It turns out, leaving one’s soul space is relatively easy, you just have to ‘focus on release’ and ‘contract your mana heart’ or whatever Tiela said before he had left. Basically, all you have to do is think about leaving really hard while squeezing your chest muscles tightly.

Kaelum wondered why Tiela didn’t just explain things in simple language, rather than pretending to be smart about everything. Alas, after about twenty minutes of effort, Kaelum was able to make his way out.

He came to while lying on the ground, looking like a dead fish with drool coming out of his mouth. He realized someone must have dragged him from the main footpath off to a nearby alley. His aching muscles told him they hadn't been too gentle about it either.

While brushing the dirt off his raggedy long-sleeved shirt, he was startled by a sudden voice right next to his ears 

'Hello?' asked a voice that sounded eerily familiar to Kaelum’s ears.

"Tiela?!" Said Kaelum aloud, visibly confused. Didn't I just leave her in my soul space? He thought.

'Calm down, I'm still in your soul space' said Tiela in response to his thoughts.

"You can hear my thoughts?!" Kaelum shouted, this time drawing eyes from the surrounding passerby.

'Yes, I can hear your thoughts, try not to be so loud' said Tiela, giving off the image of someone holding their ears.

Oh geez thought Kaelum. Not even my thoughts are private?

'It’s not like I want to hear your thoughts, besides this is only temporary.' started Tiela

'As soon as we find the princess we can be rid of each other.' said Tiela, finishing her thought.

Good thought Kaelum, the reality that another person was in his head hadn't really set in until he realized she could even hear him think. At least they'd only be stuck together for a day, two at most.

Tiela cleared her throat, then continued ‘Alright, first things first, we need to find the princess.’

Kaelum looked around upon hearing this. He hadn’t noticed it until now, but the crowd had thinned severely. I guess the princess and her procession have already finished their parade. Thought Kaelum. Since there was no longer any reason to hang around the main street, he started heading back to the market square.

‘Where are you going now?’ questioned Tiela.

Still not used to the voice speaking directly into his ear, he asked aloud “How do you even know I’m leaving?”

‘Pretty much everything you can sense, I can sense through you. Also, stop responding out loud, people are going to think you’re crazy.’ said Tiela in his head.

The people on the street did seem to be giving him a wide berth, though that could also have been a result of his raggedy clothing. They didn’t smell the best as he had come directly from the slum area behind the markets on his way to the main street. Though it’s not like he could change, he didn’t own any nicer clothing. Actually, he didn’t own any other clothing. 

Kaelum was an orphan, he had no memory of any family and had grown up scrounging food scraps from wherever he could find them; Usually, the trash in the alleyways of the market district had the best food, but he’d sometimes have to fight wild dogs for it. It was worth it for the deep-fried goodness though.

‘You didn’t answer my question, where are we going?’ asked Tiela again, ignoring the weird images she could sense through his thoughts.

Kaelum looked to the position of the sun in the sky before responding. Well, it’s almost 4 o’clock now and I haven’t eaten yet. First I’m gonna go back home and find something to eat, then we’ll figure out what to do about meeting the princess.

As he walked through the market area, he could feel Tiela’s excitement growing. Why she was so excited about walking through the market area, he had no idea. He decided to just ask her about it.

What are you so excited about? This Is just the market area. Thought Kaelum to Tiela.

'What-' As she was about to reply, Tiela realized the implications of what he had just said ‘Wait, you can feel my thoughts too?!’

Yeah, he responded with his thoughts. Not realizing what that implied. Discovering that this whole ‘shared thoughts’ thing was a two-way street made Tiela want to separate as soon as possible even more.

So thought Kaelum, why are you so excited about the market anyways?

‘I’m not excited about this market in particular’ She answered. ‘I’m excited to be in a market in the past!’

Is it really something to get excited about? Pondered Kaelum. It seems pretty normal to me.

‘That’s exactly why it’s exciting! I haven’t seen a normal marketplace in years...’ Tiela said despondently.

Why not? Questioned Kaelum.

‘Because…’ After a moment of hesitation, she decided to answer truthfully ‘After I… After my mother died I spent most of everyday training, I didn’t have any time or desire for something as simple as a shopping trip.’

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After saying this, she felt something through the link in their souls in response to her talking about her late mother. Not pity, no, she hated when people pitied her. But something came through the bond that felt comforting, similar to empathy or understanding. Usually, the words and feelings of others barely scratched the surface of her feelings, but this made her feel warm inside; Maybe it was because of the shared bond, but she could feel his feelings more intimately.

She hurriedly tried to continue before the boy could sense her own feelings. It was an embarrassing thing, having a person know just how warm they made you feel inside. She felt she could almost die for a second time, only this time of embarrassment.

‘Then, in the few years before I died, there were wars happening constantly. I hadn’t had any time to leave the front lines, and even if I did find the time, all the markets had a lack of supplies due to the wars.’

‘After that, the Storm Hole wreaked havoc everywhere and there was hardly a moment I spent away from fighting at The Rim’

The Storm Hole? The Rim? What’re those? Wondered Kaelum.

‘The Storm Hole is… nothing you need to worry about.’ She said, ‘Now that I have come back to the past, I will make sure it never happens.’

Although slightly miffed that the mysterious princess of the future wouldn’t share any explicit details about the end of the world with him, Kaelum didn’t press. He felt she wouldn’t elaborate even if he asked again. Besides, she just told him about her mother. He could feel the pain while she was talking about her mother and it reminded him of his own parents or lack thereof. He felt great empathy for her. He had never met his parents, but he couldn’t imagine the pain of having parents, only to lose them. He counted himself lucky in that regard.

The thoughts between them turned to a comfortable silence. As long as she wasn’t pretending to be a know it all, Kaelum thought he’d be able to get along with her just fine. The agreeable silence between them was soon shattered, Tiela had chosen that moment to say something in a tone that grated on Kaelum’s ears.

‘Where are we? What are we doing here?’ Asked Tiela.

The slums, I already told you. I'm going to where I live to get something to eat, he replied as if she was stupid. His tone is a little sharper than he had intended.

That incensed her but she held back on a seething comment and asked incredulously 'You live here? In the slums?'

The tone she used was well deserved, this place didn’t look like it was supposed to be inhabited by humans. Their surroundings looked like a refugee camp after a war, a sight that Tiela had seen far too many times. All of the buildings around them were dilapidated, between the ruined buildings were makeshift tents and tattered lean-tos lining all of the alleyways.

Not to mention the residents of the slums, all of them looked like they had just crawled out of a sewer and they all had dangerous looks in their eyes as they looked over Kaelum. Seeing that he was just as poor as they were, they soon ignored him. Tiela thanked the gods Kaelum’s dulled sense of smell or she feared the smell would be worse than the sight.

Yeah, this is where I live. Kaelum absentmindedly replied to her with his thoughts.

They soon arrived at his "home" which was far too generous usage of the word. It looked to be some sort of old shop, the kind with glassless windows that had wooden shutters. Only, the shutters had all rotted away by this point and the windows just acted as large holes in the walls, letting the wind blow through.

As Kaelum walked in, Tiela noted signs of water coming from the ceiling down to the walls. There were no decorations on the walls. Only a single room with a single bed in one of the corners. The only other objects aside from the bed were a cupboard and a small bag next to the bed.

‘This is where you live? There are holes in the walls and even the ceiling leaks!’ She said in his mind.

Yeah. He responds. For somebody who pretends to be smart, she sure asks a lot of stupid questions. That thought was meant to be private.

Tiela heard his thought but didn’t deign to respond.

After rifling about in one of the cupboards, he managed to get a chunk of stale looking dark bread and a grimy looking cup. Filling the cup with water of questionable quality from a small alcove in the ground, Kaelum started eating.

Tiela tried to ignore the thought of what he was eating and drinking until he finished, but she couldn’t completely block it out. She could taste the slightly spoiled bread on her own tongue, and she could feel the not too fresh water slide down her throat. If she didn’t pity that he lived like this, she’d want to kill him for making her experience it as well.

After he had finished eating, Tiela, in an attempt to forget the sensations of that “meal” and bring them back on track said ‘Okay, so now that you have eaten, we need to find out where the princess is staying. I have a couple of ideas based on my memories, but we-’

Oh, I already know where she’s staying Thought Kaelum, interrupting Tiela.

‘You know where she is staying? How? Even I don’t remember where she is staying.’ She asked skeptically.

I heard she’s staying on the second floor of Lord Marcus’s eastern guesthouse. Supposedly, a bunch of knights-in-training are gonna try to find her and impress her. I hope we don't run into them. Thought Kaelum to Tiela. Apparently, they want to become her personal knight or something. I dunno how they’re gonna do that, though.

‘That… That did happen quite a lot when I was touring…’ She thought ruefully.

So, do you have any idea how we can sneak past the guards? I can get into the manor’s grounds, but I don’t know anything about the guest houses or those knight squads. Said Kaelum with his inner voice, he was getting better at speaking inside of his own head. It didn't even feel too unnatural to him anymore.

Ignoring the fact that he knew how to and had likely snuck into a city lord’s manor before, she responded with a tone of certainty ‘I will have the second floor to myself. One squad of knights will take shifts patrolling the grounds, likely Saitus’s Order, they hate staying put for too long. The second squad, most likely the White Order, will be staying on and around the first floor.’ 

Hearing her speak so confidently, he was almost convinced she was a competent person… Almost. But he wasn’t fooled so easily.

Though Tiela didn’t hear that thought, she felt the condescension in it. Deciding not to be as civil as she usually presented herself as, she said to Kaelum ‘Although I can tell you where they are, I doubt you could get there without dying. There are two squads trained to catch the best of assassins, let alone some street rat with no training.’

Seemingly taking no offence at being called a street rat. Kaelum took that as a challenge and scoffed, Of course I can get in. I’ve been breaking into Marcus’s mansion since I was a kid. I’ll even do it in record time just for you. He bragged in his mind, deciding to prove to this princess just how capable he really is.

Choking back her reply that he was still a kid. Tiela chose to see if he really could break into the city lord’s manor. One should know that to even be eligible to become the lord of a city, a candidate had to wield the power of a knight of the third tier. That’s not even counting how fierce the competition to become a lord is. Therefore, one had to be a powerhouse among third tiers to actually become a legitimate city lord.

Although she couldn’t remember too much, Tiela did recall hearing rumours that the lord of Arum had reached the fourth tier, and Kaelum here was suggesting that breaking into that powerful of a knight’s manor was no big deal. Even insinuating that he does it frequently!

Agreeing that the best time to break in would be after sunset, Kaelum and Tiela readied themselves for the challenge of raiding the home of a powerful lord. A home defended by two squads of knights, a ton of city guards, and their target; The princess of Kassivir.