The Soul Keeper

Her lips formed a thin line as she remained silent. I hesitated – did I need to explain anymore?

"I see," She finally said. "What did the voice tell you?"

I hesitated. "Well," I fiddled with my hair. "It spoke my name." 

Mother looked rather worried – and expression she seldom showed. "I see," She said once more. "Was this the first time you say this… figure?"

"I thought I saw something last night," I said hesitantly. "It was probably the same thing." I massaged my temples. "I'm just constantly tired and haven't been sleeping well at all. That's probably why I'm hallucinating." I made a vague gesture towards the sea. "I'll call inspector John and ask him to arrange something in the hospital."

Mother shook her head. "No, don't do that." 

I raised my brows as I shot her a surprised glance. "What? Why not?" Hallucinations and lack of sleep wasn't something to be taken lightly. What if this got more serious and dangerous?

"Do as I say, Kai." Her sharp voice startled me. "You have trouble sleeping because you still live in the past – stop denying those memories. Accept them, embrace them, learn from them. Once you do that, they will stop plaguing your nightmares and you will get your sleep."

I clenched my fists. "But-"

"Don't you trust me?" She asked without a hint of doubt in her voice. She knew that I trusted her. And that was exactly why my next words surprised her so much.

"It's not about trust, Mother." I gritted my teeth. "I have memories that don't belong to me. How am I supposed to embrace the memory that belonged to a phoenix, or a wyvern, or a damn snake?" 

She didn't say anything, and I took the chance to continue speaking. "I'm tired of seeing death, war and bloodshed every night. I'm sick of remembering stuff that never happened to me! How can you ask me to process all of this? Do you have any idea how many lifetimes worth of memories I have?"

I only realised I was shouting when my throat hurt. My eyes widened and I looked around in a panic.

"It's ok." Mother's voice was surprising soft and gentle. "No one heard you." 

I felt a mild headache for a moment as the birds began chirping again. "I know it's difficult, Kai." She stepped closer and lightly patted my shoulder. "Telling you what to do is simple compared to the effort you need to put in." She sighed. It was the first time in my life that I saw her so… lost.

It was a scary sight.

"But Kai," She said after a moment. "That Inspector and his doctors can't help you solve the underlying issue. No matter how many drugs they give you, you'll still have those memories. They can't make you forget – they shouldn't, even if they could." 

"Why not?" I said with a sigh. "It would be so simple if I could just forget about that."

"And who would you be then?" Mother turned to face me, with a faint, barely visible smile on her lips. "You would be someone else, wouldn't you? A different Kai Friseal."

I looked away – I knew she was right. I knew the doctors wouldn't be able to help me solve the underlying issue. But I also knew that I longed for a good night's sleep. 

"Sorry, Mother." I said, my shoulders dropped. "I'm just so tired though."

"Kai…" Her voice had a warning in it.

"I won't call him," I assured her. "But please excuse any… blunder I make until I somehow work through this." Eventually, the restless nights were going to cause greater issues.

Mother just smiled. I hesitated, then chose to accept that as confirmation.

"Let's go back," She finally said. "We have much work to do today."

Without skipping a beat, she headed back inside, leaving me confused. I quickly ran after her. "What work?" I asked, surprised. "There are no tournaments or anything!"

Mother laughed out loud. "Tournaments are not our only reason to put in some work, Kai, are they?" She made a vague gesture towards the Dojo. "You should get yourself cleaned – go bathe, then help your sister prepare lunch. I need to find the other disciples."

She walked around the Dojo towards the back, where most of our disciples trained. I sighed – she hadn't given me any answers as usual. But that was fine, bathing and then lunch sounded amazing – I was hungry already and I'd love to get rid of all the sweat on me.

I headed up to my room and after a refreshing bath, changed into a set of clean, comfortable clothes. Before I headed downstairs, I glanced at my phone. 

If I wanted to, I could call inspector John. I could as for medical assistance – they would come with a chopper and take me to the hospital at a moment's notice. It would be easy, and Mother wouldn't need to know anything. The agents could just tell her something came up and they needed my presence.

It would be so, so easy to lie to Mother.

With a sigh, I put the phone in my pocket and headed down.

"You look less exhausted!" Aoife exclaimed as soon as I stepped foot in the kitchen. "How come?" She asked, a large grin on her face. She was cheerful, though it was hard to say why.

"A warm bath does wonders." I said with a smile, then glanced at the rather messy kitchen. "Aoife…" My shoulders dropped. "What are you cooking?"

"Tourtiere!" She exclaimed. I shot her a confused look. What on earth was a tourtiere? 

A quick glance at the ingredients made the answer very clear. "Look, I know you've been to Canada and you loved it there, but can you please call a meat pie, 'meat pie'?" She just giggled at my words as I rolled my eyes.

She finished preparing the meat pie as I cleaned up after her. By the time Mother came back, the food was in the oven and I was putting the last of the plates back into the cupboard.

"Good job, you two." Mother smiled. She also was unusually happy, despite the conversation we had earlier. I shot her a suspicious look. "What's going on?" I asked, finally giving in to my curiosity. "Why are both of you so happy?"

"Why wouldn't they be?" A familiar voice spoke, "Your favourite uncle is here!"