"So where are you off to today in your fine new duds?" he asked stressing fine new duds, while Jax wouldn't say anything about me using soul power, it didn't mean he wouldn't take a dig at me.
"Library" I answered.
I knew that my answer would not go down well. I had worked at the library for decades, it was the only place willing to employ me, and I earned a soul stone a month. The problem was that the head librarian was a sleazeball — who had been trying to get into my pants for a while. He took great pleasure in making my life difficult. I knew exactly what the bastard wanted, but I pretended to be ignorant. We had been playing this cat and mouse game for years. The sleazeball hinting that he would look after me, for some "favors" while I pretended not to understand. My white lotus act was enough to even make me gag.
"Shit Brae, you know you are playing with fire going to that place, one day that guy is going to run out of patience, and then what are you going to do?" Jax asked angrily.
"Jax, I know what I am doing," I said trying to calm him down, but Jax did have a valid point I knew that the cat and mouse game I was playing would come to an end soon.
"It's only for a couple more months, and I will have enough soul stones to buy that bow" I went on, it had always been my plan to buy a cheap bow, with a weapon I could join the mercenary guild. Purgatory like any world had its own dangers, the most common being demon spirit beasts, and mercenaries were paid to hunt them down as they posed a danger to outlying areas.
It was the main reason I accepted the job offer at the library, infant souls weren't allowed access to the books available in the library, only souls from soul condensation level were allowed. I had hoped that by working there I would have been allowed to read through the books, but sleazeball had caught me one day reading through one of the books and threw a fit, I was fined six months wages.
My whole plan at that time had been to learn how to make weapons, so I could materialize my own, to create something you had to understand the fundamentals of what you were drawing. When I was drawing my clothes last night, while I was sketching it out I had envisaged the stitching, the size, the buttons, buttonholes even the feel of the cloth, I had a good grasp of exactly what I wanted, so even though the stretch looked simple, each line I drew contained all these important details.
If I wanted to create a weapon, I needed to know the internal structure of not just the weapon that I wanted, but also the material used and how each small part interacted with each other. Without this basic understanding, I would just create something that looked like a bow but would be absolutely useless.
To say I wasn't worried about that bastard would be an understatement, I wasn't stupid and I knew that the game I was playing was dangerous, when and I knew it was when and not if that disgusting pig ran out of patience, I would be in an extremely dangerous situation. I didn't have the strength to fight him off, and I knew there was no one who would help me.
Even Jax would not be able to rescue me when things went south, if Jax was caught harming a soul, he would be forced to drink from the River of No Return, which would disintegrate his soul, which was the main reason I wouldn't allow Jax to accompany me when I worked at the library. I was gambling that I could keep that bastard at arm's length long enough for me to save up enough to purchase that bow. Right now the only thing that I had going for me was that he wanted me willing.
"Brae you don't need to do this" Jax said pleading with me.
"Jax, you want me to continue like this?" I said, indicating the apartment around me.
This was an old argument, that we had gone through many times before. There was another reason why I was willing to take the risk, only mercenaries had the chance to perform a meritorious deed, and if I could perform some sort of meritorious deed, I had the opportunity of demanding a suitable reward, oh I knew that I couldn't get my curse lifted, that would never happen, but I could demand that my soul be upgraded from infant level to soul condensing stage. The "powers that be" had the power to grant me that reward, at least then I would have a tiny fighting chance the next time I reincarnated, even though it was a tiny chance it was better than no chance.
Jax just sighed, then turned to look out of the window. He knew it was a losing argument and that I was too stubborn to change my mind.
"Just be careful Brae, summon me if you run into any problems" he threw over his shoulder.
"Hmmm," I said in agreement, but I would never summon him, I wouldn't risk his soul for my own safety, especially since I knew what I was doing was dangerous.
After saying goodbye, I left the apartment and walked to the library.