Hi, guys. Because there are so many chapters, you might find me uploading quickly, every couple of days, whenever I already have several consequtive chapters written out. Which is why, currently, I'm loading you up with content. Enjoy it, whenever it lasts ;).

Chapter 13

Diamond drove down the dark road, eyeing the secluded neighborhood. Only a couple of lamps lit the empty street, making it look gloomy. Left and right, two funeral homes passed her, and ahead was a large house, towering out behind and between them, like a watchful priest.
Sniffing at the hidden joke in this location, she parked in front of the residence.

Diamond hopped out of her car and steered directly towards the door, ringing the doorbell. She could hear it echo through the house and the light turned on in the hallway before the door opened.

She smiled. "Evening."

Skulduggery mustered her briefly. "Evening."

He stepped aside and she walked past him into the large entrance area, looking around at the sparse decoration. Big, empty house; no surprise here.

"I presume, you are here to discuss the last couple of days?" He said to her back, closing the door, as Diamond took in her environment.

"Hm," she thought. "Not really."

"Then, you will be telling me what you plan to do with your newly acquired knowledge." Skulduggery presumed on.

Diamond turned, thinking again. "You could say that."

She strolled to the next open door, which she assumed to be a kitchen and was correct.

"Fun fact; Dexter and I actually met not too soon before you and Valkyrie did", she mentioned, looking around again.

The kitchen was modern and well equipped, but also kept mostly bare, the only decorative pieces being tasteful kitchen ware, such as a knife block made from massive wood.

"Is that so?" He asked, seeming to be willing to go along, while presumably mostly waiting for the part where she would start blackmailing him. "How did you meet?"

"At my uncle's funeral", Diamond replied.

She could not see Skulduggery's reaction, but his voice sounded somewhat curious now. "Really."

Diamond paused slightly. "Well, not really, no. He wasn't actually my uncle, I just called him that. Technically, he was my godfather. He adopted me, we weren't related."

She turned around to take a look at him and Skulduggery was just standing still, watching her.

"Do you know what happened to him, after the last war? Dexter, I mean."

He tilted his skull slightly at the shift of topic. "He was in recovery from a throat injury. When I contacted him, he told me there was someone helping him get back on his feet."

Diamond smiled. "He's a sweetheart."

Skulduggery looked curiously at her. "Why has he never mentioned you directly before?"

She shrugged. "Because I asked him not to."

He slowly nodded. "I see."

She moved her arms into a pacifying position. "Nothing personal. It's just bad for business."

"How so?" Skulduggery probed, sounding relatively neutral.

Diamond shrugged again. "I'm the girl watching the thing happening from a corner. I'm the girl that's in the alleyway next to you and you don't notice. I can't smuggle things or people if I get recognized. Besides, I am perfectly happy with my personal life being personal."

"Fair enough." He said, sounding sincere.

"So, what are you going to do now?" She asked.

He raised one shoulder in a small shrug. "Traveling, apparently. Orders of the authority."

Diamond snorted a laugh. "Doesn't sound like the worst order to be getting."

"We'll see." Skulduggery said. He seemed still tense, awaiting whatever horrifying things he was imagining her threatening him with.

She decided to move the conversation along to a more productive point. "You know what has always surprised me about the magical world?"

"What has?"

"The way people tell legends." She paused, then held up a course-changing finger. "I mean, don't get me wrong. Of course, it works like with all humans; Someone tells someone something that happened, and they tell it on, and others tell it on, etcetera. And in the meantime, details get lost, misconstrued, changed…"

"Often, at least", He threw in.

"Right, and eventually, those stories spread so wide that most people know them, and then they become legends."

"And the surprising part…?" Skulduggery pressed.

"Well, in the mortal world, by the time these stories become legends, the people in the story are, usually, already dead. So, really, there is nothing personal about telling them, because those legendary people don't care anymore", Diamond replied. "But, in the magical world, often times, those people are still alive. And somewhere in the world, someone is probably currently telling the story of you, around a campfire, in past tense, like you are…" She paused and had to almost smile at the slip of the tongue. "Like you don't exist anymore. Yet you are just standing here, in your house, talking to me."

He inclined his head a tiny bit. "Those people are assuming that Lord Vile is dead."

She sniffed. "Oh, I'm not talking about Lord Vile."

Diamond went to the faucet and used some soap to wash her hands. There was definitely a feeling of a dry layer of sweat from driving, she wanted to get rid of. But she also, admittedly, was avoiding talking about the next point, while holding eye-contact. She could feel Skulduggery's gaze burning into her back.

"You know, the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life… was seeing my best friend wounded, in shatters and alone, having lost friends he had known for several lifetimes. And then watching him turn over once, get up, and go straight back to work, as if nothing had happened."

She dried her hands and turned to Skulduggery, who was still watching her attentively.

"What would you like him to do, instead?" He asked, some irritation hinting at his disagreement.

Diamond smiled lightly but decided she would have come back to that question in a moment. "To get to the point; what surprises me aren't the stories, or the legends, or the gossip. What surprises me is; when you go back to the person that told the story first, even just a couple of years later… What you hear, isn't the version of all the complicated, horrible things that actually happened."
She leaned back against the counter. "They tell you the fun, simple version that society has fabricated."

Skulduggery seemed to have a vague idea of what she was saying, but probably not, where she was going with this. Diamond almost felt bad for holding him in suspense. But then, she would have to get the point across, while she still had his analytical attention.

"And Dexter tells me the legends about him and his friends, and others tell me stories about the mean, angry skeleton... Yet, when I meet him..."
Diamond squarely looked at him. "The only thing I can see is… a person in distress."

Skulduggery said nothing.

Before silence could drop, she moved into a softer position. "Do you talk to Valkyrie about this stuff?"

"I don't see how that is any of your business", he replied coolly.

That made Diamond sniff a bit of a smile. She pulled her lips to the side casually. "It could be, though."

Skulduggery mustered her skeptically. "What do you mean?"

She sighed a bit and stood up straight, to reach into her pants pocket and pull out a small, folded piece of paper. Diamond walked over to him, to hold it between two fingers, up in front of his skull. "My personal phone number." She introduced it, then lifted a humble shoulder. "I'm told I'm a good listener."

After a second of hesitation, Skulduggery reached out for it slowly, and his gloved fingers fell around the other side, while his gaze stayed on her. She returned it steadily with her most neutral look, until he had taken it and let his arm hang again.

Once the exchange faded out, Diamond lifted both of her arms, walking backwards towards the door, turning her palms to him and back and forth a bit, to signal that she had nothing left to add.
When Skulduggery did not really react, Diamond dropped her hands and gave him a smile. "Have a good trip."

With that, she turned and left the kitchen, walked through the entrance hall, to the door and outside. Gently, she closed the front door behind her and went back to the Audi.

She imagined Skulduggery still standing there, frozen, holding the piece of paper, and the idea made Diamond smirk to herself, while she got in the car, to return home.