In the room next to Jevan’s, Vensen was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling with half closed eyes shadowed by dark circles from lack of sleep. Beside him, Ash was sprawled across the couch, his face tense, arms dangling toward the floor. Both had been awake for hours, yet neither had the will to move.
Ash tossed his pillow toward Vensen, then said in a weak voice,
"Are you awake?"
Vensen caught the pillow and hurled it back hard.
"Why do you ask?"
Ash put the pillow back under his head and sighed.
"Do you know what’ll happen next? I’m sure Grivus will send more n after us if he doesn’t co himself. And if he finds out we betrayed him..."
Vensen cut him off.
"No."
"No what?"
"He won’t co after us."
"Really? Are you sure you didn’t sell your soul to that Crow?"
Vensen turned to the other side of the bed.
"Do you think everyone’s an idiot like you? Who the hell sells their soul to a Crow?"
Ash replied irritably,
"First of all, I didn’t sell my soul to the Crow... I sold it to that masked woman. And second, it’s not like I had another choice."
"What kind of circumstances make a man sell his soul to a Crow?"
Ash threw his head back and sighed deeply.
"What kind of circumstances make a man wander around with that lunatic in a mask?"
"None. I went willingly."
"You expect to believe you follow a madman like that of your own free will?"
"I’m not interested in convincing you of anything."
"Have you gotten more arrogant, or am I just imagining it?"
"And have you gotten more talkative, or am I the one imagining?"
Ash threw the pillow at Vensen again, hitting him square in the head, making his head jerk back. Vensen narrowed his eyes, grabbed the pillow, and flung it to the floor impatiently.
Silence hung in the room for a while before Ash finally spoke,
"Do you think we’ll survive?"
Vensen stared at the ceiling for a mont before answering,
"Maybe."
"That’s strange..."
"What is?"
"You’re the most pessimistic person I’ve ever t. Normally you’d say sothing like, ’We’re definitely going to die,’ or ’Damn it, the end is near.’"
"And you’re normally not this chatty."
"Can you bla ? I’m scared for my life, for God’s sake! I don’t know where we’re going or what we’ll do next. Are we going to die? Will we make it? And if we do, will I stay a servant to that Crow sorry, the masked woman forever?"
Vensen didn’t answer. He just kept staring at the ceiling. The words Ash had spoken mirrored exactly what was running through his own mind, except for the part about the Crow, of course. He knew Grivus wouldn’t let them go easily not after they’d allied with the one who killed two of his Authority wielding followers. Grivus hated betrayal more than anything else.
But sothing else kept replaying in his head the image of Jevan when he’d seen him in that miserable state, that broken body, bones jutting through torn flesh. And although his body had returned to normal the next day, that image stayed carved into his mory.
He thought, still staring at the ceiling:
"What kind of life did you live, Jevan, to beco like that?"
***
[Jevan’s perspective]
I held the pendant hanging around my neck and began fiddling with it between my fingers. The strange thing I suddenly realized while examining it was that I had never taken it off not when I showered, not when I changed clothes it always stayed there around my neck. I’d been doing that unconsciously all along, never once thinking about it.
Now I tried to take it off. But the mont my fingers touched the chain and I tried to pull it, a heavy sensation pressed against my chest, so I let go. Well... it seems this pendant ant a lot to the original Jevan.
Looking closer, I noticed symbols engraved on its surface. That confird my suspicions this pendant was indeed a System piece, though it no longer contained any Authority power.
This pendant was the sa one the younger Jevan always wore, which confird my theory that it once held the Miracles Authority. It seed the original Jevan had gained his Miracles Authority from it. That had been a suicidal move the success rate for assimilating Authorities through System pieces was extrely low.
It looked like the original Jevan had used up all my luck in the process and left with nothing but misfortune. Anyway, maybe this pendant was the reason I could travel through ti and et the little Jevan every ti I fell asleep. Now it was almost worthless. Almost because maybe I could still use it sohow.
I reached out to the playing cards laid out in front of on the table, picked one up, then opened one of the vials of rabbit blood and began drawing the sa symbols that were on the pendant. After that, I charged the card with a small amount of Authority energy.
The result was a complete failure. I sighed in frustration, grabbed another card, drew the symbols more precisely this ti, charged it again still nothing. I repeated the process several tis, but the outco was the sa every single ti. In the end, I tossed the last card onto the table and exhaled.
"Well, looks like I can’t create low quality System pieces for the Miracles Authority."
I looked at the two blood vials one completely empty, the other barely holding a few drops.
"Maybe the problem’s in the rabbit blood itself?"
I reopened the leather notebook and flipped through its pages until I found a small section about the people who sold blood vials in the Lower District. I read the first line and imdiately regretted it.
The term rabbit blood didn’t actually an literal rabbit blood. It was a symbolic na used to refer to the blood of a Law Authority assimilator. Damn it... that explained everything. And now I understood why that old woman had charged a full silver coin for just two bottles.
I raised the empty blood vial under the candlelight and stared at it.
"The blood of a Law Authority assimilator... By the Creator of earth and sky, where the hell did that old woman get it?"
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