Chapter 63: Unraveling the soul
The journey to Ravenhold started awfully quiet. Raze sat there inside the carriage, sitting directly opposite Gavin, while Ella sat beside him. He had a book in hand, reading through it with full concentration, his eyes never leaving the pages.
"What book is that?" Ella asked, leaning in to take a look.
"Something on the infected," he stated.
"Infected? You mean like the ones that attacked the town? How did you get a book on them?" she asked.
When Gavin heard the talk of the infected, his attention was drawn. He looked in the direction of Raze.
"I have my ways, like always," Raze replied, not really giving an answer.
Ella knew he wouldn’t say more than what he wanted to, so she decided to ask something different. "So what have you learned about them?" she asked.
"Well, nothing more than everyone already knows," he said, then flipped the page. "But I did learn that the state of abomination is a state of a shattered yet reconstructed soul into that formless monster." He shut the book after that and then looked at her.
"So I was thinking, what if you could unravel the twisted soul, would it be able to heal again?" he asked. His question immediately drew the attention of Gavin and even his brother, Riker. They looked at him with confusion. This was the first time a statement like that had been made, unraveling the soul of an abomination.
"Wh–what are you trying to say?" Ella asked.
Raze placed the book on his lap carefully. He raised a finger and showed her, a ball of water formed above it, flowing perfectly. "This is the person’s soul and existence. From what I know about souls, they can suffer damage, right?" he asked.
"They can. There is a branch of magic that studies the soul. They have spells that can attack the soul as a whole. If the soul is heavily damaged, it could lead to death. But if the soul is cracked, it can heal over time with the right treatment. It might never be fully what it was before, but the person won’t die," she explained.
"Exactly. Now look, in regards to an abomination, they still theoretically have a full soul," Raze stated.
"Their souls are shattered during the transformation. The demonic energy destroys everything that makes the soul and reforms it with a new twisted form," Gavin said, deciding to have an input on the matter, speaking on what he knew.
"He’s right," Riker said. He looked outside the carriage window as he spoke. "Infected and abominations are soulless beings. Everyone knows that."
"I doubt that," Raze said, pulling their attention again. They all looked at him, their gazes even more confused.
"Energy is never destroyed; it is only converted from one form to another. The soul is energy. I want you all to think about something, why do none of the infected turn into demon beasts?" he asked.
They all paused for a moment; none of them had an answer for something like that.
"I feel the answer is because the bodies of the monsters and beasts contain their own souls, and those souls act like water, and then the water is hit by flames." He raised his second finger and created a flame. He brought it into the water, and it immediately turned into steam.
"Now look at this—formless, hot steam. It still carries the heat of the flame, but it’s not really the flame. Yet it can burn like the flame. This steam is the abomination. But like steam, it can be compressed back into water if you capture it all.
I don’t believe that demonic energy truly destroys the soul—it simply destroys the current form and changes it," Raze explained.
Gavin’s eyes widened. "So what you’re saying is that there’s a possibility that the soul inside an abomination can be untwisted and then take its true form?"
"Hypothetically. There’s a lot I’m missing, like understanding how demon beasts came to be, but for now, that’s my hypothesis," Raze said.
"Haha," Riker chuckled. He looked outside. "Here we are, headed to the academy, aiming to become good mages for the kingdom and do some good, and you’re already somewhere else, trying to uncover one of the greatest mysteries among humans," he said, a smile on his face to mask the pain he felt. He turned his head and looked at Raze.
"If your theory is true, then little bro, you’ll become the most recognized figure in the kingdom overnight," Riker said.
"No, not that. Anything but that. I have a lot to do out of the public eye. I don’t want all that. And all I’ve said is hypothetical. Like you all, I want to see the academy and enjoy it how I’m meant to. Things I do outside the academy are my private issues," Raze said.
"Tsk," Riker clicked his tongue and then looked back outside by the window. "Attention doesn’t always leave someone because they want it to. If it was the old you, you’d only read, sure. But the new you wants to put into practice what you read, and that will draw attention," Riker said.
Raze wanted to say something back, but his brother was right. If he kept acting on his knowledge, he would draw more attention to himself, but he didn’t want to relegate his life back to just reading. In this life now, he wanted to live, and doing things like that was what made him feel alive.
"I guess that’s true, but I really don’t care," Raze said, then leaned back. "I’ll do what comes to mind."
"I knew you would say that. Luckily, I’ll use the pain I feel from seeing you ahead as fuel to drive forward," Riker said.
Raze was stunned by his mindset. It was nothing like Andrew, who had taken everything badly. ’On that note, where the hell did Andre even go to? What’s he up to? Hope he doesn’t get himself in any issues’