The Soul Keeper

We all stared at her in confusion as she rushed inside, Alex in tow. "I figured it out!" She declared, somewhat out of breath.

"What did you figure out?" Laura asked hesitantly as the dripping wet Rina took deep breaths.

"The Little girl you told me about – the summoner." Rina blurted out, panting and out of breath. "I know why she was sick in the first place!"

I raised my brows as Mona's expression showed how confused she was. "Because of the demonic magic that tainted her?" She asked hesitantly.

"No!" Rina shook her head. "It's an artifact! Listen, in the ruins, there were lots of inscriptions on the walls. Now, I'm sure Kai could have read all of that with ease but from what I deciphered, that ruin used to house an artifact that allowed one to expand their mana pool by a lot." 

Asher raised his brows; it was clear that his interest was piqued. "How so?" He asked, leaning forward.

"Well, apparently it 'expands the horizons of the mind' or something." Rina shrugged. "Doesn't matter too much since the girl took it with her."

Mona glanced at Laura and Theresa. "Did we see anything like an artifact on her? I don't remember."

Laura shook her head as Theresa pondered. 

"You wouldn't have seen it anyways." Rina added. "It's not something like a bracelet or a pendant. I think she drank it. Or ate it. Consumed it, basically."

I blinked a couple of times. "How do you know that?" I asked. How could she know it if she hadn't seen it? How detailed could inscriptions from centuries ago even be?

"It said something along the lines of 'The liquor of gods' or something." The green haired wizard hesitated. "I don't know all the words there – it's ancient demonic, not the modern language." She mumbled, somewhat apologetically.

"I could go and check it out?" I suggested, but Alex shook her head immediately. "We had to leave early because Ereth patrols showed up. I don't think that place is safe anymore." She glanced around. "I don't know how long this place will remain safe either." She added. "I think they're checking all the ancient ruins even remotely near Baile Chailce. I'm sure they will drop by here as well."

Laura clenched her fists. "They can go to hell for all I care," She glared at us. "We worked hard to fix this place. No way I'm leaving now."

Asher nodded, to my surprise. "That too, of course, but remember – this place used to belong to the Keeper of Souls. The study is filled with his notes. I don't think we should be letting the Ereth get a hold of them."

He did have a point, and it was one that hadn't occurred to me before. "Hang on," I said as something else occurred to me. "This place was protected by all those souls earlier, when we first came here." I glanced at the blonde sorcerer. "The Ereth will notice their absence."

Everyone but Asher seemed confused as the sorcerer leapt up in a panic. Even I was startled by his reaction. 

"You're right!" He exclaimed. "Come with me, we have to recreate the barrier." He grabbed my wrist without a second of hesitation and dragged me outside.

"Hey, it's raining out there!" Mona warned us as he opened the door. Asher didn't care, and I soon found myself standing outside under the pouring rain.

"What the hell do you expect me to do?" I shouted. Asher glared at me as he replied. "Recreate the barrier. Follow my lead."

About three hours later, we came back inside. Soaking wet, freezing, and shivering, I immediately excused myself to get a change of clothes and dry myself. When I returned downstairs, I was exhausted.

But, looking out the windows, it was difficult not to feel some pride in what we'd accomplished. A whirlwind of souls, still connected to me, but now out there, circling this place, protecting us from prying eyes. Once again, we had created something without using the interface, with our own merit. It felt like a much more real accomplishment than most other things we had done.

"Now then," Asher took a deep breath. "Since that is out of the way, please keep explaining, Rina."

The green haired wizard had to pause and ponder for a second to remember where she had left off. "Oh," She said as she remembered. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. "So, the little girl drank whatever was in those ruins. Her horizons were expanded and all that, but taking out all the fluff, what happened is that suddenly she had way too much mana. Enough to raise entire armies. She did get tainted with demonic magic, but because of the traps in the ruins." 

Mona's eyes widened. "So the artifact wasn't what nearly killed her?"

Rina shook her head. "No, she was just unlucky. Very unlucky. Because I assume you told her to rest up and go to a healer in Baile Chailce after you healed her as much as you could. Am I right?"

Laura nodded. "Mona wasn't as accomplished of a healer back then, so she wanted Elise to have proper care."

Rina bit her lower lip. "Well," She hesitated. "I think that's how the Divine took notice of Elise. Seeing her ability to summon literal armies, they must have decided to 'take her under their wing' or at least claimed to do just that before basically brainwashing a little girl to kill people."

Mona drew a sharp breath. I turned my gaze on her, only to see her pale as a sheet of paper. "No," She mumbled. "That's…"

Alex steppe closer and placed her hand on the druid's shoulder. "We're not blaming you and it's not your fault. Not remotely so. You couldn't have known, there was absolutely no way. You did what you believed was best for her – don't blame yourself." Her stoic, confidant voice seemed to calm Mona a little bit.

"I agree." Lucius' voice startled me. I hadn't noticed him at the stairs at all. When had he woken up? "The best thing we can do is save her from their grasp." The young man walked down the stairs and took a seat besides me. "Speaking of saving people, how did it go?" He asked, looking at me.

I chuckled. "We're all set. It's going to be a do or die type of day." I hesitated. "Night." I corrected myself.

Silence followed my words. It was beginning to set in. The weight of the situation, how everything we were hoping for, everything we had been working towards somehow tied into the coming night.

"Now I'm nervous." Mona mumbled. "Damn it." 

We chuckled, but it was as if the air was electrified. We all felt on edge. If we died tomorrow – if we even lost a single person… I didn't even want to consider the possibility, yet I knew that I had to. We were not immortal, and we didn't have a Divine supporting us from the shadows anymore. 

I glanced at my left palm, at the black shadow just under my skin. Then, I clenched my fist. I couldn't count on that. I couldn't count on anyone but the people in this room. We were enough. We had to be.

"Are you ok, Kai?" Mona asked, breaking the tense, heavy silence. "Is something on your mind?"

I sighed. "I'm just a little worried about Fetheion," I shook my head as if I were trying to clear my mind. "It's fine – I'm sure he's busy with something, somewhere." I glanced outside, just in time to see lightning strike the far away hills. "It would have been great to have his help." I said with a shrug.

Asher nodded. "He chose a poor time to disappear on us like this." He stood up and headed towards the stairs. "We should all take care to rest. Tomorrow, dusk, is our signal. Make sure you're all ready." With that, he headed upstairs.

"He's got a point." Laura said with a sigh. "I'll head up to sleep as well. Good night," Theresa followed her as well, and so did Rina and Alex. Now, it was just me, Mona and Lucius remaining down here.

Mona stood up, stretched her arms, then glanced at Lucius. Without saying a word, she headed to the kitchen, cleaned the plates, then came back. "You should rest as well," She suggested, glancing at me. I nodded, "I will, don't worry." I wasn't going to be the one to drop the ball tomorrow night.

She hesitated, then headed upstairs.

"So," I glanced at Lucius. "What is it that you want to say to me?"

The young man flinched. "Was it that obvious?"

I chuckled. "Only to me, probably. What is it, Lucius?"

He hesitated. "Kai, I'm worried." He glanced outside. "Fetheion isn't human. We all know that, right? He's not a player, he belongs in this virtual world. He's not real in the same sense as we are."

I flinched. "What are you getting at?" 

"If what I just said is true, why the hell did he feel so god damn real? If I met him in real life, I would never know he is just a computer program. A simulated person."

I had no answer to that. To me, Fetheion felt just as real as anyone else too. For the longest time, I had thought I was just biased because he reminded me of Uncle Eion so much, but hearing Lucius, I wasn't so sure anymore.