2 Catherine Lippi (1/2)
Catherine was a bit surprised by such an ordinary answer. Usually, a summoned Soul Guardian would have a name that sounded somewhat more... heroic or intimidating.
”Hmmm nice to meet you miss Catherine, but this whole situation is a bit confusing. Can you explain to me what is happening?” she heard the spirit say.
Hearing those words Catherine couldn't help to have a bad feeling.
”Spirit, do you know what Soul Guardians are?”
”Can't say I do, sorry.” Joshua replied. He wondered if this somehow was a case of mistaken identity.
”Soul Guardians are spirits such as yourself who establish a bond with a Spirit Summoner like me to act as a battle companion.” she started to get a bit scared.
Catherine came from a noble family of Spirit Summoners. Ever since her childhood she had been trained in various combat arts & magic as well as learning about spirits & Soul Guardians.
A Soul Guardian was a type a spirit that could only be summoned once, when reaching adulthood and would accompany her the rest of her life. The spirit would respond to her own soul and the summoning would bring forth the most appropriate one for the summoner. Soul Guardians had various shapes.
Her elder sister, Miranda managed to summon a fire elemental.
Her brother Michael ended up with a 3-headed wolf.
Her mother's Soul Guardian was a Pegasus.
Her father was very renown for having an angel as a partner!
”If I may ask, what sort of Spirit are you?”
”I'm not sure what you mean, but before I died, I was a regular human being.”
Human souls as Guardians were extremely rare but there was still the possibility of...
”Where you some kind of legendary hero?”
”I once saved a kitten that was about to be overrun by a car, but I doubt that's what you mean...”
”...” Catherine's face was very pale at this moment. ”Do you have any special abilities?”
”Well, I was a computer programmer in my previous life, I can help with tech support or software development. I also specialize in creating artificial intelligence.” Joshua replied.
”I have no idea what any of those are.” she sighed.
”Well, I'm afraid neither of us understands what the other is trying to say.”
Joshua knew he clearly wasn't what Catherine expected. However, at this point, he was severely lacking information.
”Forgive me to ask, but where are we exactly? Everything is dark except the two of us.”
”This place is my personal spiritual world residing inside my soul. When a summoner gains a Soul Guardian, it becomes his home and he can remodel it to see fit. A Guardian can be summoned out of it by the summoner though.”
”I see, so if this is still a mental world, can I change my form like before?” he wondered.
Catherine's eyes couldn't believe the ordinary appearance of the spirit she summoned. He looked completely useless in battle, the only noteworthy thing was his bizarre clothing style.
”Phew, that's better! So miss Catherine, what happens next? I don't think I'm very fit to be your Guardian. Can you send me back and summon someone else?”
Such an innocent question made her want to cry.
”I'm afraid the summoning can only be performed once.” she said sitting down and hugging her knees.
”So I'm stuck here inside your world?”
”Unless I summon you outside, *I'm* indeed *stuck with you.* ”
Catherine was usually a kind girl, but this failed summoning had made her mood hit the bottom and yet it kept digging.
Joshua started pondering. There has to be a reason why this happened.
By now he started to get used to making changes to the environment in this mental world. He made a table and 2 chairs appear and invited Catherine to sit in front of him. Having done that he tried to make some coffee materialize. It worked, the coffee might be imaginary but in this mental world when you drank a cup it still fell like coffee.
He started to tell Catherine everything that happened so far. How he woke up in that strange room, the giant eyeball, the whole womb thing, and how he finally landed here.