Revived

Kies and Haro, along with the banshee, carried Ammine's soul all the way back to where they had hidden her body. It was in a small cave. The entrance was covered by vines and the area around was packed with trees, making it really hard to find with the naked eye. If it weren't for Haro leading the way, Kies wouldn't have remembered where it was.

Haro flew over to Ammine's body and landed right next to her head. He waved his wing to motion for Kies to hurry up. "The longer the soul is away from the body, the more dangerous it is," he explained to Kies. "You should return your friend's soul to her body quickly."

Kies hurried over with Ammine's soul still in his hands and crouched down next to her body. "What do I do?" Kies asked the owl. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to drop the soul into the body or if it was something else specific that he needed to do. Kies looked at Haro for instructions.

"Just plop it in child," Haro told Kies. "It couldn't be simpler than that."

"Okay then..." Kies placed the soul right above Ammine's chest and the wind surrounding it suddenly vanished. The soul slowly descended into the body and disappeared. Kies waited but nothing happened. Kies put his finger under Ammine's nose and didn't feel a breath. He looked at Haro in case he did something wrong.

Haro saw Kies's confusion and told him, "Give it some time." A few more minutes passed and Kies saw that color was rushing back into her face. Kies put his finger under her nose and felt a warm breath of air come out. It was difficult to detect with how light it was but it was still there.

"Now that this problem is solved, let's chat shall we?" said Haro. Kies had so many things that he wanted to ask Haro and didn't know where to start. He wanted to ask about the magic that he used on the banshee and learn more about chants, but he also wanted to learn more about the Aeos since it seemed that Haro knew some things about his race. Luckily for Kies, he didn't need to choose as Haro already had decided upon what to discuss first. "Let us start with information regarding your race. I can see that you're not very familiar with it yourself, but I must warn you, I do not know much myself and what I say may not be true."

"I understand." Kies needed all the knowledge he could get about the Aeos right now. Even if Haro said something that wasn't accurate, it was still better than nothing. But then again, he could always ask Arc to tell him about the Aeos. But for whatever reason, Arc was always busy and Kies never had the opportunity to talk to him for more than five minutes before he went back to the archive to do something.

"Alright child, the first thing that you need to know is that your body runs on magic power. Do you remember when you collapsed earlier?" Haro asked Kies.

"Sorry but I don't exactly recall that happening," Kies told the owl. All he remembered was that he was on the ground and his head was spinning. He didn't remember anything else other than that.

"Hm, it seems that it also affects your memory." Haro cleared his throat which sounded very strange since he was an owl. "Ahem. Anyway, unlike the other races which gather magic from the environment and store it for future usage, the Aeos are terrible at storing magic and are constantly gathering it and releasing it at the same time," Haro explained.

"So it's like a bucket with a hole?" Kies asked.

"That's a good way to put it," Haro agreed. "Well, I wouldn't say bucket since it is a crystal, but yes, think of it as a container with a hole. And the speed at which you are filling the container is much quicker than the rate at which it is leaking."

"Then wouldn't it overflow?"

"Hoo, I was waiting for you to ask that question. Yes, your crystal would be overflowing with magic if that was the case, but luckily for you, that isn't it."

"I don't understand what you're trying to say," Kies told Haro.

"You see, as an Aeos, you're continuously using that overflowing magic to enhance your core and attract more magic. I do not know the reason but the Aeos cannot father magic normally and that is precisely why you have to make sure you have some magic in your core," said Haro while waving his wing. "Anyway, now that we have the crucial things down, I'll teach you about everything else that you need to know."

Haro spent the next few hours until Ammine woke up explaining to Kies the difference between chantless magic and chanted magic. Though Kies also wanted to talk about the current situation in the forest, they decided to wait until Ammine was up before they began.

Ammine woke up to the sound of hooting. 'D*mn it, I thought I got rid of all those owls.' Ammine looked around and saw that she wasn't home, but rather in some dark cramped place. She slowly got up cautiously and surveyed her surroundings. She saw Kies laying on the ground with his eyes closed and immediately rushed to him. "Hey, are you alright?" she called out to him.

"I wouldn't touch him if I were you," said a voice from beside her. Ammine jumped back in surprise and her hand flared up with magic. She turned to see who it was and found an owl. Since owls obviously couldn't speak, Ammine continued to look around for who had spoken to her and found a small wisp.

"Who are you!?" Ammine demanded from the wisp. But there was no response. After a few moments of glaring at the wisp, the voice spoke again. "I'm right here," the voice said. It came from the owl.

"What!?" Ammine stared at the owl who just spoke to her. She pinched her cheeks to see if she was dreaming and found out that she wasn't.

"Is it really that strange for an owl to speak? That child over there had a similar reaction," the owl hooted while pointing his wing at Kies.

Ammine shook her head and shouted, "Come out and fight me!" in a threatening tone. But she didn't direct it at the owl. Instead, she directed her shouting at the ceiling. Ammine believed that she was still in the banshee's mind and it was toying with her by showing her a talking owl. Those birds gave her a headache, and although it was not very efficient and quite strange, it was definitely one way to torture her.

"Who are you yelling at? There's no one else here except the four of us," Haro said in a confused tone. Ammine ignored the owl and continued to cuss at the banshee, still believing that she was trapped in its mind.

Haro stared speechlessly at the demon as she continued cursing at the ceiling. Did her soul get trapped for too long that she lost her mind or something?

"Tch." After insulting the banshee for three minutes straight, Ammine gave up and examined her surroundings again. She saw that Kies was still lying on the ground with his eyes closed, but she ignored him since it was probably just an illusion created by the banshee to toy with her.

"Are you done, child? Come here and let me inspect your soul, you may have wondered that labyrinth for too long," Haro offered, but Ammine ignored him again.

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