Saeil Moonblade

Burning Soul - Part 2

“Have you still been having those dreams? The ones about the solar eclipse?”

Zelektra’s voice broke through Saeil’s thoughts as he sat there in her cottage, situated  in a remote location in Winterspring. He’d been stalling, making small talk with her. Though he had been anxious to get here to talk to her, now that he was he had been putting off getting to the point. He was afraid that once he explained to her, she’d tell him that she had no ideas, that there was nothing that could be done, that this was the end for him.

But then she had to go and bring up this subject. For the longest time, Saeil had been a man who made no real connections with anyone. He kept up walls and he did everything he could to avoid getting into any sort of relationship. In fact, all his sexual encounters were nothing more than one night stands, often purposely not even learning the first thing about the person before hopping into bed with them. He had done this for several reasons. Of course, there was the fact he didn’t have the greatest self esteem due to his childhood. That alone wouldn’t have stopped him for so long though as this had gone on for decades. What did stop him for so long were two things. The first being this demon business. The fact that he knew he would have a short life span for an elf was something that he felt warranted the walls he put up. It didn’t seem fair to him to let someone get attached knowing that one day he’d leave them behind.

And the other reason… it was what Zelly had just now brought up. Though he always figured there was no way it could be real, the ‘what if’ was enough for him try to resist letting it happen. And if he kept such a distance between him and anyone else then he couldn’t possibly find out it was real, right?  Of course, now all of that had gone out the window. He no longer kept those walls up, he’d let people in. Really in.

Shifting in his seat, he finally turned and looked at her, trying to play off his thoughts with a teasing smirk. “Oh, come on… there’s no way any of that is gonna really happen to me. Just sounds like some fucking fairytale.”

Arching a brow, she looked over at him pointedly, “You doubt my skills at divining?” Pausing a moment, she simply studied him intently enough that he suddenly felt rather uncomfortable. It was like she could see his thoughts so he knew she didn’t have those sort of abilities. “Tell me… have you met him yet?”

His eye twitching slightly, he sighed and avoided the subject altogether. “Look, there’s something else I’m here to talk about, okay? Argus. It’s doing something to me. Well, to it. To the abyssal. I’ve had to use stronger spells to keep it under control and my skin is still feeling hotter. It’s not gonna hold like this. I’m gonna have to do something to fix this before long. So what do I gotta do?”

Zelektra got up from where she was sitting and moved over to him, reaching to touch his arm then his forehead, her eyes closing. After several moments, she spoke, murmuring quietly. “Your mind is fine. You’ll be okay. You’re strong enough. But yes. Something needs to be done to fix this. You need to see someone I know. She can give you a more permanent solution than I can. Sia Shadowfury. That’s who you need to see. But you’re going to need to go to Argus to get to her.”

Sighing a bit, Saeil ran a hand through his hair before nodding, “Alright. How soon should I be going? Do I have time to take care of some things first?”

“Yes, yes, that’s fine. But you should go within the week. Don’t look like that though. You’ll be okay. I trust her. She can fix you.” She paused a moment and frowned deeply as she crouched down in front of where he sat on the chair. “Saeil… I-”

He cut her off, knowing what she was going to say. More than once over the years she’d apologized to him for what she’d done, wondering if it was really the right thing. “Don’t. You saved my life. The only way you could. It’s nothing to apologize for, okay? You said yourself I’ll be okay.” He sighed, running his hands over his face. “Hey, if it’s alright, I’m gonna take a nap here before I head back home and start getting things in order, okay?”

She nodded and left him to rest on the couch where he dreamed of facing demons on Argus. He’d much rather have been dreaming of solar eclipses.