Soul

Soul

-

"Thanks for your patronage!"

After waving goodbye to the weapons shopkeeper, I started walking back toward Vasati and I's dorm.

The morning after the victory against Cerulle, Vasati and I began preparing to depart for the Grand Vertus Academy in the approaching week. We made plans to attend a festival together in five days. It was a well-known event called "Soul".

The event was to pass on spirits from Inhumans that had perished over the year. It was an event that I had never attended before.

"Eira! Are you excited for the festival?!" Vasati appeared out of nowhere and interrupted my thoughts with her question.

'Was I excited? Of course I am! This is our first time attending an event together!' 'Usually in these scenarios, I would reply with a curt remark like "I guess" or "Sure", but I have been trying to get better at expressing my feelings with Vasati.'

"Vasati, I'm very excited to spend the night alone with you." My voice barely rose above a whisper as I spoke, but Vasati's slight blush told me she heard what I said.

"Ehhhhh? I didn't hear you Eira, can you repeat that?" Vasati's smug remark was followed by her interrupting my walk and wrapping her arms around my waist.

"I refuse." I curtly turned my head away from Vasati and huffed.

"Really? It wouldn't hurt for you to say it one more time, y'know." As Vasati continued to insist a lot of the villagers who were walking by started chuckling as they watched our interaction.

"Vasati. Let go of me. Everyone is watching us." I sighed while attempting to rip myself free from Vasati's tight grasp.

Despite Vasati's small structure, she is physically stronger than most girls her age, including me. I had to reinforce myself with physical magic to allow myself to have a chance of ever getting her off me.

"Who cares?" Vasati smirked as she tipped my right leg into the air and lifted me bridal style.

After closing my eyes for a split second and by the time I opened them, I was looking above the clouds. It is amazing that Vasati's dark magic has already progressed this far to learn "Vanish".

Vanish is the most advanced teleportation spell in the entire world. Of course, I would never even attempt to learn such a spell because the success rate is so low. Vasati is the only person other than Farru who can even use such a spell.

"Eira! Do you like my magic!?" Vasati's question almost made me burst out into laughter.

'Learning such a difficult spell just so she could brag about it to me is pretty cute, though.'

"I love your magic more than anyone's, Vasati!" My words of praise made an impact on Vasati as she glanced away from me to hide her blush.

-

"You look beautiful, Eira."

On the night of the Festival, Vasati and I wore matching dresses that went along with the color scheme of "Soul". Red represents the blood of fallen Inhumans, blue represents the color of the sky that fallen souls return to, and violet is the color of the afterlife and goes along with the color our sky becomes when both moons cover the sun.

We traveled separately to the festival because she wanted to try meeting up with me for a date.

"You look pretty too, Vasati!"

Just as I expected, anything looks good on Vasati. The violet sleeves on the dress went perfectly, together with her midnight black hair. She truly looked like a goddess out of a movie.

"Alright Eira, let's have some fun!" Vasati quickly intertwined her hand with mine and ran off as she dragged me along with her.

"Yeah!" I exclaimed as I tried to speed up to keep pace with her.

-

The festival was more fun than I could ever imagine. Vasati and I caught goldfish, ate candy apples, played a ring toss game, and even went to see a fortune teller… even though it was likely a scam.

"Eira, I hope you enjoyed yourself tonight," Vasati said as we walked toward the open field, hand in hand.

"I did." I smiled as I licked the candy apple once more before looking up at the clear sky. Both moons were minutes away from crossing each other, which meant the ceremony was about to begin.

As we walked to the top of a large hill, I saw the field around us flicker with the color violet.

In just a few moments, countless spirits began to rise from the ground and started floating up into the sky.

"Eira." As Vasati called my name, I turned toward her direction and she grabbed both of my hands.

"Huh?" Vasati looked very serious, so I was confused about what she was about to say.

"I don't think I ever properly confessed my love to you, so let me do that now."

Vasati's sudden request slightly tinted my cheeks red for a moment before I steeled myself and looked into her midnight-black eyes.

"No matter what we encounter from here on out, I will protect your body and heart. I love you, Eira."

"Boom,"

As Vasati spoke, she leaned in to press her lips against mine. The sky lit up with the colors red and violet.

I quickly wrapped my arms around her neck and returned her kiss and we remained in that position for minutes while multiple fireworks went off around us.

"Boom"

A firework that held the colors of neon green and blue was the last one I saw before Vasati released me from her hold, which left me somewhat disappointed.

"We're gonna survive this war and make it back home, Eira. When we do, I will take the throne and make you queen of this entire nation."

"Wouldn't we both be queen?"

"Oh… yeah"

Vasati's embarrassed face left me chuckling. She was being so earnest for once that she didn't even think about what she was saying. 'I'm glad she can have clumsy moments like this too' I snickered slightly at the thought.

"I'll be with you every step of the way, Vasati. We will put an end to the human race."