April 11th, 1798 16:49

Victor and Rory are on the lookout for a place to spend the night, the last thing they want is to be out in case of an attack, despite the fact that they just had an argument with Lazar, Rory proposed that they should also look for Natasha at Lazar's house, thanks to Victor's attitude, the only one who considers them allies is the person who was the most hostile towards them, they decided to pay a visit to Lazar's place while he is still at the office, Rory thought that it would be best to avoid another meeting with him as of now.

They made their way to Lazar's place, the first thing they saw is how well-fortified the outer yard is, a 3 meter stone wall is surrounding the entire building, there are plenty of claw marks on the walls but for the most part it seemed to be able to withstand an assault. Victor and Rory stood in front of the metal gate and called for Natasha to let them in, there was no response for the most part. Victor then closed his eyes, he focused for a second and grabbed Rory by the back, he tossed Rory with enough force to pass above the metal gate, Rory wasn't that happy about it.

"I swear, someday you are going to break my neck with these tricks."

Victor pointed to the latch on the door, Rory opened the door and let Victor in, they made their way towards the back yard, they saw Natasha practicing with all sorts of weapons, axes, swords and cutlasses, it was clear that she preferred a one-handed weapon more than anything, Victor and Rory didn't make a sound, as if they were sharing the same thought, they wanted to watch Natasha practicing.

It didn't take took long for Rory to interrupt her,

"Hello, Natasha."

Natasha turned stopped and run towards them with a subtle smile on her face, her golden hair mesmerized Rory and inspired a smile in his face as well. Natasha was quite relieved to see that they didn't get in trouble after Victor's quarrel with Diego Pearson, the sheriff.

"I am glad to see you in one piece gentlemen. What's going on?"

Rory explained to Natasha that they needed a place to spend the night, Natasha was quick to answer,

"You can spend the night here if you would like, my uncle doesn't come often, he prefers to stay at his office most of the time."

Victor was a bit curious and asked,

'That was a bit easy, wasn't it? What's the catch?"

Natasha smiled as she revealed why she let them stay.

"You are going to spar with me, Victor."

Victor didn't exactly oppose the idea but instead commented on Natasha's words,

"Victor? What happened to Mr.Hill? Are we to the point of using our first names?"

Natasha quickly replied,

"Rory called me Natasha instead of Ms.Price earlier, after the incident at the forest I would like to assume we have a better understanding than strangers so...yes. Victor, I want you to train me."

Rory shared his opinion as well, he turned to look Victor in the eyes like a small puppy,

"It won't hurt, will it? Victor? Our hostess request was simple enough."

Victor grunted for a second but then agreed to Natasha's request, what she really wanted was to see Victor's true strength and maybe pick up a few tricks, she wasn't mad that Victor bested her in combat, she knew that he was superior, that only intrigued her more, she preferred to take advantage of this opportunity to strengthen herself. Without wasting a single second she grabbed Victor's hand and led him to a sparring area in the back yard, it was more of a sandpit than a sparring arena, just a small circle of sand created by her to be an open area where she could place the straw figures and practice on them.

April 11th, 17:21

Natasha and Victor spent some time sparring, the difference in skill was immense, Victor was able to counter every one of Natasha's moves, Rory was just sitting on the side watching, she gave up trying to beat Victor after many attempts, Victor was able to disarm, parry or counter attack her continuously. She swallowed her own ego and admitted that she was no match for him, with a heavy breath she sincerely said,

"I give up, I can't match up to your speed or strength. I can't imagine how anyone is able to fight like that, I've never seen a swordsman like that, no swordplay techniques are efficient if your opponent has physical abilities like that, nevermind the fact that you are also very skilled with the blade. Be honest with me, Victor. How have you achieved strength like that?"

Victor sighed at Natasha's question, Rory also averted his gaze from them, it was clear that whatever method Victor had used wasn't something to be discussed so lightly, since Natasha was out of stamina, she invited them back inside to share tea and dinner, despite focusing all of her time and energy to combat, she was also a great cook. Victor and Rory sat at the living room and sipped ever so slightly from their cups while Natasha was preparing the dinner table, in her own mind, she thought that if she gained some trust from them she could find out some of their secrets, so she tried her best to make the dinner presentable and to season the food with the best spice she had in her possession.

April 11th, 19:03

Natasha called Victor and Rory to the dining room, she had laid a beautiful white cover over the wooden table with frills at the edges, she had laid the plates and the silverware is such way to inspire some sort of new art, there were several silver platters on the table covering the dinner, as she opened up each top of the platters, Victor and Rory gazed upon their luxurious food, grilled chicken, steamed potatoes and onion soup, crispy freshly made bread and a cabbage salad seasoned with olive oil and lemon juice. Rory's mouth was drooling as he saw what Natasha had prepared for them, they all sat down, before eating a single bite, Natasha began with a prayer, she thanked the Lord for the food and kept the prayer for a couple of minutes, Victor and Rory didn't actually take part in that prayer.

They all started eating in silence, the wind outside began to strengthen up and they could now hear it as it passed through the streets, the situation at the table was somewhat awkward, despite Natasha's efforts to make the meal great, she didn't get any compliments from them, that made her feel a bit unappreciated, at this point she really wanted to impress them and gain their trust. She was so focused on making them like her that she tried to open up a conversation with a little joke, something she wasn't used to doing.

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"Don't you like this better than a brothel?"

She said with a slight chuckle so emphasize the fact that she was joking.

"Speaking about that..."

Victor said and before finishing his sentence, Natasha's mind filled with thoughts, what would she do if he suddenly asked for woman comfort, even worse he demanded it, she wouldn't be able to resist physically, she wasn't really sure if she could resist emotionally either. Before saying something stupid though, Victor continued,

"Why do you think that brothel has some of the best defenses in the town?"

Natasha's mind eased at that point, her face had taken a bright red color, she took a bite of the bread in an attempt to cool down her head without making it obvious and then responded,

"The cabaret is flourishing with money, many of the men in town go there and spend piles of gold, since it mostly works in the night, it doesn't seem weird that the owner would want his place to be trashed by monsters or his clients to be eaten while in the place, he does have the money to fortify the place ."

Victor thought of a couple of things about what Natasha said, if there is this kind of money wondering around town, why aren't they trying to build safe houses for people to sleep at night, the cabaret is not a secret operation, everyone in town knows about it, why is that this place is the only fortified building? Are the people of this town so disgusting that they have the means to protect the rest but simply don't want to spend their money on the safety of others? What are Lazar's and Diego's thoughts on the whole thing? Apparently Lazar has enough money to establish a safe space in his house and his office, as a leader, doesn't he feel the need to use his resources to protect the civilians? Victor thought that asking these questions now to Natasha wouldn't bear any results,  he remained silent and kept eating.

April 11th, 23:00

It's quiet outside, there are no footsteps, no screams, the people of Magnus have retired to their houses, some men decided to pay a visit to the famous "Paradise", some call it a cabaret, an establishment where men go to gaze on the naked skin of women while sipping from their drinks, a place to relieve stress and have some fun. Others call it a brothel, a place where men pay for women's comfort and to satisfy their carnal desires. In the eyes of Victor though, it's one of the most interesting places that he has seen since he arrived at Magnus. Natasha has allowed Victor and Rory to use the couches in the living room for them to sleep, Rory was in a deep sleep, snoring and mumbling some words ever so often, Victor wanted some more answers, he spent a handful of minutes awake, lying on the couch, with his equipment lying next to him just in case, he tried to come up with some answers to the questions he had but without the right information, he just hit a wall. It wasn't long until he fell asleep as well.

April 12th, 6:45

Victor and Rory wake up to the voice of Natasha, she is already dressed and ready for breakfast, Victor wakes up, he checks around for no particular reason and lights a cigar with a flint and steel lighter he always keeps around, Rory struggles to wake up and grunts while he also sits on the couch waiting to see why Natasha woke them up. Not much time later, she walks in the living room, Victor notices something strange with her appearance, she is already equipped with 2 flintlock pistols and she is wearing some light armor. Rory felt the need to ask about that.

"Why are you armed so early, Natasha? Are you going to shoot us?"

Rory chuckled a bit, Natasha also laughed ever so slightly.

"I have made breakfast, when you are finished eating, I want to practice some more and then I presume we are also going back to the forest, aren't we?"

Natasha made the assumption that they will go back to hunt the Shades, Victor got up and walked to the dining room, Rory was still a bit groggy from sleep and decided to wait a couple of minutes before getting up. Natasha has sat down opposite of Rory, for him, waking up to a beautiful girl like Natasha was like he was still dreaming, his dream ended though when Natasha couldn't get her head around asking,

"Rory, I apologize for my persistence but I need to know, I need to know how Victor got to the level he is at right now, I also want to know the role you have, I might have jumped to a stupid conclusion but I want to be a party with you two, I also apologize for my hateful behavior at first."

Natasha spoke sincerely, her voice was low and what she said she meant, Rory couldn't bear watching her in this state, he also felt the need to be honest and share some things with her, she was after all honest with them and thus Rory felt like he had to compensate.

"I guess you deserve some honesty, I guess you are familiar with sorcery. I saw the relics in the yard."

Natasha nodded in agreement.

"I am a machinist, I make the tools necessary for hunting down monsters, I make traps, explosives and I also do some augmenting on existing weapons, in my bags I have the prototype of a crossbow with gears on the body of the bow, basically it can launch a bolt really fast with the help of the gears but also doesn't need to be extremely long and requires less power to cock it, making it more reliable in battle and allowing for consistent shooting. My other specialization and the reason I have worked with Victor for so long is that of a sorcery scholar, I have also studied a handfull of sorcery books and also practiced in casting some spells, I am hoping, that some day, I can create weapons with both engineering and sorcery combined, I am also working on a special arrow that can be launched and used as a long-range explosive."

Natasha was filled with excitement, not only did Rory agree to share their training with her, the things he said also captivated her, Natasha loved to fight, even before the issue with the Shades began, she had already been training in combat, hearing Rory explain to her about war engineering and sorcery engineering picked her interest. She couldn't help it though and had to ask,

"And what about Victor? How is he able to fight like that? Does he also wield sorcery?"

Rory sighed, he knew the answer but he thought that nothing good would come of telling Natasha, he decided to work his way around that question by answering vaguely.

"No, Victor can't use sorcery, he tried many times to study but always failed, he is not compatible with sorcery."

Natasha wanted to know more, she nodded many times to prompt Rory to continue.

"Victor has a long and fierce history of combat, he has trained relentlessly to learn swordsmanship and practiced with guns enough to render them useless from firing so much, he has a lot of experience in hunting monsters, he was a very skilled hunter even before I began working with him."

Natasha felt like something was missing, that doesn't explain his inhuman reflexes and strength. She was extremely interested at the moment and couldn't help it but ask,

"What about his physical abilities, how can it be possible to attain such power? What did he do?"

Rory sighed again, he knew he couldn't avoid this question not matter how hard he tried to. His vague answers had no effect, Natasha was just too persistent to let him go without answering.

"You see, Natasha. You don't really want to know about Victor's past. To be precise, you shouldn't know, it would just make things worse, his strength comes with tons of trouble."

Natasha was confused, she didn't really understand what Rory was trying to say, her furious desire to know more though led her to ask again.

"What's going on about Victor's past?"

At this moment, Victor walked back to the living room to see why Rory was taking so long, he answered Natasha's question.

"The past doesn't matter, focus on improving yourself and don't poke into dangerous matters you don't understand."

Natasha lowered her head as if she was apologizing. Like she was being scolded for something, Rory then tried to lighten the situation with a joke.

"It's weird to see you worry about someone else, Victor. I always thought you were an emotionless brute."

Natasha and Rory laughed while Victor didn't even break a smile, he didn't really mind Rory's remark of calling him a brute, he just couldn't bring himself to laugh. Natasha was still interested in Victor's past but she felt like she couldn't push further, it's still early in the morning, she basically forced them at this point to train again, it was compensation for her hospitality after all, once the training is done, there is some discussing of going back to the forest, even though Victor didn't really agree to that. The night was quiet, no one lost his life last night and a new day is ahead of them.