The following night arrived faster than Mark would have liked.
He stood in front of the cracked mirror in his room, adjusting his black robe for the third ti, wondering why the hell he was nervous about eting a healer.
"Master," Ely’s voice erged from his shadow, heavy with barely contained jealousy, "are you sure you want to do this? We could simply... not go and stay here... together. Just the three of us."
"Ely, we already talked about this."
"I know, but—"
"I promised her I’d co. And besides, it’s just a friendly get-together... nothing is going to happen."
Yuki materialized at his side, silent as always, her black eyes settling on him.
"Yuki, you’ll follow from the shadows as usual."
She nodded once, and vanished again.
"And you, Ely, stay in my shadow. Whatever happens, don’t co out unless I’m in real danger."
"Define real danger," Ely said, in a tone that suggested she was already planning to interpret that very liberally.
"Mortal danger... not her touching my arm."
"But Master—"
"That’s an order."
The silence that followed was thick with resentnt, but Ely didn’t argue further.
Mark left the inn and headed toward the central square, where he had agreed to et Aria.
She was already there, waiting by the fountain, wearing a simple white dress that made her stand out from the crowd.
’She really is pretty,’ Mark thought — and imdiately felt guilty when Ely’s presence in his shadow seed to grow colder.
"Mark!" Aria greeted him, her smile bright. "I’m so glad you ca! I was afraid you might change your mind."
"Why would I do that?"
"I don’t know," Aria laughed softly. "Maybe you thought spending ti with a boring healer wasn’t very exciting for an adventurer like you."
"Trust , my life could use a little boring right now."
They began walking through the city with no particular destination.
Aria asked about his adventures, his experiences as a necromancer, how he had learned his skills.
Mark answered with carefully constructed half-truths, leaving out the parts he obviously couldn’t share.
"So you were always drawn to necromancy," Aria said, her heterochromatic eyes studying him.
"Not always. It just... happened. Sotis life pushes you in directions you never expected."
"I can understand that." Aria smiled, but there was sothing in her expression Mark couldn’t quite read. "Life rarely goes according to plan."
"Master," Ely’s voice cut through his thoughts, "I don’t trust her... sothing is wrong."
’You don’t trust any woman who talks to .’
"That’s not it... this is different. I can feel it."
Mark wanted to dismiss it as jealousy, but sothing in Ely’s tone made him pause.
She wasn’t just being possessive.
She was genuinely worried.
’Yuki?’ Mark thought, reaching through the ntal link he had with the assassin.
A single word ca back:
"Danger."
’Damn.’
"Mark?" Aria’s voice pulled him back to the present. "Are you alright? You seem distracted."
"I’m fine. Just a little... tired."
"Why?"
"Nothing important... so... where exactly are we going?"
"Oh!"
Aria’s face lit up.
"I prepared a special place for us. Sowhere quiet where we can talk without all the noise and people. It’s not far... just a few more streets."
’A quiet place... hopefully that’ll calm them both down.’
"Master," Ely’s voice was urgent now, "we need to leave. Now."
’Not yet. We just got here... and if sothing really does happen, I trust the two of you to protect ... right?’
"But—"
’Trust , Ely.’
Aria and Mark turned down a narrow street, then another, each one emptier than the last.
The sounds of the city fell away, replaced by an uncomfortable silence broken only by their footsteps.
The buildings there were older, more run-down — the kind of place people avoided after dark.
’Alright... this is definitely starting to look like a trap,’ Mark thought as his body tensed slightly.
"Here we are," Aria said, stopping in front of an abandoned building with boarded-up windows and a door hanging from a single hinge.
The area was completely deserted.
Not a soul in sight.
’Of course. Because nothing says romantic date like a crumbling building in the worst part of town.’
"This is... charming," Mark said, making no effort to hide his sarcasm.
"I know, it doesn’t look like much from the outside," Aria laughed — that sa soft sound that now felt unsettlingly wrong — "but I prepared sothing special inside... co on."
She walked toward the entrance, and Mark followed, every instinct screaming at him to run.
But now that he was certain Aria couldn’t be trusted, he needed to know what she was planning.
"Master, can I kill her now? Please," Ely pleaded.
’Just give one more minute...’
And then they went inside.
The interior looked just as abandoned as the outside: rotting floorboards, crumbling walls, and a mold sll so strong it was almost irritating.
"Aria," Mark said slowly, "there’s nothing here."
"I know."
Aria’s voice had changed.
The soft, timid tone was gone.
In its place was sothing cold, hard, and completely stripped of warmth.
Mark turned to look at her.
And saw that her expression had changed too.
The friendly smile had vanished, replaced by a look of pure contempt.
"You know," Aria said, almost theatrically, as she reached a hand inside her dress, "you almost had fooled. The clumsy necromancer trying to survive in a world that hates him. It was almost... touching."
Her hand ca out holding an elegant silver dagger, glinting with a yellow light that was clearly an enchantnt.
"But there was always sothing off about everything surrounding you... I’m not surprised they issued a capture order against you."
And with a swift motion, she lunged at him.
It was fast.
Impossibly fast for a simple healer.
The dagger drove straight toward Mark’s chest.
But the strike never landed.
Ely materialized from his shadow, her sword intercepting the dagger in a shower of sparks.
At the sa mont, Yuki appeared behind the blonde woman, a blade pressed against her throat.
Aria froze, eyes wide with shock.
"What — how —?"
"Did you really think...?" Mark said, his voice colder than she had ever heard it. "That I would co here without protection?"
Ely’s face was a mask of fury, her blue eyes burning with a terrifying intensity.
"You tried to kill my Master," she said, each word loaded with venom. "You tried to kill the only person in this world who matters."
Yuki said nothing, but the blade at Aria’s throat pressed a little harder, drawing a thin line of blood.
"I—" Aria began, but whatever she was going to say died in her throat when she looked at Ely.
Then at Yuki.
And Mark saw the exact mont recognition appeared in her heterochromatic eyes.
"No..." she whispered. "It can’t be. You are... you are—"
"Undead?" Ely finished, her fury twisting into a mocking smile.
Aria’s face went pale.
Paler than Mark would have thought possible.
And in her eyes, he saw sothing that gave him a small spark of satisfaction.
It wasn’t fear.
It was horror.
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