Chapter 12: Soul Ties

The walls of her wound pulled toward each other, touched, and quickly sealed. In a second, not even a scar was left. The wound was wiped off her hand and not even an ounce of that sudden pain remained. Only a clean trail of flesh betrayed the existence of a previous wound across her bloodied palm. April lost her breath for a second and fluttered her eyelashes in complete disbelief.

With an almost inaudible whisper, she rasped:

"My blood… is purple?!"

"I think you mean, your wound just healed." Semacoar chuckled.

"What was that?" April rasped again.

"That…" Safatore said with a look of familiarity, taking April's small and delicate hand into his bigger, masculine one. "…is your healiomorphosis healing you."

"My healio-what?"

But the elf did not have time to get a response about that. After all, April was asking the wrong question. What she should have asked instead was:

"How did I get Saka's wound on my hand?"

Safatore grimaced. Instead of answering directly, he held Akka by the shoulders and gently pulled her to April.

April gave the brunette a strange expression. But the woman did nothing to her. She just brought her scepter close enough to touch the girl's forehead. A strange, blue light warmly shone from the sapphire clasped in its root-like core.

Sheathing his sword, Semacoar shoved Saka to April and the moment he staggered to a halt next to her, the blue light engulfed him too.

Akka raised her face slightly and closed her eyes.

Struck dumb by all of this, April watched as the surface under her onesie top shone through the cloth. Saka's chest did too… And in a minute, millions of thin strands of stark white light grew out of April's chest. The same thing came out of Saka's sturdy chest and the two bright bunches floated through the air. Like millions of worms made out of pure light, the strands wiggled to each other until they came and merged at their ends.

April's eyes widened while Saka's narrowed.

"Wha…"

Akka opened her startling blue eyes and observed the two elves before opening her cherry-red lips to say:

"Your souls are tied together."

April shot her eyes up the tall structure of Saka with a bewildered look while his gray eyes narrowed to slits and sharply turned to the side.

She wanted to scream in hysteria but for some reason, her voice was not enough. All she could do was gape and visibly tremble at the whitehead.

"Our souls are what..."

Safatore crossed his arms and adamantly stood quiet. Eon blinked at her while Semacoar averted his eyes and said through a rough cough:

"Ahem, you have soul ties!"

The blonde-bottomed raven head felt a shift in her weight.

But before she collapsed, Akka said:

"So in elven nature, since a few million years or so ago, an elf suddenly died at the age of twenty and they'd wake up with something we call an Aura, a sort of personal power that you need a vessel to wield properly. Normally it just happens on its own, separating all your Soul Nenets, these little strands of light that each represent a life…"

She paused for a moment and then continued in her soft, almost motherly voice.

"Saka accidentally killed you. We'll say it was an accident for now but because of his particular history, he attempted to… resurrect you via dear Safatore's request. Due to reasons unbeknownst to the rest of us, he couldn't do it the traditional way and had to take his own life. The tricky part is that neither of you is twenty yet. That means you haven't had your official, natural First Deaths."

She retracted the scepter. Its light dimmed and following this, the whole wooden staff shrunk and vanished into her palm. She sighed.

"After he woke up first, I did a test on the both of you and I found out your Soul Nenets were supposedly merged. It's odd to fathom how it happened but I can simply explain it as, you would have just died and that had been it. But because he attempted a resurrection, he forced an actual First Death and since you're both below the First Death age, you're both… hybrids and you were both dead, your souls were halved and since two halves make a whole, you became one. You're now bonded by the souls, the primary structure of a being. That wound transfered to you because of that particular bond."

The woman hung her head and exhaled in exhaustion from all her explaining.

"In other words, whatever happens to Saka happens to you, and vice versa. I can't explain this enough; you're one. Being. now."

April's jaw dropped. She was listening to the whole speech and it got more and more beguiling and mind boggling with every word.

"We're soul tied?!"

She frowned furiously at Saka and barked:

"What?!"

The boy twitched and somehow this sent a feeling of dread to April's core. He jerked his head at her. April flinched and shrunk under his cold gray gaze. But he didn't make a move on her.

The sudden silence was broken by Safatore who sighed exasperatedly and wiped a hand down his face before his usual equable expression masked him once more.

"Well. Now that we made it past that with no carnage, we shall prepare on how we shou…"

His words were cut short when Saka turned to the trunk of a nearby tree and drove a powerful punch into it. The bark and inner layers of the massive tree seemed to be made of dust when his gray arm tore through them with a violent crunch. The whole thing cracked and splintered before toppling in a forced and thundering crash right in front of April's eyes.

He wore a mournful and dejected look as he sighed and sucked in his lower lip, the left arm trembling tremendously.

"What the hell…"

* * * *

A few hours later, April sat on the gargantuan trunk of the fallen tree, mournfully staring at her two tails.

The rest of the elves were listening while Safatore explained to them the details of their return journey to Xander. There was no safe path across Linwood Forest, but the man had made it sound like there was a single exception. It was a path he called "precarious" and "susceptible to be mentally numbing."

"That sounds super safe… with all the other unknown horrors out there…"

April snorted.

Attracted by her laugh, Safatore's group craned their necks and looked up at her.

"What's funny?" Eon asked.

April shook her head and grinned.

"Nothing. Just contemplating on the fact that I have a roommate in my soul. That and I've never traveled before, let alone such great distances. I don't think I can make it to Xander in one piece."

The elves left their detailed map of the forest drawn on the dirt in a leafless patch that was cleared by Semacoar. He smirked.

"Elves have great endurance. We can travel further than that. Twenty-four kilometers is nothing… In any case, if you get tired, Saka will be there to carry you in his arms."

And while the rest of the group stifled their laughter, Semacoar received a murderous gaze from the ridiculously beautiful elf. He chuckled and somehow ignored the boy and walked off, taking Eon along with him.

"Where are they going?" April asked.

"Scouting."

Safatore effortlessly jumped up and landed gracefully atop the massive trunk, settling next to April and dangled one leg over the side, resting and locking his arms around his other knee which was bent against his left side. They sat this way in silence for a while gazing into…

"What are we staring at?"

Besides the serene scenery in front of them? Besides the massive and majestic trees towering all around them, blanketing the forest floor with a rusty sight of autumn leaves? Besides the sight of sun rays streaming down from the treetops and illuminating the dust particles floating in the air?

…Besides her?

April turned to look at Safatore and came to realize he had his full attention on her face.

The sunlight was directly hitting her like a spotlight, making her hair glow, and so too her skin. The onesie she was in might have been stained in purple and a few blotches of red lycan blood – but it did nothing to obscure her, should she say, aura?

The man was engrossed – or just caught in his thoughts, who knew?

"Uh, Safatore… do I have something on my face?"

Safatore's face brightened with a dimpled smile.

"You are beautiful."

April's heart palpitated.

"Uh… I… what?"

Safatore's smile widened.

"Sorry, I always say things as they are."

April's eyebrows shot up.

"Yeah? Okay, I see." She looked away to hide her burning cheeks.

Safatore smiled harder and then chuckled.

"You don't know how to take a compliment?"

"No. I do. But… that was unexpected."

She fiddled with her hair, subconsciously trying to make it look better, shifted to gain comfortable purchase on the wrinkly surface of the great tree's bark and pulled her zip up, leaving just an arc to reveal the white-purple-stained vest underneath. Breathing in the warm autumn air that she so relished, April sighed wistfully and watched as Akka tried to check Saka's reflexes but hopelessly gained no reactions from the boy.

"I have soul ties."

Safatore nodded.

"And it's with my youngest brother, to say the least. If we're being honest, I feel quite sorry for you."

He smiled crookedly.

April paled and coughed.

"What? Why?"

Safatore shrugged his broad shoulders.

"Meh. Just as he grew up, Sakature had the ability to take lives and then return them. It was an ability only he had but he lost it." Safatore whispered conspiratorially. "He was obsessed with killing. All of us here have met several ends by his hand. Now it's you. He's particularly sensitive about his arm and generally everything else about himself. You have to treat him like a delicate piece of gemstone or he turns wolverine and eats you up."

April stared at the man incredulously, her heart pounding.

"Then, by all means, please trade places with me."

This was not a joke, but the blonde took it as one and started laughing. April had no choice but to join him.

From the ground, Akka and Saka glanced up at them, turned back and immediately returned to testing Saka's reflexes, Akka blasting magic orbs at him which he had to dodge. Quite a few he caught in his gray left hand and mercilessly crushed to shimmering dust…

Safatore's expression suddenly filled with affection.

"But he is not that bad. He just follows his own rules and listens to no one most of the time. He has quite the temper to match that face. His wolverine nature also makes him an interesting elf, doesn't it?"

The man's odd ranting suddenly trailed off and as if seeing how bewildered April was getting, he smiled sheepishly.

"Akka didn't mention this but being bonded to this extent might lead to telepathic connections between the two of you. Try to have fun with it."

April blinked.

"Uh… okay?"

He nodded politely at her and turned away.

At that moment, Eon and Semacoar came back from where they had disappeared.

Safatore leapt off the tree trunk to meet them.

"Are we all set to go?"

April sat still on the tree trunk, her body stiff and heart still beating violently. What in the world was she supposed to do with this new information? Not only was she soul tied to a boy, but she was tied to a psychopath.