The Soul's Name (SSoDI-N)

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Jamie took a deep breath, eyes still fixed on the horizon. He wasn't sure how to feel about any of this. On the one hand, he felt a distinct impression that, much like everything else in his life prior, he had no say in this matter. He was just here to empower someone else. But at the same time, despite the confusion and apprehensiveness he felt... he found himself believing everything Kelsey told him. Trusting her intentions. Somehow... he felt safe around this strange girl. Safe for the first time in his life.

He was terrified of this place. He was mortified by his lot in life. And yet everything in him wanted to help Kelsey.

With a deep breath, Jamie turned to face her again. "I... I want to be sure that what happened to me doesn't happen to anyone else. But... how am I supposed to help? I-I remember you saying that the union of our souls increases your power, but... is there really nothing else I can do? I feel so... so useless in here. So trapped."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Funny you should mention that."

When the duo looked back at Tri, they found the demon shooting them both a coy smirk. "Kelsey, you remember when I mentioned you have a new power?"

"Yeah, kinda was wondering when that would become relevant again..." Kelsey mumbled flatly. "Figured I'd hold off on broaching the subject for Jamie's sake."

"Well, here's the deal. You know now that you can communicate with the souls you absorb. Buuuuut... you can also summon them as familiars! Kinda like me, except people can see them without going insane. So if you ever want a helping hand or just some advice during a fight, ol' Jamie-boy here can be brought up to the surface, free to interact with stuff and almost completely indestructible!"

Kelsey blinked in surprise. Rather pleasant surprise at that. This was... actually pretty cool! Not only would this give Jamie a means to interact with the outside world, but it meant that Kelsey could potentially build an army of souls! And given her general discomfort on the battlefield, that idea was a major source of comfort.

Wait... was she actually getting into the idea of consuming souls? Oh geez, Kelsey's stomach was almost churning from her sudden display of hypocrisy...

Choking down that feeling, she opted to question something that genuinely sounded iffy. "Almost indestructible?"

"Well, yeah, his astral body can be disrupted if it takes too much damage, but that just forces him to return to the soulscape to recharge." Tri shrugged at Jamie. "As long as your soul remains intact, buddy, you're a vengeful spirit that cannot be stopped, and it's pretty well safeguarded in here, even when you're projecting yourself in the real world."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Uh... Wow... Really??" Jamie seemed vaguely terrified of this idea. Him, in a fight? That sounded like the last thing he would want to get involved in. He didn't know how to fight! He wasn't sure if he could, let alone offer any useful insight in a warzone! Maybe he would be useful if he had retained any powers or combat abilities from his time spent possessed by his archdemon, but was fairly certain he hadn't kept the former and he was completely certain he had forgotten the latter.

And yet, at the same time... this concept seemed... somewhat encouraging. He did say he wanted to help.

"I guess that's something." Jamie shrugged, nervously looking between Kelsey and Tri. "I-I don't know how well I would hold up if you dropped me in the middle of combat, but... I may as well offer my services somehow. Anything beats sitting around here in eternal solitude confinement."

Then he cast a hopeful glance at Kelsey. "But... But I don't want my first impression of the outside world to be one of chaos. Do you think... you could just let me out so I can see it?"

[ParamountKeymaster]

Kelsey let out a humorless chuckle. "Believe me, Jamie, I may have a lot of cool powers, but I'm utterly lacking when it comes to skill."

"She's not wrong."

She shot Tri a deadpan smirk, then she turned back to Jamie, reeling back and taking on a look of shock when he asked if he could see the real world. This lasted only for a few seconds before Kelsey smiled with encouragement, finding herself genuinely on board with this impromptu idea. After being cooped up all alone inside her soulscape for several weeks, a moment of freedom was the least this kid deserved. It only made sense that his first glance of the outside world should be one offered during a moment of peace, rather than one where he was forced out into whatever hellscape they were bound to wind up in on this journey. Anything to make her new familiar more comfortable with his position.

"Yeah... Yeah, sure, let's do it!" Kelsey grinned at Jamie, then at Tri. "I'm down to show him around right now! Might as well; we may not have time tomorrow. SO how do I summon him into the real world?"

"Same way you brought yourself here," Tri answered coyly. "You feel the bond between your souls?"

Seeing where Tri was going with this, Kelsey looked at Jamie again, focusing all of her attention on the ghostly young man. She studied him intently, she let all her thoughts and feelings revolve around him... she sensed his energy flowing through her soulscape, linking his soul to hers, connecting their innermost selves. "Yes..."

"Embrace that bond. Seize it. Look deep inside him, see him for what he is within... then reach in and pull it out."

"There had to be a better way to word that," Kelsey grunted before gently taking Jamie's hand and offering him a warm grin. She had exactly what she needed. All that was left to do was open the door. "Now Jamie, this might feel a little weird... but don't you worry about a thing. I promise I won't hurt you."

She closed her eyes. She squeezed his hand. She felt the world around her start to fade away and retreat back inside her.

"Mzeem."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Jamie simply nodded back at Kelsey, giving her hand a light squeeze. More than anything else, he was certain that he could trust her, and just having someone he could trust, someone to assure him that he was not alone... after spending what felt like forever with only his own thoughts, fears and confusion, that was the best feeling in the world.

So this was it. Finally, he was going to see the world and live the life he never got to experience.

The moment Kelsey spoke that strange word... everything inside Jamie seemed to wrench all at once. It didn't hurt. It just shook him to his core, sent shivers down his back, and made him feel every emotion he possibly could all at once. It was jarring, frightening... yet oddly releasing. It felt like a tiny seal inside him had been broken, unleashing an almighty tidal wave of pure, revitalizing energy, and at the same time, it felt like he himself had been freed from the cage he had spent his entire waking existence in. For the first time in his life... Jamie felt awake.

He felt himself rising off the ground, some unseen force sweeping him up in a powerful current. A blinding, silvery light blinded him for one fleeting moment.

The next thing he knew, Jamie was sitting atop a bed in a small but decently cozy-looking room. Kelsey and Tri sat next to him. A glass panel to his left displayed a city skyline against a nighttime backdrop.

"Whoa..." Rigid for the time being, Jamie looked around at the drastic change in scenery. Sure, this room seemed somewhat confined, but at least it was something different. As he took in all the minute details of the hotel room, he noticed that Tri now appeared somewhat see-through. Slightly concerned by this revaluation, Jamie looked down at himself; like Tri, he was still recognizably himself, but his body had turned semi-transparent, the walls and floors slightly visable through his ghostly hands.

"Oh geez...! Um...!" In an effort to distract himself from this unsettling discovery, Jamie turned his attention to the window. His jaw dropped at the sight of the massive towers, the blinking lights, the glimmering stars against the midnight blue sky. "Wow... This... So this is the real world, huh? It's... actually kind of nice."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Yep... this is the real world..." Kelsey breathed with a weary smile, looking tired but certainly amused by Jamie's reaction. She briefly pondered whether or not she should explain to him that this was not the same dimension the two of them had originated from, but she quickly decided to drop it. He had enough new information to wrap his head around as it was. She was still reeling from everything she had learned that day.

Kelsey stood up off the bed, casting an awkward glance at her black Florence and the Machine shirt and pink checkered pajama pants. "Sorry I'm not better dressed for this little tour. I was actually about to get some sleep before Tri decided to introduce me to you. But, uh... that place out there is called Void City. It's home to a lot of strange characters and even stranger goings on."

"Want a better look?" Tri asked with a devious smirk, levitating off the bed before phasing through Jamie, then through the window, hovering in the open air beyond. "Follow me!"

As Tri flew up and out of sight, Kelsey offered a weak chuckle. "I can't do that. The flying part, I can do, but not without some serious transformations. But you probably can! Looks to me like you're an astral projection just like Tri is."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"...I can?" Jamie looked down at his semi-transparent hands again, then back at Tri, then back at his hands. He supposed he couldn't rule out that possibility. He apparently didn't have a body like Kelsey did, so in a physical realm, he likely had less restrictions. Plus, the longer he watched Tri floating around outside, the more... fun it looked.

After taking a moment to brace himself, Jamie pushed himself up off the bed. Sure enough, gravity refused to do its part, leaving the young man hovering in the open air. For the longest time, Jamie simply stared incredulously at the floor, stupefied by his own weightlessness. Then he experimentally swerved around in place, quickly picking up on how to maneuver, using his newfound skill to fly around the room.

A smile appeared on his face. A noise emitted from his throat that he had never made before... a laugh. "This... This is AWESOME!"

Having already grown comfortable with his mobility, Jamie flew over to the window and experimentally reached his hand towards the glass. His arm passed right through the solid surface, quickly prompting him to quantum tunnel through the solid surface and join Tri on the outside. There, he found himself levitating several stories above the ground, surrounded on all sides by skyscrapers and a sparkling sky.

"Ohhhhh-ho-ho-ho man...!!!" he chortled loud enough to echo for a block or two. "This is amazing! How far does this place go?!"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Forever." Tri coolly grinned at Jamie. "That sky above us? It goes on forever. Now, uh... you may wanna keep your voice down. I'm invisible to all but you and Kelsey, but you're very much noticeable."

Kelsey giggled at Jamie's sudden burst of enthusiasm, not to mention his bashfulness when Tri revealed to him that other people could see and hear him. Leaning against the window, she called to the two boys, "I'll meet you guys up top!"

Tri shot her a thumbs-up, motioned for Jamie to follow him, then started flying up towards the hotel roof with the young familiar trailing close behind. All the while, Kelsey grabbed her room key and bolted out the door, finding herself surprisingly excited to meet back up with them and continue Jamie's introduction to the real world.

She had to admit, she was already starting to like this guy. Maybe it was the bond their souls had formed, maybe it was his innocent naivety, maybe it was just an inherent desire to make him happy after leaving him isolated in her soulscape for so long... Whatever the case was, Kelsey had a feeling she was going to enjoy having Jamie working alongside her. Never mind being able to summon him as a helping hand; simply knowing he was there and that she could help him in return actually filled her with energy and a sense of passion. Was that the true power that consuming souls afforded her? She honestly liked that idea.

Who knew? If things really were about to become as chaotic as Tri let on, Jamie wouldn't be so lonely anymore.

For now, though, Kelsey opted to focus on the present. On making Jamie happy and comfortable with his new life. If she could accomplish that, in light of all the other madness that had occurred in the past few hours, Kelsey would consider today a success.

As she ran through the halls and up the stairs, she placed a hand on her chest, that one little word running not through her mind, but through her soul...

Kalth...

The longer she dwelt on it, the more Kelsey realized how much of herself she still had to discover.