Necromancer's Curse

Chapter Nine

"You want me to kidnap Lili?" I repeated in question. When Aristide had told me that I would be kidnapping Lili tonight my heart skipped a beat.

"I told you that you would eventually, didn't I?" Aristide said with a grin. "You skipped out on the sentimental magic lessons and while you passed the test for those lessons in a way I was honestly surprised with, that means all of the events that were going to happen later are all going to happen now."

I instantly began regretting my decision to skip through the lessons for sentimental magic. In the moment I hadn't thought about how that decision would push me through the events that were supposed to happen in the future much sooner. I had to kidnap Lili and while my mind could quickly think of a way for everything to work out in my favour, I wasn't quite ready to actually go through with it.

"May I ask a few questions before I leave?" I asked. I wasn't sure if my mental panic was evidential in my voice, but overall it didn't matter if it was or not.

"I suppose," Aristide said hesitantly. "If I were you I would be careful about what you ask."

"Why did you assign me to get a sentimental object rather than to steal one?" I quickly asked after his approval. It was a question that I still was extremely curious about the answer for and while I didn't know if Aristide would answer or not, it was something that I figured I might as well try to ask now.

"I'll tell you after you get the girl," Aristide said while lightly chuckling to himself. "It will all make sense after I explain it. I'm sure that answer could fit all of your other questions as well."

I didn't know whether or not to be satisfied with this answer. "Can I ask you more questions after I get Lili?" I asked, accepting my job to kidnap my crush.

"If you're too stupid to understand everything after I explain it, I suppose," Aristide said. "Considering you skipped all of the lessons on sentimental magic with small fault, you should understand it all. It'll be the last thing I explain to you."

"Understood," I said as I stood up. "I'll be back soon with Lili."

~

When I left to go to Lili's house the workers who lit the lanterns along the road were out, just finishing their job for the night. I had worn a hood over the clothes I had put on in the morning to keep me warm in the night. Everything about the situation felt eerie. I had only been out on the town this late my first day here and having a job to deceive someone whom I'd nearly call a friend to take them into the same clutches that I'd been damned to for half my life felt like one of the dirtiest things I had ever been assigned before.

I had killed people, I had helped Aristide kill people, and I had seen more human beings explode into chunks of blood and tissue more times in my lifetime than I'd like to keep track of. I've ended the life of children, tortured real human beings who had real emotions and that screamed for me to stop, and even then I felt like what I was on my way to do was worse.

I never knew the random men and women that Aristide had me kill. I might have seen them around town whenever Aristide wanted to go somewhere with me, but I never formed a connection with them. I never became infatuated with them. I just mercilessly let loose all of my pent up aggression on these strangers.

"This is stupid," I whispered to myself. I was being a hypocrite. It was stupid for a girl I had just met to affect me in such a way. I shouldn't let Lili's kidnapping get to me the way it has. I could feel a part of me hesitating inside and I hated it. I didn't want to hesitate and I knew if I stopped for even a second in getting Lili into my grasp I would be doomed. I should have been able to mentally treat Lili like the strangers I'd mutilated. I shouldn't have let a stupid crush get to me in such a way.