"They are going to miss these two." Aurelia explains as she tosses the bodies into a hole she just dug. "And I don't get why you want to bury them."
"It just seems proper." I answer while I watch her. "I don't really care about them. And yes, I know, when they notice they have not returned, someone from the Kingdom will start looking for them and then figure out they got killed."
Lucio's body gets a much better treatment, buried alone and with a proper closing of his grave while for the other two is clearly more messy.
While Aurelia is doing that, I go and check on Lisa.
She is shaking, clearly not from the cold.
"T-they truly wanted to kill me…" I hear her whisper.
"Hey.. you alright?" I ask her.
I place my hand on her shoulder. "Ah!" She jumps and takes distance from me.
She is clearly distraught.
"Hey, you are shaking…" I comment.
"H-How could I n-not be?!" She asks. "I stayed b-because I k-know you can use my s-skills and everyone was in danger… but I never entered combat…"
She drops to the ground and curls herself up, covering her head and pushing her face between her thighs.
"I am just a priest… meant to help people that have spiritual problems… how am I supposed to f-fight?!"
I reacted the same way when I saw the dragon the first day. I cannot blame her or say I don't get it. I do it completely. After all, neither of us has seen direct combat or had our lives threatened this way before that.
I sit beside her. I can hear her sob, she is crying against her legs.
"Just… please… I want to go home…" She says between sobs.
I look how Aurelia finishes with Lucio's grave. My gaze, which most likely was showing that I was feeling dread at that moment, returns to Lisa. Not sure what to say, I put my hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, you did great, though…" I say. "Thanks to you, things were easier."
She pauses for a moment. Still sobbing, her body stiffens under my touch, and she seems to go deeper in her self embrace.
"You are just saying that…" she answers.
"You kidding?" Aurelia joins. "That Demisaus words or whatever was extremely useful."
"And you healed me, one wrong move and I could be dead right now."
"I was paralyzed. And you almost got killed because you stopped a spell that was coming to me, Amber. Don't try to make me feel happy when I am just a burden"
"You are clearly not a combatant. I got paralyzed the same way when I fought a monster for the first time." I skip the fact that it was a young dragon.
"Many newbies in my clan run away from danger! It is normal! Then I chow them down to tough them up by yelling at them and not feeding them for a week!" Aurelia laughs and smiles proud of herself.
I don't think that is helping, Lisa's face seems to have lost another shade of color.
"Aurelia has the subtlety of a rock hitting metal…" Karina comments.
"Besides. You are in this mess because of me." I give her shoulder a slight squeeze. "I promise I will make sure you are safe."
Karina rolls her eyes.
Maybe I said something too cheezy.
"Just try to focus on healing and giving support next time." I try to save it.
After a few moments, Lisa seems to relax a bit. Hesitantly, she removes her face from her hiding spot and slowly gets up. I help her.
I ask Karina to locate the group and she guides us.
"Do you have family in town, Lisa?" I decide to ask.
She shakes her head.
"No, only the Father. He has had me since I was a little girl." She admits. "He is the only one I am worried about… he is such a nice person…"
Now I really feel bad for allowing (still not my fault) the roof of the building to get destroyed by Gunther. If we find him I will make him pay, I am not giving a single cent if it is something that is not my fault… entirely at least.
"I cannot imagine myself doing what you two do…" Lisa answers. "It is scary…"
"Eh, you get used to it." Aurelia says. "You take a few hits then and there. You have no idea how many bones of my body I have broken, and what kind of stuff we have seen with Amber here."
You shouldn't talk about broken bones… I feel she is making it worse.
"Mistakes happen, I guess… as I said, I paralyzed when I encountered my first monster, I thought I was going to die." I comment.
"I find it hard to believe… you two moved like you knew what was happening."
But the truth is… half of the time I did not. All I did was through simple and pure instinct. I never had to fight for my life before this, I never had to kill anything. Amber did, all the time.
Maybe I did become her completely, her memories and experiences turning me into a good fighter, knowing how and when to make choices when they must be done. I am impressed, I never thought that it could be that deep, that my soul mixing with hers could be this potent.
"It is not that easy… I just knew how to act." I answer to her. "All that I cared about was not letting anyone else die because of me."
Maybe… just a maybe… that is why I was so angry when I saw Lucio die in such a gruesome way. I let it happen once more. He was dead because of me.
I take out Kathrina's amulet from my inventory and press it against my chest. I won't allow that to happen again.
We find the group and explain everything is safe now. The Movers can continue without issues.
"Sorry, almost got someone killed because of me." I answer while scratching the back of my head. "Is everyone alright?"
"Yes, thanks." Lars answers, "we ran a quick counting and everyone is here and with no injuries. Still shaken, but we are safe."
"Good!" I am glad no one else ran into problems.
And like that, we resume our travel.
The way I fought moments before made me realize how I am slowly becoming more and more into Amber. Maybe it is time to fully accept it, I am her from now on. An adventurer that is always traveling and ready to fight, a powerful mage that is going to confront every challenge.
But I must keep Lucio's words in mind. He said we have a certain Traveler whispering into the ears of the factions, and I want to know what is the secret he revealed to the King and Princess.
I will get to the bottom of this, no matter what gets in my way.