Neil had quite an experience going through his examination. Usually, the person being examined is the one most familiar with their body, but it was not so in this situation.
In any case, the doctors determined that his body was in tact, and they invited the woman from before to return inside as they left. She approached Neil and continued to explain after properly introducing herself for the first time.
"My name is Cille, I am an ether-caster."
Neil was still upset, but he could clearly see that Cille was sorry for what had happened and was trying to be nice, he deiced to act in kind.
"I'm Neil, um, a part time convenience store worker."
"Neil, I know that you are confused by all of this, so I will explain the situation to you, if you are ready."
Neil nodded.
"The last princess of the caves was Tiahara of the royal family. Over the course of the past months, she noted that something was disturbing the ether. She went to the southern caves intending to communicate with its incarnations, but for some reason, they responded violently. We do not know what happened exactly, as usually no one but the princess may enter the caves. I was part of her escort waiting outside. When the ground began shaking, we became concerned. Soon afterward, the caves themselves shook terribly, some of the nearby rock formations even began to collapse. The princess never emerged, so we knew that we would have to go in and find her. After a short while navigating the collapsing underground passages, we found her badly injured on the ground. We almost thought that she had been killed."
Neil could not help but feel Cille's pain in retelling the story. She was clearly explaining this for his sake, as she had seen it first hand and probably wished to forget it. Cille paused for a brief while, bringing her sad gaze up towards the roof of the bed that she was sitting on. Neil almost wanted to reach out to her, though there wasn't really anything he could do, and he could tell that Cille wasn't finished. She had paused only to collect herself enough to continue telling the story.
"It was then that I saw the incarnations for the first time. I had always imagined them as being benevolent, divine being, however what I saw could not be described in such a way. When I caught my first glimpse, I did not even think that the creatures I saw could be incarnations of the ether that brings us life and happiness. They were monsters, cold and dark. A faint white glow ran through their figures, outlining their body, their arms, their legs, and their heads; it resembled a skeleton, only it was one continuous thing. Around this was some form of transparent flesh, deep purple in color, nearly black. It distorted the skeletons underneath, making them look like a pack of apparitions."
Cille stopped for a brief moment once again.
"This flesh seemed to be burning off - when ever they moved, I could see a shadow of where they had previous been, but it always broke apart and disintegrated into the air like paper turns to ash when thrown into a fire. The sight of these things terrified me. After I saw them, parading around slamming into the walls, the floor, and roof; I didn't move until someone else grabbed me by the arm and dragged me away."
Cille turned back to Neil, his face was full of fear and confusion. She reached out with her hand, and took his.
"I don't mean to frighten you, but you must know what you will face as the princess. No one else but you can face the incarnations now. No one is allowed into the cave besides the incarnations because they, despite being so monstrous in appearance, seem to fear what they do not know. They will only recognize a handful of people at once, all others will be attacked. I myself did not know this until after I had seen them myself, only then was I, and those with me who had seen the incarnations, allowed to know all about them."
"What do I have to do? Fight them?" Neil was left uncertain about being able to confront something as terrible as these incarnations. He felt that beasts so terrible would only kill him, and he felt even weaker in his new body, with its soft quiet voice.
" The incarnations are being through which people can communicate with the ether. All we need you to do is ask find out from them how well we are using the ether, are we being wasteful? destructive? careless? We cannot know unless the princess goes to them. It is as I have told you, lately they have not been pleased. We are doing something wrong, and we need to find out before something terrible befalls us."
Suddenly, Cille moved back towards the edge of the bed, and stood up. She turned away from Neil, and slowly slid away towards the door.
"You should understand now. In the coming days, you will be prepared for this mission. I'm sorry that because of me, you must go through with this, but I personally will ensure that something is done to repay you."
She left as soon as she finished speaking. Neil was now alone, left to ponder all that he had taken in. Cille had sounded so sincere, but she had also instilled a fear in Neil. The incarnations were not trifle matter; Neil did not know if he was willing to go through with the ordeal. Already, he missed his simple life, even more than the body he had lost.
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