Chapter 108

The vision disappeared, and Lith managed to stood up again, while healing his damaged fingers . He discovered that tears were still streaming from his eyes . He hadn’t cried in years, and the feeling linked to the act was bittersweet .

They were mostly tears of pain, but at the end of the vision, they had turned to joy from his third life . When he saw the dryads standing a few meters from him, Lith finally remembered where he was .

“Is it supposed to hurt so much?” In another moment, rage and doubt would have filled his voice . But he was still shaken from the experience . He was questioning all of his life choices, including what to do next .

“No, it’s not . ” The blond dryad was genuinely worried .

“It was meant to show you the past, to help you understand the future . It shouldn’t have been so painful . “

Because Lith had her heart, she had felt an echo of his anguish .

– “Humans are the real monsters . How could a kid endure so much pain?” – She thought

Somehow Lith knew instinctively in what direction he needed to go . A feeling of uneasiness was growing inside him with every second, like when he received the phone call from the hospital the day Carl died .

It wasn’t too late yet, but the clock was ticking . He had to get there as fast as he could . Yet that development was too odd to be true, so he needed answers before taking any rash decision .

“Are you sure this will help me with my soul?” As the memories were fading, Lith was returning to his old self .

“As I said before, no . But it’s likely . Any soul’s priority should be the desire to be mended, to be whole again . ” The blond dryad said while shaking her head .

“What else could it be?” Lith had never grow fond of riddles .

“It could mean meeting the love of your life, the person that will become your best friend . ” She shrugged . “The only thing that I know for certain is that you will find someone or something related to what your soul craves the most . “

“I’ll be honest, all this talk about souls and destiny sounds fake like a flying pig, but a deal is a deal . ” Lith gave back the yellow lotus to the dryad, before darting away faster than a bullet .

As soon they were alone, the blond dryad demeanour changed like heaven and earth had switched places, looking at her sister with eyes full of annoyance .

“First you let a newborn Abomination best you in combat and use you to leech the world energy, turning your turf into a dump . Then you need my help to handle a human child . You’ve sunk low, dear Lyta . ” She said with a sneer .

“That bastard took me by surprise . ” Lyta pouted . “Don’t act so smug, you and I know that in my place you wouldn’t have fared any better . As for the human, that’s no child, it’s a monster . He didn’t bat an eye even after seeing me naked .

Thank the gods it’s not an academy student . I would die of embarrassment if we ever meet again . What about you? You yielded without even attempting to fight, to the point of giving your heart to him . That was beyond stupid, dear Ryssa .

What if he decided to keep you as a slave? What if he demanded me to hand mine too before freeing me? How could you take the risk of turning us both into wh*res?”

Her voice was full of contempt, looking down on her sister .

“Because I asked her to do so . ” Scarlett appeared from thin air towering over the nagging dryad .

“The reason why I let that Abomination live, is to teach you that being confident is one thing, being conceited is another . You can’t expect me to cover for all your mistakes, Lyta . Do your job properly, or I will find someone else to do it . ” It roared .

“As for the boy, is just a pet project of mine . He is not human, but not an Abomination either . I needed to see how he behaved when given absolute power . Unlike you, I don’t let unknown flowers grow in my garden . “

– “Also, I wanted to check if that dryad mumbo jumbo about souls could actually fix him . Otherwise he would have never accepted any help, he is too paranoid . This way he believes to have earned it . ” – The last part the Scorpicore kept to itself .

It would have been too rude telling its minions that not even the Lord of the forest believed about their so-called spiritual powers .

Meanwhile, Lith was following the instructions contained in the vision, looking for a particular clearing in the forest, about ten kilometres (6,2 miles) from the academy’s gates . As he closed in, his worries and anxieties faded away .

– “Are you alright?” Solus asked .

“Not really . Do you know what was the most disturbing thing about that spell? It made me realize that I may have grown as a hunter and a mage . But as a person, I remained stale .

I’m still so scared of being hurt, that it takes me years to realize the good faith of someone . Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that suddenly I believe that this world is full of wonderful people, only that I regret having lost so much .

Think about my father, Raaz . I spent so much time treating him as a menace, that when I started enjoying his company, it was too late . It’s the same reason I never managed to have a healthy relationship back on Earth .

To really connect with someone, you need to let yourself be vulnerable, to be sincere and open . But I always failed at that . I expected something to go wrong, for the other person to betray my trust, to the point of barely giving any .

And here I am, doing the same thing, over and over . I don’t do favours, I cut deals . I don’t ask for help, I just wait for people to be indebted to me and then I collect it . The worst thing is that even if I wanted to change, I would not know where to start . “

“That’s because you are forgetting another of your flaws: you obsess with perfection instead of just trying to improve . If you really want to change, start with that . Take things a little at the time . ” –

Lith was now above the clearing, watching the same scene of the vision replay in front of his eyes .

Six rough looking individuals, probably hunters, had just cornered a young Byk (AN: bear type magical beast) .