Page 114 of To Trap a Soul

“Must I point out the irony of that when you chose to do it out in the forest? How is that my fault?”

The fact that he was right had her grumbling, and had she been any more immature, she may have poked her tongue out at him. But it was that same annoyance that made the urge to smile tickle its way into her face.

What harm is there in making a... friend?Even if it was likely temporary, as she had to continue with her bound duties.

Even to Weldir’s dismay.

Actually, that very reason was why her butt stayed exactly where it currently rested.

Keeping her wings stretched and rigid, Lindi circled around where she wanted to land. She flapped her wings once to keep herself airborne, and the person below turned their head up to watch her.

She let herself descend to a rocky ledge, one that was a little too close to the cascade of water, and it wetted a few of her feathers. She shook them as she shifted and drew her hood back to uncover her face.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d come,” Jabez commented, remaining seated where he was the previous day.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to,” Lindi admitted, which made him grin in appreciation at the truth, even if she sounded a little pouty and surly.

His red eyes glinted with mirth. “Why? Didn’t we have a good time yesterday?”

She wiggled her head side to side to pretend what he said was debatable. “All we did was talk.”

“We did laugh, or did you forget that? Or is the issue Wel–”

Lindi cut him a sharp look. “Don’t. Don’t say his name. It may call him, and if he isn’t watching, he will.”

His lips shut, but his grin remained. It morphed into something more mischievous. “So he does talk to you.”

Her nose crinkled as she took her seat. “Yes, but don’t expect me to talk to him on your behalf. I’m not a messenger bird.”

“No. Just a raven, it appears.” He placed his right hand on the rock and leaned towards her, bridging only a slight amount of the large gap between them. He nodded his nose at her cloak.“How did you obtain such magic? You have a mana stone. They can only be obtained in Nyl’theria.”

Her brows furrowed and Lindi held the neck of her cloak, where her stone was threaded to it. “How did you–?”

He shrugged. “Comes with being an Elf. We can see magic when it’s active, even if it’s particularly obscured. You didn’t have it the last time I saw you.”

She figured he meant all those years ago.

“Hehelped me. Told me where to go to mine, how to get there, and what I needed to search for.” She fiddled with some of her feathers in hopes that it would help her stifle the repulsive shudder that was trying to tingle down her spine.

The memories of that time still haunted her.

“But going to the mines is impossible, even for me.” Jabez then pushed his fingers between the drawstrings of a pouch tied to his waist to open it and pulled out a few different-coloured stones. “I collected my stones from the ruins of a city. I barely got out alive, and that wasn’t within the nest of a mountain.”

One of her eyes twitched at how easy he made that sound. Apparently an infested ruin was easier than a mine, and she would have much preferred that over the claustrophobia she’d suffered alongside her terror of the Demons snarling at her.

“I saw you used one to make the Veil’s canyon,” Lindi muttered, resisting the urge to give him a nasty eye.

“I don’t have such destructive magic. I can grow a tree with my Earth mana, but only one a day without a stone.” He leaned back on straightened arms and let out an exhausted sigh. “It’s taken me so many years. I think if I look at another seed again, I’d rather eat it and choke on it. Could you imagine?”

He wrapped a clawed hand around his throat and bounced up and down as he began to feign choking. He stuck his tongue out, and the roundedness surprised her. She half expected him to have a forked appendage.

She sucked her lips into her mouth and bit down on them to push down her desire to laugh.

He made it all too easy to find humour in what he said, his nature light-hearted and calm. He never moved from his spot, as if he knew it would spook her. And even though they’d spoken until dark was almost upon them the day before, he never asked her anything more about Weldir or anything too personal.

Why didn’t he, if he wanted so badly to speak with him? She didn’t know, but she kind of didn’t care.

He doesn’t seem so bad... or evil like Weldir made it me believe.He just seemed like a normal person, despite all those features that definitely weren’t human.

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