The Soul Keeper

I woke up, startled. My heart was racing as I took slow, deep breaths. My head was spinning slightly. That dream had to be the remnants of Dorith's memories. 

I slowly pushed myself up to a sitting position, only to notice Laura glance at me with a slightly surprised expression.

"Did I wake you up?" She asked with a low voice, taking care to not disturb Theresa or Mona. I quickly shook my head. "Just a weird dream." I replied. What else could I say? I pushed myself up on my feet. "When is it my turn to keep watch?" 

Laura chuckled. "Well, I just started, so you've got two hours or so still." She slightly tilted her head. "Won't you go back to sleep?"

I shook my head again. "I don't think I can." I glanced towards the shallow creek. "I'll walk along the water for a bit,"

Laura shrugged. While she acted quite chill about my behaviour, I could feel ger gaze on my back as I walked away from the camp, up until I disappeared behind a tiny hill. It was making me nervous. Not because I didn't trust Laura – I did trust her – but because this feeling of constantly being watched was quite disturbing and an almost daily occurrence until a while ago.

Now that I thought about it, I had first experienced it with Vixia and Delthur as they constantly seemed to pop up when I was at my weakest. Then, there was the situation with Asher, the whole spell he placed on me and our mental link… That one had proved extremely useful, but having my mind be mine again was also quite nice. There was also Divine Matriarch Aelith's 'gifts'. 

Just thinking about that devilish Divine made me shudder. And thinking about facing her in battle made my palms itch with anticipation. Her, and the Divine who stole my powers.

I had gotten so used to being watched that even now I felt like I constantly had to mind my actions. I glanced over at the camp – I was behind one of those low, small hills. Out of Laura's or anyone else's sight.

I knelt down by the shore and splashed some water on my face. Despite coming from the mountains, the water was cool at best. The icy cold that I anticipated was nowhere to be found. I glanced at the fang-shaped mountains. There was no snow up there, I guess it wasn't as surprising that the water wasn't too cold.

Just as I was about to keep walking, I noticed something flying, passing by the mountains. I froze mid step as I watched more shapes appear in the distance. What were those? I wished I had Lucius' sight just about now. He could probably tell what those were.

Still, it was best to alert Laura and the others. We could probably handle most enemies as long as we weren't caught off guard. I walked back to camp with quick steps. 

"Kai?" Laura perked up as I arrived at the camp. "What's wrong?"

I pointed at the twin mountains. "Look," I spoke in a low voice. "I don't know what they are, but aren't they coming closer this way?" The shapes I saw seemed to be getting bigger as more time passed.

Laura squinted, then sighed. "I can't see very well, and the night isn't helping. I wish we had binoculars or something." I couldn't agree more as I felt jealous of Lucius' ridiculous sight. I thought of using Soul's Aspect, but I hadn't killed any creatures with exceptional sight as far as I knew.

"You're right though," Laura mumbled. "They're definitely getting closer."

I suddenly felt tense – for some reason, her words had made this all too real. "I'll wake the others up. We should go somewhere safer. We're way too in the open." The blonde woman added as she hurried to Mona and Theresa's tents. While she woke them up, I quickly gathered what little we had laying around. 

"What's going on?" Mona's sleepy voice sounded as she crawled out of her tent. I didn't say anything – just pointed at the far away shapes.

The sleepy druid glanced that way, then furrowed her brows. "What are those?" She mumbled as I felt her magic. Her eyes let out a faint glow as they changed to a pale yellow colour. 

As I watched her, her complexion suddenly turned pale. "They're demons!" She hissed. Her eyes returned to normal. "Kai, can they see us from all the way over there?" 

I shrugged. "I don't know," I didn't know how good a demon's sight was. "If they can see about as good as me, then they should only notice that something is here. Maybe." I knew I hadn't explained it very well, but Mona seemed to understand anyways. 

"Then we should get going before they come any closer." 

We were ready to leave within a few minutes and we did so immediately. We quickly noticed a rather important issue, however. The exact same issue we had faced when escaping the castle with Asher and Lucius.

In this giant field of tall grass, there was nowhere to hide from airborne opponents.

"I can take us all back to Fetheion's place." I suggested. There was nothing stopping me from using Soul's Aspect to take on the Corrupted Demon's form and opening a rift to safety.

I noticed the hesitation in their faces as they clearly didn't want to accept my suggestion. "Maybe we can get away without needing to do that," Mona replied eventually. "Besides, I kind of want to know what they're doing here."

Laura and Theresa nodded. I sighed – I was not happy with their decision. I think it was a bad idea. One that could potentially get us killed. Demons weren't to be taken lightly. If all of those attacked us, I didn't think we could survive.

"Fine," I finally said. "But if I decide it's too dangerous, I'm getting you all out of here." The three of them glanced at each other, then Mona nodded. "Deal. Now let's get moving."

And with that began our long, exhausting night. It didn't take us long to realise the demons were, in fact, not chasing us. They were faster than we were, so they overtook us rather quickly and then, we began chasing them. 

"I hate that they can fly." Mona mumbled as our unusually fast pace left all three of them somewhat out of breath. "Seriously – they're so fast!" 

I chuckled. The demons' flight was indeed much faster than what Mona could achieve with her shapeshifting. "What's that way anyways?" I asked as I pondered. The castle I explored with Asher and Lucius was more to the north. The demons were flying southeast, and I wasn't aware of anything of importance near there. The closest location I could think of was Baile Chailce, but I found it very hard to believe that they'd attack the capitol city of the Ereth with such a small force. It would be utterly meaningless, wouldn't it?

"Nothing, as far as I know." Theresa replied. Laura opened her map to check, but clearly didn't find anything. "Just some hills?" She said after a moment of hesitation.

"We'll find out soon enough," Mona said with a grin. I nodded, but I wasn't having nearly as much fun as she was. In fact, I felt rather on edge. All it would take for things to take a turn for the worst was those demons deciding they didn't want us to follow them. 

Thankfully, my fears weren't realised as the distance between us only continued to grow. The demons didn't bother with us at all. I don't think they recognised me, and I was grateful for it. 

"What's with the hood?" Mona asked as we scaled a small hill. I had pulled my hood down to the level of my eyes to avoid being recognised. Though, I wasn't sure if it would help at all. If they got close enough to see my face, it wouldn't really matter anyways. We'd be locked in combat by then.

"I don't want them to see my face," I said with a shrug. I didn't really want to explain my thought process since it made very little sense. "We'll lose them at this rate," I said in an attempt to change the subject. "Do you still want to follow them?"

Mona nodded. "There's got to be something important that way." Her gaze was fixed on the far away demons. "We've never seen demons out and about like this before. Something must be happening to cause them to be on the move like this." 

Laura nodded. "Yes, we might learn something important here. I don't think we should miss this chance." Theresa was quick to agree as well, despite being pretty much exhausted from all the jogging.

Mona wasn't wrong. In fact, every word she said was true. Yet despite that, I still felt like this was not a good idea. I just wasn't sure whether I should follow my logic or my instincts.