"Doctor, the readings shifted again! I-I think he's waking up!"
"What? Go get his partner, he'll want to be here! Go!"
Isaac's vision flickered, he could see but everything was blurry.
Once the figure of a woman left the room, the figure of a man came closer to Isaac, snickering as his face came closer.
"Hehe, the Kaiser will reward me for finding you."
Isaac twitched.
"Oh? Don't grow agitated, it is not a bad thing. Unlike all the other gods, the Kaiser is a man turned god. He will accept you into his flock, just wait a bit longer young lamb, I will have some people fetch you eventually.
The doctor injected something into Isaac and he felt his vision darken once more.
When he awoke, his vision stabilized and Laimir filled his vision.
"You did good rookie, that response was why you were allowed to skip the line. Don't worry, we already ran some tests on the arm, it has a connection to the Path of Soul and a minor Path called Magi."
Isaac looked down, his right arm was replaced by a metal construct, it was sleek and glowed green between the cracks.
"Nice," he uttered.
Laimir smiled, but Isaac wasn't fast enough to see it, "You'll be discharged in a week or two, your attending doctor had some health issues but the nurses are more than enough to help you recover, they've treated us agents more times than I can count. Oh and, it's been two months since you collapsed. The Bureau let me know you can rest for as long as you need, they want you to be ready before they send us out on missions."
Isaac was still disoriented, but he got the gist of what Laimir said.
He lifted his new arm and made a thumbs up.
"O.K."
...
Cleaning itself in a birdbath attached to a window, a raven shook off the extra moisture before flying high up into the sky.
'I've learned much about this world, although there wasn't much on the small Paths, I now know the Three main ones. This growth in knowledge was enough for me to reach fullness of the soul! I now have a supple amount of soul energy, I don't even need to sleep until I run out of it!'
He dived and spun multiple times in excitement.
'What's next stage is hardship, but people also call it refinement. I just have to go through hardship and my soul will condense and my soul energy will enter another level, giving me high perception and a mind as sharp as glass!'
Cain was appreciative he could find a path that worked on the soul, he would be extremely happy if he could bring these powers outside the world he was stuck in, If he could have even more power to his soul it would make his mist all the more powerful, it might even trump another core!
'I should head back to Vincent, it's unfortunate he still hasn't invested in a birdbath for me. The smell coming off me was horrendous. I know now a dirty bird is the worst bird, plus it makes flying harder.' Cain complained about the body of a flying vertebrate while he flew back home.
Knock Knock!
'Open up Vincent, I'm hungry!'
The window slid up but no one was on the other side.
'Oh? Did he learn how to do telekinesis, isn't that supposed to be an advanced skill? He must've collapsed from exhaustion trying it! But...where is he?'
Cain was used to Vincent trying to show off, once before he tried telekinesis but had a brain aneurism trying to.
Hopping through the window, Cain jumped to the floor, leisurely walking around the room.
'He's not in the office? Did he go hide so I didn't see him in his sorry state? Lucky me, he forgot to close the door.'
Using his beak as leverage, Cain opened the door and entered the unexplored area of Vincent's home.
There was a long hallway, Cain's feet being too short to make it to the end anytime soon so he flew.
'Another door, is this Vincent's room?'
The door was once again not closed, Cain used some force and was able to gain entry.
Walking into the room, Cain saw a body on the floor.
'So he did faint.'
Hopping on Vincent, the raven walked up his back, its irises enlarging.
Vincent lay there, a puddle of blood forming below his neck. Vincent's face was in shock, and his eyes long lost light.
'Shit.' Cain immediately took flight, but it was too late.
"Get the Raven!"
Multiple nets came out of nowhere as men and women with stitching all over their bodies captured the bird, its wings getting trapped in the net.
'Shit shit shit. I got too complacent!'
"Priest, the spell worked, we countered the bad luck and succeeded!" One of the sewn men kneeled in excitement as the door creaked open.
A middle-aged man came forward, their mouth sewn shut, he held within his hand an ominous voodoo doll with stitches littering it messily. The so-called priest looked at Cain before turning and lifting his hand.
The sewn cultists nodded and Cain was put in a dark bag.
...
When Cain came too, he was in a bird cage surrounded by darkness. A lone girl sat in a chair near the cage, she was a small child without stitching on her like the ones who took Cain.
Noticing Cain was awake, she smiled and inched her chair closer to admire him.
"You're up! Father said to watch you! He said you're a smart birdie!"
The raven stared at the girl, its eyes revealing red within them. The flash of color caused the girl to back away in fright.
"Ow!" She fell to the floor and looked at the bird, realizing it did nothing and simply scared her.
Pouting, she stood up angrily and shook the cage in a fit.
"Mean birdie!"
The raven cawed but did nothing to stop her.
'I can't make my situation worse. I can't make my situation worse. I can't make my situation worse...'
Using all his thoughts, Cain focused on not acting out against the mere child. He endured as his cage shook and he bashed against the walls.
After he woke up, Cain had some ideas seeing where he was, but he needed time to study his surroundings if he was going to get any chance of escape.
From the darkness, a hood figure in poorly sewn clothes came into the light.
"Darla, your father said not to damage or scare the bird. We need it in perfect condition for the ritual in a month's time, it needs to be fed and taken care of in the meantime."
The girl stopped shaking the cage and apologized, "I'm sorry counselor, the birdie scared me, I wanted revenge..."
Walking closer, the counselor got on one knee, "Darla, you know the teachings of god, repeat what god says when you let your emotions control you."
The girl responded, "God says that the body taints the soul, that the desires and emotions in the body try and wriggle their way into the soul. God says to become pure we must seal our body to protect our soul, by sealing our body we can seal the tainted parts and transcend to join with god."
The counselor patted her head, "Good good! You remember! Don't worry, your father will oversee your sealing, it will happen a month from now as well. Don't worry, you will soon overcome the tainted mortal flesh." Standing up, the counselor entered the darkness and left Cain and Darla to their own devices.
'What type of cult is this? By sealing do they mean sewing their flesh?!' The raven turned its head.
The girl turned to Cain, her head lowered.
"Sorry birdie, I didn't mean to act out..."
...
A day passed, and Cain was fed bird feed with a strange dew mixed in. When he ate it, he felt his soul ache.
'So it affects my soul, it is refining me in a sense, but this helps me too, I just have to make sure I don't eat too much.'
The food had soul-rending dew in it.
Soul Rending dew is a dew produced on poisonous grass that kills the soul. The cult was feeding Cain such a thing so his soul would dissipate and they could freely use the body of the raven without the soul trying anything funny.
They mostly did this because the cult produced soul-rending dew. The dew was the cult's main source of income.
Soul-rending dew was versatile, being used as a poison in high amounts and a supplement for the Path of the Soul in low amounts. Cain's food was spiked with a moderate amount, so he ate only enough to fill himself and didn't eat the rest.
The cult didn't seem to care if Cain was onto their ploy or not, they would bring more feed whenever he ate it all but otherwise, they did nothing to him.
All the while, the girl Darla would talk to Cain.