Heaven's Darkness (Book 2)

Chapter 5 - Ashura

"Ashura! It's really you!"

"I'm so relieved!"

"Welcome back!"

"It's so good to see you again!"

Everyone in the guild hall greeted me with reverent and haughty hellos. It felt really nice to be welcomed with such happiness and joy. It was also really nice being able to walk on my own without anyone else's assistance, even if I was a little unbalanced.

Quint had already left ahead of me to enter the guild hall, receiving his own warm welcome before I walked in. I figured he was too anxious to return to his home to wait for me to fully recover from the mending process on my cloak.

When the blacksmith came to mend my cloak, I was completely asleep at the time. I was never told how he was able to survive my aura, but he was able to apply a cloth to repair the gaping hole in the back of my cloak, succeeding in fixing my magical aura problem. My trigger for transformation was finally repaired and I was able to return to the guild hall without choking a single person to death. It was a good feeling.

After the initial hellos and welcome-backs, I made my way over to the booth that normally Jeriah and his gang sat at, relishing in the memories before any of this awfulness even occurred. It made me feel nostalgic and at peace, sitting in the light blue booth with the wooden table in the middle.

Suddenly, Terra slid into the other side of the booth, looking directly at me and startling me out of my thoughts. "Hey, there. How're ya feeling?"

I shrugged, scratching an itch on my left side. "I'm feeling the best I ever have since the Greenwood incident. Sano's serums are remarkable."

I watched Terra eyeball my hand scratching my side. "It's true. Sano is truly amazing at what she does for us."

After that, we sat in a moment of silence, slightly awkward, but completely bearable. It was nice seeing Terra again. It hadn't been a long time, but it still felt long enough for me to miss being around her and the others.

"Is it hard?" she suddenly asked in a quiet voice, expression unreadable.

My eyes blinked at her. "Is what hard?"

"Not having that arm?"

It caught me a little off-guard, but I should've expected it. I gave her a reassuring smile. "It definitely has its own challenges, but it's nothing I can't handle. Don't you worry about me; I've used magic a few times now and it's still pretty strong."

She gave me a weak smile, her darting black eyes distant from me. Usually, she was a pretty strong character, but not when it came to the subject of my arm. I felt like everyone else was taking it way harder than I was. Was there something I didn't understand about being a cripple?

"Hey, Terra, do you mind if I speak with Ashura alone?"

Both of us whirled around to find the tall, muscular Jeriah standing at the end of our booth, his cloak enveloping his entire figure down to his feet. His midnight black hair hung over his chocolate brown eyes in thick strands. He appeared to be a little tortured from the inside, like something was bugging him.

"No, I don't mind at all," Terra answered, proceeding to scoot out of her side of the booth and leaving the vicinity to talk to some other members by the bar. Jeriah swung himself into her place with ease and folded his hands on the table.

"What's up?" I asked as casually as possible.

He didn't really look me in the eye, he merely just stared down at his folded fingers. "I think it's time that I told you what I found out the other day."