The three laws of witchcraft were the following: no one could come back from the dead, not in the sense of someone de-widowing herself, no. No one could cross the line twice. What the deadrousers - those cultured necromancers - did was to mine for memories and behavioral patterns, but no, in no case had it been possible to truly get a soul back from the dead. Mariana didn't know if she believed in souls any longer. Everything had changed so much.
Then there was the rule that said that telepathy, the direct communication between minds was impossible, and Daniel thought that this was a whole shipment of horse manure, considering that he now had to hide his naughty thoughts from a very curious telepath. Mariana giggled as she noticed their thoughts joining at the edges, and she would have noted that it was no easier for her, but that thought did not transfer itself and she had to resort to speaking.
My, what a wonderful life she had ahead of her, joining him in her mind as well…this was almost too romantic to be true.
The third rule, and this was something that Mariana truly believed in, was about love and hate and all those emotions that seemed to take on lives of their own. The heart went along its own path, it could not be commanded, even if slight conditioning was possible. A heart that loved forever would never budge, although it could break, it would not stray too far from the invisible strings that kept it chained to the affection, and the same could be said about a bitter, hateful heart.
Mariana knew in the deepest part of her mind that this was the only law that was true. She didn't care about souls anymore, not after witnessing what Daniel did to her heart. Every move of his slender legs and strong arms replicated itself in her chest as a flutter of butterflies.
She didn't think she could soar much higher, and this made her feel a bit afraid.
Then she remembered that awful thing out there in the middle of the forest. There were things out here in the real world to be frightened of. She had been so enclosed in her romance that she had forgotten their existence.
"How do we kill that thing?" she muttered.
"How should I know?" He shook his head. "I will try one thing that I know might work."
He thought about it for a moment, grimaced and turned away.
"I know, this doesn't probably sound all that reassuring."
"You don't need to worry about being reassuring or not." She smiled and brushed his hair back so that she could see his eyes.
They still had that special red glow in them.
She was starting to love how they looked when he was in touch with his demonic nature.
"I won't doubt you," she said to him. "I know that you have experienced things I could never dream of. It doesn't scare me. At least…not too much."
He cupped her face with his hands. "I know that you will be scared. I know that you won't run away. That should be enough."
They carried on towards the source of the screams. Mariana was frightened, but she could keep her thoughts in him and avoid confronting the abominable one as long as she did not see it.
They came to an open area in the forest, where a house stood, surrounded by a beautiful garden that had been let go; all kinds of weeds dominated the vegetation, but some rose bushes still looked like someone was actively taking care of them.
The pirate couple stepped into the clearing, and the screaming echoing from the house stopped.
It was an idyllic cottage, with its walls unpainted and its porch populated by squirrels. There had to be something very wrong with these creatures. They didn't care about the horrible events that had to be going on inside the building. A normal squirrel would have surely stayed far away from such places.
"Don't let them bite you," Daniel said.
Mariana thought that the squirrels were venomous, or that it was likely that they were, and Daniel agreed.
They walked into the middle of the garden. The plants seemed fairly normal at first, but once they turned their backs on a bush of pink roses, they heard someone shuffling their feet behind them. When they turned back to see who this person was, the roses had moved about two inches downwards.
There was no one else in the garden.
Then Mariana caught a whiff of lavender with her keen and pretty little nose.
"Dars is here," she whispered.
Daniel nodded. "This is not good, we have to be careful."
Someone was coming from the house. The door creaked, and the scent of lavender got stronger.
Then Dars appeared, but he did not look like a ghost anymore. He had all the signs of a person of flesh and blood, but this inhuman look that he had in his eyes betrayed his true nature to the observers. He had somehow managed to get himself a physical body, but it looked like whatever meatsuit he was wearing did not quite fit him. It was almost as if he had stolen the body of another person and now had trouble adjusting to the length of his limbs.
Ghosts should not have the ability to do that, that was what Mariana thought, but when she tried to listen to Daniel's thoughts, she heard nothing.
The evil ghost took a look at the pirates and his mouth curled up in a bloodthirsty grin.
"It seems like you are not going to keep your word, Mariana, am I completely wrong?" he asked and then cackled madly. "Doesn't matter. I am about to find out how to get the dice to work in my favor. Come, come in, you can still negotiate yourselves a much better deal."
Mariana looked at the pirate king.
He looked back at her and started to walk towards the cottage.