The Peculiar Alchemist

57 || Old Friend

The rest of the day went normally after the big revelation. Aubrey may seem like a normal person, but the way he saw things was certainly unusual. He didn't like having secrets kept from him, but as long as he knew them – no matter how horribly vile they might be – he was fully content with the knowledge of what they are. That's all that mattered to him, Kellen noticed.

There weren't many things that Aubrey questioned merely because he didn't see the need for it. As long as he made sure he got what he wanted, and that he wouldn't be affected by whatever was happening around him, Aubrey was completely fine with it.

It made it hard to know where he drew the line.

While he does speak up about a few things he saw as wrong, he never cared enough to actually insist that it should stop. He himself could stop it if he wanted to, but he never really did.

Most would report Kellen and Agnes for killing people, but while Aubrey showed some disapproval of that, he genuinely thought that the people they killed deserved it because they were bad or meddled with things they shouldn't be meddling with. He was also completely okay with stealing books from the Abbotts. His only problem with breaking and entering was the fact that he might get caught.

And Kellen being a necromancer was okay, because it meant that he wouldn't have to worry about him dying. To Aubrey, nothing really changed except that fact.

To Kellen, everything changed.

It was a huge relief from his secret and the stress of wondering how Aubrey would react to it. Getting such an uncaring reaction had never been so good, but as Kellen thought that, he knew that not everyone was just as uncaring.

Perhaps even Aubrey noticed, but Sammy had been awfully quiet the whole time. Something told Kellen that the only reason why Aubrey didn't acknowledge it was because he already knew why Sammy was acting like that, and tactfully, he said something about wanting to go see his friend, Val, and left them alone right after he finished with whatever little painful project he was working on.

Frankly, Kellen expected Sammy to follow him out, but the moment Aubrey left was the moment Sammy was right by his side.

"Why did you do it? Why did you ignore me this whole time?"

"Hm," Kellen glanced at him before he saw the look on Sammy's face. It was not an expression he enjoyed seeing on people he considered as friends, but Sammy didn't even know that they were friends. "That's not your main issue here, is it?"

Hesitating for a moment, Sammy nodded his head. "I'm just wondering if it's you."

Knowing what Sammy meant, Kellen nodded his head deciding that maybe he should give Sammy the answers he had been desperate to have. "If you mean the necromancer you're looking for, yes. It's me."

"Why?" There's still no hurt nor anger in his tone, just confusion. The ward that brought some of his memories back made it clear to him that he had agreed to all this. He had no right to be mad, but he had no knowledge of the reason he did this. "What did you even make me do when you brought me to life? – It was you, wasn't it?"

"Vincent had wards all over his cute little hiding place. You and I both couldn't get in." Kellen sighed remembering everything clearly. It was troublesome whenever someone used wards that actually worked on necromancers, and somehow Vincent knew to use them, but didn't actually know what they warded off. "Had to revive you so you could remove them."

Sammy frowned. "You could control the living?"

"They're a bit trickier, but yes. Anything with a soul. I don't have one."

The frown on Sammy's face only deepened when he heard this answer, and he couldn't help but be horrified at a sudden realization. It made him wonder just how much he knew about Kellen. "You wouldn't control Aubrey, would you?"