"Guizhong...." Morax's eyes widened in recognition.
Now he remembered the gentle woman, who desired nothing more than a peaceful world where humans could thrive, who only wanted to spend their afternoon together looking at the Glaze Lilies, who fought with him and Cloud Retainer in cooking competitions, who often quarrelled with the same Cloud Retainer about their inventions.
"How are you here?" he asked with a shaky voice. He wasn't crying, but if someone who could see souls was near him, he could see how his sorrow was bigger than any other he had ever seen.
"I got a bit of help" Guizhong wiped her tears, but they didn't stop falling. "A kind soul who wanted nothing but to help a friend".
"....." Morax didn't reply, too emotional to articulate words.
They heard the sound of wings flapping, but they were too occupied looking at each other's eyes to care.
"What's wrong here? This one heard that the Conqueror of Demons was asking for help to-" Cloud Retainer saw Guizhong's crying face, and unlike Morax, recognized her instantly. She carefully put a stone-faced Shenhe on the ground and assumed her human form. "Guizhong...".
"Hmmm" Guizhong finally looked at her, still wiping her tears. "I'm back".
They hugged each other, crying their hearts out.
Meanwhile, Shenhe looked at the scene in confusion. She didn't know who this woman was, but her master seemed to miss her a lot.
But who she did recognize was the kid trying to escape from a pillar that kept him on the ground.
She wasn't able to feel emotions due to the ribbon her master used to calm her, but something inside told her that this was her chance to make him pay.
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Dammit, that reunion was emotional and all that, but also awkward as hell.
I couldn't see people crying, but I was able to see their souls, so it was even more raw.
Other people saw the actions their emotions caused. If you see someone cry, you know they are sad and you may empathize with them, feeling sad yourself, but you will have no idea of how sad they were.
But I could. I didn't see tears, but their own souls twisting and trembling in sadness and sorrow. And while Guizhong was emotional and sad, Morax's soul was suffocating me in sadness.
I was relieved he wasn't angry at first, but I had trouble breathing after sensing his sorrow, and it lasted for a while.
So for the first time, I felt happy when I saw the big bird coming. Looks like I will need to give Xiao a very good present, he didn't abandon me after all, he went to ask for reinforcements.
But now I had the little monster looking at me with a deadpan face, but poking me in the forehead with her finger. At least I think it was her deadpan face, is all I remember her doing, except when she went on that psychotic rampage.
"Stop, you unhinged sadist, and help me" I whispered at her. Now the Boss was too stunned to react, but if someone pokes him he may explode.
"Why" she said in a plain voice.
"If you help me I will remove your ribbons for a while. Deal?" I honestly thought she was the lesser evil here.
"No, my master told me that I shouldn't remove them" this menace replied, but her soul sparked with red and quickly went back to normal. "Okay, I will help".
I didn't care about why, I only wanted to get out of here.
"Okay, sure just help me" I pleaded.
She tried to lift the pillar but she couldn't based on her grunt, leaving her astonished. There was almost nothing she couldn't lift after all.
"Dumbass, this is the pillar from Rex Lapis there is no way you can lift it" I scolded her in a low voice.
"What can I do then?" she asked me in her same plain voice, not minding the insult.
"Dig a bit by one of my sides, that way I can have some space" I said the obvious. I feel like I didn't call anyone stupid for a while, maybe I should start doing it again.
She did just that. Her fingers penetrated the ground as if it were a pudding, a scratchy sound revealing that the ground was not opposing any resistance, leaving me wide-eyed. If Diluc can beat me, Shenhe could pulverize me. Only Bennet can beat her, but again, he can beat anybody.
"Thank you" I whispered to Shenhe before running. I didn't even know where was I going, or if I would collide with something, but running away was my last chance.
"Master, he is running away" I heard Shenhe's voice behind me, and I knew why she suddenly agreed to help me. It was all for this moment.
I looked back and saw how Senhe's soul was trembling under the bindings. Her soul was not strong enough to break free, but she could implant some ideas in her 'calm self'.
Anyway, I now had a shaking dragon, a useless Goddess, and a crying bird focused on me.
"I give up" I said, returning to my position under the pillar and burying myself again. I even moved my arms as if I was trying to escape.
"Kenshin" the dragon spoke. He wasn't angry, just deeply shocked and in sorrow. "I will ask you a few questions, and I don't want anything but an honest answer. Do you understand my words?"
"Yes" I sighed.
"Since when were you planning this?" he asked in a deceptively calm voice.
"Seven years ago. We were sealing the Remnants when I found her. After experiencing her memories I realized that she knew you, so I impulsively sealed her. I kept that jade slip for myself, and I took her with me to Inazuma. After talking during the following years, I started treating her as a friend. I wanted to give her back her body so she could live with all of you again" I confessed everything related to what he asked me.
"Do you regret sealing her?".
"Not now, but I realized that it was an incredibly impulsive act I had no right of making. I panicked and sealed her before she could 'disappear', and I understand that it was not my choice to make" I answered honestly again.
"Why did you hide it from me?"
"Because I don't understand you. I know some of your hobbies and all that, but I still don't know how would you react to me having the soul of your dead friend or maybe something more on me. That lack of understanding left me wondering what would you do when you knew it, you could make me release her, letting her go to the place she should be, or something like that. I feared losing Guizhong" I admitted. Maybe I could have talked more with him to understand him better.
"Did you put your interests before mine or Guizhongs?"
"I put mine before yours, but never before Guizhongs" I replied. "Honestly, I thought I knew better than you in this. You are, with all my respect, jaded and tired. I honestly didn't see the problem. A friend who was dead now is alive, and everyone is happy. I feared that in your exhausted state, you could make a downright bad decision, so in that sense, I put my wishes before yours. But never Guizhong's. I consider her as a friend, I would never do something she didn't want to. She complained at first, but after a while, she understood my position without any coercion from me. She wanted to see you all again, that's why I went forward with this".
"Who else knew about this?"
I stood silent for a while. I didn't want to implicate more people who went along with my idea, but I chose to trust Morax's character.
"Yae Miko from Inazuma knew. She spoke directly with Guizhong sometimes, she even told us that the Shogun was nothing but a puppet, so we could go down that path. I think Barbatos realized why we went to Mondstadt, but I think he didn't even know that the one I wanted to craft a body for was Guizhong. And the guy in Mondstadt who helped me craft the body for Guizhong, obviously. There are also some people I asked around for directions, but they never knew how or why I did it".
If he goes on a rampage looking for Yae, all I can do is apologize.
"Why didn't you take the path that youkai suggested you".
"Because I didn't want Guizhong to live in a mechanical puppet. I obviously don't know how much the Shogun feels, but I wanted Guizhong to live with her own body, or at least one made of flesh and blood" I answered once again honestly.
"Why did you go to Mondstadt?"
"It was near Liyue, and I knew Barbatos. I am powerless facing almost anything, the only thing I can deal with are the souls of dead things, so I hoped that knowing someone powerful was going to help me. I didn't choose Mondstadt for a specific reason, I wanted to try Sumeru first, but I thought of checking Mondstadt quickly first" and I'm glad I did. Our solution was quite close.
"Who helped you in Mondstadt?"
"A lot of people, but if you are asking for the one who helped me with my plan, he is called Albedo" I honestly don't think I'm getting Albedo into trouble, and Barbatos is also there. But most of all, I trust Morax to be able to differentiate between the culprit and the accomplices.
"Who is he? A human can't craft the body of a God".
"He is not human, he is a homunculus, whatever that is". I know a homunculus is an artificial human, but I don't know who created him. "And he didn't craft the body, Guizhong did".
"How did you do it?"
"He can craft bodies, but as you said he couldn't craft a body strong enough to sustain her soul, so I devised a plan. He would give us the material, I would put Guizhong's soul in that material, and they would mold themselves to adopt the form of Guizhong's body. I think that the soul remembers the body, so Guizhong's soul would automatically form a body extremely similar if not the same as she once had".
"Did you think of what could have happened in the chance of failure?"
"No, I didn't. What I thought was about the chances themselves. But just like I could put her soul into the body, I could extract it again, so we could try again without a problem. The ties between a body and its soul would form with time, so if I was quick I could seal her again".
"Can you seal her soul now?"
"I don't know. Her soul is still tired, even after a few weeks. I needed to take drastic measures or she wouldn't have been able to mould the body. And while she is a Goddess, her soul isn't as strong as yours. After these weeks, however, her soul is now firmly tied to her body, so it's very difficult for me. Considering both sides, all I can say is that I don't know".
"If her soul was weaker, would you be able to?"
"Yes" I have no doubt of that.
"Can you seal other things?"
"Of course".
"I meant if you can seal the souls of other living beings"
"Of course"
The rest of the people looking at us while holding their breaths let out surprised noises.
"You can seal for example a bird?"
"Yes, with no problem"
"And a boar?"
"Yes, with no problem"
"And a human?"
Everybody looked nervously at me.
"Probably yes. And I will be able to say yes very soon".
"What do you think would happen if you decide to seal a living's human soul?"
"I think I will break the bond between the soul and the body. I don't know if the body will die the soul will rot, or even if I will be able to put the soul in its place back again. I have no interest in finding out, I have not tried sealing the soul of anything alive, and I don't intend to"
"What do you mean when you said that you needed to take drastic measures or Guizhong would have failed?"
"Her soul was not strong enough to mold the body. her soul would have tried out before accomplishing it, so I had to inject my 'soul energy' into her soul to give her energy" I admitted.
This was the only thing Guizhong didn't know, but under Morax's stare, I had no option.
"What are you saying Kenshin?" it was Guizhong who looked at me with trembling eyes. "You didn't tell me this".
"What do you mean 'soul power'?" Morax asked as if he didn't hear Guizhong's mutterings, but I knew better.
"I realized that I can put a bit of my soul inside others, well it's not exactly that. I think every single soul is made of some kind of transparent energy that is there when we are born. Later this 'neutral' substance changed according to the owner, that's why everyone's soul is different. What I can do is transform my soul into this neutral substance and 'give' it to other souls. That's what I did with Guizhong".
"What happened to your soul after that?".
"It decreased in size, but it was back to normal after a few days" I quickly added, sensing Guizhong's dismay.
"So the process of forming a body was safe" Morax affirmed this rather than asking about it.
"Yes, it was perfectly safe" I nodded, aware of what he was trying to ask.
"Then how did you lose your sight?"
"What?" Cloud Retainer said with a surprised look.
Shenhe didn't say anything, but her eyes widened a bit.
"It had nothing to do with the process" I admitted. "It is my fault alone"
"Kenshin-" Guizhong started, but Morax interrupted her. I couldn't sense anything about his feelings, everything was hidden by sorrow.
"How did you lose your sight?" he repeated.
"The process Albedo used to craft the body was only a part, the whole thing is called the 'Art of Khemia'" I felt like I was repeating myself at this point, but there was nothing I could do. I couldn't call Xiao to let him explain.
"Morax, isn't that..." Cloud Retainer wanted to ask but refrained. Morax was going to ask me again probably.
"Do you know what is the Art of Khemia?".
"I don't know the definition, but from what I saw is a process to craft a body and condense a soul in it at the same time"
"Why did you use the word condense?"
"Because that's what it was" I replied. "I can see souls there is no way I would miss something like that. I saw a few-"
"Stop there. How did you lose your sight?"
"I tried to look where the souls were coming from" I admitted. I don't know much he knows about this whole thing, but all I can do is answer his questions.
"Were you able to do it?" he asked, concern shining amidst the sea of sorrow his soul was.
"Yes" I admitted, and I saw that he was even more concerned. "I saw where the souls were coming from".
"Is there something I should know?" everyone could hear now the wariness in his tone.
"As a friend, just get away from the Art of Khemia. As a God, you stand no chance against it. And as an Archon, erase the knowledge of the Art from your nation" I gave my honest advice.
"Does that Alchemist still intend to practice it?" he asked, and now I felt he was considering taking some drastic actions.
"I don't know. I 'peeked' because he wanted to know more, but it was entirely my decision. My curiosity made me look at 'that'. From what I heard, it wasn't a pretty sight and he was quite spooked, so I think we won't try, but I can't tell you for sure".
"How did you lose your sight then?".
"I peeked at the place souls came from. If you want I can tell you later what I saw, but what I can tell you now is that I saw something, and merely looking at that made me lose my sight. Just by looking" I felt that it was quite laughable. We thought that Archons were the strongest beings in this world, and yet I could look at their souls without a problem while looking at that thing left me like this.
"Just by...." Cloud Retainer looked stunned. I guess it's something you need to see to believe.
"Why did you say it was your own curiosity?".
"Because it wasn't necessary. I already knew that we could get Guizhong's body easily, and I already gave Albedo what he wanted. But I needed to see it. I'm not a special man, while I may be moderately handsome, moderately intelligent, and abysmally weak on the physical side compared to the monsters around me, my ability is what makes me special, so I always try to train it. I felt that looking at the place where these souls were coming could help me develop it. And it did, honestly. I can now understand better and see more" I confessed the truth.
"Do you regret it?"
"If you mean losing my sight in exchange for Guizhong's life, no I don't. If you ask me about 'peeking', I don't know, as I never expected to find this. But if you are asking about losing my sight in exchange for evolving my ability, yes, of course. Even when I can see souls, there is too much I will lose. I can't look at my mother's face, no fireworks, no landscapes, no friends, no food, no painting, I can't write anymore, I will need someone every time I need to go to the Shrine, I am now a free target for the people back at home, I won't be able to see the Lantern Rite again, and much more. There is no way I wouldn't regret it" I was realizing now how much I lost.
"Where was Barbatos when this happened?" he asked, making me hold back my tears.
"Looking. He tried to dissuade us from doing this, but we, I mean Albedo and me, disregarded his advice and went forward with it. He helped me after that to get to a healer" I think Barbatos did what he should have done.
"Do you know the consequences of the Art of Khemia?"
"No. I only know that if what I saw comes over, we will die, but no".
"I see" and Morax fell silent again. "I need to think for a while, but there are some things I want you to promise me"
I recognize this, this is a Contract. I nodded at him.
"I want you to promise that you will not seal any living being"
"I can't do that" I instantly rejected him. "I feel profoundly disgusted by the notion, so much that I wouldn't do it even to save my life. I think you need to see souls yourself to know how repugnant that is. But if let's say my mother's life depended on me sealing someone, no matter who or what it is, I would do it".
"I see" he nodded in comprehension. "I want you to promise to never seal someone for your own benefit".
"I don't know if my wanting to keep my mother alive is considered for my own benefit" I said. In a Contract like this, I need to be sure of what I'm promising. "I can promise you that I will never seal the soul of a living being to obtain some material benefit, or to enhance my position in some way".
"That will suffice for now. I want you to promise that you will not teach anybody about the Arth of Khemia"
"I promise that" I nodded. The less people knew about that thing, the better.
"I want you to promise that you will speak with absolutely nobody about what you saw".
"I can't do that" I rejected again. "If teaching it to my close friends would help them, I would. What I can promise is that I won't tell anything about it to normal humans".
"That's not enough" Morax shook his head. "At least you need to promise that you will only tell about this to an Archon".
"I can do that. Can I tell Yae about that?" I asked. Yae was the go-to person when I had doubts.
"No" Morax shook his head again.
"Okay then. I will only tell about it to the Shogun if something happens. If not, I will keep it with me" I nodded. I recognize my ignorance, and if Morax was being so strict, he may have a reason. "Ah, but Albedo knows about it. I wrote everything I know about it in a book"
"What?" asked very eloquently Morax. "Why have you done that? What did you write exactly?
Now I'm feeling that I did something stupid.
"Everything. How souls are, how to manipulate them, how to seal effectively, where do souls come from, about what I saw...." the more I spoke, the paler Morax's face became, probably. If all his sorrow was being transformed into worry, his face must a poem now.
"Barbatos!" he shouted, and something in his soul trembled. I was too ashamed of my acts to look into it.
"Haai, I knew this would come" Barbatos appeared in his green guy form again.
"I won't speak about letting one of your own practice that cursed art, but why didn't you prevent Kenshin from writing that book?"
"Book?. What book?" asked a stunned Barbatos.
"What....Barbatos!. Kenshin wrote absolutely everything he knew in a book, and gave it to the same person who is practising the Art of Khemia" Morax didn't shout, but he might as well have from the intensity of his voice.
"W-Why did you do that?" Barbatos looked at me in astonishment. "I thought you were a smart guy, but what you did was beyond moronic!"
"Sorry" was all I could say.
"I will be back in a moment" and like the wind, the wind guy disappeared.
"Wait, how did you write if you are blind?" asked Cloud Retainer with a frown, making Guizhong sweat on her side.
"I'm back!" said Barbatos, who had a book in his hands. "Here it is. I will explain it to Alice, she will understand this". This Alice woman keeps coming into the conversations.
Morax took the book and looked at it as his soul trembled even more, maybe seeing something he didn't like.
"Hmm, Morax. I may sound weird coming from me, I was the one who let him write it, but I think destroying it will be safer than keeping it" said Barbatos meekly.
"Obviously I will. I will destroy it in a place not even ashes can be read" Morax said in a cold voice. "Kenshin, this book is one of the most powerful weapons in the world. Souls are an integral part of a system you have no idea of, so anything related to them must be kept a secret. And what you wrote in the book was not just how they were, you wrote literally everything".
"I know" I felt ashamed of my recklessness.
"You don't, but you don't need to. Promise me that you won't tell anybody that is not in the know anything you know about souls" he sternly said.
"I can promise that" I nodded. I noticed how he didn't say anything about my ability to see souls. I needed to be quiet about how to seal, manipulate them, etc.
"Good, that's all for now" Morax said, and he quickly returned to his state of deep sorrow. "I will tell your Priestess to come here, I need to speak with her. For now" He looked briefly at Guizhong. "I need to think".
And he disappeared.