Chapter 46: Chapter 46 – A Chance To Know Someone New

//Author Note: If you want to see from another perspective: //

 

She’s incredible.

Even after our fight, she’s still got the energy to keep training the others. I can keep up as well, but my magic isn’t nearly as powerful as hers, and it has to burn her veins just to keep casting all these complex illusions. She creates shadows that crawl over the grass, and hide the world away, lights that burn with false light, and sounds that come from someplace else.

Nadia lifts a hand, small flames flickering to life on her fingertips dispelling the worst of it, before Christina dances around behind her, scraping a dagger under Nadia’s shoulder, retreating from the axe swinging fast for her.

She escapes from Nadia before she can be caught, summoning more shadows to force her into submission which are quickly shrivelled by the light of the fire. The back and forth continues for a time until Christina calls for it to end. The other fights mostly go the same, except for the battle with Theo, who fights her into a corner and forces her to surrender, using the fire enchantments that he has gathered since coming to the city.

Shaking off her defeat with only a light shrug, she returns to us shimmering with every step she takes. Frost washes off of her, clinging to my skin as I reach closer to her. She looks at me and blinks, her eyelids shattering into a shower of crystalline lights, not quite as bright as when they burn up in the light, but still beautiful.

There’s a layer of frost that covers the mountains in summer when the snows have melted away something harder and colder remains. A layer of ice that’s formed rudimentary veins capable of channelling æther into frost, it survives under the summer sun shimmering with the light that should destroy it.

Aurea Ice.

Aurea.

Rea.

I think that might be the one.

“Vampires will retreat when they’re seen, but they’ll come back when you’re weak and vulnerable,” Theo theorises. “They’d make for dangerous assassins.”

“Indeed,” Rea nods slowly, glancing toward me. Her expression melts away as her eyes swim with a light that I can almost understand, but she looks away before I can figure it out. “I believe that it is our purpose, what we were made for, as it would explain our weaknesses and strengths. Further, while I have no evidence of it, I strongly suspect that vampires may have contributed to ending the last war. While the royal adamant guard held back the armies, the vampires were hunting the enemy leadership. It would at least explain their otherwise unusual retreat from our kingdom.”

“Is there any better way to trap your kind?” He asks. “Some way to keep you from running away and attacking over and over again?”

“A trap of light,” she explains. “Also, we can only teleport when we are unseen, so if there is some way to ensure that we are never out of sight, it would limit us. Increased movement speed may be affected by light, depending on if it’s from a mortal magic, or a vampiric magic.”

“Right, and ‘mortal magics’ are unaffected by your weaknesses,” Lothar grunts, staring up into the sky.

“Please continue to consider these things. I would very much like to know if you discover anything that I’m ignorant to,” she says. “If we might learn from one another we can both be made stronger for it.

“Of course,” Theo nods, bowing slightly.

“Then I’m afraid that I must go,” she says to Theo and the others. “I have a meeting with an acquaintance that I should not be late to.”

“Um…” I rush in, biting my lip as I step closer to her. I want to ask if she has any time for me, but I’m afraid of being too much of a bother about it.

“Speak while we walk,” she says, leading me to the main house. Lothar steps in as Adeleya makes to follow us, pulling her to a stop. “I suppose this has to do with your offer?”

“Uh-huh,” I nod, stepping close to her side. “There aren’t many people that know about my magic, and you don’t seem to hate it. So I want to get to know you better.”

“So that’s what it is?” she turns to me, her expression cold as ever before. “I am afraid that whatever it is that you want from me, you will not find it. I am no longer a living person. I am… the human I once was is lost.”

“And?” I don’t know what she’s trying to say, but it’s not like she’s a ghost. She’s here, and I can reach out and touch her if I want.

“You do not know me.”

“I want to,” I say, sticking closer to her side. “I want to talk and get to know you.”

She doesn’t reply for a while, our feet making sounds on the floor as more of those shadows burst from the walls. I don’t say anything about them, Alice has already taught me that it’s rude to point out the rats and bugs in a person’s home, and I don’t want to offend a new friend over her magic rat infestation.

The maid that was watching the fighting with Henry is here with us, rushing on ahead to get the door for us before we walk into a bedroom. Everything here is beautiful, but that’s true for every room leading here as well. The bed looks so soft, and the sheets are silky.

I want to leap into it, curl up in the blankets and sleep for a whole day.

“Something particularly conservative tonight,” Rea tells her maid, before turning back to me.

She looks me over, not saying a word while she considers me. Her frozen face shimmers as even slight expressions shatter her flesh, skin and muscle that instantly heals again, filling in the cracks that exist for only a moment.

She’s pretty. She’s nice, and when she’s honest with herself I can understand her perfectly. She can be simple as any predator but another part of her holds her back, something that I want to understand better if she’ll let me.

I try not to think about the mistakes I made with Adeleya.

This is different.

“Syr, I see no reason to send you away,” she says, her voice without inflection, cold as the ice at the peak of the tallest mountains. “If you wish to spend time with me, then I will not stop you.”

“Then I’ll be here,” I approach the maid and look over her shoulder as she messes with everything hidden in the closet. There are countless dresses inside, and they’re made of all sorts of soft clothes and fluffy things, but every one of them is long enough to reach her ankles and few are low enough to show her collar.

I need to take her shopping.

“I was serious about the meeting, however,” Rea says. “I cannot take you with me. Not unless you would want to stay in the carriage.”

Stay in the carriage? She wants me to hide away from something?

“You’re going out of the estate?” I ask. “What if something happens?”

“Then I’ll respond as needed.”

“Can I go to protect you?” I ask. “I watched how the knight backslapped you over the walls, remember? You’re not that strong.”

“I managed to beat you one of two times in training, I’m not so weak that you need to worry for my sake,” she says, shaking her head.

“Who are you meeting, anyway?” I ask. Maybe it’s rude to ask, but I’m sure she’ll tell me if I do anything too rude. She’s not been offended by anything I’ve done so far.

“A criminal,” she says. “A powerful criminal.”

“Oh, so like Semi and Vael,” I nod slowly.

“Did Vael put you up to this?” She asks, peering at me suspiciously. “This is too much to be coincidence. She put you up to this, didn’t she?”

“Ah, no?” I reply. “I’ve met them before, Semi even gave me these swords, and I want to find her again before I leave the city.”

“What do you want with Semi?”

“She promised me help with my magic,” I say, and she grips the sheets under her. “Secrets, or something. I don’t know until I meet her, but the rest of my team doesn’t want me to go.”

She stares at me for a while longer as the maid finds a dress and approaches her.

“I need to dress.”

“Ah, I’ll look the other way,” I say, fumbling with my swords as the cloth rustles behind me and the maid helps her to strip. I want to know what she looks like underneath her clothes. How would she look with ice running all over her? She’d have to be like a doll, wouldn’t she? She wouldn’t have any *bounce* at all, and her joints would break and repair just like her face does.

Also, how does all that work when she can’t heal herself?

“I am meeting with Semi,” she says. “You may come with me, but you might have to explain this to your team.”

“Okay,” I reply. I want to look, but I shouldn’t.

Would a single glance hurt anyone?

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The padded seats of the fancy carriage bounce underneath me as the entire box rattles noisily around us. I don’t know why she insisted that we ride in this thing, it’s not even armoured, so if someone wanted to kill us it’d be too easy to do. I could easily smash in the roof of this thing with a single swing, and I’m not even nearly at the strength of a knight.

“Settle down,” Vael says, the strange norkit woman sits beside me and presses me back into my seat. “What’s got you so excited?”

“I think I’d prefer walking,” I say. “Or standing on the roof. Can I go stand on the roof?”

“Settle,” Vael presses me into the soft seat, patting my head. “Good girl.”

Rea glares at her, but the norkit woman only smirks back at her. How familiar are they with each other?

The world outside is hidden away by a set of curtains, and though I know it was a bad idea, I brought Crow inside with me. I thought that maybe she had a special carriage that moves extra quickly and I was afraid that he might be left behind.

“So, uh, what’s it like living in this city?” I ask, shuffling in the seat. It’s not that bad, or uncomfortable, but it is vulnerable to attack. “There are some nice shops.”

“I’ve never lived elsewhere,” Rea says. “I was rarely let out of the estate, so I cannot say much about the city proper. I’m still exploring it myself, and it is an almost alien place to me. Much of the time I cannot even comprehend how distant it is from my life on the estates, the separation that divides a noble from a commoner is so broad that I know few who dare to cross it.”

“The estates are nice,” I say, nodding. “It’s a good home with lots of pretty things and soft fluffy beds.”

That’s not a great compliment, but what else can I say? I shouldn’t mention the infestation.

“Ah, and the walls are tall and strong,” I say.

“Yes, they were rebuilt after the war,” she says. “I was moved to another estate at the time. It was quite a fun time for me, I played with cousins that I hardly knew, and we had feasts near every evening. It is obscene to think of what others suffered at that same time.”

Her expression is frozen, but her eyes are no longer looking at me.

“Is it so bad that you had fun?” I ask, leaning forwards and letting Crow hop over to her lap.

Rea startles but reaches out for him, looking between Crow and I as she considers her next words.

“It is,” she says. “There is always someone suffering in this world. I do not feel responsible for all of them, but those who live on Greystone lands, those whose taxes feed me, they are a different matter. They were abandoned, and I do not know if it was out of a genuine lack of options, or simple incompetence on my father’s part.”

“That’s nothing to do with you,” I say, confused by her words. So what if your dad did bad things, that’s not something that you should feel bad about. It’s also a bit difficult to imagine a world where people are responsible for each other. Most of the time I fight it’s for myself, but I can understand fighting for my family as well.

I’ll fight for strangers too, but I won’t feel responsible for them if I can’t fight. This entire city is filled with people who need help, but I can’t help them, so that’s that. It’s just how the world is.

“So long as I bear the Greystone name, it is my responsibility,” she says, shaking her head. “A name that I will soon abandon, it seems. Let us talk about other things, more pleasant things.”

I nod, and Crow rubs his head against her hand.

He’s soft and cuddly. Not as much as Midnight was, but she wouldn’t have fit in here very well anyway.

We come to a stop at a busy place a shop that’s far larger than any other and all the people here are the sort to wear rich suits and carry enough coins that they jingle with every step. They have guards with swords, spears, and staffs, most of which are left to wait by the door of the shop, but all the rich people are themselves unarmed.

That apart, the guards here seem genuinely dangerous, maybe not as dangerous as a knight, but close. I wouldn’t want to fight them, especially not while outnumbered. I think I could survive for a little while, my strange fighting style could put them off like it did with the knight, but if they’re able to adapt too quickly, I won’t stand a chance.

I need to master my fighting.

I see it in Theo sometimes, the sort of mastery in swordsmanship that you can outmanoeuvre an enemy that knows exactly what you’re doing. They can see you coming, they can be stronger, and they can be faster, but if you know how to move just right, and you know how the enemy moves, they can’t touch you.

An S rank, in that fancy skillbook.

I need that.

Theo tells me that it’ll take decades to get to that point, and I have centuries, so I will get there. I’ve got more time than most people, especially humans.

Rea does too, as an undead, she can live even longer than me. I might even be able to turn into a vampire, or another undead if I want to live for longer still. Necromancers can do things like that, I think. I just need to learn how, and Semi said that she could help me with that.

The guards watch us closely until a member of staff rushes up to us.

“We’ve received word of your arrival,” he says. “The lady is waiting for you upstairs, if you would please follow me.”

“Ah, Syr about this place…” Rea says, turning back to me and facing me seriously. “This is a… it is a place of mortal distractions. I will not judge you for anything but keep our business in mind while we are here.”

“Ah, okay?” I follow her.

“We are not here as customers,” she continues. “Leave the performers to the slovenly sort that come here to spend their gold.”

What does she mean by ‘mortal distractions’ and why is it so important to mention it?

Stepping through the doors, it doesn’t take long for me to figure it out.

Dancers line the walls, performing in clothes that barely cover anything at all while acting out the motions of mating. Not as the spiders do it, but like the dogs in the street or the other wild animals I’ve spied now and again, but also not quite. Where it is a desperate and aggressive thing in the wild, here it is something else. It’s a show, a dance. They move with the beating of a drum, swaying and thrusting in practised motions.

There’s no way to mistake it for anything but a mating ritual, but at the same time, each motion is too perfect.

Rea doesn’t look at any of the dancers, ignoring the performers and quickly making her way up to the next floor, guided by the staff member. I rush up the stairs after her.

The second floor has fewer customers than the bottom, and the performers focus more closely on each of them. A man even looks at me, rubbing at his oiled abdomen as he thrusts with his waist, his underwear hiding very little of the shape of his thing. I keep my distance from him, but the way he moves has the same beautiful rhythm to it, even if it’s not to my taste.

The girls here have their own moves which are much more interesting, some are even of species that I don’t recognise, but each is eager about their dances. They run their hands over their oiled skin and gasp in excitement as they push out their chests or butts, twisting around to show off their bodies.

Some even dance together.

A drum in the corner of the room pounds out a slow rhythm, somehow quiet to the point where it’s hard to hear it, but still sending out vibrations through the air. A throbbing that courses through my flesh, as if it’s coming from my heart.

I wonder if I could learn to dance like that?

I wouldn’t want to get the attention of the audience here. The greasy and fat old men and women try to hide their hungering attentions, but it’s still nothing pleasant, and I wouldn’t ever want them to look at me the same way.

If it was Rea though, or Olive, or another cute girl, then it could be fun.

Semi is sitting here waiting for us, somehow unmoved by the dancers around her. She smiles at us as we take our seats.

 

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