Scarlet Soul

Chapter 6: Faerendal

"You are correct, Kayla. I have no interest in you, I suppose it's not as hard to notice as I thought." he was being sarcastic again. The vampire may have been calm in this situation but the human travelling with her was certainly not. He could tell what that man would say before he even opened his mouth. For a moment, their eyes were looking into one another's and they could almost feel each other's thoughts. "You will not be leaving tonight."

The boy's heart stopped. He knew this would happen, he could tell, but it was much scarier than he thought. The man opened the door and the human walked in without hesitation- you could not escape from the grasp of a skilled mage unless he lets you. The vampire followed a moment later and the door was locked again. "Girl, go bathe- you can do that alone, right? I'll make dinner after I get you two a change of clothes because frankly, you smell worse than an orc's breath."

The girl was surprised by his kindness. He was actually letting them stay and he was even taking care of them. They were helpless against him but he did not plan on hurting them. Was that what you'd call 'a good man'?

Kayla obeyed and followed the scent of soap into a room on the side, caught off guard by how big the house was on the inside. She left the two men alone for their own business and shut the door after entering through. Kayla instantly focused on making out the details of all the objects in the space surrounding her: she was blind, after all, and most of the time all she could sense was the general shape of living things and living things alone. To see the things surrounding her as separated objects, she had to emit weak waves of essence for a short while.

The results of her 'scan' surprised her- although there was nothing odd about the large tub in the center of the room or any of the objects related to it, Kayla could not help being caught off guard by the large open window right in front of her. She knew that the wizard had no interest in her but would he really go as far as letting her escape? No, actually, he might want her to escape and leave Edrich in his care. Could the man really have an intuition this sharp? Did he know that Edrich possessed dragonblood?

No, that was not it. Even if he did know that, why would he care? True, it is not often that you come across a mage, but there was not a single thing the older man could gain from spending time with Edrich. Why did he provide an escape route for her, then? It was certainly no coincidence that she was ordered to bathe first.

But... Did all that even matter? She could escape! There was no danger greater than this man's presence at the moment and she was given the chance to save herself-

Of course. Edrich. If she ran, she would be leaving him behind. He was not precious to her and she would have never given her life for him, for a stranger... Why did her chest ache this much when she did not even have a beating heart?

She could not leave him. Kayla did not know why she made this decision but she had no doubt that it was the one that she would regret the least. She stripped and entered the hot water that musthave been prepared in advance and relaxed as she washed her body and the long, wet locks of white hair sticking to it. She came out of it refreshed and happier than what she had been in a very long while. Clean clothes expected her outside the room, as promised, and although they were a little bigger than she'd like, Kayla loved them. A knee-length dress that was easy to move around in, light and soft to the touch, and a pair of boots replaced her sandals. The cape she wore on the way here was not discarded and she was glad that she might be able to slip it around her shoulders again sometime.

She enjoyed the slight change of expression of the older wizard's pulse when she came back into the living room but she could not tell what the emotion expressed was- respect, surprise or disappointment. "Was everything fine?"