Chapter 26: Another Admonishment

  “Hey,” Erik attempted, but seeing he was fine, Sophie would have none of it.

  “You are an absolute ass!” she yelled. Erik did a double take. This wasn’t how he thought she’d react.

  “What—”

  “No! No jokes, no casually shrugging things off, just shut up. Shut up until I’m done,” Sophie said, her face red, though not from crying. She was filled with rage.

  Erik opened his mouth to speak but caught himself and shut it. He lowered his head but kept his eyes on her. She huffed as she stared back at him. It didn’t seem like she knew what to say, despite her earlier bravado.

  Erik had to stop himself from saying anything several times, as the silence and the tension were unbearable. Erik could never stand times like these. He had to break the ice. But out of respect for Sophie, he managed to keep it caged.

  “I hate this. I really hate this,” she eventually said, sitting down on the chair beside him that Angela had vacated. The anger was gone from her voice. She raised her hands to her face and covered it. “Why are you such a jerk? You must have realised you forgot your bag. Why did you still go? When I rushed to the door to give it to you, you had already left. You just left. Wasn’t I fast enough? Couldn’t you stand to wait for me for a few seconds?” she cried.

  Her voice grew progressively weaker, and it was strained at the end. Erik moved his hand to hers, pulling one of them away from her face. She removed the other herself in response.

  “You could’ve died. Didn’t you consider any of us?” she asked and waited for a response.

  Erik wasn’t sure whether to respond or not. Of course, he considered others. He considered the eventual victims of the beasts if he hadn’t fought them off. When push came to shove, those were the ones that mattered. That’s why he’d fight this war. Enough people had died.

  That wasn’t what she was asking, though. She asked if he considered her, her sister, Emma, and Angela. He hadn’t done that. The area the dogs had reached had been evacuated, or at least mostly. How long would the beasts have kept in that area, wreaking havoc before continuing on? Maybe they wouldn’t, even.

  Erik had passed several beasts during his escape from the Empire, and they kept to the empty ghost towns for the most part. He couldn’t have known what would’ve happened if he had waited another hour, taking the time to get back to the hotel and get his gear.

  The same point could be made in the opposite direction, though. He couldn’t know they wouldn’t carry on, eventually reaching countless innocent human beings, tearing them apart as they did.

  “Sometimes you’re so easy to read. But sometimes you’re just blank. I understand why you didn’t come back. But did you even consider any of us?”

  “I didn’t,” Erik said. “And I’m sorry. It was my fault, my mistake. I’m sorry I keep hurting you. It was never my intention.”

  “I know that. You’re a man, which means you’re stupid. It’s to be expected. Some of it is on me as well, I guess. I told you to leave me alone, but you still let me know what was happening. I appreciate that, I do. It just comes down to you and my sister talking about me behind my back. I’m mad at both of you, but because now you know how I feel, while I don’t know what you want. Everything else is clear as day with you, but I really can’t tell what you feel. You’re stupid for getting hurt, but you have a world to save, so I can’t be mad about that. I’m just glad you’re okay.” She took his hand in hers and placed his palm on her forehead. She leaned into it.

  Erik couldn’t say anything. He had been going back and forth several times over the last day, trying to figure out what he should do about Sophie.

  “Let me tell you,” he started, and she looked up at him. “I’m sorry your sister and I talked about you. She was upset with me for how I rejected you yesterday. She also told me how she felt about you and me. Me being stupid, I didn’t realise I was rejecting you that way, but I figured I had to make it up to you. I didn’t want to hurt you. And I can’t decide what to do. It’s only been a couple of days, but I want to get to know you better. You’re kind, and funny, and sweet. But your sister is right. It’s a massive risk to your life, in more ways than you might think.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “You want to put whatever this is on hold? Until we win the war?” Sophie asked, and her disappointment was obvious.

  “Not at all. You’re starting to know me by now. I want everything, all the time. I just want us to take it slow, get to know each other. Figure out together whether this is something we both want. Does that sound better?” Erik asked, giving the girl a smile as he caressed her cheek. He didn’t mention the fact that Sophie herself was acting rashly because of her own trauma over the past few months. It wouldn’t help anything.

  “We can do that,” she smiled back, cracking a dried-out line of salt on her face as she smiled back. Erik wiped her face. “Can I hug you?” she asked.

  “Gingerly,” Erik joked. She giggled and hugged him tight. He groaned as she did but kept silent otherwise.

  “Ugh, gross,” Jessie said as she opened the door, looking at her best friend and her sister. She closed the door behind her and, without a care in the world, jumped onto Erik’s bed, sitting along the edge. “You good?” she asked.

  As the bed bounced ever so slightly as she landed, Erik couldn’t keep his groans muted anymore, and Sophie pulled away, which she didn’t do in response to her sister entering.

  “Yeah, getting there. Where were you?”

  “Picking up some stuff,” she avoided the question. “Hey, sis.”

  “I’m mad at you,” Sophie said, pouting at her older sister. Jessie looked questioningly at Sophie, then at Erik. She looked back at Sophie again, having learned nothing.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Because you tattled. I don’t want you to talk about me behind my back,” Sophie said. She was tired and exhausted after the day’s events, but when up against her sister, she reverted to a very childlike person when she was mad.

  “Oh, sweetie,” Jessie said. She used a maternal and caring voice, getting up and walking over to Sophie, hugging her and kissing her cheek repeatedly. “You know I just want what’s best for you. Have you two worked things out?”

  “Yes,” Sophie pouted again, though she couldn’t keep from smiling at her sister’s actions. She had missed their quarrels when she was gone. This was how the two fought. It had always been ever since Sophie was old enough to speak.

  “And?”

  Jessie released her sister and looked at both of them intermittently.

  “We’ll take it slow. No need to rush things,” Sophie said, gazing warmly at Erik.

  “Speaking of rushing things; should we rush into Angela and Emma’s great haul?” Erik asked after clearing his throat, feeling a bit embarrassed at the previous topic. “I mean, I’m bedridden anyway, might as well do something while I’m recuperating.”

  “He’s such a workhorse,” Jessie jokingly said to Sophie, giving her another kiss, this time on her forehead.

  “I know, he’s horrible. He just gets so bored,” Sophie responded.

  “You can come in now,” Jessie said a bit loudly, and the door opened, letting Angela and Emma inside.

  “You’ve been right outside all along?” Erik asked, suspiciously eyeing the two of them.

  “Of course. You guys are so sweet. Anyway, here!” Angela said, tossing a heavy bag onto Erik’s bed with gusto.

  “I can’t believe you watched me sort those things for an hour, then just tossed them all in a bag,” Emma complained, looking disgustedly at the bag.

  “Gave you something to do, though. It doesn’t matter what it looks like, right?” Angela responded.

  Together, the group worked once more to sort the new batch of minerals and crystals, though this time based on Erik and Jessie’s links to them. The crystals were sorted into five groups based on the strength of their connection to Erik or Jessie, whichever was stronger. The last category was the one neither felt anything more than a trickle from: waste.

  Luckily, none of them felt the same kind of link to the same crystal, except for all the weakest ones. Emma and Angela had scored a much larger haul than Erik and Jessie did because they couldn’t know which ones to pick. Still, they had found a few more with strong links to either of them.

  Erik had two with waterfall-grade links and one weaker than that, but stronger than the river-grade ones. Jessie got four of her submarine-dolphin-grade gems, enough to fill out all her major slots in one go. She also had a greater number of medium-grade ones, which to her felt like falling and flying.

  Jessie reasoned that she might be more attuned to more elements than Erik was, which might affect what sort of crystals fit her. As Erik didn’t have any elemental abilities yet, they couldn’t be certain.

  When they were done, Jessie took one of hers with the strongest link, and one of Erik’s strongest links. She felt them talking to her, which Erik now reasoned were the spirits inside the crystals.

  The first one she chose for Erik was the one she herself felt a somewhat deep connection to, but she was sure it wasn’t as strong as Erik’s was, judging by how they explained their different feelings about the links. She reasoned that one might have an elemental power seeing that she felt a strong affinity to it as well.

  Jessie still hadn’t meditated on merging herself with her magic yet, and she wanted to do that first, but there was no reason for Erik to wait. If Jessie did that first, she would also know what her supportive spells did. She had cast her Water spell on him once, but he felt next to nothing. She needed to know the details of it.

  Erik was handed the crystal she chose for him. She called it Leviathan Caress, which sounded a bit ominous. Based just on his one absorbed spirit’s name, Sovereign Faith, and his Authority aura ability, the name could imply some sort of effect, as Sovereign meant leader, who was a figure of authority. Even Faith could imply some sort of leadership, or rather, subservience to something.

  What Leviathan and Caress could imply, he wasn’t sure. He waited until Jessie was deep in meditation, looking to her increased red glow for confirmation, before starting to absorb Leviathan Caress. He put it up against one of his Crest’s hexagonal slots and entered meditation.