Arthur rubbed his eyes. He was more than a little annoyed. General Bradley and Bryan, despite his repeated questionings, hadn't given him an actual answer. He still didn't know what he'd be using his latest skill for.

All he'd managed to get was that there was some sort of dangerous substance the Silver Rose group were experimenting with and he'd be cleaning up the residue of said experiments. At least that was what he'd inferred from the little they'd told him.

I could be wrong though. I still don't know what this illegal substance of theirs even is.

Thankfully, he was about to get some answers now, He'd been let out from his 'prison' room just over a half hour ago, and he was now seated across from Ayesha Murker. She'd accosted him as soon as he'd been allowed to leave, all but dragging him to her parked vehicle outside.

She'd been silent for most of the journey, saying only that she'd tell him everything that he wanted to know as soon as they got to a secure location.

Well, they were here now and the damn woman had yet to speak a word, instead whispering something into the ear of a middle-aged woman beside her. Annoyingly enough, she was using some sort of magic to obscure the sound, so Arthur's Perception attribute was practically useless.

And she's not speaking Korean or English so I can't even read her lips. He cleared his throat loudly, but if it put her off in any way, it didn't show on her face. Finally, after another two minutes had passed, the old woman seemed to be done with the conversation, and she left with a huff, muttering something under her breath that Arthur didn't quite get. At least he didn't think the woman was saying something about Donkey Kong, but you never knew with these eccentric aliens.

"So, Bradley didn't follow my advice did he?" Ayesha finally murmured, more to herself than an actual question.

She rubbed at her temples, swearing under her breath all the while.

"This is all going over your head, isn't it? At long last, she was looking at him and acknowledging his presence. Arthur nodded his head in agreement, though he was almost certain he knew what she'd been talking to the old woman about. Well, I think I've got the gist of it at least but there's no point guessing blindly when she'll just tell me.

"I've already told you about the Seer that came with me to Earth. She's my greatest adviser and the one behind every big decision I've ever made for the last ten years. She's the one that told me about the Ring of Revival fiasco that these merchants were trying to pull."

"I'm certain you are aware of how versatile magical affinities and skills are by now. There's more skills than there are grains of sand on the planet and Merchants are some of the worst of the bunch when it comes to variability. The bastards have got something for everything." Ayesha ranted.

She paused for breath. "Long story short, a merchant somewhere up the chain has a skill that lets them know what their clients will be inclined towards. Add on a little mental manipulation skill that makes said items more desirable to a purchaser, and you've got a potent skill combination."

Arthur was getting a little confused now. This wasn't the direction he'd expected the conversation to go down.

"That's not a problem really in the grand scheme of things. Just a little help to make the sale. In all honesty, the aliens aren't at fault here. No one is. Except for General Bradley, I guess. My Seer Madeline, using her skill saw that your chances of sudden death rose to a whopping 0.6% following the item reveal at that specific time and your chances of significant injury to a more substantial 24%. You can see why I wanted to withhold that item from you for a while, can't you."

Now this information was certainly shocking. I could've fucking died. HOW? "Are you messing with me here? What you're saying doesn't make any sense. How could seeing something early kill me."

Ayesha laughed at the look of incredulous horror on Arthur's face. This wasn't the strangest prediction Madeline's skill had ever come up with. Far from it actually and she was thankful that for once, they'd been able to figure out why it'd happened.

"It's not about the specific time being cursed or something, Arthur, more just the decisions that immediately followed its reveal. Our best guess is that the item's reveal and your subsequent realisations, whatever they may be, would throw you off enough that something would go drastically wrong during your Purify skill shard absorption."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"The chances are so infinitesimally small, system law doesn't even make it a requirement to place them in item descriptions, but things have gone to shit before and whatever state you'd have been in at that time would've raised the possibility for you. Thankfully, nothing happened but I'm sure you can understand why I didn't want to take that risk." She explained.

Well, that was a lot to digest. Absorbing skill shards wasn't risk-free and General Bradley, for whatever reason, had taken a gamble with his life. Sure, Ayesha may have withheld details from the man, but he hardly doubted she hadn't given the old man some form of explanation. And he just went and ignored it. Why? He could've just shown me the item afterwards and avoided the risk altogether. And damn, I didn't know I was so emotionally volatile. Fuck him and fuck the government. There's no point working with bastards that value my life so little.

"Just when I was starting to think the government wasn't filled with dicks as well," Arthur grumbled.

"It's kind of my fault actually. You got caught up between us. They've been wondering about Madeline's skills all this time and I guess the threat level was low enough for them to use you as a test subject." Ayesha explained.

"Isn't that just beautiful? Used as a lab rat right after he hired me. That's the American dream right there. Every soldier a disposable piece of trash and I'm not even a fucking soldier." Arthur grumbled angrily.

The sad thing was, he wasn't truly surprised. An easy way to put Ayesha's claim to the test must've been too great an opportunity to pass up for them. Being a powerful woman the American government had no idea how to deal with, it was understandable that Ayesha had stepped on a lot of toes already and this had been a great chance to test the limits of her abilities.

Understanding their intentions didn't mean he forgave them though.

"On to more important things," Ayesha began. "Resurrection, or at least the resurrection you're looking for, is truly impossible. Anyone that tells you otherwise is a liar." She grimaced, pinching at the bridge of her nose.

"This isn't a conversation I'd like to have with you, but a harsh truth now will save you so much heartbreak in the future. I have high hopes for you, a lot of people do, and I don't want to see your potential squandered chasing dead ends."

Arthur wasn't surprised by the woman's knowledge of his situation. If Bradley could figure it out, then surely she knew a hell of a lot more with her Seer access. Still, he couldn't quite accept the absolutes she was speaking in, a little ember of naïve stubbornness within him refusing to accept reality.

"How can you be so certain no ones come back before?" He asked. I did- technically. "Out of the billions of galaxies out there, with how vast the universe truly is, what's to say someone hasn't figured it out." Even to himself, he sounded like a child.

She looked at him with pity.

"I'm sorry Arthur. I really am. People have come back before, and that's why I'm so certain that it's impossible for your sister. I mean necromancers exist, there are thousands of different species of undead. People have come back."

"It's just that your sisters have been gone for too long. Souls degrade when their bodies die, Arthur. The weaker they are, the faster." She paused for a moment. "Well, degradation isn't exactly the word I'd use, but they change. I guess it's a transitioning process into whatever comes next, the unknown on the other side."

"And no, it doesn't matter how special her soul may have been," she said with a raised hand, forestalling the question on his lips "She hadn't even awoken her affinities yet. Her soul was gone the minute she died, Arthur, and it is impossible." She looked up at him as she said the word, really looked at him, eye to eye and repeated herself. "IMPOSSIBLE for someone to come back from that moment on."

Arthur sighed, raising his head to the ceiling as he sat there digesting her words. He didn't even know why he'd brought it up. I already knew the truth of it so why punish myself? Am I a masochist that just likes facing the pain of truth again and again? He was being too harsh on himself. He'd just wanted a little explanation, to finally put to rest the little ember of hope he'd somehow kept burning. And now, I can finally let it go out I guess.

"Thank you for that," he finally said. "You didn't have to speak about this. We hardly know each other and you're not responsible to deal with my emotional baggage. So thank you, truly."

Ayesha looked at him and smiled. "I really must've made a terrible first impression on you. It cost me nothing to address your concerns and worries. Doing nothing now, actually, would make me a terrible person. And hey, I'm your employer. We're not all like your government. I'm an opportunist, not a monster." She joked.

Arthur smiled, chuckling at her weak attempt at a joke.

"Anyway, let's talk business. This is what you're here for, isn't it." She said, sliding a familiar-looking box across the table towards him.

It was the dragon's core and the cure for his damaged soul. Even sealed as it was, he could still smell its powerful fragrance.

"Don't open it here," Ayesha quickly warned when she saw him reach out to it, startling him out of his trance. "The enchantments on the box are degrading faster than I expected." She explained. "Without them, it's like holding a beacon screaming out your name to the whole world. Except it's a trillion dollars instead. You'd do well to open it in a secure location and only when you're ready to use it." She advised.

Looking down at her wristwatch, she smiled.

"Don't worry. You won't have to wait too long. Remember, I'm close friends with a seer. I tend to know a thing or two."