Soul of a Human

Mors' crying slowly ebbed off, and he stopped clinging to Saphine, leaving a wet spot on her robe from his tears.

"You slapped me." He said, and Saphine nodded apologeticly.

"You wouldn't react to anything, and even Orth didn't know what to do. Still, I'm sorry." She apologized, but Mor shook his head.

"No. I have to thank you. I needed this." Mor answered.

"Great, then we're quit," she said haughtily, but she couldn't keep it up and began chuckling.

Her giggling was contagious, and soon, Mor couldn't help but start to giggle, too. His mother chose to return at this moment, looking surprised at her son and the girl. After a closer look at her boy, she looked furious at Saphine.

"Why has my boy the imprint of a hand on his cheek?! Did you do this?!" Sophie demanded, cowing Saphine to an embarrassed nod.

Sophia took a deep outraged breath, getting ready to scold this stupid girl, but was stopped as Mor started to laugh.

"Mother, stop it. You should be thankful to her. She did the right thing." He said, and just as fast as Sophia's anger had risen, it vanished. She rushed into the room, throwing herself against her son.

"My boy! I was so worried!" She shouted.

Saphine looked awkward and slowly got up.

"Well, I think I have to go," she said, but Mor freed himself from his mother's smothering and said.

"No. I have much to explain, and you, Orth, Clare, and my parents have to hear it.

"I would like to hear this, too." The prince said, opening the door and revealing Morokhan and Orth.

Mor nodded, then stopped in confusion for a moment.

"Mother, Father, why is the prince here with you?" He finally asked.

Morokhan looked at his boy and sighed.

"He is not here with us. We are here with him," he said simply. "We all need to explain a lot of things.

"I will go and get Clare. You want her to hear your story, too, right?" Orth said, and Mor nodded thankfully.

With this, Orth left while everyone else sat down on the floor, even the prince.

"What did I miss?" Mor asked while they waited for Orth and Clare.

"The headmaster survived, thanks to you." Saphine begun. "Amber wanted us to thank you for this, even if your action was stupid." She continued with a smile.

Mor nodded and also smiled, "That's good news." He thought.

"Well, the headmaster decided that the school year was over, and everyone would return home. There was just too much damage done and too many people wounded or killed." Saphine almost whispered the last word, but still, it plastered a grim expression on Mors' face.

"Yes. It's a bit simplified, but it's still right." The prince said.

"Ok, but why are you here? Your Highness." Mor asked.

"Lucky accident." The prince said.

"Your mother." Morokhan sighed.

"Well, Mor hadn't answered to my letter!" Sophie protested.

"Ah..." Mor said, remembering the moment.

The prince started to laugh at this strange situation.

"It's fine, Moro. I did want to come here and take a look at this school. We're just a bit ahead of schedule," he said. "Also, now I know that my sister will be in good hands."

"I don't understand?" Mor asked, confused.

"Well, you were chosen to be the guard for Her Royal Highness when she joins the school next year. Of course, I would have tested your ability on your break, but I was sure it would be fine. But then your mother thought something was wrong and pressured the prince to take her here," Morokhan said.

"And I was right!" Sophie said triumphantly, pulling Mor close to her again.

"I still don't understand?" Mor asked again, even more confused.

"It's rather simple. The Agatons are the royal families' guards, going back since the founding of the soul-kindom," the prince revealed, and Mor looked at him in disbelief.

"Of course, no one is allowed to know this. This means the Agatons aren't given any titles and live as commoners. This serves another function as the connection between the common people and my family. It's a rather handy practice and has stopped a riot on more than one occasion." The prince continued.

"Wait, wait. Meaning, my parents aren't simple guards?!" Mor asked, and even Saphine looked suprised.

"Yes. Did you never wonder how you were allowed to come to this school?" The prince asked.

"Because of my mother's talent?" Mor asked back.

"Only a guise. It was also a test of how you would do. I wouldn't have revealed all this to you if you had failed. Being an Agaton is an honor, and the position is only given to the most promising mages." The prince said.

"He is right. Neither your mother nor I was born an Agaton. I was adopted into the family, and your mother followed me. To hide this secret, my records were removed from my original family," Morokhan explained.

Sophie just shrugged, "I was in love. Of course, I would follow you."

"Was?" Morokhan asked, teasing.

"Still am." Sophie agreed, getting a cringeworthy sigh from the prince before he let out a cough and resumed.

"The only problem is your small energy reservoir, but well, you are probably just a late bloomer like your father. And even if that's false, you proved your ability today. More than enough," the prince added.

Mor looked in confusion at his father, who looked away in shame.

"Father had low energy reserves at my age?" Mor asked, unbelieving.

"Yes, he did!" The prince laughed. "He went to school with me. But even with his strong earth affinity, he was as weak as anything."

"You didn't have to dredge this up, your Highness," Morokhan said, but the prince laughed only louder.

Mor looked in confusion but then also had to laugh at this.

"Is it a problem that I heard all of this?" Saphine asked, and the prince looked at her like he had just noticed her.

"True... It would be a problem if you talked. What to do?" He asked himself, and Morokhan sighed, while his wife wanted to erupt in protest, but before she could get up to speed, she was interrupted by a stern gaze from the prince.

"I know!" The prince said all smiles again.

"You two just need to bond and become the next generation Agaton!" he said as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"What?!" Saphine and Mor shouted.

"Don't worry." The prince said with a wink.

"I should have cleared that misunderstanding right away!"Saphine thought, lamenting.

"Impossible." Mor simply stated, earning a happy look from his mother and confusion from everyone else. Saphine even bristled at that.

"And why not! Am I not good enough?" She asked, insulted, her pride speaking faster than her brain could follow.

"That's not what I mean," Mor stated. "But for this tale, I want Orth and Clare here."

They waited a few more minutes for both to return, Saphine in embarrassed silence as her thoughts had caught up with her mouth, the rest in interested confusion. Finally, Orth and Clare entered and took their places.

"Good to see you up again, Mor." Clare greeted him warmly, and Mor nodded with a smile.

He took a deep breath, trying to order his thoughts, and finally let it out with a long sigh.

"As I joined this school, I had big problems with Ranbor and his flunkies. They tormented me at every chance they got." He began his tale, his mother holding him closer again.

"I didn't want to be used anymore, and neither lives in constant fear, but I didn't know how to do this. Then, I made the worst mistake in my life and took my greatest chance. I tried to replicate a soul-bonding ritual, like in the children's stories, and well, it succeeded." He said, with an earnest look.

A surprising gasp was going through the room, the prince staying silent and attentive.

"But at the same time, it failed. I wanted to bind an earth elemental, but I got something called a human instead. It had no magic, so my failure was undetected by the headmaster, and I can guess what you are all thinking, why am I telling this. Simply put, the human helped me become more confident. Protected me against illusions. And while we had our differences. In addition, it always questioned our soul-kin traditions and helped me shatter many of them." Mor continued.

"And now, you think you can't bond anymore because you already did?" The prince asked, erupting in laughter, and Mor confirmed it with a nod.

"This is too funny. What you young ones don't know is that there are two rituals, and it seems you did the second by accident. One is the traditional, binding two soul-kin together. The second is a forbidden one because it would bind your soul to a bodyless being, and history tells of soul-kin going out of control because they would be taken over by this being. The question, therefore, is, why didn't it happen to you?" The prince explained.

"Because the human just wanted to be my friend and have fun?" Mor offered while the prince shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine." He simply stated.

"Is what happened to Ranbor the same?" Orth asked, and the prince nodded.

"Seemed like it, and that's why it is forbidden. Don't try to do this!" The prince said sternly.

"Still, I need to find out where this Ranbor got the technique from. From the boy's reaction, he's clear. No sense giving your secret to your enemy."He continued in his thoughts.

"What about me?" Mor asked.

"Well, it's done now, if I understand it correctly. Therefore, I will just overlook this. Just don't try to repeat it. What you did was very stupid," the prince stated, and Mor nodded ashamed.

"So all your body training and strange movements were because of this human?" Orth asked, and Mor nodded.

"Yes. I'm sorry I have hidden this from all of you. The human was also the one who beat Snow," Mor confessed.

"It could move your body?!" Clare asked, surprised, and Mor nodded again.

"Not only mine but also one of my elemental puppets." He explained, and the prince nodded, finally understanding how some of the "impossible" things were possible.

"Very interesting," he said simply. I almost want to talk to this human. It sounds very different and interesting."

Mor smiled at the memory. "It told me that it comes from a planet called Earth, and there, no one has magic."

"No, magic at all?" Orth asked.

"Yes," Mor confirmed

"Then I have a question. What did you do at the end of your fight with the thing?" the prince asked, and Mor looked confused.

"I didn't do anything. Mother killed it, and father came to protect us kids." He stated.

"You don't remember?!" Orth asked, and Mor just looked even more confused.

"Remember what?" He asked back.

"You lost control over your magic and just absorbed it from around you. But it felt like nothing we soul-kin know." Morokhan explained.

"I don't know. I can't remember. There was only despair and ..." Mor said, trailing into his failing memory.

There was a sullen silence for a moment, but then the prince broke it with his next question.

"What did you do to enhance your body this way? You look more like an Ice-kin than a soul-kin."

Mor snapped back, getting a rueful smile. "The human told me how. It didn't allow any kind of objection and said that our knowledge of our bodies reeked of laziness. And well, it was right. You only have to push through the pain."

"Pain?!" His mother interjected. "My poor boy."

Mor shook his head and answered, "No. I'm very grateful. Yes, sometimes I hated humans for their stubbornness, but the results speak for themselves. Also, moving my body is even fun right now."

"True enough, I feel the same way." Orth agreed, and the girls nodded.

"You're all in on this?" The prince asked, and the young mages all confirmed.

"But we're keeping it in our little circle because we don't know what this could cause to the soul-kin," Mor said, and the prince let out a calm breath.

"Yes, please keep it that way. This information is not allowed to leave this room, just as everything else we discussed." He looked at Saphine at this, and the girl looked away, embarrassed. Orth and Clare just looked in confusion at this reaction.

°Oh, I like this one.° Mor twitched like he was stung.

°Human?° He asked, thinking he might have imagined it.

°Who else? What did I miss?° The human asked.

°I thought you were killed!° Mor shouted, both in his mind and aloud, surprising everyone else.

"Mor?" Clare asked carefully.

"Give me a moment, I need to rip that ass a new one!" Mor said, confusing everyone else even more.

Orth leaned over to Saphine and asked in a whisper. "Think, he snapped again?" But Saphine was not so sure.

°Well, it was close. But why would I die? Also, why are you so angry?° The human asked.

°I thought you died! The Ranbor thing said it killed you!° Mor scolded.

°And you believed that?° He human chided right back.

°You didn't answer me!° Mor growled.

°Yeah! Because I was busy not dying! It's pretty hard to get back if your "bridge" is gone!° The human argued back.

°And why are you only talking to me now?!° Mor wanted to know.

°I just woke up! Because it was hella exhausting! I just passed out once I got back!° The human growled.

°I was worried!° Mor said.

The human paused for a second and then offered a truce in a calmer voice. °Sorry, I didn't want to worry you. But well, I'm back?°

°Yes, sorry for snapping at you. I'm glad you're back.° Mor accepted.

The others watched the silent argument, Mor gesturing wild, sometimes in a typical soul-kin way and sometimes in an altogether alien way.

"I guess this is not over. It seems I do have to talk with you again," the prince said sternly.