Ai didn’t say anything as Jack re-joined them. She didn’t know what to say.

As they left, the men were beginning to reassemble themselves, the hard fire in their eyes extinguished. As they walked away, leaving the villagers to treat their own, Ai was conflicted.

The goblin had a point. No matter how strongly she had protested, she didn’t feel sorry for what Jack had done. In fact, she felt the opposite.

Jack could have hacked that girls head off, and Ai wasn't sure she would've felt any different. And that disturbed her. Before she had always cared. Before, she had hesitated about even killing a Fonq. Now she set up traps for animals to kill and eat each other. She had killed a monster.

She didn’t see innocence anymore, she saw the potential for corruption or pain. Maybe defending the villagers had been part of that.

“What’re you brooding about?” The goblin dropped back to ask her. Jack walked ahead with a bounce in his step.

“Is killing humans and killing monsters really the same?” Ai spoke quietly, watching Jack.

“Humans, monsters, they’re all just animals. Neither should really guilty for killing to survive. It goes against the whole point of life. Surviving long enough to have children, no matter the cost. I’ll tell you what though.” The goblin turned to face her, eyes unusually serious. “Humans are the only animals I know that kill for fun.”

A shiver ran down Ais spine, but the goblin had already turned away. It was right. It always seemed to be right.

Still, Ai felt more suffocated the more she discovered about the world. Wasn’t there any innocence? Any kindness just for the sake of kindness?

Even though the goblin and Jack were the closest thing she had to family, they both had their own agenda. And they were all travelling together for safety, really. Neither of them planned on sticking around. The goblin would disappear once it had its soul bond, and Jack planned on shunning anything similar to intelligent life.

Ai was going to find out where she came from, but the task suddenly seemed far bigger and far more daunting. Travelling with others had made her forget what it was like to be alone. To never be able to count on anything but instincts.

Ai curled her hands into fists, forgetting her claws until they dug into her palms. With a controlled exhale, she uncurled them.

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Jack walked on, oblivious. The goblin watched her carefully out the corner of its eye.

“I want a pet.” Ai announced.

“A pet?” The goblin frowned, lost in the abrupt change in topic.

“Yes, something loyal.”

“Well, I guess we can check out the marked once we get to the Free City.”

Ai nodded.

“Are you sure? A pet is a lot of responsibility, and we don’t have any food, let alone money.”

“I’ll get something that hunts.”

“…ok then.” The goblin knew better than to argue with her tone.

They walked a little way in silence before Ai spoke again.

“How close are we? Do you know?”

“Perhaps four days if we keep up this pace.” The goblin replied.

“What’re you two chatting about?” Jack slid in between them, he looked different. Happier.

Ai didn’t voice how much it unnerved her that all he had to do was break a few humans bones to get a real grin out of him.

“We’re getting close to the Free City.” Ai told him.

“The city of dreams and wonder huh.” Jack grinned, showing off every one of his pointed teeth.

“What do we actually know about this place?” Ai looked to the goblin as their resident historian.

“Lots of gems and magic.” It shrugged.

Both Ai and Jack looked at the goblin pointedly for an expanded explanation. It gave a very pointed sigh.

“I’ve heard that the most exotic jewellery comes from there. If a man truly loves his beloved, he gets a promise ring from the free city. Even if it takes him ten life times to earn the money to afford one. And the Free City is one of the few places that has a magicians guild that will take in a magician and train them regardless of social standing. Other cities will only train those from the rich houses, or slave magicians. That means the Free City has the most trained magicians of any city. It makes them both a force to be reckoned with and the leading front on magical research.”

“Hold on. I thought it was spirit people use. Not magic.” Ai frowned.

“What you call it depends where you come from. Only the Spirit People call it spirit. Their whole culture is built around it.”

“But when I hunt animals I offer them to the spirits and parts disappear.”

“Well, perhaps there are spirits. Or maybe there’s only one, getting fat off the offerings of the Spirit People. They’re the only ones who do that. You ought not to do any of that stuff in front of the humans unless you want them to know where you came from.”

“So can anyone use magic if they’re trained?” Jack piped in.

“I don’t know. I’m not an endless book of information you know.” The goblin snapped then strode ahead of them, uncharacteristically angry.

Ai and Jack shared a look, before shrugging.

“The village elder told me I couldn’t use magic. That a lot of people can’t.” Ai told Jack.

“I’d take anything that old bitch said with a pinch of salt.” Jack raised his eyebrows before jogging up to the goblin.

Ai hung back, letting the two of them talk.

Once again, she was struck with the feeling of being on the outside looking in.

No! She was not going to let herself fall into this spiral of pity and self-doubt. She would change Jacks mind, and who knew how long it would take the goblin to find someone to soul bond with. It was the fussiest creature Ai had ever met. Especially about food.

She was still going to get a pet though.