Kaelith stared at Sevrin with narrowed eyes. “What are you talking about? Step back!”

  Nikolai put a hand on her shoulder. “Sorry, Kaelith. I forgot to introduce you… This is Sevrin. He’s—uh—he’s my butler.”

  Kaelith didn’t move for a few seconds. Then she slowly turned her head to face him. “He is your what now?”

  Nikolai shrugged. “He appeared a few days ago, and I sort of forgot to mention it…”

  “You didn’t think to mention you had a butler!? One that appears out of nowhere and—” Kaelith paused, took a deep calming breath, then continued in a measured tone. “Nikolai, you need to explain this.”

  Nikolai glanced at Sevrin. “Could you give us a moment, Sevrin?”

  The butler bowed elegantly, then vanished in another pop of air.

  Nikolai looked back at Kaelith. She was giving him a look of utter disbelief. After a moment, she schooled her expression, though she still didn’t sit.

  Nikolai explained the circumstances surrounding Sevrin. He hadn’t told her in detail how he had become part fae before, and the look on her face grew increasingly disbelieving as he spoke.

  After he finished, she just stared at him for a while. He had no idea what she was thinking, but he didn’t look away from those purple eyes.

  “What have I gotten involved in here…” she said in quiet exasperation.

  Nikolai looked down. He felt guilty for not having told her, but he tried to defend the decision by telling himself he hadn’t trusted her enough yet. That excuse fell flat too, because the bond they shared meant she couldn’t betray him. Not to mention the loyalty she had already shown him.

  “Sorry, Kaelith… I could order you away, you know. Tell you to leave and only return once you need more healing. Keep you away from me…” he said, looking her straight in the eye again.

  Kaelith punched him in the chest so fast he had no time to react. He winced at the pain but didn’t complain. He probably deserved that.

  “I am not going anywhere, Nikolai Travelion! I might find this whole situation weird beyond belief, but we are allies, you and me. No—despite your reluctance to accept the fact—I am your servant just as he is apparently. I am yours. That is the choice I made, and I will not go back on that, even if I could. Just promise me—no more bloody secrets! My heart might not be able to take any more shocks like this…” she said sternly.

  Nikolai wanted to protest the servant part, but Kaelith read his expression and raised her fist slightly. He just nodded instead and let her words warm him.

  “Thanks… I do have other stuff I could tell you, but we’ll get to that…”

  Kaelith narrowed her eyes. “Damn it, Nikolai, what else!?”

  He managed a grin. “Well, I didn’t really explain my teachers, or how I came to be as I am yet. Don’t worry—we’ll get to that later.”

  Kaelith rolled her eyes. “Fine. But you better not wait too long.”

  Nikolai agreed, gave her a wink, then called Sevrin back.

  The butler appeared moments later and bowed once again. “Young master Travelion, a pleasure as always. How may I serve?”

  Nikolai gestured to the chair Sevrin had previously used. “Sit, Sevrin. Let’s talk. First—introductions.”

  “This is Kaelith. She is not simply a servant—she is the closest person to me in this world. Kaelith, this is Sevrin, my bonded butler.”

  The two of them looked each other over, then both bowed slightly. Satisfied, if not entirely pleased, Nikolai continued.

  “So, Sevrin, you literally popped in. What’s up?” Nikolai asked.

  Sevrin smiled. “Well, I overheard your conversation, Master, and have to say I agree with Miss Kaelith. Those runes will be a good fit for you. Vitality speaks for itself, but Shadowmeld will greatly increase your chances of survival in a difficult situation—and your survival must always be the priority.”

  Kaelith nodded along in agreement, and Nikolai looked between the two of them. “Didn’t take you two long to gang up on me, huh?”

  Kaelith giggled. “We aren’t ganging up on you. It’s just good sense.”

  Sevrin inclined his head. “Also, I believe you have a pouch of your own, do you not, Master Travelion? One whose contents remain unexplored.”

  Nikolai flinched at Kaelith’s stare and nodded. “Yeah, but I haven’t been able to open it, so it kind of slipped my mind. Look, I am not very good at this yet, okay!? This is all new to me.”

  Kaelith sighed in exasperation, while Sevrin stood. “May I see it? Defensive spells are one of my strengths, and I do not believe this simple item shall prove a challenge.”

  Nikolai’s eyes widened. “Really!? Why didn’t you say so before?”

  Sevrin tilted his head slightly as Nikolai handed over the pouch. “I believed you would ask when you wished to do so. However, I suppose the extent of my abilities is not yet entirely clear to you.”

  Nikolai rolled his eyes. “Bloody hell, Sevrin, just speak your mind in the future…”

  Sevrin smiled. “I shall do so going forward. Now, let’s see.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  For a few minutes, Sevrin stared at the pouch intently, occasionally nodding to himself and whispering words Nikolai couldn’t make out. Then, finally, he stood straight again.

  “Yes, I can open it. It is quite an intriguing bit of enchanting, actually. I was pleasantly surprised. It is locked with blood, you see, so…”

  Sevrin snapped his fingers, and an intricate spell circle appeared over the pouch. Purple translucent threads stretched from his fingers, entering and altering the circle before he finally nodded in satisfaction.

  “I will need a drop of blood, Master.”

  Nikolai raised an eyebrow but stood and took a small knife from his dresser. He pricked his finger and held it out. “This enough?”

  Sevrin smiled. “Plenty. Now, press your finger to the spell circle.”

  Nikolai did as instructed. The circle turned from bright teal blue to dark crimson, then swirled and vanished.

  Sevrin handed the pouch back to him and nodded. “It is done. It belongs to you now.”

  Nikolai, almost giddy with anticipation, opened it. His connection to the pouch told him what it contained, and his eyes widened in surprise.

  “There is so much stuff in here…”

  Kaelith, like any good adventurer, looked more than a little excited. “Come on, what is it!?”

  Nikolai frowned. “Honestly, I have no idea. I mean, I recognize those mana crystals—there are a lot of them in here, and I think they’re higher grade.” He took one out, and the glow it emitted was far more intense than those in Kaelith’s pouch.

  She gasped. “This is… wow. I have never seen crystals of such high grade…”

  Nikolai grinned. “Seems we hit the jackpot with this one!”

  Kaelith giggled while he dug back into the pouch. “There are a bunch of plants, what looks like a large cooking pot, utensils, clothing, food… There’s pretty much everything you might need for survival outside. Even a rolled-up tent, chairs, a table, a tea set… There are some metals too, but they seem to be scrapings instead of bars.”

  He kept looking, then finally sighed. “Yeah, no runes. There’s a bunch of the stuff I put in, though. The core from the acid ooze is here, zombie weapons, oh and a couple of better ones. Probably the previous owner’s weapons.”

  Nikolai pulled out a sword. It was somewhat like a rapier but with a thicker blade, and the back of the blade was serrated. “Seems sort of sinister, this one…”

  Kaelith shrugged. “I’ll take it if you don’t want it.”

  Nikolai shrugged back, sheathed the sword, and tossed it to her. “Have it, then.”

  She grinned and admired the weapon. It wasn’t magical, but it was clearly well-made. He pulled out another weapon—simpler in design but of equally high quality. It was single-edged and reminiscent of a katana. It reminded him of elven blades from Lord of the Rings, though not as elegant. This was a practical weapon, made purely for purpose.

  Nikolai admired the blade as he unsheathed it. It still felt strange to be holding something like this. He hadn’t quite gotten used to the fact that this was his life now—but that wouldn’t stop him from using it.

  He knew what they were planning was very likely to end with him fighting people, something he was still somewhat reluctant to do. What scared him a little, as he watched the light play off the metal, was how little of that reluctance was left.

  That night, more preparations were made for the coming days. They needed more information, but as it turned out, Sevrin was more than willing to investigate leads. For some reason that didn’t interfere with the rules, and Nikolai wasn’t going to start asking why. That left Kaelith and Nikolai to handle other tasks.

  Nikolai needed to recover fully before taking action again, which meant staying put and actually resting. Kaelith was more or less fine, so she decided she would convert their items into coin and perhaps scout things out at the guild. They had quite a bit of value tied up in what was useless items for them, so gold was preferable. Even some of the mana crystals went, while the rest they would save for use at a later time.

  Before parting for the night, they each took in their respective runestones.

  Nikolai went first and absorbed the Marrowspawn Vitality rune. At first, nothing happened. Then waves of energy began pouring through him, and he felt his cells revitalizing.

  It wasn’t painful, much to his surprise, but Kaelith had explained that empowerment runes usually took a few days to fully integrate, in order for the body to acclimatize itself to the new power.

  Eventually, the rush ceased—or rather, settled into a low buzz. He grabbed the Shadowmeld rune and absorbed it next.

  Information streamed into his mind, and another piece of something that had seemed missing, like it had always meant to be there, returned to him. The rune filled an empty space he hadn’t known was there, and he grinned.

  He stood with a giddy expression and wrapped himself in the room’s shadows, reaching out and drawing them toward him. Then he activated the ability and felt himself merge with them, his body becoming incorporeal.

  The sensation was shocking, and his mind blanked for a moment before he remembered what he wanted to test. Like a ghost made of pure darkness, he approached the door and slid smoothly beneath it.

  He knew the spell would only last seconds, but those seconds stretched impossibly long. He rushed along the wall outside, found an empty room, and again slipped beneath the door. Once inside, the spell dissipated, and his body materialized from the shadows.

  Had someone watched it happen, it would have looked like darkness coalescing into a person—or perhaps a person stepping out of shadow itself.

  He would have to apologize to Kaelith for complaining. This was easily the coolest spell in his entire arsenal.

  A scene played in his mind—himself leaving an opponent with some dire warning, before becoming one with the darkness and vanishing. The thought almost made him shiver. This would be so damn awesome.

  He felt the rune settle and realized it would be about a minute before he could use the spell again, so he sat on the empty bed and waited. Once it was ready, he activated it again and returned to his room the same way he had left.

  Kaelith jumped when he materialized from the shadows behind her and poked her in the side.

  She glared at him. “I am going to hate this ability, aren’t I?”

  Next was Kaelith. She smiled as she took in the rune. “It’s been a while since I did this…”

  Once the information finished settling into her mind, she stood and held out her hand, palm down. With a whispered, “Come to me…,” a glowing circle materialized on the floor, and Nikolai took a few steps back.

  Sevrin, for his part, simply sipped his tea with an amused expression.

  From the circle, a shape appeared, hovering just above the floor. Its form flowed like a cloak in a soft wind. It was blackish-grey and roughly humanoid—two arms and a hooded head. Most interesting of all, instead of a face, it wore a bone mask.

  It was an exaggerated, almost cartoony visage, with too few and too large square teeth, oddly shaped eyeholes, and a large triangular nose cavity. In each socket glowed pale purple light.

  In one hand, a staff as tall as the creature materialized—which wasn’t very tall, perhaps only reaching Nikolai’s hip. A softly glowing lantern hung from it, giving off the same light as its eyes.

  Kaelith’s face lit up with delight as she took in her new familiar, and she giggled as it drifted toward her. “I shall call you Lantern!”

  Sevrin chuckled. “A bit unimaginative, but I suppose it fits.”

  Kaelith gave him a flat stare. “It’s a great name, and you know it.”

  She turned to Nikolai. “I need to spend some time figuring out what this little fella can do, so I’ll go to my room now.”

  Nikolai waved her goodnight, then sat across from Sevrin. “Think the plan will work?” he asked quietly.

  Sevrin smiled. “Hard to say, Master. It isn’t a bad plan. However it turns out… at the very least, it will be interesting to see how things play out.”