Last week’s chapter seemed to slow my pace, but DeMorte/Bella’s sendoff will be coming up soon. If I have my schedule worked out correctly, chapter 22 should be the last chapter in the area as DeMorte vacates the area to go west. His/her age is currently 9, but between chapter 18/19 there will be another time skip to get him/her (gender benders hurt my sense of pronouns) to 13 years old, which will be the age he/she will be when they leave to get their pronouns gender issue resolved.
By the way, I hope it was clear to everyone here, but my friend recommend that I explain one specific bit about the third eye more clearly: It allows mages to copy spells that are within their range, but they can still tell a spell is coming at them from outside that range. Plus, it is not like it is instant memorization.
For example, if two mages were fighting each other from a distance of 700 meters and they both had third eyes that could see 50 meters away: They would know that spells were being thrown at them the second their opponent cast them, but until the spells were visible to their third eye, they would not know what the spell was. This means that the more powerful mages all fight at a distance, their extra mana means extra dense magic armor, countering their usually more limited third eye.
Weaker mages, like DeMorte was, would still able to kill them, but they would have to get much closer, or try and hit the other mage with iron (hence DeMorte’s favorite weapon)
Chapter 17: Negotiations
Honor above, I groaned to myself. Why did things have to get complicated?
The modified human with the dagger had taken the opportunity to stab the one I had identified as the leader a few more times to a mixed reaction from those around her.
Some of the others seemed transfixed, as if they could not believe their eyes, while others – mostly the other females – were howling their approval. A very few charged forward and tried to attack her, but they were sent flying with a single hit each. I was fairly sure that two of them were killed instantly too, one because of his landing position – head first – and the other because his neck was twisted at an impossible angle.
Unless they had some weapons hiding in the surrounding buildings, further attempts at fighting this… usurper, would likely end badly for them.
I personally found her actions inefficient and redundant, but they gave me time to adapt. Bella just shivered inside my head, which made me snort. She was comfortable with the idea of testing experimental potions on people, but she found violence of our current situation discomforting. Maybe it was understandable if I viewed her as a little girl, but she shared at least part of my mind and should get used to such scenes already.
This room was odd, this situation was annoying, and my options were wonderfully limited, meaning I had to fall back on my keys for victory. The first key was objective and it had just changed as my opponent did. Where a traditional leader would be determined to keep power, a new leader, a usurper like this one, would be more concerned with securing it. The second key, motivation, had changed as well, for the same reasons. Although, the now dead leader had likely ruled through fear (I was guessing based on the actions of the others when he died) the new one might want to identify a common enemy. I could not know for sure though.
This led me to the third and fourth keys. The third key was simple, know when to take action. It was harder than it sounded of course, but it was still a good principle to work off of. It also led into the fourth key, always adapt.
I started walking forward silently, my bone sword by my side. I did not know much about the zugoran dagger, but it appeared in increase the wielder’s natural abilities somehow. I was going to assume that by sword would not hold up to zugoran, much less any magic the metal held, but it would make for an effective prop. Mages tended to dismiss weapons in my experience, while non-mages or individuals who were unfamiliar with magic would consider it a primary danger.
Until then, I needed to get closer and see how the newest modified human, or whatever he was at the moment, was doing. If I was lucky, he would still be in the process of transforming and I could gather important information before he was completely turned into one of them. His appearance suggested that he needed another treatment or two, but I was trying to keep my guesses to a minimum. Besides, he was likely the scream that I heard earlier, as I did not expect that any secondary processes were painless.
I felt some confusion from Bella as I methodically planed, discarded, and reformed a dozen different options to deal with the crowd and escape if or when necessary.
Wait, why did all of that sound so… thought out? Are you taking those keys of yours straight out of a book or something?
Partly, I was writing the book near the end of my previous life and had to explain a lot of things that I did not think about previously.
A book? About what? How you became a bandit leader? Who would read something like that?
It was a story about blood, sex, death, and triumph. With the new batch presses making it cheaply, who would not want to read it?
I received a mental picture of a mob of people holding their hands up, which I ignored.
The female usurper with the dagger had been making some sort of speech to the others and receiving an obviously divided audience. Half of the males and about a fifth of the females looked uncomfortable, while the rest were making some kind of shouting noise. Whether in approval or disapproval, I did not know, but their minds were clearly made up on the matter.
This went on while I just walked forward calmly, giving them plenty of time to argue or whatever they were doing. The room was so big that it took me a few minutes anyway, that as long as I was
I was just over halfway to the stone alter before anyone seriously started to take notice of me. It should not have surprised me as much as it did, but given that I was a small girl in a large room, filled with dozens of giant, hairy, very confused, modified humans, I had actually expected to go unnoticed for much longer.
What ended up calling attention to me was not one of them suddenly remembering my presence, but a crying sound from within some of the ‘buildings’ that grew out of the ground here.
Obviously this was where at least some of their young were kept, which added a pair of new dynamics. First, the crying made a few of the group turn around and notice me again. Second, it added children to the situation, which made the likelihood of rational behavior decrease dramatically.
It sounds hungry.
Who cares Bella? The darn thing should have kept its mouth shut.
Have you ever met my father? I swear you 2 are related or something.
Like you even know how to swear, brat! We will talk about this later.
A larger member of the group, one closer to me, bellowed a war like cry and came bounding at me. I carefully kept the same pace as several others like him started towards me while I prepared myself. I was only going to stun them if I could, but if they pushed me they would not enjoy it.
One veteran mage versus a couple dozen modified humans? Even with zugoran on their side, this would be a one sided bloodbath if I wanted it to be. It was the only reason that I did not fight them at the cave was that I was still worried about Soul Mages. However, if their skin blocked magic from going in, it would likely block it from coming out either. That meant that, even if some of them were mages, they would not be familiar with casting spells, which would let me stun or kill them as needed.
Mages killed mages, everyone and everything else in a battle were mere distractions. They could get lucky, or tricky ones could tip the favor at the right moment, but non-mages were seen as servants for much of the history in my previous world. If it was not for the ever increasing number of ‘sensitives,’ who were viewed as barley having any magic at all, the world would likely have been even worse for them.
These modified humans actually reminded me of the sensitives in my previous life, able to see magic, but hardly able to use it… Not that I had confirmed that they were all able to see magic anyway, but seemed prudent to assume they could.
The larger one changed directions slightly and dove off to my side, positioning himself between me and the building that I heard the crying from. The ones who followed him quickly dashed into positions around me, making sure that I was surrounded. I just cast a light ward that would let me know if they tried to attack me from behind.
Stones, I grimaced, as I suddenly felt a wave of pity and a bit of empathy wash over me. Others would have purged them without a second thought and burnt the remains with fleshfire, leaving only a note in the Histones books. In the end, their fate might actually be in my hands.
I did not break stride as I shook my head and walked through up to the main crowd. I was not scared, I had spent decades in the dirt, rocky hills, and even on the battlefield learning to survive. I maybe have had to lay low for the past 2 years, but I never gave up my power, I never gave up who I am.
Bella was right, I am not a man who bows willingly and there was no reason to be afraid right now, meaning that there was no way I was going to be intimidated. This was the time to wear my cloak, when I had a good idea of the odds and the knowledge of how I could win.
…Of course if even a single one of them had somehow developed magic, my experience should give me just enough of an edge to escape. Even with magic weapons of zugoran to take into account, the odds of me dying were extremely low.
As I approached the alter like construct one of the modified humans stepped out directly in front of me and tried to physically stop me.
The female with the dagger said something to him, but I ignored her and channeled my internal energy into my whole body. If she decided to attack I would need to recognize the threat, so I prepared myself for an annoying task and sped up my perception of time a bit.
It burned through more internal energy reserves than I liked, but ever since my new family had learned about my magical talent I had been dividing my time equally between storing internal energy and expanding my mana. Where I had originally intended to compress my mana as much as possible to hide my magic usage, I had enough food because of my ‘healing talent’ to concentrate more on storing internal energy for emergencies.
Expanding my mana this early in my life would yield… other effects, but they were not important at the moment.
I had to fight my instinct to not touch anyone and extended my empty hand towards the male blocking my way. He tried to grab it, but I instinctively dodged his hand before remembering that what I planned on doing.
Bare contact martial movements did exist, but I had never practiced them, as a result I could not flip the male or do anything fancy like that, but I could use my strength to remove such an obstacle.
Using my slowed perception of time I grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm across his body. Doing so might have dislocated his arm, but I did not hear or feel a pop, so I simply stepped out of the way as he went sprawling and walked up to the edge of the alter. Deciding to continue my dramatic entrance, I pretended to ignore the usurper while keeping her in my peripheral vision. The speed she showed earlier had not been natural.
The previously normal person, who I had witnessed being modified a few hours ago, was currently passed out on the alter. His limbs were chained up in old, slightly rusty, iron shackles.
At least they are not made of zugoran, I thought to myself. I carefully walked to the opposite side of the alter, not comfortable with the usurper or her dagger so close to me. After I had gotten closer, I had managed to confirm that the dagger had some sort of magic based ability, but since it was directly affecting her, I had a hard time telling what exactly it was.
I could tell that the dagger was sucking in mana from the area around it, but the third eye could not see spells created or cast inside of a person or directly into someone. I could also see the very small amount of blood that was dripping down the dagger, which told me how the female was letting the dagger affect her. Although her skin would resist magic, her blood would still carry it in a manner similar to what I did earlier with my sword and the stun spell.
It also meant that Gorith’s shroud might be able to stop the dagger’s ability as using the spell would take control of all the mana in an area around me, starving the dagger.
Feeling a bit more secure on the opposite side of the alter, I let my perception of time slow a bit. If the usurper started to attack me I would have enough time to speed it up again, as long as I was careful.
I reached out and touched the newly modified human (on his arm – to Bella’s slight disappointment) and felt almost no resistance as my talent entered him. His body was currently in overdrive as it tried to draw on the limited nutrients it had access to in order to transform his body. He had some food in his stomach that was being very thoroughly digested, but that would not be enough.
I kept an eye on the usurper, who also kept a close eye on me, while I sent a spell into the man. Specifically, I used the spell that Bella occasionally needed in order to wake up. It might be uncomfortable for him, but I needed to make sure I had at least one person I could speak to.
Plus, if I made it seem like I was here for him, the others might misunderstand it as a search for kin, which was more likely to be understood and accepted than a search for test subjects.
The man woke up fairly quickly, the spell I used creating a unique wake up mix of chemicals and hormones that would work better than most hangover remedies for clearing the mind. He started moving soon afterwards, testing his bonds. I used a spell to lessen any pain and another to let him focus faster.
I was burning through my internal energy reserves more quickly than I would have liked and I needed him to concentrate. There was no way he would be able to translate for me right now, but in the future he might be very useful… Plus, I was taking the time that I was in physical contact with him to study his body as closely as possible with my talent.
I will help!
Funny, Bella, not now.
They seem friendly enough given how personable you are, besides that was not a joke-
I said not now.
I felt a flicker of a sense of hurt from her, but I pushed it down, I had no time for childish dribble at the moment.
The man tried to jerk up, but remembered, or rediscovered, his chains and instead started looking around. He glanced at me and then at the usurper, who still held the dagger. It was not raised, but it commanded the man’s attention for a moment as he noticed it and then the body lying next to its wielder.
“Can you hear me?” I tried enunciating as cleanly as possible, I needed this man focused on me for a moment so that I could ask him some questions and evaluate my options.
If I needed to wait for him to develop the ability to translate, I might actually gain more information by simply forcibly implanting everyone here with my newest version of my magical device. Which I should probably come up with a name for at some point.
You mean the ones that work surprisingly similar to zugoran?
Stop pouting and explain that statement please.
What? You want my help now? Oh I am sorry my liege, I would have thought that it would be obvious.
Bella…
…Their skin would block any magic signals. If you could even get that booster in the back of your head designed to let us monitor them from back home.
That… is very helpful Bella, thank you. I will have to encase the ‘monitor’ device in bone and attach it to something important. Maybe their brainstem, that way it could stick out the back of their neck…
Wait you cannot-
“Run.” A wheezing voice cut off Bella’s response. Is it raw from screaming? I wondered to myself. “Run, please get away, go.” He almost sounded like he was begging me. It was especially annoying as I heard his speech through my sped up perception, which meant that I had to concentrate for a moment to understand him.
Replying was also annoying, but I kept my perception speed high just to be one the safe side. I was familiar enough with this type of status that I could talk slowly from my perspective and he would hear it fine. “So you can speak, good.” I replied simply. “Do you have a name?”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
I heard the usurper call out something at that point and I looked up to find her watching us both with interest. The man just tried to tell me to run a few more times. He might have also insulted me while trying to get my attention, but I concentrated on the usurper for a moment.
“Dal’tal?” I asked the her, trying to remember the words the first female I met used.
“Dal’tal yea.” She pointed at herself with her free hand before opening her palm and extending it towards me.
“DeMorte.” I responded, pointing at myself.
She nodded and repeated my name. Then, she turned to look off to the side, where another female, one who looked very pregnant, was being very carefully guided by a mob of males to the alter. A few of them were sending nervous looks to Dal’tal every few moments.
Why is she being brought out here? Surly they remember me throwing the male earlier. If they want to be protective of her, why bring her anywhere near me? I checked my wards and expanded them for a moment to make sure that no one was trying to sneak up behind me.
“Mage.” The man on the alter gasped. “Please, get help. Please little DeMorte, they are dangerous.”
“If I did that you would be stuck like this forever.” I replied simply, looking down at him. “Now are you going to tell me your name?”
“What does that matter? Do you really think you can save me from all of them? One little girl?” He replied, looking confused.
“I am a 7 circle mage who remembers their previous life, so yes, I do. Name.”
“Sabert.” He stated, still looking confused, but now looking slightly hopeful as well.
“Well Sabert,” I began patiently, “any idea why they are bringing a pregnant lady up here?” I nodded towards the female in question
Sabert leaned up, rattling his chains for a moment while he tried to get a good look at the female I was talking about. “She speaks rough human. We spoke before…” He paused and laid back, with a pained look on his face. “Before they turned me into this.”
I nodded to myself, impressed that Dal’tal had already known what to do. I had many questions to ask, but as long as I could get my initial offer across, the rest could wait. If my previous discoveries were any indication, these modified humans might have already noticed that their children were growing rarer, meaning I had even more to offer them than I originally expected.
The pregnant woman talked to Dal’tal for a moment before turning to me. “Can you understand?” Her ability to speak the language Bella had grown up with, which I had never bothered to ask the name of, was rough, but passable.
“Yes.”
She nodded and studied me for a moment. “Is he kin? Where your parents?”
“That is unimportant.” I said coldly. “I came here to see how Sabert was doing,” I gestured at him, “and to ask for a trade.”
She narrowed her eyes and spoke to Dal’tal for a little while. They seemed to be arguing for a moment before she turned back to me. “What would you trade little one? You trapped here, why no parents? Why you no join us?”
“I can move through the fear runes if I want to.” I smiled as the woman looked at me in disbelief. “My parents can be here, they do not know that I was blessed by the gods.” It was a stretch of the truth, but they would not know that and more importantly: they could not tell anyone even if they believed me. “I will trade knowledge with you, as you will need it soon enough.”
At that point, after the pregnant woman finished translating, Dal’tal started giving orders, sending most of the others back into the various buildings that were merged into the ground throughout this place. A few stayed as she carefully removed the zugoran jewelry from the corpse of the previous leader before they carried it away.
Dal’tal only put on the neckless that her predecessor had been wearing, leaving the rest of the zugoran off to the side in a small pile off to the side. After a moment of talking to the woman – whose routine of overly protective males had been the ones to carry off the corpse – she continued our talk.
“Why we believe you? Just child, cannot see gods or god gifts.”
I smiled calmly, ignoring the fact that my internal energy stores were now below half and still dropping. “I am the daughter of a man who found a mine to the south, beyond the runes. His discovery will draw attention and eventually someone will push through the runes like I did.”
The translator waved her hand in the air and spoke without consulting Dal’tal. “Same problem, no proof, only little girl.”
I raised an eyebrow and stopped smiling. “If that is how you feel then I will just have to leave. Of course I will be taking Sabert here with me.” I gestured at said man and tried not to enjoy her reaction too much.
“No, no, no. We need him.” She said vehemently, “Little girl magic cannot take him either. We get both you to stay”
“No.” I replied, holding up my sword. “You cannot stop me if you tried.” I reformed it in front of them into an oval shaped mound that extended over my hand. The end result looked slightly like an egg, with a rounded tip extending outwards like it was a part of my arm.
Dal’tal reacted to this by rapidly putting herself between me and her translator while raising her own weapon. She also started talking quickly to her translator, obviously trying to figure out what was going on.
In the meantime, I noticed that I had been able to track Dal’tal movement fairly well and I smiled happily before I grabbed Sabert’s chained arm. Barely taking my eyes off Dal’tal I pulled Sabert’s arm to tighten the chain and smashed down with my new weapon. I could have made it perfectly rounded or with a sharp point, but I was unsure how strong the rusted iron was, especially in comparison to my bone weapon, so I compromised.
With a small serge of my internal energy I broke the iron chain and then held it up for the other 2 to see. “I could kill you, but I do not want to. I want to help you.” I lowered both the broken chain and my arm, making it clear that I meant no harm. “You need Sabert’s blood because you are too isolated, but I want to help you because the mine will draw more people here.”
I looked Dal’tal straight in the eyes, barely noticing that a few others had come rushing out at the noise of me breaking the chain. Dal’tal herself yelled at them without breaking eye contact with my and grudgingly lowered her weapon. I continued to talk to her, knowing that she would understand after the translator explained, but wanting Dal’tal to feel like I was talking directly to her. “More will come. They will think the fear runes hide something dangerous and eventually they will send ones stronger than me. They will fear you and they will kill when they get here. I do not know when it will happen, but it will occur eventually.”
I paused and then emphasized my final statement. “You cannot stop me if I want to leave and you will never be able to stop fully trained soilders if you could not even stop one little girl. Besides, you look like you have already realized just how rare children are becoming for your people, do you really think kidnapping others is a permanent solution? That will just draw others here faster.”
The two exchanged a flurry of words and Dal’tal reluctantly lowered her dagger
“How can you help?” The woman finally asked.
“I know blood.” I explained. “I will try to figure out how to reverse the process that your staff,” I pointed at it off to the side, “did to make people like Sabert here. That way you have a better chance of living peacefully when the other humans finally discover you.”
They talked and nodded for a few moments and I knew I had them. “You said trade.” The woman stated hesitantly, “what will cost be?”
“You are human,” I stated honestly, “I want to know more about human blood, so the knowledge I get from you will be its own reward.”
“What about Sabert?”
“I can help him, but I do not want to feed him, it would be better if he remained here, unless we cannot come to an agreement. After all, I need to be able to visit him if I want to help him.” Sabert, who was endlessly confused and now clearly a bit panicked at being a bargaining chip. “They really are human,” I added, glancing at Sabert, “changed, but human.”
After another moment of talking between then Dal’tal finally sheathed her zugoran blade, letting me relax my internal energy a little. “We will need time to talk. New leader different, want opinions.” The woman grated out. I simply nodded my understanding in response. “You stay here? More questions?”
I shook my head. “I will be watching, but I will not be sleeping here.”
The woman raised an eyebrow. “Found Dal’tal yea in mine. Dangerous to stay in for you, old zugoran energies. Large forest tree snakes too. They sleep now, as the cold comes, but wake with warmth.”
I felt a mixed chill and annoyance flow through me. Had I been sleeping barely safe places ever since I passed those stoning runes?
Bella-
I forgive you, the benefit of living with you in my mind is at least knowing why you think what you do… Let us just agree to be much more careful about where we sleep in the future.
Agreed. Hopefully this will not become some sort of running Nalk gag.
Oh, I can see it now: hey can we make him sleep in that flood valley? How about under that nest of killer bees?
I mentally groaned and drew myself back to the conversation at hand
“I will be fine. Thank you for your concern.” The woman nodded and turned to Dal’tal to say something. I thought that she would leave now and I would be able slip away into the night, but just as she started walking away I was struck by a stray thought. “What are your people called? Or do you have a name for yourselves?”
She turned back and replied without hesitation. “We are called the Vüf’an”
I just stared blankly. Veufan? Wolfman? Seriously?
Just at the edge of my range of hearing I could have sworn that I heard the chuckle of a certain bookish energy being and found myself wondering if I was ever in any danger in the first place.
* * *
Entrials, the Lord Mayor’s house: (Flashback: The other evening)
John sputtered in anger while looking at his brother, his words refusing to form a coherent question or statement as his mind spun.
He did not deserve this. He had followed all the standard rules of pre-courtship prior to meeting and formally asking her parents for permission to court Bella, yet he was now being rejected.
Was it that he had yet to do in order to pursue her?
Finally taking several deep breaths, John’s strangled voice managed to squeak out a question. “Why?”
It was such a simple question, but it held the weight of the world for the young, heart broken, boy. John was often cavalier when nervous, but right now he stood before the one person he respected the most in the world, his brother, with tears rolling down his face.
He had just learned that he would not be allowed to pursue his feelings towards Bella and he could not believe it.
Robert looked at his brother with a resolute, but understanding look. “She is not interested in you little brother.” His deep voice only added to the sense of immovability that his words seemed to carry.
John had looked for Bella since her family had arrived, but could not find her and instead hoped to formally ask her parents for their permission to court her tonight. Instead, his brother had blocked him and gently pulled him away before he could talk to them.
Pulled him away to tell him that…
“That…” John’s voice cracked and he felt like something burning in his chest. “That is not fair! You just want to hurry up and marry Florance now that we know her father will be elevated!” His high pitched voice grated on his Robert’s nerves, but he understood how upset his little brother was. John had never been denied anything before, yet the one thing – the one person – Robert mentally admonished himself, that John truly wanted had been forbidden to him.
“You know that is not true John, now stop being a baby about it.” Robert was the one who scolded him because they both knew exactly how much John looked up to his brother. Their father’s scolding would just be a swift beating while he berated the boy for not figuring out what not to do himself.
“I am not BEING A BABY!” He all but screamed and accidentally released a wave of pressure that knocked a picture off the wall and a chair behind him over.
“JOHN!” Robert barked. He was suddenly glad that he took John into one of the quiet rooms. The runes carved onto the interior of the walls would dampen the noise to the point where no one outside would be able to hear it over the ongoing festivities.
John looked down, feeling ashamed at losing control of his young magic, yet again. When healer Kal’rek had been there, he explained that John’s magic would come to him in the next few years and he needed to learn to keep it under control, even when emotional, or he would have a very hard time casting spells.
Sometime later, the door opened and Anghenfil came into the room. John’s tears had long since dried, but he still did not move from his position, curled up on the floor. He did not look up, but he knew his friend’s presence by the way mana reacted to him. It was John’s talent and one of the reasons that he found Bella so endlessly fascinating.
Where mana tried to avoid Anghenfil, it seemed to revolve around Bella like she was the center of the world. When he first seen Bella he noticed the mana dancing around her, swirling and spinning as if trying to get her attention or make her to play with it.
John had found it awe-inspiring and now…
Anghenfil closed the door softly behind him and looked upon his friend as a sorry, and somewhat scary sight, as an uncomfortable feeling was rolling off of John, not that the boy himself had noticed it.
The silence stretched on as Anghenfil tried to gather the courage, the words, to tell his friend what he needed to hear. The whole building and indeed the whole town was aware of Nathan’s elevation to the lowest rank of the nobility. It meant that, after he attended the ceremony in the capital, he would be the highest ranking individual in the area.
Nathan was going to be the lord upon his return.
Robert and Florence had already been an obvious match so it would not affect his standing too much, but John and especially Anghenfil, would get away with less now than they did before.
It would be especially annoying for Anghenfil as he leveraged John’s position more than John did, much less that knightly fool Drasidedi did too. Still, he did consider himself John’s friend so it pained him to see John like this. Just before he could start bumbling assurances though, John spoke up. “She hates me.”
Anghenfil noticed the tremor in John’s voice and could only wonder at its source. Was it John’s anger or sadness? Surely it was a mixture, but which was stronger?
“She stayed away to let her family reject me.” John continued, grounding out each word, not looking up. Had he, he might have noticed Anghenfil’s small smile or his more relaxed posture. Anghenfil knew how to deal with John when he was like this, as long as Drasiedi did not interfere.
Approaching slowly, Anghenfil spoke slowly and carefully, letting silence fill his pauses to add a greater weight to his words. “John… she is cute, but you are looking at this wrong… You are not losing her… she is losing the one person who would truly understand her.”
John looked up and blinked rapidly at his friend. His red eyes clearly revealing how much he had been crying. Anghenfil continued, speaking slowly, but passionately, “You are my best friend, but I have always known that you were destined for great things, even before you learned of your magic… You will be someone who gets fame and recognition in the future, you do not need to worry about someone who even thinks things like smoking traxico is bad for you.” Anghenfil snorted in distain before continuing. “You have to get it together though, you need to show her that it is her loss. You need to make her regret this, but… you cannot do that crying on the floor.”
John nodded. He was right, John needed to get it together so that he could make Bella see the error of her ways, to make sure that she regretted rejecting him, absolutely.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
List of things to do: add a formal definition for ‘talent’
If you have anything to suggest I concentrate on please feel free to comment on the chapter, message me, or review the story*
Thank you all for reading, sincerely,
Bob_Sagit.
*please.