Saving Soul

Adair was puzzled. Did the burns not heal because they were caused by magic?

"Should I try?" asked Ava.

"They won't heal..." Anja sniffled. "Because I'm not strong enough."

"What do you mean?" asked Adair. He hoped her hands wouldn't stay burned.

"I wasn't strong enough to summon, so they'll stay burned until I am." Anja mumbled

"So it's some kind of punishment spell then?" asked Adair. "Or is it more of a safety thing to keep you from summoning when you don't have the strength?"

"Both" Anja replied simply.

Ava glanced over her hands and let out a concerned warble. "How are you going to eat then?"

"I have to use my hands. That's why its a punishment." Anja whispered.

"That's not nice," Ava said, letting out a huff.

"It's training," Adair said, thinking back to his time with the Gales. "It's not supposed to be nice. It's supposed to make you stronger."

"But it's still mean," Ava insisted.

Adair sighed. Ava did not understand this concept. She was not stupid, but there were several little things the phoenix could not seem to process.

"A summoner's tools are their hands. Take that away, and they are nothing" Anja repeated softly from memory.

Ava tilted her head. "Doesn't that make it hard to train then?"

"If you train yourself too hard then you just end up weakening yourself," said Adair. " 'Taire's a good example of that. He doesn't not understand the concept of 'pace yourself'."

Anja remained silent.

Adair also became quiet, not sure what to say.

"Volty has been sad lately," Ava spoke up instead. "He's meanest when he's sad."

"Sad?" asked Adair. Voltaire's attitude earlier did not strike him as sad. Spiteful maybe, but not sad. But Ava was the one who had his heart, so she would know what he was really feeling.

"Why's he sad?"

"I don't know," replied Ava. "Maybe because we lost early?"

"That usually just pisses him off," Adair remarked.

"What reason does he have to be sad? He seemed perfectly spiteful earlier." Anja murmured

"That's what I'm wondering," Adair admitted. Voltaire was the irritable type, not the depressed type. If something bad happened he was more likely to be angry than anything else. "Well I hope he gets over his moodiness soon. He's been a jerk, to put it nicely."

Anja simply shrugged.

Adair yawned. He wondered if it would be a good idea to take a nap. It would be sunset in a couple hours, and then he would have to sleep anyway. Besides, Voltaire should have been coming back soon with some food.

Anja lifted her head slightly. "Can you help me down?" She asked softly.

"Huh? Oh, sure," Adair replied, carefully picking her up and dismounting Ava. The phoenix gave a disapproving warble.

"What?" asked Adair.

"Volty," she replied. "He's not happy. Hunting must not be going well."

"Oh. Well that happens sometimes, even to the best," Adair answered, more concerned about having to deal with Voltaire's incoming bad mood than the lack of food.

Anja remained quiet. She waited until Adair and Ava had finished conversing before asking, quite softly "Adair? Why did you stop being a hero?"

Adair sighed. "When my heart got broken and mt family started to hunt me. There wasn't much of a choice, for reasons that I've already said. But I can't go back to that now. Many of my old Hero and Hunter friends have turned against me, and I can't entirely blame them. 'Taire..."

Said Hunter appeared on the horizon. He was limping.

"All of your family are heros then?" Anja asked. She was feeling more sympathetic now, since she knew a little more about him and what he had to deal with.

"Did I not mention that earlier?" Adair asked, a bit puzzled. "But yes, everyone in my family is trained to be a Hero. We're among the highest bloodlines, descended directly from King Arthur." He still took pride in that, even though his family were not who he thought they were.

Voltaire finally came into better view, and both he and Ava noticed his bloodied lower leg with alarm.

" 'Taire! What happened?" the redhead asked.

Voltaire acted more irritated than worried. "I was dumb enough to step into a trap earlier. It was rusty, so it must have been leftover from some Hunter passing through. Anyway, damn thing has some kind of anti-healing spell on it so I can't just heal it like usual. Go figure."

"Um... In my belt pouch." Anja mumbled "Healing salve. Its um, blessed." She looked away. She was trying to be helpful, but she was so used to relying on herself, and it was hard, especially now that she had to rely on them for help.

Voltaire blinked.

"If you have something blessed like that, why don't you use it on your leg?" he asked, not being rude but merely puzzled. "Or the burns on your hands?"

Adair was ready to ask the same when they all heard a deep growl behind Voltaire. Galloping toward the scene at a surprising pace was one of the demons bears from earlier, which had apparently had smelled blood and followed Voltaire.

"Fuck," Voltaire hissed.