Speaking To The Soul

Even though the streets of Newron were bright at night, the fact that there was nobody around made it just as nerve wracking as crossing through a dark alleyway.

After the black-haired man instructed Din to follow him, they had walked out of the pub and were walking deeper into the city. The man seemed to be avoiding crowded areas, especially the areas that had the generators.

It wasn't long before we stopped in front of a door. From the outside, the building looked just like any other in this city.

The black-haired man opened the door and motioned for Din to enter first. Din walked in slowly.

I was worried for Din. He would either be sent to prison or he would be kidnapped by whichever pack this guy worked for.

It was dark inside the building, but we could make out the general layout of the room. The main entrance had a table in the center with multiple chairs surrounding it. Off to the side, there were bookshelves and then far to the back, there was a door leading to another room.

With a press of a switch, lights around the room lit up, revealing a girl, who had been sleeping on one of the chairs.

"Wake up, Cyen."

The girl called Cyen had long violet hair that covered her left eye. She wore a black garment with an oversized white coat barely covering it. She had a belt that was loosely holding her gray pants to her waist. When she opened her eyes, we could see her orange pupils.

"You're back already? What time is it?" she asked. Then she noticed Din in the room. "Who's this?"

Pushing Din forward, the black-haired man replied, "This is the Din Morrison. He finally came to Newron."

Din turned around and asked, "What do you want from me?"

"We just need you to do us a favor," the man answered. He pointed towards the door that was in the back. "Lead him to Eliana. I still have to finish my watch."

Eliana… that name sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember how I knew that name.

Cyen stood up lazily before letting out a long yawn. "This way," she led.

After going through the door, we were at a stairway that only went up. But rather than climb up, Cyen raised a hidden door on the floor. A ladder was set up near it, but aside from that, we couldn't see anything that was down there.

"Go," she instructed.

Din did as told and slowly began to descend the ladder. As we got closer to the bottom, we could see a long hallway with a door and a single light next to it. It was cold down here, I could see the heat from their body leaving from each breath.

The door let out an eerie creek as it was opened slowly. It was a very old door.

Inside was a small room with many wooden crates surrounding the walls. In the middle was a table with many books and paper of all sizes. A woman was leaning on the table and inspecting one of the documents.

She had short silver hair and had golden earrings in the shape of a cross in each ear. She wore a black inner armor with a long white cloak hanging behind her. Something unusual about her were her eyes, her right eye was blue while her left eye was brown.

At the sound of the door opening, the woman looked towards us, "What is it?" But then noticed Din. "Ah, I see. So you're finally here, Din Morrison."

"What's going on here? What do you want from me?" Din asked.

"No need to worry. We're your allies."

"Allies?"

"Yes, I'm aware you've met Tal and Mun, correct? They work for me and they've told me all about you and your whole situation. So you can relax now, you'll be safe with us."

Din was still on guard. He remained silent as the woman walked towards him. She reached out her hand and offered him a handshake.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Eliana. I'm the person who runs all the operations for the Ravagers."

After thinking for a bit, Din finally shook her hands. "I'm Din."

"If I'm not mistaken, your companion Lorelei should be with us as well, correct?" She asked as she looked around the room.

With a nod, Din motioned towards my direction.

"I see. So it's true. Only you can see her, correct? That's very interesting. I've never heard of anything like this before. You are a very lucky man, Din Morrison. There are many who would do anything to get the ability to see the dead and to be able to talk with them. Have you found out her Wish yet? I know it's been a few days since you and Tal parted ways. Has there been any notable changes with her?"

Din shook his head. "We still don't know anything about why all this is happening. I still haven't turned back into a Spirit yet either. It just seemed to have happened for a short time during the night of the ceremony."

"If you're able to see her even without the eyes of a Spirit, I'd say it's more to do with her Wish, rather than yours." Eliana walked back towards the other end of the table. "Even with your situation, I haven't heard of anyone turning into a Spirit and then back into a human again. I don't think there's anything I can do to help you two in that regard."

"That's fine," Din said. He looked around the room before asking, "Is Tal here?"

There was a wooden door on the back side of room so there could be others behind it. Maybe Tal and Mun were there.

"No, both Tal and Mun are out on their watch," Eliana replied. "They'll be back late into the night. Did you have a business with Tal?"

Din nodded. "My uncle told me of a place where I might learn more about Spirits, but I might need Tal's help."

"I don't know if you should've told her that," I said.

"A place to learn more about Spirits?" Eliana asked. "Where might such a place be?"

Din looked at me first, to which I replied, "You shouldn't tell her yet. See if you can talk with Tal about it first. I don't know if we can trust her just yet."

Even though she seemed like a nice person, she was the one that assigned for Tal and Mun to assassinate Katherine. If she had been the one that came that night, would she have saved Din from all those knights? It was hard to tell.

Din responded, "I have to talk with Tal first. I can't tell you until then."

A look of disappointment formed on Eliana's face. But after another moment, she regained the friendly nature she had before. She moved over to the side of the room where many wooden crates were lined up.

"Do you think you can help me with something real quick?" she asked as she removed the cover from one of the crates.

There seemed to be a lot of towels inside the crate and after she moved some of them aside, we could see what she was really hiding inside the crate. It was the body of a man. He was wearing brown leather armor and had a helmet that covered only the top of his head.

Din backed away from the crate and prepared himself for any attack. His reaction was quick. While I was frozen there from the sight, he was able to realize the threat he was in.

Eliana laughed. "Like I said before, we're not going to do anything to you." She then spoke in a serious manner, "This here is one of my men. He went missing for a couple of days and then we found him on the streets, dead. The strange thing is though, it doesn't look like he was tortured or killed by any weapons either."

"The only visible signs of struggle were markings around his neck," Cyen added.

With a nod, Eliana continued, "We think he was knocked out from being choked from the back and then held somewhere. We don't know why he was kidnapped or why they decided to throw him back on the streets after."

Eliana walked closer towards Din and then patted his shoulder. "That's where you come in. I think you might be able to talk to him and find out who kidnapped him."

"You want me to… talk to the dead guy?" Din asked.

"I guess it's more correct to say that's where Lorelei comes in. This is only a theory, but I think with the power of her Wish, she might be able to talk with other ghosts as well."

It was true that I could talk with Din's mother, but was that really because of my Wish?

"It doesn't hurt to try, right? Can you have Lorelei check on him?" Eliana pleaded.

"I'll see what I can do," I replied to Din. I then moved closer towards the wooden crate and then reached down towards the body. From just touching his face, I instantly noticed a figure standing near the wooden crate.

He was looking at what I was doing, but after noticing that I was looking straight at him, he backed away.

"Y-you can see me?!" he yelped.