Von opened his eyes, startled. In his vision only black encompassed his surroundings, and then discomfort washed over his body. Then the familiar smell wafted through the air, entering his nostrils and reminding him of his position. He could not even move.
He tried in vain to look at the woman lying on top of him. He could feel the weight on his body, but he no longer made a point of moving. He did not know the exact time, but he believed that the sun had not yet risen. It wouldn't make any sense to get up at that moment, waking up that woman with no one awake.
He knew that at some point during the night she hugged him as if he were her pillow. He knew that she slipped one of her legs over his thigh, entwining him almost innocently like a snake. He also knew that there would be a time when one of her arms, maybe even the injured one, would be around his chest, causing him at times even to be surrounded by her.
Von found himself like this. Entangled by Sophie in a way that bordered on the purposeful.
Bored, Von lazily took a lock of her long red hair and brought it up to his nose, while entangling it between his fingers. When he could inhale the smell, he caught himself cursing her, wondering how that woman could smell so good.
Cussing her as nonchalantly as he had before he had sex with her in the mansion surprised himself. But not anymore when he noticed that he smelled her own hair. He more than anyone else knew how much he ran from Sophie, knew that they could deliberately have sex and not even their structures would be shaken. He blindly trusted the walls created around him, he knew they would not break down because of a simple woman.
Yet he still held on to the red threads without even seeing their color... Imagining her.
The Carsin village suddenly came into his mind. He remembered seeing her from behind as she ran with Blair toward Diana Hoziv's house. He remembered the slowness of his own steps as he saw Sophie following the path that should be followed.
It was at that moment that he stopped his steps completely. The whiteness of the surroundings only made her red hair stand out more, as she herself dragged Blair along. And for an instant, he realized that she was totally focused on something that required nothing of him.
As fast and as startling as the crash of thunder, a fillet of doubt was born in his head.
He could run away.
He could walk away from the city until Sophie noticed he was missing, he could walk north and see the mountain range. There would probably be some village at the foot of the mountains, he could stay there until the Chasseur family gave up looking for him.
But his delirium had been too fast. Too fast, because he found himself leaning against a crumbling wall, covered in snow. Stagnant and perhaps unaware, waiting for his domination to begin to materialize. And from the moment he saw Sophie running towards him, he imagined the start of a stopwatch.
He also remembered the one red thread that had remained on his pillow, the thread resembling a musical note. And like a burden that came along with the beginning of his domain, Von wondered how long it would take for the timer to stop again.
A smile broke out at the corner of his lips, and with hoarse words, he whispered in her ear:
- I really thought about running away.-
He couldn't tell how much time had passed since he had woken up. And when his body began to feel even more uncomfortable with the position, he didn't even think twice about getting Sophie off of him. He got up and walked to the bathroom, finally taking a bath in the icy water.
When he returned to the bedroom, he turned on the light and saw that she was still asleep. He also noticed the way she was hugging her own body, and could also see the blanket lying beside her where they both slept.
He made mention of walking over to her, but stopped as soon as he realized. What exactly was he thinking? Even if he felt a twinge of pity or compassion, Sophie had hands and feet, she could get up and get a coat.
Von began to get dressed. Despite putting on the same clothes, he was grooming himself facing her. He glanced at her as he pulled up his pants. He had turned on the light, but she didn't even move. He didn't know if she was tired or if she was simply dying in her sleep.
He put on the gray sleeve blouse, tied a black scarf against his face, and looked at the black jacket in his hands. He looked again at Sophie lying in bed and remembered her words the day before, "Protect our own." Putting the fucking jacket or the blankets over her was not protection, it was foolishness. With that thought, he opened the door and walked out through it, slamming the door hard.
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-I regard the human mind as a sheet of steel, you should know. -Lizandra could feel her eyebrows furrow at what she had just heard.
- Should I? - The large amber eyes blinked in doubt, looking at the man in front of her with disdain. But he said nothing, just turned, shrugging his truculent shoulders at her in a way Liz hadn't expected. - Why do you say that?-
Tyr's dark eyes caught her again, laughing.
- When it is well polished, it becomes a good weapon to wield. -
- You say that as if everyone were a pawn... As if everyone can be influenced, as if everyone can be blackmailed!- Liz replied.
-Don't start with your nonsense. It's not a question of endurance, it's a question of aptitude. The metal that forms steel will never be the same, there will always be impurities. Each mind will adapt to its own tendencies to become tools, and not the other way around. -
-But the good people? I mean, the good minds? -
- The weak?- Tyr's voice began to sound ghostly, demonic.- "Liz..."- When he repeated her name as it should have been in reality, his face gave way to a flurry of mist. - The weak break like all rotten metal.-
As he said this, Tyr ripped off the head of a Cerminian traitor as if he were tearing up a piece of paper.
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Liz woke up in a jolt. Her chest bombarded with air and blood, her winter clothes sticking with sweat, and her amber eyes wide in the early morning. She ran a hand through her hair, pulling it back in an attempt to support herself. She shrugged her legs to herself, bringing them up to her chest and clutching them.
She wasn't afraid of nightmares. She had never been. Spirits, demons, bizarre creatures, and all the urban legends never worried her. In her childhood, she had never believed that her death would come at the hands of supernatural beings. She could not detach herself from the real world, even if all these entities existed in it.
She was afraid of men. No matter what gender, she didn't even care if it was a man or a woman, what terrified her were humans. To Liz, humanity was not synonymous with a set of good deeds, it was the simple proof that everyone was similar.
And that meant that evil was in everyone.
She tried for years to ignore this truth. She met and helped people who in her personal judgment were worthy of being called good people, trying to get away from all the evil she had witnessed and still witnessed.
Her mind, over the years, seemed to be cloaked in ideas of peacemaking and goodness, where it all seemed too surreal. The truth was that Liz was being ignorant and bordering on selfish, wanting to see the world at her whim. And the person who showed her this, obviously in the most stupid and aggressive way, was the person in her dream/Nightmare.
So she had gotten up from her bed and started walking around the ship, trying to ignore the memory of the first conversations she had with Tyr. And having a nightmare about that man was not a sign of a clean mental sanity either.
That's when she saw the new subordinate of the Chasseur house. He was sitting on top of a barrel, with one of his legs sticking out of the ship, since the barrel was almost the same height as the stand. She could not see his face properly, as the hood of his jacket and the black scarf he wore almost hid his entire face.
She could only see the brown strands coming out of the hood, glowing golden in the sunrise.
- Aren't you afraid of falling? - She spoke in an attempt to scare him, but all she got were inexpressive eyes staring at her.
- Who would be the fool to fall into the sea this winter? - A laugh was heard from behind the scarf.
- What if I did. - Liz tried to touch his shoulders, and the word "that" came out in a whisper as he took both her hands, anticipating her movements.
Von got down from the barrel and let go of Liz's hands and crossed his arms.
- You is on the list of Cermina's best assassins, but your movements are so predictable. - "More predictable even than Sophie's," echoed in his head, but he didn't even think to utter the phrase.
Liz's face stiffened completely at the comment, and with a look of disgust on her face she let out a: What the hell does everyone say that about? Followed by a, "I'm not a assassin!"
- Was you offended? - He continued to stare at her with that same indifferent face, not seeming to care about anything.
Resolving to ignore him, she shrugged, leaning her forearm against the ship's support and looking out to sea. Letting out a long sigh, she enjoyed the view with the same disgusted face, a mixture of boredom and frustration. She turned her gaze back to Von, annoyed for no reason at the view. But she frowned when she saw him walking to the stairs.
-You fell out of bed?- Her voice came teasingly into Von's ears, and he tried hard not to swear at the woman.
-I couldn't even if I wanted to. - He laughed as he stopped walking and turned back to her, now leaning against the wooden wall. Strangely enough, Liz's conversation was more pleasant than he had imagined.
- Huh? - She sat down on the barrel where she had been before, looking at him with doubtful amber eyes. Von just pressed his handkerchief against his face, and when she realized that he was ignoring her, Liz continued. - But it's so early, isn't it? The winter sun has just come up, don't tell me you were cold? -
- You still don't know what happened. - He concluded as he looked at her.
The woman's countenance changed. If before she had a doubtful face, it instantly turned into a worried face, the complete opposite of the previous one.
- Magnun and Marlena died yesterday.- Von continued, ignoring Liz's wide eyes. - Sophie found out that she killed him, and then avenged him afterwards. -
- W-what? - Her voice had hardly left her mouth. She spent a few seconds trying to process the information, and then her face burned. - Why did she kill him? -
- I don't know. Sophie was in charge of that, but all she managed to do was tear Marlena's stomach open. -
Liz climbed down from the barrel and walked towards him, almost on fire.
- Using her brain afterwards, as usual.-
Von's mouth twisted a little at hearing Sophie being criticized so closely, and even more so not coming from him. He thanked himself for wearing the handkerchief just at that moment, not showing his features so that they could so easily decipher him.
- She knows something, but she won't tell me until she is sure. -
- I know that. - She shrugged again. Running her hand back and forth between the strands of her hair, she threatened to move from one side to the other, but remained static - But didn't she even think about interrogating this woman under torture? Does Sophie have nails instead of neurons? -
- Magnun was on her team. - Von leaned back, feeling his blood rush faster - You think you know Sophie, but you get mad when you don't get immediate results. -
-I get angry at her recklessness! -
- At mine? - Sophie's voice echoed down the stairs, while her footsteps were still heard coming up the steps. -Do you want me to tell you what I know, Liz? - Her green eyes shone in neither anger nor rage, they looked like pure boredom. - Magnun is dead. Marlena shot a hole in the wall between them, and hung him from the main mast. She didn't care about cleaning her bed of blood, lying or explaining her deed. She killed him when she saw an opportunity.-
Amber eyes shifted from green, embarrassed and seeking shelter in Von's brown ones. As if it hurt to look at her, he looked away, focusing on the woman beside him.
- You say you're not a assassin, but you realize I have a nose for spotting motiveless killings. -
- You mean there's something behind this? -
- I won't tell you now, and I won't tell you here. - Sophie looked down at the floor from where she was climbing the stairs. We'll wait for the others to wake up and throw the bodies into the sea. -
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The winter sun was at its peak when everyone woke up, hidden sometimes between heavy clouds, it warmed the people waiting for the bodies to fall. Some leaning on the support that surrounded the whole ship, others leaning against the walls while the sailors worked. But their eyes were also curious, everyone wanted to see the moment of the fall.
It was not difficult to convince people of the death of the two. Gior and Tilian testified and told their versions, and Liz's mood seemed to slow down with this. Some felt relieved that they were no longer on the same ship as that woman, but in the end everyone watched.
The bodies were wrapped in white sheets, and those who threw them into the sea were two sailors who had volunteered to do so. It was not only Marlena and Magnun, those killed by that woman were also beginning to be thrown.
A few words were spoken by a few men, but you could see on the faces of those speaking that the words would not bring the dead back. They were lies not to be missed, but at no time was this wrong. The dead would not hear them, but it comforted those who remained.
Sophie leaned on the support, just as Liz had done during the morning. Her green eyes seemed to go far away, crossing the sea and longing for dry land. Von stood with his arms crossed beside her, watching the falling bodies.
-I almost heard you two talking from the beginning. - The voice caught his attention. Von looked at her, but Sophie kept her face turned to the sea.
- Jealous, Miss Chasseur? - She turned her face away and stared at the brown pupils.
- Quite the opposite. You were defending me. -
-What? -
She tried to ignore the smile that grew in the corner of her lips as she watched Von's face twitch, but when she realized she couldn't contain it, she brought her hand to her mouth.
- Tired of reality and decided to delude herself, Sophie?-
- But Liz has always been like that. - Sophie decided to ignore him, lowering her hand and flashing him a weak smile. - Did you ever stop to think that we're so used to it? - She looked away, staring at the bodies being swallowed by the water. - Distrusting everyone, living in the shadows of possible betrayal... Cerminians are like that. We prefer the protection of the blade to the whispers of words. Words lie, but Lizandra does not... She is different. -
Von just looked at her as she spoke, watching and recording her expressions. The one who was different was Sophie, looking out to sea as if he was going to hold her back. But he wouldn't warn her, wouldn't tell her she looked weak, because even though he longed for this, she was not.
Von noticed that Sophie sometimes liked to say nice words, maybe that was a consolation.
-You are sad about Magnun's death. - She turned her head again and stared at him with her green orbs glowing gold.
- This is the first time I've ever seen you make a mistake, Von. My day is great. -
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As afternoon began to fall, some assassins began to circle around a lantern that was already lit. After the bodies of Magnun and Marlena had been thrown into the water, there was not much to do. By that time it was almost midday and lunch for the people on the ship was already being prepared. After being fed, the assassins split up again.
Gior returned to the cockpit, Tilian and Niero guarded the room that stored the "Cargo". And Sophie, a little influenced by Liz, was trying to make something edible that was sweet with the ingredients from the kitchen. Klen had slept in his cabin like a tourist, and Von had climbed back up the main mast.
But now, with the onset of night, everyone was gathered around the lantern, except for Gior who was still sailing. Most were drinking rum, and the center of attention was Liz, who strangely enough was not the drunkest one there.
- I told her she would bake well. Sure, it wasn't the best cake I've ever had, but sometimes...just sometimes...Sophie is good at following recipes. - She said, as she lifted the mug to her mouth.
- But then where is this famous cake? - Niero asked with one of his thick eyebrows raised.
- She ate the whole thing. - Sophie blinked, looking at Niero and leaning against the curve of the wooden stand. - Liz made me her slave, making me make these... super hard... cakes. - Obviously she was the drunkest person there, since she herself had started this get-together.
- Alone? - Klen tried to look seriously at Liz, but he too was already drunk. The woman nodded, while her smile was just a happy curve on her face. - The cake was of what for you have been eating it all?-
- Orange. - Sophie said, glancing quickly at Von, who was standing next to her but not showing any reaction.
- Only grandmothers like orange cake, Liz. Are you by any chance an old woman? - Klen said as he mocked the look on her face.
- Don't say that, the orange cakes the young Dendalian girls make are delicious! - Niero said.
- I bet you wanted to eat something else too. - Klen patted him on the back as he laughed and Niero followed.
-Don't say anything about Dendalion if you don't want to lose your tongue, traitor. - Sophie said with a smile on her face, leaning over and squeezing Niero's cheeks.
- I heard that your father made him a subordinate, is that true Sophie? - Klen asked.
- I won't say no. - She released the man's face, straightening her posture and looking at Von. - He seems to have a... - The brown eyes that stared at her were sober, and when she realized this, the smile on her face widened. - ... a thing for traitors... - She narrowed her eyes. - ... for liars. Maybe he identifies with them. -
She moved her head, looking away but meeting Tilian's dark eyes halfway. They seemed to follow her wherever she went, but she was too drunk to be sure of anything.
- I have been serving the High Command, Klen. - Niero took the barrel and poured the empty mugs again, filling Sophie's mug further. -Norgard Chasseur only gives me some information, we exchange some letters. But you should speak directly to me, shouldn't you? - The Dendalian turned fully toward Klen. - Or are you afraid of traitors?-
- I just wanted to make sure who the new worm in the Chasseur family was. - The smile on the man's face turned bitter. - A house of renown must have many, mustn't it? - His teeth cracked and his skin began to heat up. - Worms like all the worms that live in that mansion. -
- What did you say? - Sophie's voice sounded low, almost like a whisper, as if to give him a chance.
Klen automatically stood up and Sophie followed him. The amused gleam in her eyes dissipated as silence reigned.
- Everyone is a worm, taking advantage of other people's misfortune to get ahead.- Sophie laughed when he finished speaking.
- That I really can't... -
- Especially you. - He interrupted her. -And your whore sister, who no one has the courage to call a whore. -
The smile on the assassin's lips died again.And instantly the sound of Sophie's punch hovered in the air, as he turned his face back to face her, blood dripping from his mouth.
And for Von, before his eyes, everything moved slowly, as if waiting for him to intervene. Klen leaned Sophie quickly and brutally against the wooden support. He, who in the middle of the day was hitting a little above Sophie's navel, continued in the same semi-offensive manner.
It was when Klen pushed her that Von could see another function for that stand.
He could see the silence in the air, weighing down the assassins in the form of surprise. When Klen could lose his grip, everyone seemed to rise in slow motion, foreseeing and trying to prevent disaster.
But it was already done. And when he stood up himself, the dancing red hair and black boots were the last things he saw of Sophie. Soon after, the body could be heard crashing into the water.