Plucking through Exill’s coin pouch, Envy hesitantly withdrew 200 Denars in the form of two silver coins. She palmed it with her good hand, and headed outside where light raindrops were pattering against the cobblestones. Her feet reluctantly navigated the dense streets until she found herself outside the slave market under a turbulent grey sky.

The first thing to hit you about the Slave Market was the smell. It was a cloying stench that clung to your clothes no matter how briefly you entered its premise. Next was the sounds. Long term employees and residents of the market would become accustomed to it, treating it like white noise. However the grunts and moans of pain reawakened an incredibly painful memory for her.

‘What kind of fate is this?’ She shook her head and walked straight to Diallo’s compound, not permitting her eyes to wander towards the many vendors squawking their miserable wares. She swiftly entered the building next to the warehouse and ignored the Assistant who hurried to his feet in surprise.

“Excuse me Miss, you cannot go in there!”

Diallo looked up from the budget report as his bodyguard rose to her feet. The furore outside his office only increased until a crimson haired beauty with murderous eyes barged into his office. She was dripping from the rain outside, and although she was unarmed, her dismissal of his bodyguard as a threat spoke volumes about her confidence.

“Stand down Sayleen, I know this one.” Diallo raised his palm to prevent his bodyguard from drawing her sword and allowed the Vampire to approach closer.

“Repayment?” Diallo leaned back, one hand lightly stroking his beard as he examined Envy. She had changed a lot in the past few months. The slave trader had thought himself astute when he sold the half-starved vampire for 15k Denars.

‘It appears it wasn’t exorbitant enough…’ he brooded while appraising her figure with a clinical look. Aside from her missing left arm, he judged her to be worth 30… no, 40k Denars.

Similarly, Envy examined the man who had been her captor for four months. The man that would have been responsible for her death had Exill not whisked her away, putting everything he owned as collateral.

She dumped the pouch of 1300 Denars on his table.

“This month’s payment.”

“Received.”

The two continued to stare at each other until Diallo, with too much work on his plate broke eye contact to examine his budget report. Envy suppressed her anguish as she exited the compound.

She had used all the money she had saved up till now to make this payment. Throwing hard earnt money at the man who would have let her starve out of apathy had been excruciatingly painful. Exill only had 800 – no, – 600 Denars now.

It had been over a week since the incident and the pangs of hunger made it difficult to concentrate. She couldn’t even be in the same room as Exill without salivating, wanting to drain him dry.

She walked back to the Clinic, her last tunic soaked from the light rain.

With no money, weapon, or hand, there was nothing else she could do but wait.

***

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Exill woke up to the sight of a familiar ceiling. He turned his head to find the poster of ‘My Vampire Master’ hanging on the wall, drawing a rare smile to his lips.

He was alive.

However, panic quickly set in.

‘How long have I been asleep?’

‘Is Envy okay?’

‘What happened to the duel?’

‘How am I going to pay Diallo, I only have 800 Denars and I need to buy weapons, arm-…’

In one single moment of hubris he had nearly lost everything. He could have overwritten the contract with Envy and forfeited the duel, gone their separate ways. Except he couldn’t.

His eyes became blurry with tears of anguish.

It became abundantly clear that the divination tools had predicted he couldn’t walk away. They had known he would risk it all than forfeit. That was why it had predicted his death – not in the Arena – but in the Labyrinth. He had self-fulfilled his own prophecy.

There had been many warning anecdotes in the books he had read about Divination. In one famous story, the Queen of an ancient kingdom witnessed the death of her husband, and sent multiple messages warning the campaigning King of an ambush. Her numerous messages were intercepted and decoded, leading to the eventual ambush of said King. At the time of reading, Exill thought it more of a commentary on keeping military secrets safe, analogous to Britain’s WWII slogan, ‘loose lips sink ships’. Now… he wasn’t so sure.

“Those sly motherf**king bones got me good.” He whispered through gritted teeth. He swore not to touch the divination tools ever again.

Drying tears of anguish on the sleeve of his tunic, he struggled to sit up, expecting pain to flare up in his ribs and legs… but it felt fine. Lifting the blanket aside, he examined what was left of his legs.

There were short stumps below his knee, his calves and feet were gone.

Exill lifted his tunic to find his sides were immaculate. Luna must have given her all for him to make such a recovery. He inspected his Card. The Speed stat had halved, and the Vitality bar was full, but it felt a bit shorter than it originally did. Everything else was just as he remembered.

*Creak*

Luna stood in the doorway, shocked to find Exill sitting up. She looked incredibly tired and her lower lips quivered as she held back tears. He opened his arms, inviting her in, his own eyes glistening in emotion. As a healer, he knew Luna must have poured her own vitality and mana every day just to get him to this state.

They embraced for long minutes in silence. His heart nearly breaking from the feeling of her protruding ribs under the blouse. The two finally drew apart, and both of them felt intense anger at the recklessness of the other.

“How could you leave your Will without telling me?” she roared.

“How could you drain yourself to such a state?” he responded.

They stared heatedly at each other, but Luna’s glare was fiercer than his, causing him to look away first. “I’m sorry, and thank you… I’m also hungry.”

Luna angrily threw a pillow at him and stormed out to cook lunch. At that moment, Envy climbed down from the attic ladder having heard Exill’s voice. She peered around the doorway, trying to keep her hunger at bay.

“Come in.” He greeted her with a hesitant smile. She was still here and that was good news, “How long has it been? Have you fed? Roll up your sleeves and let me see that arm.”

The questions poured out as he saw the poor state of his companion. The person who had singlehandedly reversed his Fate. Envy licked her lips as she attempted to answer in a hoarse voice.

“Two weeks and no.”

Exill clasped her right hand to form a party. He immediately felt a pang of painful hunger over their connection. Her vitality was at 40%, little better than the time he had first dragged her to Sundry’s Inn. Rolling up his sleeve, he offered his arm to her.

“I’ll tell you when to stop.”

Hesitating as she glanced at what remained of his legs, she kneeled down by the bedside and sank her teeth into his forearm. He idly brushed the tangles in her hair as she fed. It pained him to see she was in worse state than the elf-maiden.

“Thank you for saving me.”

His murmur went unheard as the Vampire’s whole focus was directed to her meal.

He let her feed until his vitality dropped to 90% and Luna called out that lunch was ready. The Healer knew what the slave was doing in the room. Afraid to enter lest she burst out in anger at the sight of the Vampire feeding on someone who had been at death’s door just weeks ago. However, she couldn’t deny that the slave's condition had deteriorated to a critical state over the past week.

Luna brought in a tray filled with bread and Wheyr Tail soup as Envy finished wiping her mouth. However Exill held her sleeve as she stood up to leave.

“Please stay and tell me what’s been happening while I was out.”