A Wizards Misadventures

~~Level Twenty Two~~

She woke up again three hours later. I teleported some food from the kitchen to my lab for her and kept playing my game. I was on a hot streak with call of duty and I wasn't going to let it go just to see Valerie go to sleep again. As expected the girl ate the food and went back to sleep, this time on the floor and not on my medical table.

When she finally woke up again it was six hours later. I was resting in my bed with my lovers but still got up. Nine hours was probably enough sleeping for the dhampir.

I separated myself from Ophis' cuddles, managing to foist her onto Esdeath, and tossed on some sweats and a T-shirt. I was in the lab a moment later, where Valerie was sitting on the ground rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Took you long enough," I said to her as I opened the door. Her eyes shot up and she looked at me searchingly. Whatever she saw, it helped her relax a little. She stood up, lurching a little and leaning on the counter to compensate.

"Where am I? Where's father?" she asked. Her voice sounded a little silky. You didn't normally hear that in girls as young as her. I'd only ever heard its like in Cinder, though I never determined whether she was faking it or if she actually sounded seductive all the time. With a half vampire she might actually sound seductive all the time.

"I'm Abyss Mavros. You're in my lab at my house and your father is probably at his castle." I stopped to let her process that.

"You're the… the Apostle," she said, a little quiver in her voice.

"People call me that," I acknowledged. "It never really grew on me. It's still better than anything I could come up with, though I'm not too dependent on Ophis, at least not as much as the title would suggest. Anyways, you're here because I want your Sephiroth Graal. I'm not going to steal it from you. I want to barter for it."

"You healed my soul?" I wasn't sure if that was a statement of a question.

"I did. I couldn't talk with you when you were comatose, you see. It wasn't that hard. Anyways, I have the other two pieces of the Grail and even without your piece I could probably pull off most of my plans with it, but I'd rather have the full set. They're more powerful together, you see."

"I guess?" She sounded confused. "But why not just take it?"

"Do you want me to take it?" She looked even more confused.

"… No?" I stared at her.

"You don't sound sure. How about I spell it out for you?" I cleared my throat. "If I take your sacred gear you'll be unable to use a lot of your powers. Plenty of people would kill for a longinus and be grateful about it. People die for much, much less. Your sacred gear was messing with your head before. It let the souls of the dead sort of… seep into you. It sent you into psychosis and then a coma. I healed your soul so you're now immune to all that bad stuff."

"… Do you want me to give you the longinus?" We spent a moment of staring at each other and just being confused. What even was this conversation?

"I want the longinus. What do you want in exchange?" I said plainly.

"Oh! Wait, you want to give me things in exchange? Sure!" She sounded delighted.

"How about I give you access to a half a percent of my power and send you off to my cult. You don't have to worship me but Elsyria can find a use for you," I suggested.