欧洲无人区天空码头IV

He could see her chest slightly moving.

"Alright."

He undid the chains and sat her down against the tree.

As he looked behind it, he could see the sun slowly setting, orange shades through the clouds in the sky.

A cold wind had picked up, blowing through his hair as he looked back at the manor.

I guess I\'m not done with this place.

He kneeled and picked Aura on his back, holding her arms.

He went around the manor, following the wall until he found an entrance.

It was a door leading to what seemed to be the kitchen.

It looked abandoned, with barely anything decorating it, and a layer of dust.

He went through it, reaching a dining room.

He felt Aura move on his back.

"What are you looking for?" she whispered in his ear, weak.

"The dungeon he mentioned."

"To the left."

He went through the door on the left, it connected to a hallway.

"Left," she said.

He opened the closest door on his left, revealing stone-carved stairs going down.

It was dark, but he could still easily see the contour of things as he started going down.

I guess my white eyes are useful for something.

As he went down, he could feel Aura\'s heart beating against his back, slowly.

Her breathing also slowed down, her exhales softly brushing against his ear.

"Ironic," said Mori.

"What... is?" she whispered.

"You waited your whole life for a treatment. You thought you were sick, yet you weren\'t. You were hoping for a cure, but you were slowly ingesting poison until the day you would eventually be killed by someone you trusted."

"Is... it... ironic?"

His grip on her arm tightened as he kept going down. "More than you would think."

As he reached the dungeon, it was a singular room, a wide rectangle.

There was a stone bed in the middle, with a table next to it displaying various tools.

On the walls were unlit torches, and across most of them hung different tools he couldn\'t recognize.

"Kill... me?"

He sat her on the stone bed, then carefully laid her on her back.

Her head tilted to the side. She stared at him with a blank expression.

"Not yet," he replied. "I\'ll be using you one more time."

He walked on the other side, next to her head, and pushed the wrist he had opened above Griswald\'s stake against her lips.

Her mouth opened. He could feel his blood still dripping.

She closed her eyes; she wasn\'t biting or sucking.

He let his blood drip down for a few minutes and stopped before feeling too dizzy.

He withdrew his arm and stared at her eyelids until they finally opened.

"Why are you doing this," she asked.

"I\'ll be using you," he said.

"Not that. Why did you come here? Why did you need the ring?"

Mori\'s jaw tightened while his eyes remained emotionless.

"I knew someone like you," he said. "Someone who was sick, but was betrayed by everyone, and died."

"Huh. I guess you\'ll do to them something worse than what you did to Father."

She smiled.

He took the ring out of his pocket and slid it up her finger.

"Asmodael needs this ring. The dome protecting this forest and the mansion in it is caused by it. Only with it will I be able to bargain with him."

"Huh. Bargain with Asmodael? I guess you might be able to. Why are you giving it to me?"

"You can keep it safe for now, I won\'t need it."

As they talked, her eyes and lips were gaining their red color back.

She slowly sat upright.

"So you want me to keep it until you need it?" she asked.

"Yes."

She turned and got off the small stone platform.

Mori sat sideways on it and took his shirt off.

Aura arched both eyebrows, looking at him.

"What are those?"

His gaze went down. "Ah, those. They\'re the consequence of me losing focus while harvesting hexes."

"Harvesting hexes?"

"That\'s the source of my power. Those pesky things tend to take the shortest route if I\'m not looking."

"So when you were sitting on my bed earlier, you were harvesting hexes?"

"Yes."

She looked at the multiple holes scattered across his chest.

She raised her arm toward him, but he didn\'t move.

She inched closer and ran her fingers across his body.

"That\'s... Horrible." She stared into his holes. "You need to keep better control."

"You care about me, now?" mocked Mori.

She didn\'t answer, but sustained his gaze.

"Huh. Well, the brand stays on your tongue, whatever it is you\'re planning. I\'ve taken care of adding a stronger one while I gave you my blood minutes ago."

She took his wrist and started licking it. He was surprised, but quickly felt relief.

"Ah, I guess without that, most of your victims would die from blood loss."

"If I had any victims," she said.

His open wound slowly closed until only a scar remained.

She let go of his hand and looked around.

"So what are we doing here?"

"I need to harvest more hexes. Griswald was right. I\'m weak, and lucky he drank your blood. I won\'t have that kind of advantage over my next enemies, so I need to grow stronger. After that, I\'ll take the ring back."

She looked down at her hand wearing it.

"Alright..."

"Those are your official commands: Keep the ring safe, keep the barrier on this domain up, and keep me above all else, safe."

"I will."

"Sadly, it\'s probably too late for the maid, but you might want to keep some animals around if you need blood and feel hungry. Worst case, just drink mine."

"Ah... My father usually provided me with some if I needed any. Probably laced with something too."

"It reminds me, don\'t take the stake out of his body."

Aura frowned, but agreed, unsure why he gave her all those instructions.

"Avoid unnecessarily moving me too, I don\'t know what those things can do to you."

Mori laid against the stone, pulling his legs onto it.

"When will you wake up? You\'re making it sound like it\'ll be a while."

Mori closed his eyes, his head against the cold stone in the humid dungeon.

He breathed deeply, preparing himself to go under and harvesting hexes.

He spoke one last time.

"In a year."