Reunion

"The first thing you need to do is realize why some spirits can think, despite being disembodied. The Dra is your body, and it contains your May (mind) and Reh (spirit). Spiritual power is the power of connections. It's what binds us to each other. It's also why Spiritual power is manifested in threads..."

...

After some time spent teaching, Haalfrin learns that a powerful Reh (Spirit) is large enough to hold onto its own May (mind), despite not having a body.

In order to talk to a disembodied spirit, you can use the power of your own Reh to drag their mind and spirit together. Once their May and Reh are reunited, they'll regain the ability to think and talk.

"But be careful," Das warns Haalfrin. "Talking through the spirit is quite different than using your mouths. Using the mouth is just using air vibrations, but spirits talk by touching each other and sharing spirit threads. Be careful when doing this."

"What must I do?" Haalfrin asks.

"Just be sure to keep your emotions cool. What you feel will be felt by them. If you ever feel angry at them, they could get hurt. So... if there's any bad blood between you, then we need to leave right now."

To this, Haalfrin smiles. "It's all good! We have nothing to hide between us!"

"Very well. Follow me. I'll show you where they're at."

---------------------

They spend the next few hours trudging deeper and deeper into the earth. Despite the winding hallways and convoluted tunnels, Das seems to know where they're going.

As they go deeper into the Spirit Caverns, they place slowly becomes more and more fantastical looking.

At first, the place was barren rock, but the deeper in they go, the more and more brightly Haalfrin can see the stones glowing pale silver and shivering, as if possessed. As they get even deeper, the Spirits here are so packed in that Haalfrin can even see Spirit Threads with his naked eyes.

Finally, they stop at a seemingly random side tunnel. "They're here."

"Where? There's so many spirits here that I can't tell them apart."

"Haalfrin, you have spirit threads connecting you to your brothers. Even at this distance, you should be able to feel them."

Haalfrin closes his eyes for a second. It's a good thing his master taught him how to manipulate his own spirit. Tracing his fingers along his own spirit threads is one of the most simple things to learn when practicing spirit magic.

Within moments, Haalfrin reaches out to the side and makes a grabbing motion. His hand suddenly glows silver with spiritual light, and around a hundred wiggling, ethereal threads appear out of the air - already wrapped around his wrist.

On the other end of these threads are several voices, who are all taking turns waking up.

"Oh! I'm alive!" "Gruta! Is that you!?" "Where's my ale!" "Where're we going next, chief?!" "Why do I feel funny?" "Am I dead!? That arrow really killed me!?" "Wait, we're dead!?"

All of the voices come together in a confused chorus. All of them clamor about chaotically, yet Haalfrin says nothing.

"Oi, who's this holding onto us!?" one of the spirits cries out. "He feels powerful - like that death reaper lady. Is he a Death god sent to take us to hell!?" "No! I'm not ready to go! I'm not going!" "Shut it! We're robbers. It was only a matter of time for them to catch on and take us away."

"Wait... why is the scary man crying? He feels very happy and sad," one spirit notices numbly.

As Haalfrin's feelings build up like water behind a dam, all the spirits start to feel it. "H-haalfrin, is that you? Why can't I see you?" one spirit asks.

Haalfrin looks down at the ground and doesn't say anything. Only tears fall from his face.

Alas, the chaos in his heart and spirit is enough for his clan brothers to feel. In that moment, they all know intimately the longing he's had to be reunited with them - the desperate loneliness he's born for all these years.

Suddenly feeling somber, all the spirits quiet down, and they let themselves feel Haalfrin's spirit.

After a moment of silence, one of the spirits reaches out and touches Haalfrin's spirit. "Haalfrin. I know what you're going through. You don't have to worry about us."

Haalfrin frowns. "How can I not worry? You're all dead, and I'm not."

'And everything I know and care about is in this cave,' Haalfrin thinks.

Of course, it's hard to hide anything when talking spirit to spirit, so his comrades pick up on his hidden intentions too.

"Haalfrin!" the Kareen chief rebukes sternly, "I know you're thinking about suicide, but you need to stop! NOW!"

... Haalfrin is silent.

"You don't have to talk for me to know what you're thinking," the chief sighs. "When I picked you up and accepted you into the clan, you were a drunken mess. I thought you'd grown out of that already!? Why don't you just grow up and live your life already!?

When Haalfrin still doesn't respond, the old Kareen chief sighs, "Ugh... I'm not good at making people feel better... but listen up! When I found you, were a slobbering drunk crying about how his comrades abandoned him. I took you in and gave you a clan."

"Yes, I remember that story," Haalfrin smiles fondly.

He and the chief were both so drunk that the chief ended up dragging both of their sorry butts onto his ship, and they sailed away. Haalfrin woke up on their ship and only realized what kind of trouble he was in after the shore was completely out of sight.

Luckily, the chief took a liking to him and allowed him to join the crew.

"Yes," the old chief says, "After you lost your previous comrades, you were willing to move on and be with us. What kind of life would you have if you'd stubbornly clung to the past and closed your hearts off to us!? Haalfrin! If you waste away your life wallowing in what you've lost, then you'll look back at yourself in 10 years and regret what you're doing now!"

Of course, Haalfrin feels the severity of the chief's feelings through their entwined spirit threads. He intimately feels his old chief's concern for him. He also feels the chief's conviction behind his words.

Then, Haalfrin thinks of Kalastros. How many years did he waste with the old man because he was stubbornly clinging to a past which could never come back?

'That's right. There's people in the living world who need me right now. There's also many friends I haven't met yet,' Haalfrin thinks. In his mind is an image of himself with a woman at his side and surrounded by children.

'What if I meet someone I could love in the future, yet I pass her by because I'm moping about the past?'

Haalfrin remembers how he'd grown old the first time and spent decades alone - childless and without ever having a woman in his life. It was this sense of emptiness which had made his love for the clan reach the point of insane obsession.

The Kareen spirits all FEEL something in Haalfrin change, and something in them relaxes. They all feel Haalfrin's intention to leave then, so they all call out and bid farewell. "Bye, Haalfrin!" "Make sure to at least be stronger than the archmage when you die! I'd like to boast about you in Freyya's Basement!" "Well save you a drink... or something!"

Haalfrin breathes in heavily, and he suppresses the sobs threatening to explode out. "Good... bye... for now."

As he walks out of the stone chamber, he lifts up and waves his hands casually. "I'll be back eventually."

---------------------

Das was waiting for Haalfrin outside the room to give him privacy. When he sees Haalfrin come out, he can tell that something changed in him.

Das, being an unbelievably powerful spirit mage, takes one look at Haalfri and smiles. 'I see the Thread between us has grown stronger. Whatever it is that happened to him in there, his will to live on has grown stronger.'

This, of course, makes the Longevity god happy. Things will be so much less complicated if the lad isn't trying to kill himself all the time.

'With everything going so well for me,' he thinks, 'I wonder what Freyya will do to try messing it up.'

While Das is contemplating his opponents next move, he's startled out of his thought when Haalfrin taps him on his shoulder. "We're done here, right? Can you show me to the exit again?"

They spend the next few hours backtracking, and when they finally get there, Haalfrin takes one last look at Das. "Is there anything else for us to do?"

"Nope!" Das shakes his head. "Your master is looking for you, so I'll cut our trip short and take you back."

They both step back into the teleportation gate… and off they go!