At long last, I decided to give it to her. Once Soul Edge was destroyed, my mother probably would not remember that she had ever given me anything like a glowing rock. On our way to my studio apartment, I still wanted to have some questions answered: "How did you know I have that rock?"

"I sensed it last year already!" she began explaining, "I knew it was somewhere in your house! But I couldn't get to it! I had another lead on Soul Edge, and if I lost that,..."

"Hang on!" I interrupted, "You sensed it? What did you sense?"

"We were passing by your house! I fainted when the wind revealed such great evil!"

" 'We'?" I asked.

"Me and Yumi!" she answered, "A friend I made at a ninja academy!"

Somehow, the word ninja had triggered a repressed memory. I remembered that day at the library again, when I was stalked by a ninja, and nearly killed by an assassin. I don't think she would want to hear about what happened to her.

"It was Yumi..." she continued, "... who decided that she could stay back and take it from you, while I'll follow the lead. If the lead payed off, I would return, and look for Yumi at our rendez-vous point. But she never showed up!

"Did she even know when to be there?" I asked.

"Yes!" she almost sounded like this was pretty normal, "She would show up there every ten days! At first I thought she may have found her own leads, but after a while... I'm really worried about her."

"Yeah, I guess you would." I said.

That was clearly not the right thing to say. She asked: "Is there something you know and I don't?"

I was thinking about how to tell her at first, but eventually: "Er... (sighed) Last year, I was surprised by two girls. One with a hood, another with a mask. I got bumped on my head at some point, so I don't really know what happened to them. I was told they killed each other. And to think I never wanted to remember that night."

"Well I'm really sorry to have brought this up!" Talim apologized, though she didn't seem to be very compassionate.

"Not sure if one of those girls was Yumi," I told her, "but if it was, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you she's dead."

Talim got back to her cooled self and said: "I know you are."

While we were going, I began wondering. I always thought that the glow from that rock was some kind of a trick, an optical illusion or something. The only reason I believe Talim is because she showed me that scratch on her back, which for all I know might also be some kind of optical illusion as well. Why this occurred to me only then, I'll never know for sure. Is it because I wanted to be part of something big? Is it because I wanted the stories of Soul Edge to be true? Or rather, did I want my curiosity about that glow to be completely satisfied? Or is it because I subconsciously still wanted to know what happened about a year ago? Facts still remained that I'm returning to my studio, along with a really beautiful woman, which doesn't happen too often, and she's dragging me into something from which I might not return. I once heard that once one comes in contact with the underworld, one can't escape it anymore.

The rest of the way was pretty silent. She did ask me how I could know so much about Soul Edge. All I could say is that ancient myths and legends, and mysteries, have always intrigued me. There were moments I wanted to ask her how she's been living her last few hundreds of years, but there was something about that look on her face, which somehow made her look even prettier, that made me choke before I even opened my mouth. For some reason, I did feel that things were going to take a turn to the worst.

Once we arrived at my studio, Talim took on a defensive position.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Listen to the wind!" was her cryptic answer.

"Whatcha mean, listen...?"

She did not answer. She took a few steps forward, looking around, prepared for just about anything. I did not know why she would do something like this. Must have something to do with her religion, I thought. When I was about to open the door, somebody held a knife to my throat, and pulled me back.

A weird sounding voice said: "Looking for me?"

Talim turned around. She was freaked but I wasn't sure, and I'm still not, if it was because of me being taken hostage, or what this man looked like. Talim on the other hand remained calm, and demanded him: "Let him go!"

"I will!" he said, "As soon as you give me everything you have on Soul Edge!"

"Why would you need it!" Talim replied, "You already are sharing it's power!"

"I need not tell you my true intentions!" the man said.

While they were arguing about,... whatever there was for them to argue, I guess it should be wise to figure out a way to get out of this situation. All I could think of, however, was wondering who it was that caught me off guard.

There was a certain scent that overwhelmed whatever other stench there may be in the streets. He smelled like the ocean, and fish, though he spoke to well to be a fisherman, so I took it this guy's a ship's captain. The knife he held to my throat had a peculiar look. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was really a gun upon which someone had mantled a blade. It may have been the street lights causing the effect, but his skin had a purple-ish color. Talim said he is sharing Soul Edge's power. All together, I may have an idea of who's doing this.

Saying something I always wanted to say, I said: "Cervantes, I presume?"

The man was surprised: "You know me?"

"I know of you." I said, a little shaking, "You were the one who found Soul Edge, and used it to burn down most of the planet."

He was starting to loosen his grip. I was about to sigh of relief, but then he held his knife closer to my throat.

"I burned down the entire world!" he corrected me.

"Er... Yeah..." I tried to explain, "... my resources contradict each other. It even made me believe you didn't exist!"

"What!" he screamed.

"If you burned down the whole world, then how could I even be here? Or these houses, or anyone else that lives here? I have no doubt you can burn down the whole world, but it didn't seem to me that you ever did. Therefor, you don't exist!"

If I make it seem like he is as almighty as he believes to be himself, I thought it would persuade him to let go of me. I remember to have read that Cervantes was a pirate. Pirates have the reputation of being blood thirsty, but not quite bright. I hoped he would be one of those. He is! He had let go of me.

"A smart fellow!" he complimented, "You could prove useful to me!"

"I'm not so..." I began talking, but before I could finish that sentence, Talim had already started to attack him.

"... sure!" I finished.

Cervantes is still the pirate he always has been, though at this moment he looked more like a biker to me. Then again, I had never seen a modern day pirate before, so it is possible that bikers and pirates look very much alike these days.

The fight was a funny sight to behold. There was nothing new about the way Cervantes fought, I had never seen a pirate fighting more carefully then he did so why would he be so much of an exception. Talim's ways is an entirely different story. There were moments I wasn't sure whether she was trying to fight or whether she was rehearsing for some kind of a dance recital. I did read that her elbow blades aren't really made for combat, but for dancing rituals. Therefor it's easy to assume that she's using one such rituals in order to win this fight. There was a point when Cervantes decided to use the gun part of his gunknife. He missed of course. I was relieved to know that he had literally blown away his one shot, but then I relished that in this modern era guns can shoot more than one bullet.

Why am I still standing here waiting for this fight to be over, I suddenly asked myself. And why didn't anyone even wake up from that gunshot? That's when an idea had popped up in my head. I decided to throw whatever I could find to other people's windows. I was pretty sure someone did wake up from the shot, but decided he was really dreaming. He will be trying to fall asleep again, but that won't help because someone's throwing things at his window. That was the idea. All I hoped was that they would come out to see what's going on, and decide that there's a fight going on between two costumed loonies.

People started to throw things at them, shouting some foul words, threatening to call the police. I was hiding somewhere between two buildings, hoping Talim would see me, and come to me. She didn't see me, so I had to call for her. She found me this time. Cervantes made a run for it, and the people calmed down. I turned back to Talim, who punched me in the face.

"Fool! Why didn't you let me kill him?"

I was trying to collect myself before I answered her question: "Would you rather risk people seeing you kill someone, and explain to the police about the whole Soul Edge history!"

She soon enough saw her mistake.

Feeling that we've talked enough, I said: "Now can we go get the rock?"