Chapter 7

As I read through Opet's life book there were a lot of moments that I read that made me love her even more and respect her, and then there were moments where she did things that were not as great or honorable but I could see that she was feeling an intense sadness and desire to do wrong; and we all make mistakes so I couldn't judge her for something I may have done myself in those situations. I kept reading and page after page I felt like I knew her personally and by the end I missed her more than ever even though I didn't know her I felt as though I did and felt like she was watching over me as I read her life experiences through a simple book that couldn't explain what she felt only give an example of it. Once I finished reading I felt I'd lost almost everything and fell down on my knees hurting deeply and I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see a young woman looking at me with solemn eyes. "I know that you can never get her back but if you grieve yourself to death she'll have died for nothing. Before she died she talked so much about you and how she thought you'd be the one to take her place. Even though she knew she was going to die she was hoping that you'd be the one to take over, I know she made the right choice with you. She loved you more than anything or anyone, just remember that." with those last words she left and I stayed there silently sitting for hours before finally going to sleep in the bed she used to sleep in.

I woke up and felt as though I was being watched and looked to see Renfro and the others gathered around the opening to the room. Renfro stepped forward and said "We know you could grieve her loss for years but we need your help; we can't do this alone and once we're through you'll have time to mourn and hopefully heal. So are you ready to be initiated?" I got out of bed and stood in front of Renfro and took out my swords and nodded. Renfro smiled at me "That's the spirit!" We walked to a room with barely any lights and they stood me in the center of a glowing decagon with squares and circles at every end point. "What is this room for?" I asked Renfro and the others. "This is where you'll gain the ability to read other's souls, just close your eyes and feel the energy of this room. It'll take some time which is why we needed to start as soon as we could. taking the souls of others is easy enough but you need to find people who could possibly replace you should you perish." Renfro answered. I didn't understand why we were taking people like us out of the world so I asked, "Why are we killing other people like us?" This time the woman who had her hand on my shoulder came forth to answer. "We kill people like us because we are all the types of people who could change the world for the worse if we ever came to power like the leaders of the old world who did nothing to help other people and hid secrets away from the people to keep them complicit and ignorant to the truth. We all took an oath to destroy others like us and to never let ourselves become like that; should one of us come to power we have agreed that if we use it for wrong we will be hunted down by the other members and killed. By taking on the ability to see other's souls you are also being bound to our oath. You can't turn back now, if you do our only choice is to kill you now because we can't let one of our own loose into the world to destroy it again. So do you accept the binding of the soul searchers?"

I stood there surrounded on all sides by every member of the soul searchers staring at me waiting for my answer. "I accept" I said finally, they all stared at me still waiting. "Then close your eyes and feel the energy around you. This will take a while so we will give you space but keep guards posted in case you try to run." Renfro said seriously, "On a lighter note I can't wait to have you join our group" he smiled at me some and then turned to leave while two members of the group stood guard. I stood there for a few minutes with my eyes closed and concentrated on the room and felt flashes of colors and heard whispers and voices screaming and felt a variety of emotions and my eyes flew open and I could see my spirit outside of me and saw every emotion and event of my life from a third person perspective and I felt all of the emotions I felt then and some different ones, I got angry seeing myself make mistakes and proud when I saw myself doing something that I knew I needed to do. I finally came to in a daze, the memories flashed by fast but slow enough I could make them out and it dug into the things that made me who I am at the core when shown my whole life. Renfro and the woman who's name I didn't know yet came into the room after being told that I was awake by the guards. Renfro looked at me smiling but concerned for me. "Are you alright?" he asked, I shook my head up and down feeling okay but shaken somewhat after seeing the story of my life played out in front of me. He nodded understandingly, "I remember gaining the soul seeing sight years ago, I felt a flood of emotions too. You'll be okay after a few days, but we need you to start searching with us now." I looked at him and asked "How do I look at another persons soul?" he answered back, "To gain the soul seeking ability you had to channel your own energy to see your soul and every memory associated with it, to channel another persons soul you just focus your energy into them and with practice you'll be able to control what you see as well as the speed of the memories and even being able to feel the emotions the other person felt during them."

Having this new ability sounded both interesting and useful but also like a burden knowing the person you were having to kill personally. Renfro saw my look of uncertainty and said to me "Trust me kid, it's a lot easier than it seems. I know it sounds like it'll be harder knowing your victim personally but sometimes it's much easier when you get a really bad one." I nodded knowing that he was right about that, eventually I would get used to the feeling and wouldn't notice it as much. "Now that you have your abilities you need to test them out on someone and I wouldn't mind helping you" Renfro said happily. I smiled at him, he seemed to be the one person who I would get along with most in this group. I asked concerned, "Are you sure you want me to try and look into your soul? I'm not in control of my abilities there's no telling what I may see." He nodded confidently, "I have things that I've done true but in the end our souls are looked at by the one who created us so why not share my life with someone before it ends?" I looked at him intrigued by what he said and nodded back and readied myself. He looked at me and said "concentrate all your energy on me, let nothing else take your focus or the connection will break." I looked directly at Renfro and closed my eyes concentrating on him and clearing anything else out of my head and I felt light headed as if my mind were completely blank and I saw a sudden flash and in my head I saw what I think was Renfro as a child being held in his mother's arms cooing at her and waving his arms around loosely. I smiled and the picture changed to him as a young boy getting beaten by some older kids for trying to play where they normally did. I got angry and the scene changed to him screaming at his mom for not letting him go out with his friends and him slamming his door and crying. I felt sad and tried to comfort him but I could only see him and felt some feeling that wasn't my own wash over me and take control. Now the picture was of him hanging out with a group of people that were making him bully other guys that they didn't like and he did it happily fighting random people he didn't even know just for the thrill of it, suddenly I felt his lust for giving pain and smiled menacingly. All these emotions started mixing together and memories passed in a hurry and I felt all of them and could tell what they were even though it went by so fast it was as though it was being summarized all at once and suddenly I was back in the room where I was to begin with and sweating some. Renfro looked at me and I looked back wide eyed and speechless from so many things that I saw and felt. He laughed slightly, I know it's a mess right now but train your ability and you'll be able to focus on what you need to know and you'll be able to tell if someone is like us there's a certain feeling you'll seek out in everyone and if you find that feeling you lure them into the battlegrounds and destroy them or they destroy you.

I understood what he meant and took every word seriously. It occurred to me that we all probably had some ability attached to our weapons or around us so I asked "how do we gain the strongest parts of our spirits when we fight? Is it attached to the weapons we use?" He pondered for a moment, "perhaps it's what makes it awaken your spirit, that particular question is best answered by the one who creates the weapons. Our blacksmith Pirouette." The lady that talked before suddenly appeared beside him again and came up to me. "Each person has a reason for the powers they are given according to the spirit surrounding them, I archive every ability and their power when we encounter someone and if they live I study those abilities for longer. Since I'm not the first nor the last of the blacksmiths forging spirit weapons our archive is well built already." I murmured in amazement as I thought about all the possibilities there must be. Renfro spoke again, "Before you enter the archives you must remove all your armor and weapons; just keep on your normal clothes, we have some pants since the knee plate is built into those" I went to change and left all my weapons in a bin. When I got out Pirouette was waiting not far from where I got dressed. "Follow me and I'll show you to The Final Archive" she said moving along to another corridor that led to a large open room filled with multiple drawers of clear misty substances. "What is this?" I asked looking around at all the labeled compartments with the same things inside them. "These are spirit essences, they hold a little of the power that others have had and they belong solely to that person even after they pass."