Chapter 255 (2/2)

“Where…” He continued. “Is Shal?”

“Ah?” Lucretia said, smiling slightly, her mind whirling at 1000 rotations per second, distracted by all these developments. Then her focus snapped back, and she felt a profound sense of satisfaction. She obviously had her own reasons for involving herself with Shal, but having him also work as leverage was very satisfying. “He’s taking a nap. Why do you ask?”

His eyes narrowed further, and he regarded her silently for several seconds. This was endlessly amusing to Lucretia, because she could intuit that his immediate reaction was the same as hers, to strike at the other immediately, but he also stopped himself. But for a completely different reason. It seemed that he had enough sense to realize that the confrontation would not go well for him.

“...I don’t believe it is that simple.” The boy said curtly.

Lucretia laughed aloud. “Hahaha…. Perhaps… your name is Randidly Ghosthound, correct? Perhaps we can come to an arrangement. I originally came here just out of curiousity, but… I can see what’s inside of you, my cute little Randidly. How about giving me a bit of a taste? You seem to have heard about me. I’ll give you some gifts too, to make it worth your while…”

Instantly, his expression tightened, and Lucretia instantly felt the conflicting emotions of irritation and excitement within her chest. He did seem to be familiar with her, and her gifts based on the unwillingness. But also, he didn’t refuse her outright, and seemed to struggle internally, so it wasn’t that he wasn’t thinking about it.

The silence slowly stretched, and Lucretia was content letting it do so. After all, she could slowly begin to parse through the flush of information that Examine gave her from him. But as she began pulling apart that monstrous apparatus of Aether in his core, he spoke.

“I won’t accept any gifts… but if the stories were right… perhaps a trade.” His words were slow and even, and he seemed profoundly conflicted, but he spoke. Lucretia was instantly disappointed. This would effectively avoid the talons of her Dark Karma path, as it wouldn’t leave either of them with any lingering attachments, unless one’s bargaining chip far outweighed the other. But, if it gave her access to Aether for her to experiment with…

Well, perhaps it was not the time to talk now. Let him stew a little. It seemed he was aware that Lucretia had Shal, but clearly not the extent of her influence. Then for now…

“Let’s part ways and think about it, yes? Oh, but don’t let those pesky Styles here know I’m near, or, well, Shal….” Lucretia said lightly, backing away. She didn’t even give him a chance to speak, and phased off, teleporting away.

Back in her clearing, she looked at the trapped soul, the bodiless Yeti head, and Shal’s dozing form. Her smile spread wide. She supposed she had enough bargaining chips at this point to deal directly with him. All of her other plans were discarded- well, not discarded, just moved to a lower priority.

Sowing chaos and obtaining some gifted Aether in the process was interesting, but this boy… he was the motherlode. She had never seen anything like it.

Although her handling of him had been rather abrupt and hasty towards the end, which she cursed herself for, she couldn’t help it. Seeing the Aether in his body… it was exciting and enticing. So much so that she just out and said what she wanted.

It made her somewhat embarrassed that the Eternal Witch Lucretia had swooned from a mere glance from a boy…

“Well, he’s not just a boy, now is he? My dearest Shal…” Lucretia murmured, walking over and touching Shal’s face. “He’s much more to me than that. After all, he is your disciple…”

****

With the same sort of fearsome abruptness, the beautiful woman with long purple hair was gone, disappearing from Randidly’s room. Sweat poured down his back, and he let out a breath that he had been holding for a long while. Lucretia’s appearance was certainly bewitching, and Randidly could understand why someone would accept gifts from her. She had a voice that reminded him of the Siren singer from Franksburg, but Lucretia used no skill, it was all raw charm and experience.

But even so, the fact that she had appeared, just as he had been thinking about Aether Donation, and asked for one….

Just how had she known…?