Ash
That night, Ash was so tired that upon entering the bathhouse, she slumped on a wooden chair and felt like she'd never get back up again.
Holy shit, sitting down has never felt so good. She thought as Kaori did the same at a chair next to her.
"I feel like I got stabbed," Kaori whined.
"My arms are going to fall off," Ash added.
"Heh," Kaori chuckled, smiling over at Ash. "I, uh, hope whatever happens in our next fight will be worth getting punched in the gut over and over again."
Satsuhiro had entered last. Metsumi was reading something at the kitchen table, and Satsuhiro joined her. Ash saw the two of them look in hers and Kaori's direction, smirking.
"Worked them to the bone today, huh?" Metsumi asked.
"Yes, Ren helped."
"Oh, right! Ren, ran into him again?" Metsumi asked.
"He's helping Kaori out, so it looks like he'll be training alongside us for a while."
"Nice! Ah, I gotta catch up with the guy. He still owes me some arm wrestling," she flexed.
"I'll let him know," Satsuhiro said, showing a rare smile.
---
Later into the night, as the others had gone to sleep, Ash walked out to the baths and found that this time, they were being used. Emerging into the open area, her skin was covered in moonlight as she took a few steps towards a bath to her left, where Vermia was.
Her arms were resting on the edges, the necromancer's head tilted back and her eyes closed. Ash noticed black lines running up from her chest that faded at the start of her neck. As the half-demon took a few steps closer, Vermia's eyes opened and she grinned.
"Some people dream of this sort of thing," she chuckled.
"Huh?" Ash raised a brow.
"A woman joining them in the night like this," then, her eyes lowered, as though a memory was playing in front of them. "But they don't realize that the woman's intention may not always be the best..."
She shook her head.
"So, here to learn more?" She asked.
"... Yeah," Ash replied. Depending on what the hell "learning more" means... She added.
"Wonderful. Join me." She gestured at the bath.
Ash hesitated.
"If we're going to do business we may as well be comfortable, no?" Vermia asked. "Go ahead."
Ash leaned over the edge of the bath and looked into the water.
"Hm?" Vermia hummed. "Looking for something?"
"This one time..." Ash muttered, remembering what had happened to Kaori. Then, she shook her head and shrugged. "Fine."
Taking her clothes off, the half-demon took a deep breath and threw a leg over into the bath, testing the water. It was warm, pleasant enough, so Ash got in completely. Seeing this, Vermia went back to her original position, keeping her head leaned back and her arms on the edge.
"So, have you given it some thought?" She asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you're speaking to a necromancer right now..." Vermia told her. "If you wish to learn the craft, I am willing to teach you. Of course, if you do not, I will teach you other spells that don't have anything to do with necromancy or summoning. I'd like to think that I take rejection well, so be honest."
Ash looked away.
"... I'll take the second option." For now, she added in her mind. If it feels like I really need more skills or whatever, I'll consider it.
"Hm. Pity." Vermia shrugged. "Very well then. Now, let's see... Ah! This would be useful for you, I'm sure, what with that friend of yours. I'm sure you wish to keep her safe, right?"
"Kaori?" Ash quickly asked.
Vermia nodded.
"Considering how she looked at me when I met her... I can tell she is quite protective of you. Well, in good faith, here's a spell that will help keep her alive."
"What is it?"
"Living Vortex," Vermia said. "You place a mark on someone. That person will regenerate their wounds based on the damage dealt to others around them. Both allies and enemies. It's a spell I use on my minions. Put in simpler terms, every time someone around this person is hurt, the bearer of the mark is healed."
"So... It's like the other spell you gave me, but on someone else?"
"Essentially, yes. That said, there's a catch," Vermia said. "The more this person heals, the more it will exhaust you. Not just that, but of course, the wounds of others will be intensified until you take the mark off. Basically," she said, tilting her head, "what I'm trying to tell you is that you shouldn't keep that mark on her forever. You will also want to use this spell when it's mostly enemies around her, so you don't hurt allies. Understood?"
"Sure." Ash nodded. "So, the spell?"
"Here you go," black tendrils suddenly emerged from her fingertips and flowed into Ash, just as had happened before.
Spell: Living Vortex
Mark an ally. When wounded, that person will worsen the wounds of those close to them, healing them in turn.
Mana Cost: 20
Ash nodded.
"Okay..." She looked into Vermia's cold eyes. "Thank you."
"My pleasure, however," Vermia shrugged, "that's it for the spells I have mastered that aren't necromancy-related. As in, the ones I can just pass to you effortlessly. So, you're going to have to put in the time to learn the others by reading. Unless... of course, you want me to teach you necromancy." Her tone sounded slightly hopeful, but Ash shook her head.
"I see," Vermia replied quietly.
"... How did you learn any of this?" Ash suddenly asked.
"Hm?"
"Necromancy," Ash elaborated. "Who taught you? It doesn't sound like the kind of thing you can find in a random store."
Vermia looked away and smiled.
"A foolish, but ambitious man."
---
Vermia
25 Years Ago
The sun was always harsh to the city of Amber. Because of this, most people who walked through its sand-covered streets would do so with their heads covered and wearing loose-fitting clothes as they conducted their business.
"Come around, come around! Water! Get your water here!"
Mages would sell gallons of purified water to travelers, locals, and the wealthy alike. And mostly, all Vermia could do was watch. She had no money to her name, no family to fall back on. However, starved and thirsty as she was, she simply couldn't die.
It was because of this that the people who knew her called her the "Ghost of the Sands," because, with her pale skin and thin body, she was more reminiscent of a spirit than a human. Occasionally, she'd hear people talk about how they expected her to be nothing more than a corpse by the next day's morning.
And every time, she'd be there, her knees curled up to her chest, still alive.
Everyone wondered how she did it, but no one could figure it out.
"Nighttime..." She would tell herself. "Just wait until the night. Wait until they're all asleep..."
The days would pass uneventfully. No one would even harass her, out of fear that she was actually a cursed being and that if they harmed her, her curse would move to them.
Instead, she would sit there, breathing, not saying a single word as her eyes would remain fixed on the birds across the street. All she would do, all day, was watch them.
Eventually, though, she'd move.
When the brightness above was replaced by a sheet of black, only then would Vermia's thin legs move her through the street. She spotted a pigeon, eating some leftover bread. Vermia grabbed a piece and walked towards it. The pigeon turned around and saw her. Vermia crouched, placing the bread in front of her. The pigeon approached, poking at it.
Vermia slowly placed her hands on it, hoping it wouldn't fly away.
When it didn't, she smiled.
"Lesser being, give me your life." She muttered.
Black lightning surged from its body and flowed into her. The creature instantly started trying to fight to fly away, but Vermia kept it in her hands.
She gasped, feeling satisfaction swarming her, and kept the spell up until the pigeon stopped fighting.
Only then did she let go. Sitting beside it, she paid no attention to the animal and waited until another bird appeared.
However, before she could go to that one, someone spoke up.
"That was quite the spell," a boy said. She turned towards him, flinching. He raised his hands. "Don't be scared, I'm an admirer."
His voice was charming, laced with confidence. He took a few steps closer and put a hand in his pocket.
"Where'd you learn that?" He asked. "It was fairly impressive."
"..."
Vermia didn't respond. Not just because she didn't want to, but because it had been a very long time since she spoke to anyone. She had nearly forgotten how to.
"I've seen you a few times," he suddenly stated. "I wanted to talk to you, because, well, I happen to be a practitioner of similar arts."
"Huh?" Vermia tilted her head.
Then, wordlessly, he pulled a hand back and pushed it out towards the same bird Vermia had been looking at just before he arrived. A black sphere emerged and crashed into it, the bird tipped over, lifeless.
Vermia looked back up at him and he smirked.
"That seems easier though than the whole 'baiting them in' trick. I can show you how to do it if you want," he shrugged.
"... Who... Who are you?" Vermia asked.
"Just a boy looking for friends. That's all. And something tells me you're in the same spot, right?"
---
Ash
"Of course," Vermia continued, "what that meant was that he liked to take corpses and bring them back to life. A technique he taught me. And... well, we were friends for a very long time."
"What happened?" Ash asked.
"I realized something. This power of ours," Vermia crawled through the bath slowly, until she was next to Ash. She leaned on the edge, looking up at Ash with half-lidded eyes. "It comes at a price."
Ash tilted her head at that.
"Did Satsuhiro explain what Dark magic actually is?" Vermia asked.
Ash remembered the first days of the lessons she took. She nodded.
"Yeah."
"Tell me."
"He said that, uh, Dark magic aims to hurt your soul or something."
"Yes, that is true. It is the exact opposite to Light magic," she continued, leaning closer to Ash, "Dark magic destroys, corrupts, and manipulates life itself. As much as I love it, I can't pretend like that isn't what it does. Because, well, that means something."
"What?" Ash asked.
Then, Vermia stood up in front of her, inches away, and Ash saw it fully.
From where her heart was, black lines stretched all throughout her body, fading at her limbs and her neck.
Basically, it looked like if Ash poked her, Vermia's body would turn to dust.
Vermia smiled, a hint of sadness in it.
"If you have a Dark affinity, Dark magic reduces your lifespan," she said, and Ash's lips parted with surprise. "My master died at age 51, because of this. You may have noticed something," she sat down in front of Ash and put one hand on the half-demon's left thigh, looking into her eyes.
Then, she placed her right index finger over Ash's heart.
"Every time you use Dark magic, you become angrier, no? When you use my spells, bloodlust takes hold of you. I never told Satsuhiro this, because the information wasn't relevant to him, but, to us with affinities, these feelings are not just mere emotions," Vermia shook her head, and pulled back, moving away from Ash. "They are the representation of the effect that the spell is having on your body."
Ash looked down.
"So... Whenever I feel angry after a Dark spell or something," she said, "that's... You're saying that's my body telling me that I'm, like, slowly killing it?"
"Exactly," Vermia said. "As you can imagine, it is because of this that there aren't many of us Dark magic masters out there. And, sure enough, my time is sure to come soon. So, after so much killing and resurrecting, I wanted to do a little bit of good for this world," she told her.
Ash caught a piece of that though.
"Killing?" Ash asked.
Vermia nodded, not a hint of remorse on her face.
"You mean... killing ordinary people?"
"No," Vermia replied quickly. "Nor were they innocent. Well, at least to me they weren't. Others might think they were." She shrugged. "Anyway, there is one way to extend our lifetimes by a couple of years."
Ash raised a brow.
"That is, to absorb the souls of the dead into yourself," she said. "However, it is as draining a process as it is rewarding. Remember when you caught me out here?"
Ash nodded.
"I was scanning the area for souls to consume, but there were none." She lamented. "Alas, I was out of luck on that day. Still, I have since come to terms with my fate, and... This is my way of departing."
She stood up and snapped her fingers. Skeletons emerged and brought to her some clothes.
She walked out of the bath and took a deep breath.
"I will work alongside you and the others, Ash," she stated. "Maybe as a reward, you can make these final times of mine fun for me, hehe."
---
The next day, that revelation weighed heavily on Ash's mind. The Dark magic she'd been relying on so much, it would kill her over time. As she and the others ate breakfast, she was silent, contemplating this matter.
Someone knocked on the door then, and Satsuhiro stood up to answer it. Ash kept her eyes low, on her food.
Satsuhiro walked back to the table and ripped open a letter. Then, his eyes scanned over the contents of a piece of paper inside and he raised a brow.
"Ah, shit." He muttered.
"What is it?" Kaori asked.
"Another portal appeared north of the city."
Ash raised her head.
"What?"
"Mhm," Satsuhiro replied. "A smaller one, apparently. And they want you and Kasumi, of all people, to go and close it."
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