spirit blade

When I reach them, my fears subside. Natalia is alive. She's staring up at me, and she gives me a smile to confirm she's not going anywhere.

 "Bitch hit me pretty good," Natalia says. Her breathing is more shallow than normal, but she doesn't seem like she's on death's door. She's got a very nasty burn all over her right shoulder and arm, though. It burned right through her Spiritguard uniform. I can see her flesh is already blistering.

 "If that hit me head on, it'd have killed me…" she grunts with pain. I can't imagine what she's feeling right now. If I was burned like that, I'd probably be on the floor crying and screaming. Natalia is too tough for that, though. Even with half of her body badly seared, she's still just as strong as ever.

 "Did you get either of them?"

 "They ran," I say. "Before I could hit Merava, that other Spirit rescued her, and they ran off…"

 "Damn it," Natalia rolls onto her left side. "I got this burn for nothing."

 Portia steps over to offer some calming words. "Let's take her back to my place, as soon as possible," Portia says. "There's no telling where those Spirits went. They're probably heading upstairs right now and getting more Vitarine employees down here. We need to get out of here."

 "Yeah," I say. "We'll use the same way we got in. The secret passage Cabel showed us."

 "Let's hurry," Portia declares. "Being killed by a Spirit is one thing, but I'd rather not see us all get blown to pieces with a bunch of bullets."

 Kael and I offer to carry Natalia, but she declines ferociously. "Do you see burns on my legs?" she spits. "I can walk, idiots."

 She's keeping up a good pace, too. In fact, she's going so well that we decide to jog the distance. It's for the best; we don't know where the Vitarine employees are or how fast they're pursuing us. The quicker we get out of here, the better.

 None of us know where 'Portia's place' is, but she leads us there. It's not too far from where the secret tunnel emerges. It's late in the night, and this part of Pearl City seems relatively desolate. We run up the stairs to her apartment and let Natalia lie down on the couch.

 Portia's apartment is cramped, and very small. She's got some medicinal herbs, though, and we prepare something to wrap around Natalia's arm. She's gasping for something. I half expect her to ask for water, but she doesn't.

 "I need…a Vitarine elixir…" she moans. That figures. Natalia's a little bit addicted to those things, I noticed. Portia has one handy and she gives it to Natalia.

 "You're a life safer," Natalia laughs. It would seem she's warming up to Portia. In fact, I am too. She might have come on a little strong in the beginning, but now that we're done with that whole episode, she actually seems pretty reliable. She didn't betray us, and she even helped out in that battle. She could very well have died back there, and yet she fought alongside us. Maybe I didn't give her enough credit before.

 "We need to leave soon," Portia says. "The safest place is to go back to the hotel. That man that was with the Spirits…I recognized him. That was Bruce Huntsman. He's the Director of Vitarine, here. He saw me too. He'll probably lead a team to my apartment, before long. He knows I live here, it's on record."

 "Well then, let's go," Natalia says. She grabs a blanket to wrap around herself and hide the burns on her outfit and her arm. "We can't very well stay here."

 "Are you sure you don't want to rest?" Portia cries out. "You just ran a long distance, and you're still badly injured!"

 "I told you all!" she snaps. "I didn't burn my damn legs! Let's go!"

 We hurry out of the apartment and back to the hotel. Along the way, we don't see anyone suspicious around, so we're fairly certain that if anyone is chasing us, they have no idea where we went. In a city with dozens of hotels, there shouldn't be any way they know which one we went to. We'll be safe.

 When we arrive back at the hotel, we find Cabel is waiting there in the lounge area. I half expect him to demand his payment the moment we see him, but he instead gives us a smile.

 "I followed after that Vitarine employee," Cabel walks up to us and says in a deep whisper. "Knocked him out cold, and got my hands on this."

 Cabel withdraws a sword, and my eyes light up when I see what it is. He's holding the awakened Spirit's sword…!

 With that sword, we can kill that new Spirit. We have the means to get rid of Merava AND that other Spirit!

 "I guess I won't need to be taking Kavella's staff," Cabel gives us all a grin. "I'll take this sword as payment, gladly."

 "Cabel, you're a lifesaver, but we need that sword!" I plead. "That sword is the only thing that can kill that Spirit! I have this pendant," I say, revealing it. "Only someone who's wearing this pendant can kill that female Spirit. That sword you have, that Spirit Blade…it's the same thing. You need that to kill the Spirit. Please, Cabel, I'll do anything. I need that sword. We have to go after him, but we can't do a thing if we don't have that sword."

 Cabel thinks for a moment. "Well, I guess I have no choice, since you asked so nicely," Cabel says. He doesn't hand me the sword, though. He puts it back in his bag. He must've run up to his room earlier and collected it.

 "I'll go with you," he states. "I can't just give up the sword, now can I? But I'd be glad to go with you and kill that Spirit, if that's what needs to be done."

 I nod my head. "I'd appreciate it, Cabel," I laugh a little. I don't just get the Spirit Blade in this situation…I get a new ally! Of course I'll take that.

 "You're going to continue after those Spirits?" Portia asks. "I…I want to go too. I knew there was something going on with Vitarine, but I'll never be able to find out anything if I don't go with you. Plus…I can't very well go back to work tomorrow…please, Sigmund! Let me go with you too!"

 I look to Portia. She's got a sorrowful yet determined look in her eyes. I think about talking it over with the rest of the team. I shouldn't bring Portia along if it will bother Kael and the others.

 "Let her come, Sigmund," Kael says. "It'll be a temporary thing. Just until we find Merava again."

 I nod. "Well then, Portia…welcome to the team."

 "Yay!" she shouts. "I'm so excited!" Portia throws herself at me and gives me a hug. I see Kavella roll her eyes. I feel bad for Kavella, but we could really use an extra ally. We'll all have to deal with Portia for now, I guess.

 "I know where they're probably headed next, too!" Portia says. "At least, if I were a Spirit, I know where I'd go next…"

 "Where?" Kael asks. "I did some research too."

 "The Northern Mountain," she murmurs darkly. It's only a few days away from here, but you can only get there on foot. That's…"

 Kael interrupts her. "That's exactly what I thought," he says. "There's no record of Spirit Lords anywhere around Pearl City for forty miles at least…unless you go north. And if you go north, that's where the Spirit King is sealed."

 "Spirit King?" I question. I had no idea one of the KINGS of Spirits was sealed in our world! I thought they were all, you know…in the Spirit World.

 "One of the three Spirit Kings is sealed, yes," Kael states. "I knew that from school, but I only just recently discovered where. He's kept in the Northern Mountain. Apparently people were too frightened to let something like that be in a city, so they dragged it up to a remote place near a military garrison."

 "Those Spirits will definitely try to revive their King," Portia adds in. "If we go north, we might be able to stop them in time. Vitarine doesn't have anything up there, so they'll be at a disadvantage. Whitewind doesn't allow the company or any of their products into the town. It'll probably take them at least a day or two to get ready for the journey, anyway. They'll be focusing a lot of energy on searching Pearl City for us, I'm sure."

 "There's a town up there called Whitewind, isn't there?" Kael asks. "Nearby." Portia nods and Kael continues. "It's right at the front of a deep ravine that leads to the Northern Mountains. The Spirits will have to go through Whitewind in order to get up to the Spirit King. They can't just move through the town, they'd attract too much attention. Especially Andrakias. He doesn't look human at all."

 Andrakias. That must be the name of the other Spirit that was released. I'll have to commit that one to memory.

 "So we go north, toward Whitewind," Cabel states. I look over at Kavella and notice she's quiet. Natalia is quiet as well, but that's understandable. She's walked over to the couch in the lounge and she's lying on her side. I feel terrible for her.

 "I have a friend who lives about halfway between here and Whitewind," Cabel continues. "An Alchemist. He's something of an expert on Spirit hunting and killing. Perhaps we should stop in and speak with him along the way."

 I think for a moment. Can we afford to do something like that? It might cost us some time, but Portia brought up an excellent point. Those Spirits will be looking for us, undoubtedly. So will the rest of Vitarine. It could be days before they leave Pearl City. They have no idea we know about the Spirit King, also, so they might not be in any rush to get moving. We have another advantage as well. We can take carriages, while the Spirits have to walk the whole way. Even if they Spirits could take a carriage, there's no way Whitewind would let a Vitarine cart pull into town.

 "Alright," I declare. Suddenly, I feel like I'm taking charge. All of these people consider me their unofficial leader, I'm guessing. "We'll stop by the Alchemist's house and see what he has to say."

 Cabel bows his head respectfully. He looks happy that I made that decision.

 "Now Natalia is hurt, and we have a lot of work to do tomorrow," I look up and make eye contact with everyone in the group, with the exception of Natalia. She's looking away from all of us right now. "Let's get some rest. We'll all wake up at…let's make it five in the morning, and we'll hire a carriage to take us to your friend's house, Cabel. Everyone, we'll meet down here! Got it?"

 I am met with several nods and a disgruntled 'uh-huh' from Natalia. Portia goes up with Natalia and Kavella to share a room, while I take off alongside Kael and Cabel. "Hey, Cabel," I say as we're walking up to the room.

 "It was really cool of you, back there, to get the Spirit Blade from that guy."

 "Don't mention it," Cabel smiles. "When I saw that sword, I knew I couldn't resist taking it. It's the least I can do, though, to go with you and settle this whole matter. If I need to kill that Spirit to keep this sword, I'm happy to do it."

 "I'm sorry I was being mean to you about Portia," Kael adds his five cents. "I mean…she helped us out, didn't she? We wouldn't have gotten as far as we did without her. And we might not have succeeded, but we'll get her next time for sure."

 "Don't worry about it, Kael," I smile. That's what having a best friend is all about, isn't it? Being able to apologize to each other? Well…maybe not. But we have all that other friendy-stuff too.

 "Let's just focus on tomorrow."