Forgiving Light

Chapter 28

I sit with Dark for a while, cradling him in my arms as he sleeps peacefully.

The door bell rings, and I lay him down carefully as I get up. I rush to answer the door, already knowing who it is due to my new mental ability.

I open the door. "Hi, Yuma."

"Hey, Cat." Yuma smiles.

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to visit, is all. See how you're holding up. I also wanted to know how Dark is. Astral's a bit concerned, but he couldn't come himself. Can I come in?"

"Sure. I'm fine, and Dark is sleeping. You'll need to be quiet." I step aside to let Yuma in.

"At this time if day? Even when he's not himself, he's still weird." Yuma chuckles, then he looks around. "Hey, where are your parents? Aren't the supposed to be here?"

"They said that they're going on a 'trip'. Frankly, I don't believe them. Not after Astral said that they're riddled with darkness." I pet a kitten that has come up to me. "So, what's the status on catching Black Mist?"

Yuma grins. "All good news. They're gaining on him!"

I smile. "Awesome!" I pick up the kitten and stroke his fur. He purrs in response. "So, how's Shiro? Still growing?"

"Nah. He's pretty much fully grown now. All in a matter of a few days."

"I see." I giggle. "Well, that puts new meaning to 'kids grow up so fast'."

Yuma chuckles. "Yeah," he agrees. "He already started looking for his own food, refusing to take the food Akari tries to feed him. It's pretty funny the way he hisses and swpies at it before going out to find something to eat."

"I can imagine," I laugh. Then, I get serious. "By the way, have you ever seen any change in Black Mist's behavior?"

"Like what?"

"I dunno, any change from his normal cockiness?"

Yuma thinks for a while. "You know, I haven't really seen any change besides the desire to come see me every week. Something about 'Checking up on my puppet'. Why?"

"Oh, just wondering." I have a feeling that telling Yuma that Black Mist might have torn off and eaten part of Dark's soul is a bad idea. Especially after that whole "puppet" thing. "So, any recent developments on the attacks?"

"Yeah. There's more destruction. They're so bad that the buildings aren't even buildings anymore. All of the communications are down, the population drastically dropped. This is getting out of hand, Cat."

"Ah." I look over to the room Dark is in. I'm sure he'll still want his beother to escape no matter what. I just know it. "Well, this isn't gonna sit well with Dark." I grimace. "Best not to tell him, I guess."

"It's not? I thought he would be happy to hear it. You know, after what Black Mist did to him and all that."

"I know, but they're still brothers." I sigh and shake my head. "He isn't gonna be happy. In fact, I think he would be devastated, like he would rather die than know that his brother's dead. I wouldn't want to add that on to his depression. It would kill me. I've grown too attached to him."

"So, you won't tell him?"

"No, I won't. Right now, all he wants is his voice back. I don't want him to be worrying and putting himself in danger just so that he knows that Black Mist is safe." I bring my voice down to a whisper I know Dark won't hear. "Though, I would gladly see Black Mist go. If given the chance, I would do it myself."

Yuma laughs and whispers, too, "So would I." He turns to leave. "I have to go now. See ya later!"

"Bye!" I call as he leaves. "See ya!"

He waves and leaves without turning back.

I sigh slightly and go back to my room. I plop onto my bed and think about random stuff for a while. It'll be a while until afternoon, so I decide to go for a walk. Maybe that'll clear my mind before the training.

Before going, I poke my head into Dark's room to check up on him. He's still sleeping with Nisha cuddled by him.

"Nii-chan..." he mumbles. "No...leave him alone...!" He's shivering again.

I walk over to the dying fire and poke the wood until the fire jumps to life. I then go to Dark, who's still mumbling things under his breath, and wrap the blanket more firmly around his sleeping figure. Must be a disturbing dream.

After a while of making sure that everything is fine, I get up to leave. A realization hits me, and I stop at the door with my hand resting on the frame.

Did Dark talk back there?

I hurry back to his side. I crouch down to Dark's level and lean in to hear better. It's a little hoarse and raspy, but his voice is there. He's muttering some dark and very serious threats under his breath.

Well, I'm glad that it's just a dream!

At least I know that Dark wasn't kidding about the whole "fast regeneration" thing. That medicine would have taken forever to heal someone's vocal cords!

I get up and walk outside. Once out, I inhale deeply, taking in the cool air. I walk around for a while until I spot two figures far away from me. One looks like Yuma, and the other looks like either Astral or Black Mist. They're silhouetted against the sun, so I can't really see who it might be. They move quickly away and out of sight.

Oh, well.

I walk for a bit longer until the sun tells me that it's almost midday. At that time, I walk quickly to my house. There, Astral waits for me with his eyes closed and his arms crossed, leaning against the house, most likely meditating. When he senses me, he opens his mismatched eyes.

"I am glad that you decided to show up before the allotted time, Cathy," he comments approvingly. "Are you ready for the next and last training session?"

"Yeah," I say with a nod.

"Very well, then." Astral pushes himself off of the wall. "Follow me."

I follow Astral to the abandoned park he took me to the first time. It's pretty much the only empty yet peaceful place around, so it's become our training grounds. The fact that there's enough living things to train with actually helps. Astral's taught me to control small and large animals without hurting their minds. He says that I might not need it, but it's very useful. He's even taught me some offense in case I need it.

"Now, remember everything that I taught you," Astral says as he sits in the tall grass. "Think of this as what you humans call a 'final exan'."

I snort playfully. "Yeah, okay. That'll surely help." I sit in front of him.

Astra smiles. "Well, let us begin."