A few hours later, Vincent regained consciousness. He tried opening his eyes. It took some effort, but they barely opened. At first he could not see anything. His heart was pounding in his chest.
'Am I alive?'
The bounty hunter had been stuck in a nightmare where he had been running for hours, witnessing the horrors of his life over and over again. He was hurting mentally. But as he slowly regained all his senses, he realised he was hurting physically just as much, or maybe even more.
He closed his eyes and tried to move. His body did not respond. He tried harder. This time, the right side responded while the left remained paralysed. He waited a few moments and then realised that his Ki was not flowing to or from the Ki Clusters properly. He tried to push himself to turn but did not have the strength to do so.
Having a hard time breathing properly, he once again opened his eyes and kept staring at the ceiling.
'What happened?' he wondered. 'Where am I?'
He could not remember properly. The images were blurry and details were missing. With some effort, he finally turned his head and looked at the curtains falling on the window.
'Light,' he thought. He could now see, albeit not as well as he would have liked. 'Is it morning?'
The sun had already come up but was being blocked by the cloudy conditions in Moscow that day.
Vincent turned his head the other way and observed the room for a brief moment – it was spacious and had luxurious furniture adding to the splendour. Turning his head straight, he looked at the ceiling again. This time, even in the dimly lit room, he could see the crystals hanging from the round waterfall chandelier.
Just then, he felt movement to his left. Making a lot of effort to look over once more, he saw someone sleeping on the sofa chair. Her face was turned away, but he could see the messy hair, yellow sweatshirt, brown trousers, and striped socks. He observed for a few seconds before realising – 'That's that girl, Camille. What's she doing here?'
A sudden sharp pain shot through him and he squeezed his eyes shut. He tried but could not remember meeting Camille. The pain nearly stopped him. Still, he tried to call her.
"Ca… mi…" He could barely get the words out of his mouth.
It stung in his chest and in his head like a knife being driven through him. Using the one mobile arm, he pushed himself slowly to the edge while he kept trying to call her. The words never formed and Camille remained asleep. Vincent did not realise – he had pushed too far. His fall woke Camille up.
"Oh God!" she hurriedly got up and rushed to the bounty hunter's aid.
As the Sokidu helped him back to bed, she could not help but ask, "What happened?"
With barely open eyes, Vincent looked at her but could not reply. Just moments later he closed his eyes. She observed as he lay there – half his body flinching while the other half remained motionless. He was breathing heavily, sweating profusely, bleeding, and in excruciating pain.
Camille took it as an improvement. He was conscious.
"I will try to heal these open wounds," she said, smiling.
He opened his eyes.
"What… ha… happened?"
The Sokidu paused for a moment, then understood. Her head dropped as she sighed. "You don't remember much, do you?"
Vincent shook his head sideways ever so slightly.
"Vincent, you killed Ambris."
His eyes widened as much as he could manage. "That's… that's im… possible."
"You faced him alone at the Academy."
"Serpents?"
"Yup. The Serpents of God were there too."
"And the… the D-Dark Ki?"
Camille leaned back a bit and took a deep breath. With a nod she said, "Yup. You used the Dark Ki to kill him."
"I wasn't… can't be true…"
He grunted. She sighed.
"I saw it with my own eyes, Vincent. Otherwise, I wouldn't have believed it either. Now, just please stop talking. I have to heal you."
The White Bolt closed his eyes as Camille used a Ki camouflage spell to hide the room from being sensed by nearby arcanists.
She then charged a little Ki and placed a hand on his chest. As soon as she began to channel her Ki into his body, it hurt. Vincent groaned as he turned away.
Wrestling with the Dark Ki, Vincent's Ki networks had become too fragile. Any external Ki was only going to damage them more, resulting in even more physical harm and pain.
Camille immediately took her hand off before any Dark Ki could latch on to her.
"I don't understand." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Vincent." She picked up some paper towels from the bedside. "Some of that Dark Ki is still lingering in your body."
Many of Vincent's wounds had opened up again because of Camille's Ki falling out of the many punctures in his Ki networks. She carefully sat at the edge of the bed and began cleaning the wounds and redoing the bandages.
"Ah, I'm so sorry, Vincent." She shook her head. "I thought your Ki would respond."
Vincent opened his eyes and slowly looked at her, whispering, "Ethan…"
"Beg your pardon…"
He looked away. "My name… is Ethan."
Camille waited for a few moments then looked at the panting bounty hunter. "Vincent was your father's name, wasn't it?"
He gave half a nod.
"Well, it's nice to finally meet you, Ethan."
Camille was smiling. Ethan asked, "Why?"
"Huh?" She was cleaning the blood from his chest and abdomen with a small towel that had now gone almost entirely red. Placing it aside on a trolley, she began tending to the wounds on his arms. She used spells accompanied by the tiniest bursts of Ki to help the flesh heal itself. Too much, and it would have caused the wounds to deteriorate further.
Eventually, she stood up, saying, "You're gonna have to drink a little water."
Placing the glass of water on the bedside table, she sat beside his pillow and whispered, "Come on, big guy…"
The Sokidu sat him up and supported him with one arm as she picked up the glass with the other. He asked again, "Why?"
"Why, what?"
Camille brought the glass to his lips. He drank in small sips.
"Why're you helping me?"
"Why?" She rolled her eyes to look at him. "Shouldn't I be helping you?"
She noticed the wounds on his back and the bandages getting red. A few drops of blood were trickling down his spine. With her help, he kept sitting for a few more moments while she cleaned his back as well.
She then slowly and gently helped him back down. Ethan grunted again and turned his head away.
"You saved everyone, you know?" Camille chuckled. "I'm just trying to repay the favour, kind of…"
The bounty hunter looked over and saw the bowl of water on a trolley with the bloody tissues and towels in it. He also noticed the red stains on Camille's hands.
As her smile slowly vanished, she asked, "Why did you do it, Vince–ah, Ethan? Why did you protect the Eye and kill Ambris?"
"I don't know," he replied quietly. "I can't remember."
"Alright, then why did you save me in the forest… in Spain? Do you remember that?"
"I needed to get rid of the clone I'd formed. The spikes… perfect cover."
Camille smiled and leaned closer. She looked at him with a narrowed gaze. Slowly shaking her head, she whispered, "I don't buy it."
Ethan remained silent.
"I think you saved us because you are a better person than you want people to believe."
"No." He closed his eyes and looked away. "I'm far worse than they think."
"Yeah? How so?"
He waited a few seconds, then asked, "Why am I paralysed?"
"I'm not sure." Camille sighed and leaned back. "Your Ki isn't flowing to the left side properly. The clusters are damaged, but don't worry. Not that I'm a medical expert or anything, but they're getting better."
She paused. "I've gotta ask though…" The Sokidu smiled. "How did you do it? How did you undo the effects of the Dark Ki?"
Ethan looked at her. "Very funny."
"What do you mean?" Chuckling, she asked, "You think I had something to do with it?"
"You or Hugo… has to be one of you."
"Ethan… Hugo… he can't…"
His expression changed. He tried to remember. "We fought together," he whispered. "He was injured. Oh no…"
Camille looked down and waited a moment. "He was badly hurt," she said. Her voice shivered. "He… ah… I couldn't get there in time, Ethan."
"No…"
The White Bolt closed his eyes tightly and tried to remember. 'I was there,' he thought. 'We fought together. He was putting up a great fight against Ambris. Then we talked… what happened? Did no one come to help? He was their best… and they did the same with him as well… they left him for dead.'
He turned his head the other way. "Who else did I get killed?" he asked. "Did anyone survive?"
It took a few moments, but Camille looked up at him. She saw a couple of tears trickle down from the bounty hunter's eyes.
"How many more did he kill, Camille?"
"You killed him after that," she slowly replied. "He never got the chance to get into the city. You killed them all."
After a pause she explained, "From what I could read, you killed Derek while he fought Ambris. When I got to him, he was barely alive. After his defeat, Ambris went to the Palace and destroyed a good part of it before moving to the Academy where you intercepted him. I got there in time to witness what happened at the Academy, Ethan. You killed them all – Ambris and all his partners."
He looked at her and asked, "You read that?"
She picked up a journal from the bedside – the same one that Hugo gave her in the forest. She held it up and showed it to Ethan.
"This belonged to my brother," she said. "It's a Seeker's Journal… as I am sure you'd know…"
The bounty hunter gulped with much effort, then asked, "You've been reading that?"
"Yup. Since you've been out cold, I have been sifting through this, catching up on my history." She smiled, looked down, and said, "I'm gonna need a lot of time to digest it all, but events of the last ten years are recorded in this thing. So, it's a good place to start."
Silence settled between them. Camille kept sitting with a hand on Ethan's wrist, sensing his Ki patterns. The bounty hunter, on the other hand, lay trapped beneath the weight of his decisions. Guilt-ridden and wounded, he kept wishing it were a bad dream he could wake up from, but it was not.
He quietly said, "I am sorry, Camille."
"For what?" the Sokidu asked.
"I've been a fool all my life. Hasty, stubborn, and stupid… I've gotten people killed. I was the reason Ambris came back to life. I stole many remnants for them."
"To destroy them… you stole them to destroy them."
"I knew what they were up to… too stubborn to see the risks involved." He could barely keep his eyes open. Gulping and still finding it hard to breathe, he added, "The Hearth must've killed hundreds. And Hugo… they all died because of me."
He paused for a few moments. With closed eyes he eventually added, "I can't even apologise. I don't even remember it all…"
Camille placed her hand on his chest to check on his Clusters again. Ethan looked at her and whispered, "Just let me die…"
"No!" she quickly replied. "No, Ethan. Don't say that."
She moved closer and gently placed her hand under his cheek and whispered, "I won't let you die, okay? Your Ki networks are unresponsive to external Ki, but they'll heal on their own. We just have to give them time, that's all."
He whispered, "Not certain…"
She looked at him, eyes narrowed in confusion. "Why would you say that?"
"Traces of Dark Ki… still there." He closed his eyes tightly. "I can feel…"
"No." Camille interrupted him. Shaking her head, she added, "Those traces are slowly dying."
"It's okay… better this way."
"Don't say that."
"I deserve this. I deserve…"
She interrupted again, a bit louder this time, saying, "Stop it!"
"… to die, Camille. I want this to happen."
Camille's eyes misted over as she shook her head and whispered, "Don't say that."
"I've cheated death… three times now. I'm a man out of time, out of place. I shouldn't even be here. I keep making… same mistakes… again and again… and again. It needs to end."
She kept staring at him as he added, "You and your b–brother… were the last ones I would've wanted to hurt. I am… I'm s–so sorry, Camille."
"I forgive you, Ethan," she whispered, then closed her eyes. "Hugo forgave you too. Just please don't give up! There is still hope…"
"Hope…" he whispered.
But by the time she looked, he had passed out once more. Camille panicked for a moment. She quickly stood up and got ready to try another spell but, as soon as she placed a hand on his chest, she felt it – every last trace of the Dark Ki had finally vanished.