A dance with Death (The Arcana fancition)

Damn, he's got some serious issues -Julian

Asra had been acting strange for weeks, not like himself.

He told me he wanted to leave Vesuvia a while ago, but he never got to it since the count called them to his side.
Ever since he's been stressed, always booked up in the library,
Muttering about things nobody else understands.

And now he comes back to the palace after being gone for hours, with a mysterious dude, wanting to sneak him into the palace.

Sounds like the kind of thing I'd usually do, but Asra? He never struck me as the rule breaker type.

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Mallach (mystery violin dude), looked somewhat hesitant when Asra asked him to play something for us.
But after thinking for a few minutes he stands up and grabs a violin out of thin air.

Not something most people do, but after spending time with Asra it didn't bother me.

Mallach takes a deep breath and starts playing.

The moment he does the world around us seems to swirl into five different realities.
The air thickens, but not uncomfortably, Mallach doesn't seem to notice, and if he does, he isn't bothered by it.

Asra looks completely mesmerized by him. For some reason the change in the air doesn't bother me, all that matters is Mallach now.

"What's happening?" I whisper to Asra, who shakes his head slightly and looks at me. His eyes are distant.

"Who cares? It's beautiful isn't it?" Well, he's not wrong that's for sure. My attention now gets dragged to what's happening around us.

There's these weird.. images? Swirling and dancing around us. Every few seconds they flicker out of view and reappear somewhere else.

I turn back to Mallach, who is still playing, eyes closed in concentration.
Everything around us flickered as he hit a slightly bad note, hardly recognizable, but it just sounded off. His brows furrowed in frustration.

I'm no expert in magic but even I could feel the calm around us waver, bringing us back to the palace gardens, the fountain behind me overstemming what remained of the music.
Mallach dropped his arms and finally everything around us faded.

Asra shook his head around a few times and the daze in his eyes disappeared too.
"Was that good?" Mallach's voice broke the silence. Did he.. not notice what he was doing?

"Eh.. Yeah. Amazing." I muttered through my teeth. I could almost see a smile on his lips as he sat down, his violin disappearing into thin air.
"You alright Asra?" Asra blinked a few times. "Huh? oh yeah.. It's just.. You gotta keep your magic in check if you're actually planning to play at the masquerade."

Mallach looked visibly confused at the comment.
"My.. magic? Asra I don't have magic apart from being related to dead things." Asra hesitated for a moment, then took out a notebook and started scribbling something down.

Mallach turned to me.
"What is he talking about and why are they now taking notes?" Faust (Asra's pet snake) popped out from under his scarf and slithered towards Mallach, who hesitated at the small animal.

"Eh.." He moved backwards slightly. Finally, Asra glanced up from his notes and smiled.

"It seems she likes you. weird, she usually doesn't like people easily." That's right, the baby snake still has something against me. Cause that's not offensive at all.
"Right.. Eh.. You were talking about me and magic. Which doesn't go well together so what did you mean?"

Asra thought for a minute.
"When you play the violin, your aura becomes.. Alluring? I noticed it when we first met too, but it felt stronger this time. and atop of that these.. I called them memories, cause well, that's what they look like to me.. anyway, they appear when you play. Ilya noticed them too, right?"
Fuck- why am I dragged into this??