In the candle's flickering light, the red shine of the deep red blood scattered on the floor left Mors and Genn in shock. In a coughing fit, Alice started to stumble backward with a pained expression. Watching Alice start to stumble backward, Mors watched as Genn shot forward to try and stop her. Seeing this, Mors also shot forward because of the inevitable event that was about to happen.
Swiftly arriving at his sister, Genn quickly realized that he was a ghost as his hands fell through her weakened body. But to his quick relief, a pair of withered hands went through Genn to stabilize Alice's stumble quickly. Swiftly her coughing spree ended as she stabilized herself under the helping hands of Mors.
Seeing the concern on both of their faces, she quickly said, "Oh, that's nothing to worry about. I am fine. It's just a bit of blood. I have seen worse," while wiping the tiny bits of blood on her face.
With her sister downplaying the severity of the situation, Genn got even more concerned. Then, swiftly trying to think of anything to help his sister, he stood for a moment, calming down. While Genn stood there with a scrunched expression, Mors quickly helped Alice to the chair before asking, "Is there anything I can do?"
Looking with a kind smile, Alice quickly said, "Oh, just like shut the door for me. And maybe a glass of water on the nightstand."
Looking behind him, he noticed that the door was still open, letting in the crisp air of the outside. Slightly laughing, Mors quickly shut the front door to the house with a thump before rapidly searching for the nightstand. Wondering for a few moments in the small apartment, he quickly found a room with 2 small beds and a glass of water on a nightstand.
Seeing the water, Mors quickly returned to Alice with it in hand. As he walked through the apartment, he found it bare bone without much. It really only contained the essentials to live at this point. Once again, face to face with the pale Alice, he quickly passed the water before he felt a ghost enter him and heard, "One moment. Got to grab someone."
Without even blinking, Mors decided to keep Alice company until Genn returned from his travels into his body. Originally Mors found it disturbing, but at this point, he had kinda gotten used to the feeling. With all of his attention on making sure Alice was still feeling ok, Mors asked, "Why are you even awake at this hour if you are this sick?"
Hearing the question from the concerned old man, Alice sighed before stating, "if I could be asleep at this hour, I would. Even if I knew you all were coming. It's just whenever it reaches midnight, I always wake up feeling horrible. And this night, in particular, was worse than usual. But you don't need to worry, kind sir."
Sitting in complete silence for a few moments, just waiting for someone to start the conversation, the duo just looked at each other. Then taking Mors's attention away from the sick lady, Mors felt something move inside him again before two blobs appeared. Genn quickly changed into a humanoid form and rushed to his sister's side just to check up on her, but the other pure, clean red orb just hovered for a moment.
Seeing this blob, Mors felt like he had seen it before. It took him but a moment before realizing that this was the same hovering orb that helped him with that death herb thing. Just hovering in the air for a moment, seemingly bored, the orb as it quickly began to shake before exploding into a cloud of smoke. Seeing the smoke start to spread out, Mors almost wanted to close his eyes for a moment, but seeing a shadow exit, the smoke Mors kept his eyes locked on it.
Exiting from the dense smoke, a man in a white cloak appeared with deep pockets. With hovering, glass-like transparent hair, the man looked like he didn't have enough sleep at all. With a skinnier physique and a young face, the man stood there with his thin glasses, looking at Alice with a concerned expression.
Genn quickly looked back at the man and saw the concerned expression of the man. Seeing it, Genn promptly sputtered out, "Can you figure out what's wrong, Afiero?"
Sighing, Afiero said, "Hello there, Miss Alice! Can I ask you if you feel better during the day? I am, or used to be, an alchemist's apprentice, so I should be able to help."
Then while Alice was thinking to herself, Afiero looked to Mors and said, "You can go rest, you have a crazy day, and you really need sleep to work."
Hearing that, Mors looked over to Alice for permission to reside in the spare bed in the room. With a nod, Mors slowly walked over to the nice bed before quickly collapsing on the small bed.
Feeling the comfort of the soft bed, Mors almost immediately passed out on it and passed into a dreamless sleep. Or what seemed like a dreamless sleep since it was just a void. But that "fun" knowledge would only be learned later when he learned of his actual powers.
And so, after the hectic first day of burying people, meeting the ghosts, running from the troll, and entering the city, Mors finally got some well-deserved rest.
…
Waking up feeling newly refreshed, Mors realized that he had never even noticed how fatigued he had been last night. He felt as light as a feather. He quickly got out of bed to see two ghosts watching over a blanket with a lumpy mass underneath it. Then, realizing Alice was sleeping, Mors sneakily exited the room with only one floor creak and the door closing a bit too fast.
Entering the main room, Mors went to open a window to let some air and light in. Even though he found himself able to see most of everything in the dark, he wanted to let the natural light in. As the windows opened and the natural breeze and light washed into the room, the two ghosts that were hovering over Alice arrived in front of Mors.
Becoming curious about Afiero, Mors decided to look into detail since last night he was tired and barely looked over him. Looking closer, he found stains and burns all around his used-to-be skin and colorful faint blots all across his cloak. The guy's thin glasses seemed to have minute creaks dancing across the frames. Behind those broken glasses held deep golden eyes that seemed to look into anything.
Looking into Afiero's eyes for what seemed like mere moments, Mors heard the man ask, "It's been a full minute you have been looking into my eyes… Are they really that pretty?"
That sentence brought Mors out of those eyes, and he quickly looked away from them, announcing, "Sorry about that. They are truly some amazing eyes you got there. Looking into them, it feels like mere moments pass. Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Afiero."
Afiero, hearing the old man's compliment, lightly smiled before saying, "Thank you, and the pleasure is all mine. Now let's get on to why Genn originally got me out here. Originally I thought I could stay away from alchemy for a bit and just enjoy the ride while helping with a few herbs here and there. But what's happening here requires my expertise. And even though I am but a mere alchemist assistant, I was the assistant of one of the top alchemists of the guild."
With the serious tone of Afiero, Mors quickly listened to what he had to say. But before he thoroughly explained what was happening, Afiero seemed to go on a tangent about the guild's life. Initially with a severe tone, Mors thought he would instantly explain what was going on. Still, it seemed as if this tangent completely took over Afieros's mind.
With this happening, Mors decided to try and do something to stop it. So with a few short coughs, Mors asked, "Hey, I think you should focus right now."
And the moment he said that Afiero paused in his tracks with a look of shock. He seemed broken out of this tangent curse, for which he quickly apologized. Then with his main focus shifted, he said, "It is going to be difficult dealing with Alice's ailment, and the reason is the needed herb…."