Talim was the first of us two to talk: "He didn't say much, but at least we know we have to look here in the states!"
"Great!" I said sarcastically, "Spend the rest of the summer looking blindly for that sword!"
"When we're close enough to the sword, the wind can guide us to it!" Talim assured me.
Suddenly, I realized what that ghost had done to me earlier: "He healed me!"
Talim didn't know what she was hearing: "What?"
"That... that guy!" I was astonished about this myself, "He said I'm in no condition to fight, so he healed me!"
"Why would he do that?" Talim asked.
There was only one reason I knew: "Some people don't want to fight others if they're not up for it. He saw I wanted to fight him, but I was hurt so..."
"Like a noble knight?" Talim wondered, "I'm not so sure!"
"Neither am I." I said, "But fact still is I don't feel any pain, anymore."
I could tell that Talim wasn't too confident in the ghost's true intentions. But just as quickly, she remembered we had something else to do: "Let's go and buy some maps!"
"Maps?" I said questioningly, "What for?"
"If we are to travel through this country in search for the sword, we need to know where we're going!" Talim explained.
"But we can't just buy every map there is of this country!" I tried to convince her.
Talim was getting agitated now: "Unless you have a better idea, we will do that."
I didn't have a better idea, indeed. Once Talim noticed as much, she ordered me: "Let's go!"
We went from one street to another, looking for such stores. We ended up wherever we would find maps, but for this city alone. Eventually, we found some diner, where we were trying to recover from today's events.
All the while, I had been thinking about what Spawn had said. The cave where he had hidden the sword was flooded. Somehow we should be able to use that. A few minutes after the waitress had brought us our drinks, during that time we hadn't really said anything else, I got a better idea.
"I think I know where we could find the sword."
"Oh?" Talim was sounding curious.
Before I told her where, I asked her: "What do you know about haunted mansions?"
Talim thought she knew where I was taking it: "You think we have to search every haunted mansion there is here?"
"Not really!" I tried to explain, "There are hundreds of known haunted houses in the states. And at least half of them can be found in Louisiana!"
Talim seemed to show a bit of interest: "That's a lot! But for that same reason, the sword can be somewhere in England too!"
"I guess so." I couldn't deny that statement, "However, all of those houses can be found in one small town. Each of those mansions, farms or whatever, have some kind of history that revolves around people being murdered, tortured, experimented upon,... and now those houses have their own ghost stories. Then there's of course the civil war that has been fought there, and all the natural disasters, such as floods,... it's like there's something in that town that's attracting all that!"
Talim went silent for a few seconds before saying: "Soul Edge?"
"It's a long shot, but I wouldn't rule that out!" I added.
"Well, at least we have a place to go." Talim sounded a little relieved.
"Too bad our airman doesn't want to help us." I reminded her, "Given all the official things we have to go through to get on another airplane, I guess we'll have to hitch-hike our way there."
Talim didn't seem bothered: "There's no other way. Is there?!"
