Chapter 17 - The Spirit's Relation.

Lloyd let out a small chuckle at Seth's theory, yet he shook his head.

"That's what we thought at first, but we quickly realised that it probably wasn't the case"

Seth, of course, was confused by this.

"Why not? It's the obvious conclusion"

"How much do you know of the Divine?"

Seth thought for a second and realised how little he knew.

"About as much as an average person, I guess. Oh well maybe a little more?"

He glanced at Silva that was still silently staring next to him, Lloyd hadn't mentioned him yet, so he didn't either.

"Well to put it simply their modus operandi is that they don't interfere unnecessarily, to be more specific it's not that they can't interfere but that they really don't care to do so with an exception"

"Their 'mistakes?'" Seth said though slightly uncertain.

"As I thought, you knew about that; Yes, the missions they give to us humans are basically always to correct one of their 'mistakes', that's why outside of those instances they will basically never do anything to affect the world, thus it would make no sense for one of them to wantonly hand out these contradictory blessings and mess with everything"

"Then who?"

"Or what, like I said we have no idea really, before we knew it, they had amassed enough power to take our entire kingdom in one night and now here I am."

Lloyd turned silent and stared at Seth expectantly.

Seth thought for a few minutes to try process the discussion they just had, he felt that asking about the invasion was pointless since it didn't seem like the king knew anymore, so he decided to take up another topic.

"Uh, I might be a special case in this situation but how are you even alive? Aren't you human?"

The king closed his eyes, he clearly expected the question however before he could reply another voice did so for him.

("He's not alive, but he is still human, his soul at least") Silva finally butted in after his long period of silent staring.

"I was wondering when you'd speak little spirit"

A slight smile crossed Lloyd's face.

"What? What do you mean? And he can see you?"

("Any human that has spirit sense can see me in this form")

"Wait you mean-?!" A look of surprise grew in the two glowing balls of light resting in his sockets.

("Yes, my little prince here was also given a mission by the divine and made a contract with little old me") Another voice hopped into the conversation; Seth was confused for a moment, but he realised above Lloyd out of nowhere a large light blue serpent that floated gracefully in the air with its sight firmly locked on to Silva.

("You finally decided to show yourself, [Ruler of Heaven], with me sending you messages for a good while don't you think that's rather rude?") Silva said with a slightly annoyed voice.

("Oh, dear Stormie', I had to let little prince take the spotlight for a while or I'd just overshadow him!") The large blue serpent said with voice that sounded like that of an older housewife that loved chatting.

("Stop calling me that! At least call me 'Silva' here") The capybara almost shouted, clearly ticked off.

("Whatever you want dear, then you shall call me 'Azula' after all I've taken a liking to that name being in this form for so long") The blue giant said nonchalantly, dismissing the small spirit's anger.

'Is that thing a snake? No, it's a dragon, right? The Asian kind' Seth stood staring at the massive blue serpent with his jaw dropped to the floor.

'So, I get a capybara and he gets a dragon, how is this fair?'

"You know that spirit, Azula?" Lloyd said with slight surprise.

("Yes, we have somewhat of a relationship, there was a period where we were both contacted at the same time in the past and our partners worked together a lot, that and we share similar elements, so we come across each other in the spirit world often, at least we did.") Azula said with a slight look of reminiscence in her eyes.

Lloyd was slightly intrigued by their past, he knew Azula was a fairly powerful spirit so the same should be said for the little one by the skeletons side.

("That was until a while ago, I thought you'd somehow gotten yourself killed while contracting somehow, that or you'd fallen") The capybara had a slight relief in his voice when he spoke.

"Fallen? Spirits can fall? They can die?" The terms threw Seth through a loop

("Spirits are living beings, just another form so yes we can die, as for falling…") Silva signalled Azula with his eyes for her to take over the explanation.

She sighed before continuing.

("A fallen spirit is one that has abandoned their spirit form and became a solely corporeal being, to do this they must first make a contract with someone and then they must obtain the body of the contractor and make it their own") Azula continued.

"How do they do that?" The skeleton said though he could almost feel his bones chattering because he felt he knew the answer.

"They eat them" Azula said with a grimace on her face, the reply also made Seth and even Lloyd give a look of despairing surprise.

"You didn't know either?" Seth said looking at Lloyd to which he shook his head.

("Of course, he didn't, such a case is exceedingly rare thus we have no reason to tell anyone about it and give them needless worries, at least that's the general consensus but as you can see, Silva dear here doesn't hold the same opinion") Azula said with a sigh.

("Of course, I don't, and you shouldn't either!") Silva said with a glare towards Azula then he turned towards Seth.

("The last time we were both here our mission was hunting some fallen")

'Fallen? Plural? I thought they were rare' Seth thought while waiting for Silva to continue.

("I disagree with the idea that our partners don't need to know about them, they're beyond dangerous, spirits are able to handle the essence of the world to a complex level but they're restricted by their non-physical form and only the ones chosen by the contactor are given a chance to gain a physical body albeit temporarily, however if for some reason they managed to consume their contractor they become beings that wish to consume everything in their path, embodiments of the destruction, no matter what they cannot be allowed to exist") The serious look in the small spirits eyes kept the room silenced as he continued.

("Back then a spirit somehow obtained a body of their own, and then they led other spirits that came to put it down on the same path causing a long road of complete obliteration, that's why both Azula and I were contracted at the same time, to put a stop to them, this is why I believe the more people know the more we can do to prevent such a situation again!")

Silence quickly filled the room as the two humans let everything sink in deeply, they hoped they wouldn't encounter one of these 'fallen' but they engraved the name deep in their hearts (And core).

("Ahh anyway this depressing atmosphere isn't to my taste, bony child you wanted to know why little prince 'alive' right is?") Azula changed the topic to get rid of the stale situation in the room.

"Ah, yeah that's right though Silva said he wasn't 'alive'…" Seth replied trying to re-adjust to the change in conversation.

'Is Lloyd fine with being called 'little prince'?... Oh, that's the look of 'I've given up'' Seth took a glance at Lloyds face and felt a sense of defeat each time he was called that by Azula

("And Silva is correct") Azula nodded, she let Lloyd take it from there"

"I did die, in the invasion my body was littered with countless wounds and on the verge of death I made a decision, I asked Azula to split my soul from my body and merge it with hers allowing me to live in this state."

"You can do that?!"

"With great difficulty" Lloyd said with a grave tone.

("Well, it was certainly hard to do but it's fine in the end, isn't it?") The dragon said calmly but Silva suddenly butted in once more.

("So that's why you never returned to the spirit world, you aren't a pure spirit anymore so you can no longer enter it… Well whatever choices you make have nothing to do with me") he said after finally realising the situation.

"Anyway- "Lloyd spoke to not let the conversation de-rail once again.

"There was a reason I did it, and that's to not let the Reverie royal family die!"

"But what can you do in that state?" Seth asked questioningly.

"Hehe, not me, you!" The king said with a massive grin on his face.

"Oh, I see, me" Seth casually said before he processed the words.

"Wait, ME?!"