It's become a habit of yours to feed crows. While their dark feathers are far from beautiful compared to doves, most people underestimate the intelligence crows possess. Not only do they remember someone by their faces, but they also display a sort...
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"You have what's mine."
My vision was clouded in darkness, yet a sliver of light was visible in the distance, the color a crimson red. The same feminine voice from that day spoke again, with not a single figure revealing itself to be the owner of the voice - was it because I lack creativity to the point of not being able to imagine someone in my dreams?
"Who are you?" my voice echoed in the endless darkness, feeling my head turn around even though the inability to see through was evident.
"Thief!" the voice screeched in response. It's screeches were followed by a series of bright light as I felt something scratching against my skin. Though the pain it inflicted was bearable, it still stings.
"Stop!" I screamed, hoping to evade the next attacks but to no avail. "Just tell me what I stole and I'll give it to you!"
-
My eyes darted open, revealing a dark, blank ceiling in front of my eyes. Remainders of the dream began to dissipate as I gained full control over my body, which made me sit upright. Soft material had me sandwiched in between and I quickly realized that I was currently in bed. A bed that's not mine.
"I'm starting to debate whether or not saving you was worth the hassle," a gruff voice came from my left. Turning my head round, I came face to face with the same silver-haired man that helped me defeat the Wanderer earlier. Sharp red eyes stared at me in mock disgust as he held a bandage in his hands. "You were screaming nonsense since I brought you here."
"I'm sorry," guilt washed over me. I'd blame the nightmare, but the thought of telling a grown man I barely knew would only embarass me.
The man snorted, grabbing hold of my left hand almost deliberately, as if forced to. "You're lucky Mephisto likes you, otherwise you'd be dead by now."
"Mephisto?" I stared at the man with a raised eyebrow.
Tying the ends of the bandage meticulously, he inspected the rest of my left arm for any other injuries. "The crow," he curtly responded without batting an eye.
"Oh," the bird with mechanical parts came to mind. "You mean Nathan?"
Staring at me with an indescribable expression, the man stopped everything he was doing. "You named him Nathan?" he sounded offended, by the slightest change of tone to his otherwise flat voice. Seconds after, he chuckled. "I can't believe he let you call him that."
I'm not sure how to respond to that. I couldn't even tell if he was actually offended after he chuckled like that. But, I did feel slightly offended. "Nathan isn't a bad name, you know."
"It could be worse," the man shrugged. Finishing the last touch to the bandage, he leant in dangerously close to trespass my personal space to inspect the wound on my neck.
"What's your name?" I suddenly piqued.
"Is my name so important to you?" he glanced with piercing red eyes.
"Can't I know the person that saved me?" my question was responded with silence. "I'd like to thank you personally."
"And, how are you planning to thank me?"
I thought for a moment. "I can, um," I trailed off, still not able to find the answer. "I can give you something?"
"Are you offering me or questioning yourself?" he briefly glanced at me before he sat upright, finished with the wounds on my right hand. "Speaking of, there is something you can give me."
Whether it's his flat tone of voice or the corner of his lips that's almost always forming into a lopsided smirk, I felt as if his sentence was hinting on something more private - more sensual. At that, my body became rigid as my mind scattered for a possible way to get out of the situation quickly. Just as I reached behind my back pocket to retrieve a laser pointer to aim at the man's head, he instead raised a familiar pendant in front of my face, his brow raised at my sudden movement.
"It takes more than a laser pointer to kill me," he extended his free hand to lower the laser pointer at a brisk pace. "Tell me what you know about this pendant and you might gain yourself a new ally."
I glanced at the man, then back at the pendant hanging from his hand. "The crows gave it to me," honesty is key, if the man is offering himself to be an ally. Seemed like he held a great power in his possession anyway. "I feed them regularly and they bring me presents from time to time. This just so happened to be one of them."
With a suspicious stare, he glanced at the pendant. With an easy click to the pendant, he retrieved the protocore from inside it - which I purposely didn't mention in case he didn't notice. "Did you consume the protocore's energy?"
"What?" I eyed the protocore he held inbetween his index and thumb. "I don't understand."
Flicking the protocore as if it was a coin, I instinctively caught it with less grace. Upon further inspection, I notice the protocore had cracked and it had lost its glow. It looked broken. "It wasn't like this when I found it."
The man stood up with the same blank expression he had through our conversations. "Sylus," he started walking towards the door of the bedroom. "Stay here until you're healed," was all he spoke before stepping out of the bedroom.
-
My stay had been pleasant, to say the least. Until Sylus's henchmen dropped by, not long after he left.
"So, you're a Deepspace Hunter?" one asked.
"Where's your weapon?" another asked.
Their similar resemblance made it difficult to tell whose who. They did introduce themselves. I just can't tell what made them so different with how quickly they spoke. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I croaked, due to the fact that I'd yet to be shown any kind of hospitality, other than being tended to by their boss earlier.
"Nah, do you know where her weapon is?" I assumed that's Kieran talking as he turned to face his twin.
"Nope," Luke raised his hands whilst shaking his head.
With a curt hum, I slowly moved to the edge of the bedside, letting my feet hang just below the dark marbled floor. "Could you at least tell me where I am?"
"You're in Onychinus's base."
I didn't need to know whoever said it, but it managed to make the hair on my neck stand. "Wait, so if Sylus's your boss then," I hesitated, eyeing the twins with wide eyes. "He's Onychinus's leader?"
"Duh?" Luke snorted.
"Of course he's Onychinus's leader," Kieran mocked, mimicking my tone on the last part.
With this newfound knowledge, I'd just realized what Sylus meant by "a new ally". But, it didn't console me the slightest bit, if anything, it made me confused.
