Trial by Spirit, Part 2 of the Soulmate Trials
Prologue: The Elemental Change
"Lerra, I swear, I am being careful," Yoritomo laughed, waving the woman away as he went towards a booth. "How can I not buy a present for my beautiful soul?"
A delicate black eyebrow raised to consider the man even as a smile tugged at her lips. She knew deep down that he meant her. That she was his beautiful soul. Even if the man did sell his body and seed for the cash to buy their presents. And it wasn't because he needed the money to support them. She had enough of her own money to pay for their food and needs. No, he sold himself because he enjoyed the physical contact, the sex itself. And for a woman who rarely felt the need to have sex, even the amazing sex that could occur with her soul mate, it all worked out.
Together for five years so far, Lerra was perfectly content to let him continue his work since it brought him pleasure and happiness even as hers did for her. Even if sometimes it ate at her at night when he wasn't in bed next to her… No, that wasn't true. They had the understanding and mainframe to know how this worked.
Lerra turned away to check down the alleyway that had sheltered the booth from most of the traffic of the market place. No doubt whatever it was he was looking at was cursed. But it was okay, he'd have her test it first before he bought it. He'd learned after one such amulet he'd seen that caught his eye had nearly taken his stupid, beautiful head. He was nothing if not handsome. Taller than her by a couple of inches at 5'8'', his hair glimmered a beautiful shade of black under the Human world sun overhead which had made his skin sun kissed and glorious when covered in sweat and nothing else. When he looked at her, happiness glinting in those chocolate brown eyes her heart, something she had thought long dead, gave an extra beat every time. So when she turned back and didn't see her Yoritomo, that beating stopped.
Her head whipped around, her own black hair flying through the air. There wasn't another exit to the alley. Where had he gone?
"Come to us Lerra. Come to us and we will let your human toy live."
The hiss wrapped around her just as the shadows at her back yawned open, offering her little alternatives as to what had happened to her soulmate. The handprint on her back pulsed with panic. Yoritomo was a human who had a soulmate of a demon, and that demon had tried her hardest to keep him safe.
She darted into the shadow without more than a moment of hesitation. She had to protect her soul mate. She had to find him and protect him. Shadows that had always been easy for her to pass through collected before her and formed mud to keep her from going forward. She ran as fast as they let her as the handprint on her back heated with each moment, panic rising, fighting to control her even as she tried to return the feeling, making him feel calm. She would get to him, she would protect and save him.
She would not lose her lover, her other half. She doubled over just as she found the exit she needed. The shadows were a series of tunnels to shadow demons. One led to another and another and continued indefinite. No shadow demon had ever traversed them all it was said.
But that didn't matter. What mattered was it felt as if a dragon was trying to eat it's way out of her stomach. Panic sprouted and she straightened, pushing her way forward, ever forward. "Yori!" she screamed as she got out of the nearest exit. He lay in the center of a Makai forest clearing. His face was as white as her skin was. His eyes were sightless. His killer stood above him, a sadistic smile on his lips.
"You turn me away Lerra. You turned me away and now I've killed your choice," the demon grinned, sword disappearing from his hand. As he disappeared a scream of agony reverberated throughout the clearing, filling it and exploding forth. Ice began to form on trees, clouds as dark as any shadow collecting and hail began to fall.
Yoritomo was dead, and so was Lerra's heart, forevermore.
Eyes as green as the forest had been that fateful day fluttered open to stare at the ceiling of a room. A bed pressed against her back, her head cushioned by a pillow. Her breasts felt the cup of vines, her hips the feeling of cloth on hips. But best of all, the best feeling she had felt in centuries, the sun settling against her skin, warming it instead of sinking through it.
Lerra felt an actual smile curling her lips as she sat up and looked at the body she now inhabited. What a good use of a useless husk. Her eyes darkened as the fight that had occurred three weeks prior came flooding back. She had been protecting Ari when she'd felt the earth elemental's death through her ethereal body. She'd reached out to it with her spirit just as the elemental had passed, entering it in a desperate attempt to return to the world. She had wanted a body to be able to kill Valek and Rahina. And they had… to a point.
Valek and his castle lay in the Makai, dead along with his general followers. Rahina and the water elemental Talira were confined in the Spirit World's darkest dungeon awaiting trial. The only reason Lerra, now in the body of Loira, was not was because she had done a good service for the world by protecting Maribella and Hiei in their time of need.
Now she was getting used to a body that no longer had her abilities. No more moving through shadows, no more calling of ice and snow to comfort her dead cold heart. All that she seemed able to do was thrive int he sunlight and summon flowers when she wanted. Not that she wanted flowers unless they were ice or snow covered.
As Lerra rose from her bed and moved to the window in her room to stair up at the morning sunlight, she felt a subtle shift in the air around her. Power. As an elemental, she could feel the power of others better now. Her eyes narrowed and she turned as the door to her room opened without a knock. Hiei stood there eyeing her with suspicion. She couldn't honestly blame him for that. The body, with it's rich brown hair and eyes the shade of limes, was the same that had been standing next to Valek. It had used the powers it had for evil for a hundred years. And now Lerra was in it and no one really knew how to handle her, much less herself.
"Yes?" Her voice was similar to the rustle of leaves, soft and beautiful in the silence of the room with the potential to being loud and blistering if need be.
"Koenma's here. You've been summoned Lerra."
Lerra stared at the fire demon, her natural opposite in almost every aspect. As a former shadow and ice demon, she had been wary of the fire demon. As an earth elemental with flammable clothes, even more so. She had no desire to be put through a firestorm again. Once, to save Ari, had been more than enough.
"I'll be out in a moment."
She was so used to… being invisible. Not noticed except by those she chose to be noticed by. It had been so nice. But now… Now she had to be a good elemental. She had to bow and hope that Koenma would make the right decision. And that was?
At one point, she might have said death. She would go and join Yoritomo. That had been what the dream had been about. To remind her of why. Why she'd lived on, why she'd decided to try and find a demon who was strong enough o defeat her and kill her?
Did she honestly want to die now though? With a new body, she no longer had the handprint on her shoulder to remind her that her soulmate was dead. Her pale skin was replaced with the same sun-kissed bronze that she had admired so much in Yoritomo. As far as she could be aware no one had more than one soulmate in their lifetimes.
She took one last look outside. Even if she never had another soulmate, even if Koenma said the only right thing would be her head, she would fight for her new life. After all, she was a fighter. To do anything less would be a dishonor to her spirit, her soul. She would die fighting, of that she was sure. But it would be a fight. That was what was most important.