The Bargain

The room was almost pitch-black. With the heavy curtains drawn to shun the pale midnight sun, the only source of light emanated from a meager candle upon the table. As he entered the room, Korot's eyes became pools of gold, glowing like coveted gems from a dragon's hoard.

"You're late."

He found her near the window, though she was not looking out from it, her back the only part of her facing him. The priest did not reply immediately, rather took a moment to slide a chair out from the table and seat himself.

"My apologies," he began in gruff Common which sounded forced and mangled but intelligible. "My acquaintance and I became engaged in a small altercation which was unavoidable, but we managed to leave without an exchange of blows, thankfully."

The woman did not move from her spot leaning against the window frame, but nodded slightly in acknowledgment. The priest set his staff in the chair beside him, noting for umpteenth time at how stark and gloomy the room was.

"Care to make a trip downstairs and have a drink? Booty Bay might be a hub for questionable business and shady enterprises, but the alcohol is cheap and plentiful," he suggested mildly, untying his cloak and draping it on the back of his chair.

He looked up as Evamarín abandoned the window with the soft flutter of her dress, slipping into the seat directly across from him. Her face mirrored his own, an emotionless mask, and she regarded him expectantly with unfathomable blue eyes.

"Where is it?"

Her voice was barely a hiss seeping with urgent anxiety. Korot's hands disappeared inside the sleeves of his robe, reemerging with five small, white squares of paper which he set on the table and slid toward Evamarín.

With slim and dainty hands, the human lined the squares before her on the tabletop, plucking one from the group.

"This is less than you brought last time."

Korot leaned back into his seat, his eyes never once straying from the woman's face.

"It was all I could manage to spare from my own supply. If I had asked Taja'ki for some of hers, it might have looked suspicious."

Evamarín sighed, stacking the four packets on the table on top of one another. "You really are useless sometimes..."

Lifting the packet in her hand to eye level, she carefully opened the tightly pressed corners, peeling them back almost lovingly and revealing a fine blue powder.

"But... I suppose this will do for the time being."

The woman's words appeared to have some effect on the forsaken, for he shifted in his chair, the more defined features still left on his ashen face creasing slightly. Folding the square in half, Evamarín sifted a straight line of the azure crystals down the underside of her forearm, starting at the wrist. The reaction was instantaneous. Upon contact with her skin, the line of powder began to glow and pulsate, sinking into her arm until not a trace was left upon the surface.

Evamarín sat rigid in her seat as a jolt jerked her body straight as a board. A million tiny flecks of blue, glowing brilliantly and visible through the human's skin, could be seen amassing and traveling up the veins of her arm and dispersing into the rest of her body like a shower of stars streaking across the heavens.

Her eyes had shut without her knowing, a sigh of pleasure the only sound she made. The illuminant display did not last long, her skin losing its transparency and fading to normal after roughly a minute. However, when she her eyes finally fluttered open, that phosphorescent blue remained, giving the human an oddly divine countenance. If Korot had any breath passing through his lungs, it would have caught in his throat.

Her smile was empyreal, stirring something inside of him that he fought fervently to disregard. Evamarín was staring past Korot, of this he was sure, otherwise, she wouldn't have had such a blissful expression softening her graceful features. Boldly, he leaned forward and reached out with a hand, caressing the woman's flawless cheek and letting his fingers twine in her hair, wondering if her black silk curls felt as luxuriously soft as they looked. Evamarín blinked, her trance broken. The smile faded from sight and she took hold of Korot's hand, lowering it to the table.

"Almost forgot... your part of the bargain..."

Letting her eerily illuminant eyes linger for a moment longer, she then stood and glided over to Korot, standing behind his chair.

"Next time, try and bring more, hm?" she slurred in a husky whisper, running her hands down the front of his robe and stopping at the valley between the first and second rib.

"As humans, we're prone to err and disappoint," Evamarín continued, putting the slightest emphasis on the word "human".

"But it would be wise not to disappoint me too many times. Sometimes, the truth hurts even more than disappointment... Is this not correct, Torok?"

The man stiffened at the sound of his real name, having remained impassive until that moment. It was common practice for forsaken to either change their names upon awakening or even more commonly, make an anagram from their original name. But how long had it been since he had heard his own name uttered so warmly?

"I will do my best next time, Eva," he found himself muttering lowly, his eyes seeming dim in comparison to the dazzling brilliance of the woman's hooded gaze leering over him.
"You have my word."

Her words came sugared and honeyed, forming that artificial syrup that flooded Korot's senses as he became addicted and yearned for more.

"Good," she was telling him, "I expect nothing less from you, Torok..."

She never did, but this thought escaped Korot as he twisted in his seat. Two gold suns rushed to meet two blue moons, stopping mere inches away, and two bone bare fingers extinguished the tiny candle flame, shunning the condemning light and welcoming the oblivion of darkness.