Naledi woke up and found herself lying in bed with her body wrapped in bandages. " How are you feeling?" She heard Cathra’s voice next to her.
She was looking at her with a kind smile. " How long have I been unconscious?" She asked as she tried to sit up.
Cathra grabbed her and gently pushed her back down. " Three days, you need more rest, the backlash from your ability has yet to heal.
It seemed to have demaged your soul, although the demage is minor it’s making it impossible for me to heal your body, Cat and the others are out looking for soul nourishing elixirs to heal you."
" I’m sorry, I caused you a lot of trouble." " You did it to save everyone Nal, it isn’t your fault, we’re the ones who should be apologizing.
It is because we’re so weak that you had to harm yourself just to save us." Cathra looked sad and apologetic as she said that.
Naledi did not reply, it was only after Cathra left that she whispered." I wasn’t talking about that." But nobody was there to hear her.
A few minutes later Aira came in with a stack of papers. She sat next to the bed and adjusted her glasses.
" How bad is it?" Naledi asked. " Bad, from the Intel I’ve recieved, the void gates opened everywhere where life can be found, fortunately most human strong holds were able to hold on, atleast enough for some people to survive.
Even the beasts are said to have been able to drive them back." " I’m assuming they didn’t face any envoy." She couldn’t imagine most strongholds withstanding that " Most, no. From what we gathered the stronger gates opened close to strong individuals or a group of them as if....."
" They are drawn to stronger beings." " Yes, my theory is that they are drawn to souls and the stronger a soul is the more attracted they are to it.
And I suppose we should be grateful for that, if gates had opened randomly then envoys could’ve appeared anywhere and I’m afraid without a rank 4 or a freak like you everybody around would’ve been wiped out."
" How did the others fare?" " The major strongholds were able to hold their grounds but a some of the smaller ones fell." There was a hint of sadness in her voice.
" Millions died and those are the ones accounted for. Also that silver back gorilla in the former Republic of Congo and it entire clan were wiped out." There was no pity in her voice.
" Good, they’ve caused humans too much trouble." " True but now we have a rank 4 envoy running lose, also that one had another envoy with it, a rank 3 one.
Honestly, while I hated that tyrannical gorilla I prefer it over the guaranteed threat of an envoy." " It enslaved and killed people wantonly." Her voice grew louder.
" But it did not seek the annihilation of the entire human race, compared to the envoy it’s a lesser evil." Aira stood up to leave.
" Oh, I’ve also sent out the army to clean up the stranglers, I hope you don’t mind that I did it without your permission."
" You did good." Aira stood infront of the door then turned around. " I almost forgot, in three months there will be a summit held in the Tower of Babel."
Her voice became cold when she said that. Naledi looked at her. " Understood, I’ll take aunt Cathra."
" Thank you for your consideration but it’s fine, I’ll go with you, I’m your advisor and secretary, every other leader will certainly bring theirs, they might look down on you if you do not."
" I still don’t recall ever giving you that job." " You didn’t, I volunteered and I know you don’t need a secretary or whatnot but please don’t take this from me, it’s not like it hurt you anyways."
Naledi sighed " Fine, do whatever you want." A small smile appeared on Aira’s face for a moment before disappearing then she turned around and left.
’ She’s very weird.’ Left alone Naledi closed her eyes and scanned her soul. It had a crack, the crack was small but no matter how small it was, soul demage was still an issue.
However the crack was healing but it was slow. At this rate it would take her half a year to heal but it was still impressive.
This was something even her closest friends didn’t know, her vessel was capable of healing her soul on it own and everytime it did the soul would grow stronger.
It was a known fact that very few special innate abilities of some species could heal souls the only other way is to use natural treasures or elixirs.
So for her vessel to be able to do that was very impressive and she knew it wasn’t because it was a Divine vessel, this was a speciality of it.
Then she looked to the side, on top of the shelf next to her bed was a white crystal ball. It gave off a very enticing aura, she felt absorbing it would be beneficial to her.
She reached out and took it. A blue sword appeared on her lap then she placed the crystal on the lotus on her sword.
A trickle of energy leaked out of the crystal into her sword but what followed was a mind numbing pain that almost made her black out, unintentionally she let out a blood curling scream.
Sweat dripped down her face and made the blanket wet. She checked her soul and found the crack on it had grown slightly longer.
She frowned then Cathra bust through the door worry written all over her face." What happened? are you okay?" She checked on her and wiped the sweat off her face.
Then she saw the crystal and her face turned to rage. " What were you thinking? Can’t you sense the dangerous and repulsive aura from this thing? It’s obviously not meant for us to absorb."
She admonished her but Naledi looked confused. " What are you talking about? This thing would be obviously beneficial if absorbed, I can feel it."
Now it was Cathra’s turn to be confused, as a vessel holder of third rank she knew exactly if something gave you the feeling it would be beneficial then it mostly likely is.
But it gave her the exact opposite feeling and if it was good then why did it seem to hurt her. She frowned. " Are you sure?" " Positive."
The Naledi tried something different, instead of absorbing it through her vessel she tried it through her body.
The energy leaked out of the crystal and coursed through her blood veins, she felt her muscles and bones itch and her body was strengthened, although the effect was negligible it was still impressive, there aren’t too many things that can strengthen her body.
However what surprised her the most was not the effect but the fact that she absorbed it through her body, it should be known that humans lacked essence veins, which is why they needed vessels, by logic she should not be able to absorb energy with her body but she did.
She looked at the now empty crystal with a peculiar expression. " Your..your vital essence increased." Whispered Cathra with amazement.
Naledi turned to her, " Can you bring me the rest?"