'That surely was a fulfilling meal', the broken soul thinks to itself, invisible to the other occupants of the dilapidated church.
'who knew that emotions could be so tasty? But now what to do, what to do... I should probably somehow take care of this girl. Seems like the world here is kind of dangerous for her at the moment, and I do want to see if i can protect her, and maybe see if i can't get some more experiences out of it.
For some reason, this world feels so muhc more vibrant than where I was before.
Oh right, I died. Well, can't say I haven't looked forward to it. This place is definitely better so far. It fills me with curiosity!'
Slowly, the soul approaches the girl, passing through the thick veil of fear surrounding and paralyzing her, to stir around in her insides until it finds what it was looking for.
As on instinct, those two souls connected, instantly forming an intimate bond, and the girl starts to feel the presence in this room for the first time.
She listens, as much as listening is possible to a voiceless being, because rather than speech reaching her ears, concepts start flowing into her psyche. Concepts of safety, of pity, of care. A being beyond her imagination has connected to her, and offers her strength – the strength to overcome hardships, to lessen pain, to always accompany her.
Still, she is currently overcome with fear, clouding her thoughts, and while she intended to answer to that being touching her most inner self, all she was able to do in her current state amounted to pushing all of that fear towards it.
And this being started consuming the fear, effectively removing it entirely from her being.
With her newfound awareness, she starts to look even deeper inward, sitting down properly in the process, and she closes her eyes.
Only this being fills her mind, only this connection is important. She knows this. She feels this. And before her inner eye, she could see it.
At first it was fuzzy, just a formless fog, pure white against the blackness of her eyelids, but slowly it starts to coalesce into an upside-down teardrop shape, the same shape she prayed to earlier. Could it be? Is there still some divinity left in this old temple? And it answered to her specifically?
While she is free of fear, her mind is still clouded by shock and confusion, so it comes to no one's surprise that the first thing she asked this being is a simple "Who are you?" - not spoken, of course, but rather directed down the metaphysical connection she can feel.
Surprisingly, the being answers, but not in a way she expected; rather than coherent words, what came as an answer came in the shape of an unknown language, of weird, unusual sounds.
She couldn't make sense of it, so she keeps listening, and again raw concepts start flowing her way.
That being... ate her fear. And it wishes for more, but it proposes a trade. It wishes to give her a part of it, to accompany her wherever she ends up going, to give her access to it's power, and in turn it wishes to be fed, for that part to be made stronger.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
She would love to learn more, she would love to ask it 'and what if I refuse?' - after all, this is an unknown being. For all she knew, this could be a demon, or worse. Looking at the corpse before her, she wonders why it spared her, if it were capable of simply killing people like that.
Her curiosity strictly demanded that she asks this question, though, but her earlier attempts made it clear that this being most likely does not understand her language. So communication by concepts it is then.
Carefully, she tries to think about the question she wants to ask – about what happens if she refuses it. About consequences if she were to deny it. About the fact that it is a question, not a statement.
In the end, she manages to mimick the raw concepts she'd been sent, and sends the three basic concepts she figured out for herself – denial, consequence and question.
And she hopes that this being will understand her attempt.
Much to her surprise, it answered, and it's answer is relatively simple to understand, too.
It's nothing.
Just the concept of nothing. And nothing more.
Does that mean that she would be free to go, that nothing more would happen to her? Well, that may not be true. Even if this being would let her go free, the world is still a dangerous place, especially after what happened to her village.
No. Even if she manages to get away unscathed, who is to say that she will find safety tomorrow? Or ever? A part of her longs for the promised power, demands it. It is the only way she could see herself surviving.
She looks ahead of herself again, on the corpse of the big thug, on the smaller one behind it, frozen in some kind of prayer pose, similar to herself just minutes before.
If the world is so dangerous that not even strong people like them are safe, how could she ever hope to find safety for herself?
To find happiness for herself?
Can she even find happiness after her whole life broke apart?
She accepts the offer.
And feels something heavy in her chest. Something powerful.
And with this pact done, the broken soul moves on, over to the praying bandit, while the girl slowly gets up and leaves on shaky legs, back where she came from, because there is nowhere else for her to go.
Similar to the girl, the bandit feels a connection forming. But instead of an offer, he receives a demand.
He's not sure what this demand entails, what this being wants, or even how to interpret the strange things coming through that connection. But he, above all else, wishes to survive.
A part of him tries to rationalize his decision; If this being wanted to, it could just end his puny existence right then and there, so any demand it could make would be the biggest mercy it could bestow.
And so, he too feels something heavy forming in his chest. But it's not powerful. Instead, it feels burdening, and he can feel it slowly eating at... something inside of himself. Maybe it was a trap after all? But just as feelings of doubt started to set in, they disappeared, flushed down into the core forming alongside his soul, along with any desire for malice and lust. Not that he noticed, of course. Hard to remember feelings if you are unable to feel them, after all.
And with this debatably nefarious deed done, the presence left the bandit's soul, looking for some place to lie down.
How a metaphysical being would lie down, well, that is an issue worth solving of course, but easy to answer as it feels drawn to a certain tear-shaped object sitting on an altar in a dilapidated church, exuding a weird sense of coziness.
'Yeah, I can get used to this, I think. It's surprisingly cozy, far cozier than anything I have experienced in my previous life.
Am I even alive right now? Well, I am definitely aware and thinking, and as some smart man might have said in the past: 'I think, therefore I am', and this is good enough for me at least.
I wonder if giving them parts of my soul was a wise choice. The language barrier definitely is an issue, already figured as much when I heard them talk earlier. Glad I was able to work around that. It's really surprising what kind of information you can transmit to other people if you aren't limited by vocal chords.
And seeing as this old church here has a cozy resting spot for me, I should maybe think about improving this – and about how to get myself more of these sweet, sweet emotions!
Feeling is so nice!'