19 Chapter 19 Souls and Spirits

Holding the soul up to the air, Airow gently squeezed it, popping it open and releasing the soul essence of the man. Saying a soft prayer, he watched as the light dissipated and faded away.

"If only I wasn't tainted," murmured Grey, sadly. She had been overcome with fear that should she touch the soul, being tainted, she would be tempted to absorb the essence, instead of releasing it.

"You shall be free of taint again."

"I wouldn't mind absorbing it," said Guit, wiping the drool from his chin.

Frowning, Airow said, "And that is why you are a demon, still."

"I am a demon, and you are an angel. We are different. Shall we fight over it?" asked Guit.

"No," said Grey. "We have a truce for now. These shades are stealing souls from the people. We need to stop them."

"Especially if they are giving the souls to the elder demon," said Argen.

"Why was it eating the body?" asked Airow, looking down on the remains, sadly.

"They need to eat something, if the elder demon isn't letting them eat the souls. Humans contain spirits when they die. It's harder for some demons to wait for the spirits to leave the body, than others," explained Guit, sniffing at the remains.

"Rest, friend," said Airow, waving his hand and causing the body to fade into dust. Several motes rose from the spot where the body had lain. They resembled the soul, but were smaller, and while the soul was almost white, these were other colors.

Guit caught his breath in his throat, as he watched them raise up a ways, then float off in different directions.

"I've never seen some of those colors, before," he whispered, in awe.

"That's because you aren't a full demon yet, the spirits formed from good virtues can't be seen by demons," explained Argen, watching the spirits float away.

"What happens to these spirits?" asked Grey.

"Demons hunt them and eat them. They don't give as much power increase as a soul does, but in hell, where there isn't much to eat, they'll keep you alive," said Guit. "But if demons can't see the virtue spirits, they don't get eaten, I guess."

"They will eventually become young angels," said Argen. "Angels don't eat spirits. That would make them fall."

"Does that mean sin spirits will eventually become demons?" asked Grey.

"I don't know, they don't normally last long enough to find out," said Guit.

Sure enough, as they watched the spirits, they faded from view, as they went to where ever they were destined to go.

"That must be another reason angels are discouraged from staying down here so long, we learn all sorts of new things," said Grey.

"We need to deal with these shades, but if we try to hunt them during the day, the people will see us. They fear the angels enough, without them seeing us attacking demons within the city. I believe we should wait until dark to hunt them without fear of being spotted by the people."

"That's a good idea, Airow. Let's go back to the inn and rest up in preparation for the hunt tonight," said Grey, turning to leave.

"Why are we hunting these things again?" asked Guit.

"So, the elder demon doesn't get stronger before we are ready to fight it," said Airow.

"That's a good reason."

They headed back to the inn, having to step over the people who had settled down to sleep off the food coma's they found themselves in, in the middle of the roads. As much as it pleased Grey to see the starving people finally fed, she felt sick about where they got the food. As she walked, she thought about that more and more, so much so, that when they got back to the inn, which was empty at the moment, she took a seat at a table in the back and the others joined her.

"Where do you think the elder demon got all of that food?" she asked.

"Probably from the surrounding villages," said Airow.

"We've already established that was what he was doing," said Guit, taking his mug of ale from Bob gleefully, as he brought over four mugs for them.

"Have an interesting day?" asked Bob.

"I'm sure you already know the answer to that," said Airow, taking his and sniffing it, to find that it was actually plain water.

"I was wondering how you took to Juggler?" he asked.

"Juggler?" asked Grey. "Do you mean that the elder demon is called Juggler?"

"He is," said Bob with a chuckle. "Some say that he is really good at juggling a lot of things, all at once."

"Why do I not feel as if you are talking about balls?" asked Grey, taking a sip of her mug. It was juice of some kind, not ale.

"Because I'm not. Be sure that whatever steps you plan to take, don't bounce back to hit you later," said Bob, moving away to wipe down a table that looked clean.

"If we head out to hunt these shades tonight, as one group, it will be easy for Juggler to know where we are. He will sense the demons dying and send someone to stop us," said Argen, drinking from his mug, then wiping the foam off his face with a napkin.

"Then we'll have to split up," said Grey.

"I will not allow you to hunt these things alone," said Airow.

"Fine, then we will split into two groups. We'll move out just after dusk, once we can't be seen flying about, and meet up on Bob's roof before dawn. Hopefully, it won't take that long, but we need to be back in before the sun rises and we are spotted."

Everyone agreed to her plan, and they headed up to their room to sleep until later in the day.

That night, as they prepared to head out, Grey realized, traveling with Airow was going to make hunting these things incredibly easy. He could shoot them with his arrows, leaving her as nothing more than a tag along. She felt better, once they started hunting them, when she realized she could see them in the shadows, easier than he could, despite his ability to sense evil. With so many people in the city, his detect evil was having a harder time than normal.

Guit and Argen headed out, in the opposite direction, to compass the other side of the city, from the angels. Guit didn't feel like a tag along, he had that role down pat. In fact, Argen did most of the killing, using his shadow magic to form spikes that killed the demons quickly and silently, often before they even knew they were nearby. By dawn, Argen was exhausted, and ready for bed. Killing took so much effort.