The Peculiar Alchemist

70 || Their Necromancer

Lucille sat comfortably in her seat, twirling a beautiful flower in her hand as she sat there listening to her husband with great amusement. The whole deal with Briar had been a great source of amusement to her, but it did start to become annoying lately.

Briar had thought she could actually abduct her husband and son, but Lucille knew that even if she was successful in doing that, they wouldn't stay locked up for long. There were so many things that Briar didn't know, and so many mistakes she's making.

And Terrance was telling her all about what he had seen when he was there. It was all so funny to her, but she had stories of her own to tell, too, as she sat there sipping her drink.

"You're not the only one Briar tried to abduct." She told him while hiding a smile behind her cup when she saw his reaction to that. It was so cute how overprotective her husband was of her, she never got tired of it. "There is so much you don't know, Terry. You never pay much attention to me anymore."

Although her tone was teasing and unserious, Terrance had this adorable tendency to take everything she says to heart. He immediately moved from his place by the large painting she had recently painted, and came to her side where she sat in her armchair that allowed no room for one more. "Did anyone try to hurt you?"

A laugh came out of her as she set her cup down, and she gave Terrance one of her charming smiles. "Are you worried about me?"

"Of course I am!" Terrance could not believe she even asked that, he always made it clear that he did care for his wife so deeply. He always saw her as this beautiful fragile thing who could make him live his worst nightmares with a snap of her finger, but that only made him adore her even more. "You're right, Lucy. I should have been around you more-"

Lucille was quick to cut him off.

"I love you, but I don't want you by my side every moment of the day. I was just messing with you. Besides, I have dealt with it."

Her husband's eyebrows rose in admiration, and he leaned closer to her feeling curious now. "Mind telling me what happened?"

"Oh, it was so fun!" Lucille sat up in her chair excitedly, and he smiled at her as he walked over to the closest seat eager to listen to what she had to say. "I might have been looking for paintings again- I know, I know. I have so many already, but I love looking at them. Anyways, they tried to abduct me there but I dealt with it."

"How many were there?" Terrance asked, wanting more details than that, he didn't like how his wife often treated many things as if they were small and insignificant when they're not.

"Five." She said it with a lot of nonchalance before she poured more of her drink into her cup. It smelled like one of those teas she liked, but they always had a strange exotic flavor with them that Terrance never found appealing. "An artist who got away – she was the one who approached me first – and four men."

Terrance nodded his head trying not to let his worry show. "I presume they're either dead or had gone mad."

"I am not that evil. I only killed one of them." Lucille huffed, sounding slightly offended, but she still mumbled the rest into her cup making Terrance smile at her fondly. "One might have gone mad, yes, and the other one amputated his own arm. That's it."

"You are absolutely divine."

Lucille looked away from him to hide the bashful smile she had, and she cleared her throat trying to not make it obvious that his words and the look he directed at her had affected her in any way. "I know I am, but flattery won't distract me from all the time you've spent away."

"Lucy, love," A hand was placed on her knee to get her attention, but she was still acting slightly difficult and upset. However, almost three decades of being married made her husband know her so well. He saw right through her. "You know I would have stayed with you if you had asked. You're just upset I won't buy you any more paintings."

"So you know this upsets me, yet you still won't buy me more?"

Despite his best effort to fight it off, the smile still appeared on his face as he answered her. "Yes. I think you have enough."

The glare she gave him was supposed to convey how irked she was, but he couldn't take her seriously when it was devoid of any real anger or malice. Instead, all Terrance could think about was how beautiful she was and how the stone around her neck was a matching green to her eyes. He often found himself getting lost in her, and she often found herself getting amused at that.

However, there were still things she wanted to talk about as she broke him off from his trance.

"Did you know we have a thief problem?" She asked him, sounding amused, and Terrance looked momentarily concerned at that when he shook his head. He thought it was yet another problem he needed to address, but Lucille's attitude told him not to worry. "He thinks I don't know about him, but I often catch him sneaking in at night to take something. It's always so adorable when he does it."

"You find the oddest things adorable, Lucy."

"I really can't help it. He's such a cute mischievous necromancer." Lucille sighed, finding that mysterious thief to be endearing for some reason, and the word necromancer made Terrance sit up in alert.

Considering everything that has been going on, he had to make sure. "Is he one of Briar's?"

"No, Terry. It's ours." Lucille laughed, unable to prevent herself from standing up from her seat just to kiss away the concerned shocked look on her husband's face. It made him instantly relax. "If he were, he wouldn't have left with anything alive."

Terrance sighed, giving her an amused smile. "I trust that you could have handled that if it was a problem."

"Precisely, but that's not the interesting part." She returned back to her seat making him want to chase after her, but he remained where he was, waiting for her to elaborate on what the interesting part was. True to her words, he did find it interesting. "He was with Cornelia's son, kissing him in my library."

"He was kissing a boy?" Terrance was taken aback at that.

"Yes, dear. That's not the topic here, it's Cornelia's son."

There were a few moments where he shook his head and sputtered a bit, but then he covered his face with his hand before shaking his head. It's not that he never heard of it before, he really just wasn't expecting it. "I- Sorry. You just surprised me. So he was with Cornelia's son, hm?"

"Yes, he was."

"What was his name again?"

"Aubrey Whitlock. Did you ever figure out why Briar is after cute little Aubrey?" Lucille smiled at the confused frown she got.

"I do know she's after him, but cute little Aubrey-?" The way she referred to him was the source of his confusion, he had never met or seen this Aubrey before, but it was so like Lucille to get attached to the least expected things – or people. "You sound very fond of him."

"He looks so much like Cornelia and I do find him extremely adorable. I just wonder why Briar is after him."

Sighing, Terrance leaned back in his seat and remembered that conversation he had with the boy he killed. He forgot to ask for his name, he remembers being in a hurry to go somewhere, but he did mention Aubrey's name and where he was most likely to be.

That ghost told him he was studying alchemy with Agnes, so Terrance knew exactly where to find him. He wasn't too worried about the boy, but of what he could do.

That was still a mystery to him.

"Something tells me our – what did you call him? – cute mischievous necromancer knows why Briar is after him."

Lucille smiled at that. "Oh, certainly."

"Guess it is time I pay them a visit."

"I would have done so, but I would never be caught dead in that shabby cottage." Lucille sighed feeling like she's missing a great chunk of the fun, but honestly, she would never traverse the woods just to end up in a shabby place. "I did send a letter but I got no reply. Ask about that, too, if you go."

"I will." Terrance promised not sounding too excited about the visit.

He knew he'll try to postpone it as much as he possibly could.