The little trip through the night was just as pleasant as Kayden had bene expecting. Chilly air, light breeze, glimmering stars in the sky, and of course, the most perfect companion he could have ever asked for. If Kayden hadn’t been occasionally holding back some coughs, he would have said he was in paradise.

Actually, never mind. He was in at least the lowest of the seven heavens. Kayden was pretty certain even the heavens weren’t as perfect as they were purported to be.

“Incredible,” Mierin said after about half an hour of walking, when they had reached the next target location. Another vacuum of spiritual energy had presented itself. Another hole in the tapestry of twisting light in Kayden’s spiritual vision. “You were right, Kayden. I’m getting back more and more of myself.”

“Excellent,” Kayden said with a wide smile. “What do you remember now?”

Mierin frowned a little. “I regained a certain recollection about… travelling, I think..” She closed her eyes. “I’m on a lonely road, with no one for company and nothing in sight save a dark forest.”

“That sounds like the area where your body was should have been.”

“It feels as though I’m not alone, however. Like something is coming. Or waiting for me, rather.” She reopened her bright eyes. “Hopefully, more memories will enlighten the rest of the sequence of events.”

“Here’s to hoping.”

They continued journeying from spot to spot. Kayden noted the locations of the hollows they stopped at. They were never equidistant from each other. Sometimes, they walked for over an hour before they reached the next one, but at others, they barely needed ten minutes before the next location of no spiritual energy appeared.

One commonality, however, was the fact they were never within the village itself. Every little area Kayden and Mierin ended up halting in was always well outside Alderhelm.

“Are you certain you’re feeling alright?” Mierin asked after their fifth stop. “We can pause for tonight. I—”

“Are you joking?” He was tempted to take her hands and give them a shake, but sadly, his fingers would just pass through hers. “I’m having a great time. So unless you’re getting weary of my company, I’d like to keep going.”

Mierin pulled herself a little back with minute surprise. His exuberance was enough to convince her that he wasn’t lying. Which he wasn’t. Kayden did indeed feel perfectly alright to keep going. Though, he had to admit—to himself, at least—that it was getting annoying to hold back his coughs.

They continued travelling in the same way. More pockets of spiritual vacuums with tiny threads of spiritual energy appeared along their travels. More location where Mierin regained more and more of herself.

All the while, Kayden was as rapt an audience as possible whenever she narrated her findings. Though, those weren’t often. She was keeping a lot to herself.

But Kayden listened intently whenever she revealed anything.

Mierin was indeed a powerful cultivator, just as Kayden had been expecting. She had come to the village of Alderhelm to inspect its mysteries. There had been shady activities going on for a while then, and the leaders of the village had invited a cultivator—and paid handsomely for the service rendered, of course—to get to the bottom of the nasty business in the village.

That cultivator had been Mierin.

Details about what exact kind of cultivator Mierin had been were sparse. She didn’t recall everything just yet. But suffice it to say, she had been ambushed before she could even reach Alderhelm. She couldn’t say anything concrete about what had occurred afterwards, but Kayden suspected her dead body had been kidnapped to make sure no one raised a hullaballoo.

“I can’t believe they managed to kill you,” Kayden said. “Were you sick like me too? To be sent somewhere like this?”

“No,” Mierin said. “I don’t think so. I don’t believe there was another cultivator at Alderhelm either, so they must have… killed me by some other means.”

The longer they had continued their travels, the more she had sounded sure of herself and her findings. She was serious, now. Not just a playful ghost amusing herself by scaring others. This was the spirit of a powerful cultivator out looking for the mystery of her death.

Kayden wasn’t certain how he felt about the change. But this was important to her. How would he have felt if he was slowly piecing together his identity and finding himself again?

No, whatever Kayden felt, he had to stick by Mierin.

“Other means.” Kayden’s hand automatically went to the pocket where he kept the little sample of white powder he had stolen from the room near the well. “I wonder if they used the hallucinogen on you.”

“How could they have?” Mierin asked. “I never even reached the village in the first place.”

“Hmm. That is a good question. Maybe we’ll find out when we reach the actual culprits. Let’s keep going.”

They did so. Mierin continued growing more and more sure of herself. Her face turned marginally more resolute, her eyes turning just a bit brighter. She appeared to be empowering herself with every little discovery she made.

“Almost there, I believe,” she said. Even her voice had changed a bit. Well, not the voice, so much as the tone. There was a gravity to it, a reflection of the true power she had so casually displayed for all the while Kayden had known her. This was the real Mierin. “The next one should be the last.”

Kayden nodded tightly. “It shouldn’t be too far, either. You still don’t remember how exactly you died, do you?”

The question made her face turn grave. “I have high hopes for the last one.”

“So do I.”

They reached it before long. This one was located west of the village, nearly the opposite direction of the farms. Kayden stood by as Mierin began to glow again, interacting with the minute threads of spiritual energy between the twisted tapestry and the voids.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She had been taciturn about whatever memories she was regaining through the process. Even now, when they were nearly at the end, all Kayden actually knew was just a confirmation of suspicions that had taken root at the back of his mind. That she had been a cultivator seeking to solve the same mystery he was.

Did he know her favourite colour? Could he tell what food she liked? Perhaps she had hobbies like gardening or calligraphy. Was there an ancient story she had grown up listening to during her formative years?

What were her hopes and dreams and wishes? What were her secret fears?

Kayden knew none of that. Of course, tracking down one void of spiritual energy after another didn’t leave a lot of time to afford enlightening conversations. Maybe Mierin was waiting until this little trek of theirs was done before shedding her quietude and returning to her talkative self.

Or maybe I’m being clingily paranoid.

The glow began to decrease. It appeared Mierin was finally done.

When she returned to him, she appeared a lot more… real. Kayden wasn’t sure how else to describe the sight. Some of her transparency had turned opaque, her face looking as though it had a mask of real skin the shade of porcelain instead of a construct of light.

There were no more stars glimmering in her hair, though its darkness was still deeper than the night surrounding than them. Even her eyes appeared more solid. A pupil of deep, burnished gold stared at Kayden with no small amount of grimness.

Kayden did his best not to feel a little dismayed at the loss of the capricious glint in Mierin’s eyes. This was normal. What she had discovered couldn’t have been pleasant.

“This is probably a silly question,” Kayden said. “But are you alright?”

“You are correct,” Mierin said. “That is a silly question. However, the question’s intent has never been to enquire if someone is actually alright or not. It’s merely a conversation-starter between the interested party and the subject. An expression of concern, if you will.” She smiled a little, if briefly. “Which is something I appreciate.”

Kayden snorted. “Well, that’s a roundabout way of avoiding an answer.”

“I am not alright, Kayden, which you could tell, judging by the look on your face.”

“You know, you keep reading me like an open book, yet you’re always so… opaque to me. I can tell how you’re feeling, but I can never tell why.”

“That’s because you keep wondering why about every little thing.” She crossed her arms. “You’re not supposed to be doing that.”

“I can’t help my curiosity!”

Mierin sighed. At least Kayden could tell she was holding back another little smile that attempted to wiggle onto her face.

He didn’t say anything further. Pushing her wouldn’t be right. If she wanted to express herself, if she wished to reveal any of what she had learned to him in greater detail, then she would. He really didn’t need to know every little specificty his unscrupulous mind kept alighting on.

But there was one thing he couldn’t help but blurt out.

“I just wish I could make you happier,” Kayden said.

She looked up from where she had been staring at the ground. His words had made her expression turn even more morose. “I… I don’t think anyone can help with this.”

He swallowed. “You never know. Maybe I’ve got some esoteric knowledge about whatever it is that’s bothering you tucked away in some corner of my mind.” He smiled at her hopefully. “We’ll never know until all the cards are laid out on the table, right?”

Even as he said it, he mentally cursed himself. So much for not pushing, idiot.

Apparently, it was worse than Kayden had thought. Mierin’s expression simply broke.

“I don’t think there’s anyone—” She sucked in a wet breath, on the verge of a sob. “There’s nothing that can stop death.” The sob that had been threatening to burst out finally exited as a jerky little laugh, tinged with hysteria. “As I said, there’s no such thing as immortality, Kayden. It never mattered that I’d been some sort of powerful cultivator. I died. Just like any regular old mortal.”

Kayden felt as though a crab was crushing his heart between his claws. He couldn’t even say anything at first. What was there to say to someone who had seen themselves die, who had rediscovered the brutality of death in vivid detail?

But while his words wouldn’t come out, his coughs certainly did. Kayden kept count, as usual. It went past a minute easily. Then continued. He clutched his chest, trying to get a grip on himself. Not now. Not now. This was Mierin’s time for grief. Why was his cursed affliction trying to kill him now of all times?

A powerful touch anchored him. Kayden’s coughs vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. He was left gasping for breath, still clutching his chest tightly and wishing he had something to lean against.

“That has to be the worst one I’ve seen yet,” Mierin said. Her voice was brittle. Scared. Concerned a lot more for him than he had been for her and her growing despondence all night.

Alright, stop comparing stupid stuff.

Kayden eventually managed to stand back up to his full height, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He tried to smile despite the clawing sensation within his ribcage. “Maybe you were right. Immortality really is a myth, just as I’d been about to prove.”

She shook her head. “Don’t joke about such things. If I hadn’t been here…”

“Your hand.” He noted the point where she was touching him on his arm. It almost felt solid. Not just the brush of a light breeze, but an actual pressure. “It’s almost… real.”

Mierin grimaced. “For now.”

“For now?”

“It’s… this is what I’ve been trying to say, Kayden. I’m losing myself.”

“What? You feel like you’re becoming more real! Isn’t that the opposite?”

“No.” She shook her head, her despair clinging to her like blood from an open wound. “You don’t understand. This… realness, is me returning to myself. But the closer I get to it, the closer I get to reaching the point where I’m no longer bound to this world. Do you understand now?”

Mierin looked up despairingly at him, like she was almost begging him to comprehend, and Kayden finally did, his eyes widening a little as it sank in. Mierin wasn’t simply sad at rediscovering just how she had died.

She was regretting that she would have to leave him.

Something twisted in his Kayden’s heart. A stake had been driven through his chest, and now it began to twist.

He considered mentally slapping himself like he had been doing since he had met Mierin. What had he expected with a ghost of all things? Mierin was a transitory spirit, for crying out loud. When had he fallen into this fantasy that their time together was anything but limited?

“When?” Kayden managed to ask.

Mierin looked down at herself, raising her hands a little to get a better view. “Soon. You’re correct. I’m becoming more… real. Once the reality sets in fully…”

Reality. Kayden stared at her hands too, noting how corporeal they looked now. Almost corporeal. There was still something otherworldly about them. He hadn’t felt her actual touch a moment ago. Just the echo of it. A haunting premonition of her true hand. “That doesn’t tell me how long.”

She looked like she was biting the inside of her cheeks. “I can’t say what the exact time will be. Maybe half a day. A little longer, or a little shorter. We’ll begin to see it. Feel it.”

“Not much time at all, then,” he said, unable to pull himself out of the melancholy that had fallen over him.

“No, not much time at all.”

They were both silent for a while. Mierin said nothing, only staring at the village in the distance. A village as dark as the night they were embroiled in.

“You know, I kept wanting to ask you questions,” Kayden said. Mierin turned back to him, her eyes noting how his tone had grown a little surer. “I kept wanting to know so much. But there’s probably nowhere near enough time for that. So instead, let me ask you this—what’s the one thing you want before… you know. Just one thing.”

She gazed into his eyes. Kayden was petrified, locked into her look. Two glimmering, depthless pools of faint light that he would have gladly thrown himself into if possible.

“I…” She sounded uncertain for a brief moment before her voice steadied. Her expression grew certain. “I want to finish what we started. What you started. What brought us together I want to get to the bottom of all that’s going on in Alderhelm..”

Slowly, Kayden smiled. “It’s a good thing I’ve figured out just how we can do that.”