. "I'm afraid that's not an option anymore, Kai. You already proved worse at survival than the rest of us, so-"

"Oh my god, please just stop with the same joke everyone!" I cried out. "I'm suffering here!"

All three of them laughed. "Well," Theresa glanced at me. "We'll keep you safe, don't worry." 

"Not you too, Theresa!" I shook my head in defeat. "Not fair, you're all ganging up on me!"

"Aw," Mona giggled. Laura squeezed my shoulder and spoke in a deceptively serious tone. "While we do joke a lot, we are going towards an unknown danger. We must remain vigilant – lest Kai gets himself killed once more and the Thirteenth Divine locks him up to make sure he survives."

I burst out in laughter, just like everyone else. Even Laura couldn't keep a straight face till the end. I had to admit – she had me at the first half.