Philip saw the worry and confusion on Adam’s energy face. He offered so comforting words though they were a bit vague. "Don’t worry too much," Philip said. His voice was gentle. "One day our leader will surely co to guide us."
The word "leader" made Adam rember. He recalled the two powerful voices the final ssage from the Spirit Kings. "This Prince you spoke of," Adam questioned. His energy form seed to show a frown as he thought.
"Who is he exactly? And how will you recognize him when he cos? How will you know for sure that he is your true leader?"
Philip stayed silent for a few monts. His deep black eyes looked off into the distance of the green subconscious plane. It was as if he was searching for an answer that he didn’t really have. "
I don’t know the answers to those questions," he finally admitted. His voice sounded a little bit sad and resigned. "I am simply like all the other Spirits who survived. I am following the orders of my King and my Queen. I am waiting patiently just as they commanded."
A new feeling of respect for Philip started to grow inside Adam. Philip was a low-level Spirit. He didn’t seem to know much more than Adam did about their situation. Their situation seed quite hopeless.
Yet this Spirit Philip held onto that ancient command from his leaders with strong loyalty. He had been waiting for a very long ti. It was a big difference from Adam’s own long existence. Adam had spent centuries feeling lost angry and without purpose.
A warm smile spread across Philip’s round face. It chased away so of the serious sad look he had before. He moved a little closer to Adam. His portly energy form moved with a surprising grace. He placed a comforting hand on Adam’s ethereal shoulder.
The touch was light. But it felt like a friendly gesture a sign of understanding between them. "After all these many many years," Philip said. His voice sounded genuinely warm and a little bit happy. "You are only the second Spirit I have t since our dinsion was destroyed."
Adam was surprised to hear this. "You’ve t other Spirits here in this mortal world?" he asked. A small flicker of hope started to light up inside him.
The thought that there might be others like himself out there others who were also enduring this strange exile this life in a world that was not their own was a startling and sowhat comforting idea. He wasn’t completely alone.
However the smile on Philip’s face vanished as quickly as it had appeared. It was replaced by a dark shadow of deep concern. A profound sadness ca over him. It seed to dim the very light around his energy form. He looked suddenly very troubled.
Seeing the quick change in Philip’s mood Adam asked "What happened? Is sothing wrong? Why did your expression change so suddenly?"
Philip let out a long sighing breath. The sound was like a lonely wind whispering through old empty ruins. "For a very long ti after our ho was destroyed," he began his voice low and heavy with regret and sorrow. "I did not fully understand the true aning of my King and Queen’s final orders. I followed them but I didn’t grasp the danger. But about a hundred of your human years ago one part of their decree one very crucial instruction beca terrifyingly clear to . I finally understood why they had said it."
"Which part of the order?" Adam pressed him. He felt a sense of foreboding a feeling that sothing bad was coming. It crept into his consciousness.
Philip looked directly at Adam. His black obsidian eyes were now filled with a grim seriousness. "The part about hiding," he said. His voice was barely above a whisper so quiet that Adam had to focus to hear it. "Why they commanded all surviving Spirits to go into hiding to conceal themselves from the mortal world."
"Why?" Adam echoed. The single word hung heavy in the still air of the green subconscious plane. It felt like a weight.
"Because," Philip continued his voice now laced with a chilling certainty a terrible knowing. "Whoever or whatever dark force was responsible for destroying our Supre Spirits our Kings... they are not finished. They are still out there. And they are now hunting down all the remaining Spirits. They are trying to find and destroy every last one of us."
Philip paused. The silence between them stretched out. It felt tight and dangerous. Adam beca very still. His attention was entirely focused on Philip’s words. A cold dread a deep fear began to seep into his core. This was worse than he had imagined.
"A few years ago," Philip resud his story. His voice was thick with sorrow and pain. "I was not alone as I am now. There was another Spirit with . We had found each other. Her na was Maya."
Adam remained silent. His earlier questions about their origin and their Prince were montarily forgotten. He was now intensely focused on Philip’s unfolding story. He could sense a great tragedy in the Spirit’s words in the way his energy flickered.
"We... we didn’t take the ’hiding’ part of the order as seriously as we should have," Philip confessed. His voice was choked with self-bla and deep regret.
"Maya and I we thought we were clever. We weren’t on this continent where the Emperor David lives. We had found a place on another continent far away. We were living quite openly in so secluded hidden valleys. These valleys were nestled between very high mountains deep within wild untad jungles. We thought we were safe there. We thought we were far from the concerns of mortals and far from whatever was hunting us."
His voice faltered. He seed to struggle to continue. "But then one day... our peace was shattered. So Elves found us."
"Elves?" The word escaped Adam’s lips. It was a single sharp sound of surprise. "But why Elves? What fight would Elves have with Spirits? Why would they hunt you?" Adam knew a little about Elves.
He had learned bits and pieces from the fragnted knowledge he had gathered over his many lifetis spent inside human hosts. Elves were often shown as beings of nature. They were connected to magic and forests. They were not usually depicted as hunters of his kind. This didn’t make sense.
Philip shook his head slowly. It was a gesture of profound weariness and sadness. "I don’t know why they ca for us," he said. His voice was raw with pain and confusion. "Perhaps those Elves were manipulated by the true hunters. Or perhaps they willingly serve these... these Spirit hunters. I just don’t know. All I know is that they ca for us. And if it hadn’t been for Maya... if she hadn’t saved ... I would have been captured too. Or worse."
His energy form seed to waver again as if the mory itself was too painful for him to hold onto. "Maya," he continued his voice thick with unshed tears with a sorrow that felt as deep as an ocean.
"She used her power. She used a significant portion of her own life essence her Spirit energy to send here. She pushed through the dinsions to this continent to what she hoped would be safety. She saved my life but she stayed behind." He paused.
"And to this very day I am filled with a terrible regret... a crushing guilt... that I couldn’t help Maya. That I couldn’t save her. I ran while she faced them."
Philip’s ethereal form trembled visibly. He looked like he was on the verge of dissolving completely into pure unadulterated grief. The pain of his mory was that strong.
Nurous questions burned within Adam. He wanted to know more about Maya. He wanted to know more about these Elves who hunted Spirits. He wanted to know who the true hunters were.
But seeing Philip’s raw emotional state seeing the depth of his sorrow and his guilt Adam held himself back. He stopped himself from asking anything further. He allowed the grieving Spirit a mont of quiet a mont of respite in the silent green expanse of their shared ntal space.
The weight of their kind’s terrible situation the persecution they faced the fact that they were being hunted had suddenly beco far more personal to Adam.
It was far more terrifying than he had ever imagined.
His own lonely existence suddenly seed like a small problem compared to the fate of his entire race.
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