Early the next morning Jax and I left the apartment, our first stop was the library, Dnise was again manning the help desk. Walking up to her, I gave her the prepared speech that Jax and I had come up with. That I had been offered an opportunity to move to a village, that it was a better place to live and I would earn more. Most of the staff at the library knew of my current situation, so none of them were suspicious, after chatting with some of the librarians, I bid everyone farewell, and left the library for the final time.
The whole time that I was in the library, I couldn't help feeling nervous, I was so close to escaping that I keep on expecting someone to stop me. After leaving the library Jax and I went to the bank, where I withdrew all my savings, altogether I have over two hundred and sixty soul stones.
I figured that one hundred extra soul stones would be enough to bribe Cinderstorm to arrange for those two books to be delivered to us, which left me with ten soul stones. I decided to spoil myself and Jax, while ten soul stones wasn't enough to buy a proper meal, it was more than enough for a couple of meat buns each. Stopping at a small restaurant Jax and I sat down in a quiet corner and I ordered us both three meat buns each, as well as some tea.
For the first time in fifteen hundred years, I got to taste soul food. I don't know if it was because it was something that I had desired for so long, that I had built up quite a hype about it my mind, but I was quite disappointed with the taste of both the tea and the meat buns. They were really quite bland, and the tiny amount of soul power that they contained just didn't justify the expense of the soul stones. I would have gained three or four times more power absorbing the soul power in the soul stones that the meal cost than I did from eating the soul food.
Seeing the disappointed look on my face, Jax burst out laughing.
"See I told you, soul food is really nothing to write home about," Jax said.
"Yeah, but I thought you were just consoling me," I said glumly.
After our meal, we returned to the apartment, I spent the next couple of hours going through my stuff and tossing out all my personal stuff. After cleaning up the place, and doing a final check, I removed my ward from the door. Standing there I was suddenly filled with a sense of sadness, this small apartment had been my home for over a thousand years, it felt strange that I was leaving it.
Giving the apartment one last look, I turned and walked away. It was time to cut all ties with Purgatory, I was not going to allow anything to hold me back I swore softly to myself. Saying farewell to the landlord, Jax and I hired a carriage to take us out of town to the nearest village, this was the last step in our deception, we wanted people to see us leaving Soul City in broad daylight, to reinforce the story that I had moved away.
It took about an hour to reach the small village just outside Purgatory, paying the driver Jax and I got off. After making sure that the driver couldn't see us anymore, we left the small village, according to Jax, the tear in the veil between Purgatory and the Lower Bounds was quite a distance, and it would take us about six hours to reach.
Jax had transformed to his dragon form and was lying across my shoulders, giving me directions, I was too nervous to make small talk. Every sound made me jump, the closer we got to the tear in the veil the more nervous I became. Thank the Light as a soul I couldn't sweat, or else I would have been drenched by now.
Jax tried to comfort me, but my nerves were strung too tight, it just felt too easy to me. I kept on expecting someone to catch me. I continuously scanned the area around me, but no matter how hard I listened I couldn't hear anything.
[Brae relax, there is no one around]
[Shit Jax, doesn't it feel like this is too easy to you?]
I could hear Jax laughing softly in my mind.
[Brae, besides us who else would be mad enough to escape from Purgatory?]
I had to admit Jax had a point, no other soul would even dream of doing what we were about to do, even though Jax crossed through to the Lower Bounds a couple of times, it was only to gamble, he never planned to stay there.
Finally, I arrived at the place where Jax said the tear was. I couldn't see anything different, but Jax reassured me that the tear was there. I wasn't sure how he could see it and I couldn't. Must be something only guardian angels could sense, I thought.
[Brae, this is your final chance to change your mind, once you step through the tear there is no going back, are you absolutely one hundred percent sure you want to do this?] Jax asked seriously.
Now that we were finally here, and that I was only a step away from leaving Purgatory forever, I did feel hesitant. This was it, if I took this final step there was no going back, either I became an immortal or my soul would be destroyed.
I had faced death ninety-nine times before but never had I felt such dread as what I was feeling right now. It's different, when you are fighting to survive, you not thinking about dying you just scratch and claw, doing anything to hold onto your life, it is only that last second when you lose that fight, and you know that you are about to die, that you are filled with absolute helplessness, and often anger and fear, but this dread that I was feeling was a whole new experience for me, but then I had never willing signed my own death warrant, not like I was about to do stepping through this tear.
My hands and knees were shaking, looking back I could see some faint lights in the far distance, it must be Soul City, I thought, looking at those lights, everything that I had gone through flashed through my mind.
No going back was also a path to death, just a bit slower, I thought at least here I have a slim chance. Grabbing every bit of courage that I possessed, I straightened my back, stood up tall, and then filled with determination I stepped through the tear in the veil and left Purgatory forever.