CH865

“So Asher, you been adjusting well to the world?” Ben asked. “And Taya, you adjusting to existing?”

“I don’t think existing requires much adjustment,” The lightning spirit laughed while the wraith tilted his head in thought.

“It’s been unexpected but the spirits have been helping me adjust and the country has been kind to me. Compared to my life before, I have no complaints, apostle.”

Considering his life before involved centuries of imprisonment, that was far from a glowing review but he seemed positive enough at least, the intangible aspects of his nature and immortal lifespan giving him a better tolerance for what he’d been through compared to so many of the other prisoners who weren’t even safe to unseal, with all of them still weighing heavily on his mind. He’d tried to help them the best he could by connecting to them but he was no therapist and their trauma ran deep, in the end he could only feel lucky that as many of the ones he’d brought back had managed to hang on to some level of sanity even despite the thousands of years they might have been held.

It was one problem him new mental structure didn’t help him immediately solve, even if that might have been as due to a lack of useful information as anything else, but it was still something that he needed to work on, even if that matter was regulated to a different part of himself while the front of his thoughts tried to make conversation with the two unique beings as they made their way through the streets.

“And you’re making friends then?” He asked Asher, nodding to Taya and getting a confused look for the question.

“Maybe? I’ll admit their nature still confuses me. Despite being made of the same stuff, socially I believe my people have more in common with the standard mortals of the world, or perhaps its fairies would be the best comparison. Endless but not so, shall we say, focused?”

Well, I guess that’s fair.

Unlike the standard spirits or elementals, wraiths, or at least the one he was interacting with, naturally took a far more human-like shape and like both the fairies and great spirits, didn’t seem so focused on the aspects of their element that made them up as others of their nature. It made them and Asher easier to talk with but there was still the wall of eternity separating them from other mortals that set them apart from the others who made up the world.

Despite the answer though, Taya laughed, slapping his back as she did. “Ah, what’re you talking about? We’ve been getting on for months now, haven’t we? Just cause I’m not them doesn’t change that.”

“Hence my confusion,” The wraith shrugged, leaving Ben to look between the two before focusing back on Taya.

“One of the spirits that helped birth you has been getting along with Asher since he arrived?” Ben guessed, leaving her to focus back on the one at her side.

“See, he gets it.”

“Alright, I still don’t.”

“Uh, I’m not sure about your people, Asher but when spirits are born they inherit some of their… Well, I don’t actually know how they’d describe them since they don’t think of them as parents. Contributors? Either way, the new ones get some of their memories. Is that what happened? One of the spirits that made you had been talking to him.”

“Two,” She clarified. “A light and an air.”

“Them?” Asher asked, beginning to understand what she meant. “But I still see them?”

“And now you see me too.”

“…Apostle, I’d like to retract my previous statement. This world is taking a bit longer to get used to than I’d like to admit.”

“Ha, yeah, I can understand that. Still, if you’re making friends then you’re making a place here. I’d like to think that counts for something.”

They stepped through the gate as he said it, only a few steps more taking him to the untamed lands where he finally hoped to get the chance to begin his tests, with only one small problem he hoped the great spirit would be able to solve. The gate was the world’s portal to the heart of the untamed lands and as such was heavily trafficked. While there were many gates to many points of it, adventurers and armies alike would pass through for their deeper expeditions to clear out any demons growing in them and that meant the immediate vicinity was going to be safer than even most villages that found themselves far enough from a given city. If he wanted access to demons, they’d have to go deeper.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“So, will you be able to find me any demons and bring them back here?” Ben asked. “Or are we going to have to go a lot deeper?”