"So, tell me, son of Nix, why do you seek my audience?" asked Lucian, the wrinkles around his mouth and eyes deepening as he grinned.

"You knew I was coming all along."

"Perhaps that is the case..." he deflected, pausing for a second to throw me a glance.

As we walked through the main hall of the fortress, the tall walls, wide and grey with big blocks, intimidated you with their grandeur. They could make you feel as if you were the smallest being that ever stepped foot through those halls.

"I dare say that a danger we have not foreseen has come upon us," I confessed, following him close by.

"And is this danger that you speak of not a product of your peoples desires?" he asked me, with irony in his tone.

My head still stung from the blow it took earlier, but the fact that what he said was not far from the truth irked me more.

"You know how we have been living all this while-"

"You mean surviving?" he corrected me.

Towering iron doors open before us, as if on their own. I hadn't seen anyone else since entering the fortress, which game me the impression that the castle seemed to aid the Dark King as he wished to stroll through each passage of his residence, as if it had a life of its own.

It occured to me that this had to be some kind of sorcery for sure. But I knew little of Lucian and his being. He could have had me killed right then and there if I had made a wrong move.

"Or did your brother's attempts at the summoning a vessel failed you, again?" he inquired, interrupting my train of thought.

He placed his wrinkled, dry hand on my shoulder and I felt my body froze under his crimson stare.

"It is all more than we can handle..." I confessed as if involuntary.  "So many lives have been lost. And she..." I bit the inside of my check at the thought of Maia, and how I was the reason for the situation she was in.

"Was that not a sacrifice you were willing to make?" he pressed the question, sarcasm filling his tone.

"I never wished to see my people die. Not even her."

Lucian took a seat on the grand armchair in the throne hall, and peeked outside the windows that raised to the ceiling. The wind blew the snow against the thick glass and the sound of the blizzard sent shivers down my spine.

"Especially her," he corrected me again, and I clenched my fists, digging my claws in the palms of my hands. "You never wished for her to die."

"All I wish for is to ask if there is any way to fix things. I can't bear the thought of losing her. Not now."

"There are few ways of controlling a vessel," he told me, running his fingers through his grey hair. "You essentially share a soul now," he added, and looked down at me from where he stood. "But you knew that already, did you not?"

"...I never wanted for things to turn out how they are now."

"But you agreed to be used so that the curse will end. Did you not? One of you must die..." He paused, and sighed as if bored. "Don't frown...You must have known that's how things will end. The whole point of the vessel was for your blood line not to die with this curse. You were willing to make the sacrifice, this is not the first time your people tried to pull this charade."

"I never wanted to kill anybody."

"Your brother sure thinks otherwise..."

"Crassus is-"

"He is right you know... none of you have to die anymore for something you had no part in. So, just let things be. The deed is done. She died, twice. Why do you even care for this soulless being? She's not one of your kind."

I couldn't bring myself to tell him the truth about her. I didn't want anybody to know.

"You're a stubborn one..."

"Tell me...please," I begged him, "...what can I do to keep her?"

"You know that for her to become a vessel you had to break you soul in half. Half of you died during Selenelion, I am sure you felt that. However, there is small hope left for you to bring her back."

"Tell me, what must I do?"

"Now that the vessel is left with no soul, she will only remain in our realm until the next full moon," he revealed. "It is best you let her go, the magic your people tinkered with left her with powers she can't control. It will only bring bad omens. You don't want the wrath of the gods on you...you had a taste of that, you know it is not pleasant."

"The curse wasn't the will of the gods, and you know that!" I exploded.

Lucian fell silent at my words, and threw me a calculated stare.

"Excuse the discrepancy of my manners, my lord..."

"You're a lot like your father, you know, son of Nix," he told me, resting his chin on his hand. "I like that about you."

"I am willing to take a risk," I confessed, "So, tell me...What must be done so that I may keep her."

"A bond."

"What?"

"If you mark her as your own, she will not perish." He paused, and exhaled sharply. "But you already knew that your people hold such power."

"A bond is sacred!" I emphasized "It's for life. And...and a Lykan cannot bond outside of our own species. It is an abomination to nature to do so."

"But a mark ties a soul to its owner, does it not?"

"She is not of our blood!"

I couldn't do that. I shouldn't have even considered it. A bonding mark kills those it is placed on if not belonging to our own. There were no successful markings outside our race. 

There is a reason such act is forbidden.

And even if the possibility of it being successful existed, the body of a non-Lykan would not fully bond to its owner. So many implications existed that needed to be taken into consideration.

I was convinced Lucian didn't think things through. And I couldn't bring myself to do that to Maia.

"No...I can't do that to her." I told him.

"But she will live."

"I wouldn't call that a life!"

"You are not making things easier for yourself..." he told me, leaning forward in his seat. "I'll tell you what you can do to tame the side effects until the next full moon. But tik tok," he added, "time is not on your side."

"There must be some other way..." I mumbled disheartened.

This was not the solution I had hoped for.

"Do as I say, Resus Nix," he advised. "Go to The Tavern of The Lost, on the path that leads to Cirius Vale...There you shall find the children of Gamza..." he revealed, pausing as if to recollect his thoughts. "Their father is one of my loyal subjects. Among them, seek the man whose name is, Prisscill. He will help you capture your goddess."

"But there is no way for her consciousness to be brought back, not after Selenelion."

"Make her drink three sips of slumbershade, those will put her in a temporary drowse. Bathe her then in Malum, once again, and she will come to her senses," explained the Dark King. 

"Will she lose control again?"

"Due to the blood oath that you summoned her with, your presence, although temporarily, will help keep her sane. But her being will eventually perish if you don't do as I told you. In all my time, I haven't seen any vessel to survive, not in the way she did. So, it would be a gamble in and of itself."

"I won't give up on her."

"I don't know what her powers are, yet I do believe they could be cultivated, in the right manner. But because her consciousness is fragile at the moment, her mood will affect her surroundings, whether you want it or not."

"I could send her back," it occurred to me.

"And we are back to square one..." He rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "As far as I know, unless you have some legion of warlocks up your sleeve, you can't send her back, not without consequences." He paused, and looked me up and down. "You will die."

Maybe I was really meant to die from the very beginning. I didn't know it would be her that the oath will summon. 

Maybe it would have been better if I had died before I agreed to bring a vessel.

I cursed at fate and how it kept playing a bad game with me. I wasn't winning.

"You either die sending her back or you must mark her so she may live, here with you. "

Due to the soul tie we shared when I made the blood oath to summon her, there was nothing I would have craved more than to have her by my side. My reason and instinct collided, and I didn't know what to do.

"And now, my Lord, what is it that I owe you? I know... nothing is free in Vespera."

I untied the wrap around my neck, lowering the top of my garment. And I felt my hands going cold.

As I sensed the Dark Kings fangs feast upon my flesh, I fixed my eyes on the white nothingness outside. The venom entered my body, and while the numbness took control of me, I thought of her again.