A woman's voice broke the uncomfortable silence that permeated the office. Emma quickly faced her and started apologizing vehemently. Meanwhile, Emile put the grimoire back on the desk and turned to their guest.
She was a middle-aged woman, tall and wore a highly decorated white button down shirt with black pants. Her soft, light pink hair was pulled up into a bun. Her face was scrunched into a look of determination and her brown eyes exuded a sense of hostility.
"I'm sorry! We're sorry! He's sorry!" Emma continued to berate her.
The woman's eyebrow shot up in annoyance then she held her hand forward and white particles began to circulate around her palm. A silver earring manifested in her hand and she hooked it to her right ear.
"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" The woman asked, her hostile gaze shifting between Emile and Emma.
"We were lost in the white desert and went to the lighthouse!" Emma was panicking.
The woman's eyes opened in surprise.
"The white desert?" She asked, "You're from the surface?"
"Y—Yes?" Emma reaffirmed.
The woman looked between Emile and Emma and then released a heavy sigh. She walked past Emma and leisurely sat on the blue velvet couch.
"Come sit," she pointed to the lounge chairs opposite the glass table, "you must be exhausted roaming through those wastelands."
Emile and Emma cautiously sat across the woman.
"Why can we understand you now? What was that light in your hand?" Emma didn't hesitate to get comfortable.
The woman threw a confused expression at Emma.
"It's one of my relics?" She spoke slowly, "I apologize, but where exactly are you two from?"
Emma hesitated to answer and looked at Emile, signaling that it was his turn to speak. He had been thinking of the possibility of meeting another person for a while now and whether he should openly acknowledge that he and Emma were not from here; but after seeing the woman's display of magic and the spider's mysterious vanishing act he concluded coming from another world couldn't be that fantastical here.
"Earth—" Emile said bluntly, "we're from Earth."
"I've never heard of that kingdom before…" the woman contemplated, "is it above ground? Has a kingdom found somewhere habitable?"
Emile, now regretting his simplistic answer, took a deep breath and continued.
"No. I think it's another planet actually. We just kinda got lost and ended up here."
The woman's eyebrows shot up once again, this time shock was painted on her face. She quickly stood up and hustled to one of the towering bookshelves. She pressed a button on the side of the shelf and all of the books rotated around the center, the books at the top falling to the bottom.
She grabbed a rugged, black leather bound book and flipped through it. After finding the page she was searching for her brows scrunched together.
"Did the people on your planet have soul cores?" The woman asked.
"Soul core–" Emile repeated, the term sounding strangely familiar, "no they were just normal people I guess."
"Interdimensional travel has always been theorized to be possible, but–well, I can't believe it really is…" her voice trailed off as she began thinking about something else.
"Wait! Come here–" the woman said, now hustling to her desk where she picked up the black crystal ball, "put your hands on this."
Emma didn't hesitate and complied with the woman's request.
"What's your name by the way?" Emile asked, "I'm Emile. She's Emma."
The woman didn't take her eyes off of the black ball, but replied nonetheless.
"Everyone I know just calls me Warden, Warden May." She said.
Meanwhile, the black ball hadn't changed. Warden May started scratching her cheek in puzzlement. Then she had Emile put his hands on the ball and within moments the bottomless dark pit began producing a weak flicker, like a candle was lit.
"Now that is very interesting…" Warden May commented.
"What is?" Emile and Emma said in unison.
"Well Emile has a soul core, although a very faint one, and you do not."
Finally, Emile had an epiphany.
"I think I got it when I passed out after absorbing one of those spiders." Emile said as he nodded his head towards the door.
At this comment Warden May's eyes lit up. "Of course!" She said, "The absorption of a soul's essence forced your soul to create a space for it to be stored and since it didn't exist where you're from it happened here. So you just need to kill something." She pointed to Emma heartlessly.
"Before anyone does any killing–" Emile interrupted, "what is a soul core?"
"Oh my goodness, where are my manners today!" Warden May lit up at the opportunity to explain things.
"A Soul core primarily has two functions. First, it allows living beings to absorb a soul's essence from another slain creature while also producing it on its own. But even more important than that, a soul core is naturally endowed with its own unique gift and a gift is a means to manipulate reality. For example, our King's gift allows him to teleport himself along with other living things and objects anywhere within his sight. A soul core can also store relics. Relics are items and tools that our soul is able to manifest into reality. Your gift can also grant you its own relics, or other creatures souls can turn into relics upon absorption. We haven't really figured out why or how that happens yet, but it does."
Emile and Emma's eyes were empty. Their brains couldn't process what was happening to them. First the cougar, then a new world, a barren new world at that, and now magic and monsters. After a few minutes of digestion, Emma asked another question.
"So Emile has magical powers right now?"
"Well, I don't mean to nit-pick but it's important to learn it right. Technically magic, we call it the Language of Gods, is the ability to manipulate reality without your own soul essence. It's a means to use the essence found all around us and is therefore infinite. Emile just has a gift, a soul that is able to exert itself on reality which is finite."
"So how do I figure out what my gift is?" Emile finally asked the question that's been burning inside his head.
"Oh that's easy," Warden May commented, "just ask your soul."
It took a few seconds to figure out what Warden May was talking about. Putting his trust in her, Emile thought to himself "hey soul, what's my gift?"
[Gift: Breath of Life]