The Summer of Bells: The Essences Saga - Book #2

Summer: Chapter 16

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Chapter Sixteen

For what seemed like weeks, Bell had stared at the snippet of Min’s soul stretched out in front of Her. Here in the spiritual realm, the burnt crisp of Min’s love endured the strenuous testing that Bell placed on it. However, nothing that She applied gave Her anymore information than She could already determine just from looking at it.

The damage was obvious, but as to the why of it…. Bell was at a loss. She embraced Her essence and silently called Logic.

“Sister,” Logic intoned, phasing into perspective. His black eyes darted around, cataloguing everything He saw and zeroing on the snippet of soul before Bell. “Aahh,” He crooned in His monotone voice. “A treasure. Tell Me about it.”

Logic drifted to the burnt sliver, lifting a corner gingerly with one finger. “A beauty. A tragedy.”

Bell sidled closer. “I took it from a woman…” She began.

Logic slowly shifted His gaze to Her. “Took?”

“By permission,” She amended. Logic’s acuity filed that tidbit away. Bell could see it being cross-referenced with all that Logic knew and gather from Their small conversation so far.

“A woman,” He repeated. “Our lost sister.”

Bell wondered if He ever uttered a complete sentence…subject, predicate, noun, verb…all that. “Yes,” She admitted. “We have become friends.”

“Friends with a human?”

“Calling Min human is the same as calling You studious…it’s not quite accurate,” She said with a smile. The corner of His lips twitched, but that was the only change to His stoic expression.

“Anyway,” She went on. “Can You tell Me what You think about this?”

Logic rotated back to Min’s soul piece. “Yes, I can.”

Ah ha! She thought. A whole sentence…short, but whole. She tried to suppress the giggle in Her throat, but a small sound escaped, and Logic’s lips twitched again.

“Come with Me,” He intoned and grasped Her arm and the sliver of soul, moving through the space to His section of the realm. “Here,” He guided Her to a collection of souls locked into position through Logic’s will. He placed Min’s love next to another. The second was a whole soul, but it was aged and frail.

Bell looked closer at the second soul and noticed the similarities in the crispy edges. “Where did You get this?”

“From a man. A very long time ago.”

“So You know how this happened?”

“No,” He confessed. “The answer shall be in the comparison.”

Bell smiled. “That’s two.”

“Two?” He asked flatly.

“Two whole sentences,” She said.

Logic filed away that morsel of information, and His black eyes lit up as He realized what She meant. An awkward laugh rumbled in His throat, and He looked surprised.

“That’s called a laugh,” She told Him. “Will You study Min’s sliver and tell Me what You find?”

Logic tested another laugh, but then He shook His head at His failure. “Yes. Come back later.”

Bell decided to check in on Min. She diverted Her appearance and hoped it was the same as the last time. Appearing in a back alley a few blocks from the House, She walked the rest of the way.