Chapter 93 - The nature of a soul

"Savina, what was all that?", I said the moment we exited the cave. It takes alot now for me to consider something strange, seeing my formerly comatose friend suddenly talk like a noble woman and then gaining control over a dead binders'monster is in my top ten.

"Oh? What was what?", Savina replied as she stopped walking and looked at me over her shoulders.

"Oh I don't know, the blue glow, the mysterious majimonster, the weird voice you did and the fact that you bonded with the aforementioned monster's drajule? I know how this works, the bond stays even beyond death and can only be transferred if the owner wills it. I didn't see a ghost manifest so I have to know...who was that?", I said with certainty.

My parents explained to me that the reason nobody steals a binder's drajules even if they're sleeping, is because of two reasons. The first is that a binder is able to sense the locations of their drajules regardless of distance, there's even been cases of binders summoning their monsters from a distance. The second is that a drajule is basically a useless yet indestructible rock to everyone but the binder. Even if the binder dies, the drajule would just go inert unless the binder somehow transfers control while being dead. I was initially skeptical at this idea, but then I remembered that I had a ghost basically hanging around my neck.

Savina turned her head back in front of her and just stood there for a bit, staring at the sky in silence. A few moments passed in silence and I was about to just say forget it and move on, but then she said "Nera".

"Nera"?

"That was the name of Triton's old binder, Nera", Savina said with a hint of sadness.

"How did you-"?

"Remember what I said earlier? That when I was inside the Grim Shrieker I could share its senses?", she said as she turned to face me.

I nodded in silent confirmation.

"Well that wasn't completely true", she said with a heavy sigh and an uncharacteristically somber tone, "For a very, very long time I felt nothing. No fear, no hunger, no sadness and no joy. I knew where I was, but couldn't feel or understand anything...until Nera happened".

[Flashback time]!

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Being inside the Grim Shrieker was akin to having an out of body experience, however, instead of being able to see and sense your body to an extent, it was pure nothingness. All I knew was that "I" existed and that something was "holding" me.

I wasn't sure how long my "life" was like that, but there were these moments where I had experienced the memories of someone's life happening in a split second. They were infrequent and I can't remember much, but I knew it was real and that they were fleeting...that is until one night.

I'm not sure when or how, but the Grim Shrieker had somehow managed to corner binder and steal their soul. That soul was Nera.

The moment Nera was swallowed by the Grim Shrieker, I was able to "feel" this newcomer in my non-existence. It was a weird feeling but rather pleasant. I think it was this feeling that drove me to "contact" this newcomer. I'm not sure how I knew to do it, I just knew that I did.

You know how sometimes couples say they're "soul mates" and that they share a deep connection beyond the physical? This was a more literal version of that saying.

The moment we made contact, a connection formed a torrent of information flowed between us. I learned she was a binder from far far beyond the valley trying to find a purpose, and she learned that I was just a child.

After that initial connection, she began to teaching "me" knowledge about the world, how to be a binder and her own memories. I didn't know why she did so at the time, but it broke the monotony and I was happy and from what I could feel, it made her happy too.

But alas, good times don't last forever.

At some point during our time together, I could feel that Nera was getting weaker little by little. She kept sharing her memories as if nothing was wrong, but I knew something bad was going to happen...and then it did.

I think Neras' corporeal body at that time died because I could feel her soul starting to fade away. I didn't want to lose my teacher and only friend inside that cage of nothingness, but I didn't know what to do.

In my desperation, I tried to "connect" to her again, thinking it would do something to help. It did, but not in the way "we" expected.