Page 50 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

I pull a face because in what way is it supposed to be obvious to me that my spirit guides can eat? They are spirit guides, so spirits, so I assumed that they didn’t eat?

“There is clearly a lot that I need to learn about spirit guides,” I mutter.

Winston nods, “Indeed. Now, what was this about the imps and another realm?”

“Oh shit, yeah,” I start. “That happened not last night, but I guess it was the early hours of yesterday morning.” I frown before deciding that it doesn’t really matter and continue, “I went for a walk in the woods to sort through this whole I’m a supe thing and got approached by Flinotive. He started chatting shit about me having to complete a task.”

Winston interrupts me, “You could understand him?” I nod, and he adds, “Interesting.”

I raise my eyebrow but decide not to question him and to continue on with my story.

“He sent me to this other realm and told me that I had three hours to get to the door and get out or I would be stuck there,” I go on to explain everything that happened while I was there, describing it in as much detail as I possibly can since I am hoping that he will recognize something about it and be able to tell me where the fuck Flin sent me since Flin himself seems to be keeping quiet on the subject.

Again, I don’t mention the man that I saw, I don’t know why. I want to keep him to myself, as weird as that is.

The more that I talk and explain about where I was, the wider Winston’s eyes get, and by the time I have finally stopped talking, I am half expecting him to accuse me of making the whole fantastical thing up because even to me, it sounds extremely far fetched and I was fucking there.

“Of all the places that I expected you to describe, that was not one of them,” Winston eventually says.

I sit up straighter, “Do you know where that imp sent me? Because he was irritatingly vague when I asked him and then he fucked off.”

“Luesidious,” Winston replies.

I stare at him blankly because I have absolutely no idea where or what that is, for all I know he could be cursing me out and not naming the realm that I was in.

“Lewee, what?” I ask.

Winston rolls his eyes, and speaks very slowly as he says, “Lew-ee-s-id-u-us.”

“Luesidious?” I repeat back to him, entirely unsure if I am saying it right.

He nods, “Yeah, that’s it. I have no idea why the imp would have sent you there though. Since you are back and managed to complete the task, I am assuming that you could breathe there, you didn’t find a plant or something to help you?”

I frown, “No, I didn’t have time to do anything like that, what with being chased, nearly eaten, and then only just getting to the door on time. I could breathe normally anyway. Was I not supposed to be able to?”

Winston shakes his little furry head, “No, not many supes can breathe there without an enchantment, or using one of the native plants like a mask to breathe through that filters out the poisons.”

“Poisons?” I exclaim, slightly alarmed by the fact that I was there for three hours and breathing in the apparently poisonous air.

Winston waves his little hand shaped paw in the air dismissively and replies, “Don’t panic, you breathed fine there and have continued to do so since you got back, you are fine. It is certainly interesting though.”

“Apparently, I’m just a big bag of weird,” I reply drily.

Winston seems to miss my words completely, as he’s lost in his thoughts. He hums, and says, “Leave it with me, I will try and find some answers for you.”

It’s not until he has disappeared that I realize that when I told the story, I didn’t elaborate on how I killed that creature; I just said I killed it. I didn’t mention the sword or anything. That is a massive oversight on my part, especially since I wanted to talk to him about it, and if he knew of it. Enchanted objects are so rare that they are usually known and can be traced back to their previous owners. I can ask him when he pops back up again.

If we can find some more information, then we will have a wealth of knowledge on the sword and know how it works, things to avoid, and trigger words—that sort of thing. I glance at my sword, where it is still resting next to Betty, it seems to be behaving for now although I will always be cautious when I leave a room without it now that it has tried to impale me. I have no idea how I knew that it was coming for me and caught it, but I’m hoping that it wasn’t a one-off thing and that I will continue to get small blasts of intuition where it is concerned until we can find some solid information on it.

I am half tempted to tell both Betty and the sword to behave while I’m gone, but that seems to be edging slightly more to the really crazy and not just mildly crazy, so I settle instead for giving them a warning look. I admit that is probably just as crazy.

I still need to name the sword, but I kind of want to work with it for a bit, practice with it, and see if a name stands out to me. Chances are that it has a name, and if I can somehow figure out what that name might be, then I imagine that it will make working with the sword a lot easier. Of course, I am assuming that it is meant to be mine. I did find it when I needed it, I can wield it with no problems, I can sort of understand its intention, and it didn’t electrocute me when I touched it, so I imagine that all of that means that it is mine.

I shake my head; I don’t have the time to think about all of this at the moment. Right now, I need to get that little black card and head down to the front door to meet Raiden. I am aware that I have been up here for a while now, and he is probably wondering where on earth I have got to. As I’m rushing to make sure I have what I need, it occurs to me that Winston didn’t respond to my fishing about what Raiden did in order to save me from slipping into the Darkness too soon after already being there. Either he doesn’t know, which I find unlikely, or he just chose not to tell me for whatever reason.

I’m beginning to get a grasp on Winston and his personality, and I am pretty sure that it would be pointless for me to question him about it. I will just have to add it to the list of things that I’m going to let drop for a moment and question at a later date.

I take the stairs quickly, pulling on my leather jacket as I go, and smile at Raiden, who is waiting by the door for me. His worried expression disappears completely as he smiles at me, and my lips automatically lift in response. He has got a gorgeous smile.

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