Yelena gladly kept the conversation going after that. Although she had revealed her past to Henry, it was still a sore topic so they didn't touch on it all that much but the conversation flowed better than ever.
Henry didn't need the System to tell him for him to know Yelena's approval of him had improved even more but he was barely able to remain invested in the conversation like she was. All he could think about was the Quest he had just received to kill her.
As Henry had promised, Yelena still thought he was insane for wanting to die over and over even after he told her he had wanted it done to get stronger.
"How does it make you stronger though?" She asked.
"How else?" Henry told her blankly, "Magic."
"Hmm, yes, I suppose that makes sense. As much sense as Magic can make. Magic is such a marvelous and strange thing isn't, it?"
"I suppose it is," Henry agreed. The more he looked into her face, the more the Quest to kill her continued to surface in his mind.
As for Yelena, there was no hint of disbelief on her face at Henry's reveal that dying made him stronger. However, she did ask why he no longer wanted to do it.
"I went too far and the next ti I die, it will very likely be definite," Henry answered her honestly.
"Even with my ?" Yelena asked, surprised.
Henry nodded,
"Yes," he said and he managed a smile, "You were right. Life is sacred. There— are forces that won't stand for toying with it."
Henry let a few seconds pass and then decided to ask the question most prevalent on his mind,
"Yelena?"
"Hm?"
"Do you want to die?"
Yes, it was a very forward question. It was a question that soone who joined the conversation out of context could find weird but neither Henry nor Yelena thought so because her story of her past had made ntion of such a desire.
Henry waited with bated breath for her answer.
When he first read the description of the Quest to kill her, he imdiately said 'Hell No!'
But as ti passed, everything she had said to him while she told him of her past surfaced in his mind with a clarity that made him wonder if the system gave him the Quest because that was what Yelena wanted herself.
Yelena's smile turned sad and she looked at her hands,
"I want to be free, Henry," she said,
"For the first ti in my life, I want to see more than the sa walls. The sa compound. I want to read more than the sa books and write on more than the sa pages.
I want to be free and I'll take that freedom however I can."
Towards the end, Yelena looked up from her hands and stared hard into Henry's face so that their eyes were locked on each other's. Eventually, Henry looked away,
"I have to go," he said.
Yelena looked surprised but then nodded with a small smile,
"Oh, alright."
"I'll see you tomorrow," Henry said and half a minute later, he was outside the dical bay. As he started to walk away, he raised his right hand and thought in his head,
'
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