The gentle voice of this stranger had brought back pleasant memories for him. Perhaps that's why he had initiated the conversation? Leaning over the newspaper, he only looked up when he felt his interlocutor sit at his table. Suddenly, pain, grief, and shame surged from his memory, engulfing him, dragging him into the dark depths of his soul. In an instant, he was on his feet, the table overturned onto the young woman; the next second, he had crossed the street despite the honking horns and was running away from the bar as fast as humanly possible.

Questions peppered his frantic run, doubts punctuating each step, and even the door of his building failed to calm his disbelief. Under the intrigued gaze of the concierge, he chose the stairs, disregarding the open elevator on the ground floor, and stood at the heart of the concrete spiral. Ensuring the stairs were vacant, he leaped and ascended to the top-floor landing in a single jump, before striding across the corridor to his apartment.

Finally behind his reinforced door, he did not calm down and discarded his jacket, throwing it to the armchairs in the living room at the other end of the apartment. In the darkness of his home, he then conjured from his palm an even darker stem, drawing to it the scarce surrounding photons. A hiss emanated from the three sharp ends of his weapon, and with a sweeping gesture, he took a defensive stance facing the door. His eyes tinged with a glowing red, his hands consumed by the darkness of his weapon, his horns rising on his forehead, he froze: this woman could not be here. Her presence, therefore, was either a stratagem of the Heavens or a spell, and unfortunately, he had felt no trace of magic. So, if she was sent by his enemies, he would not fall without a fight.

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It was the moonlight that indicated the hours passed without movement. Resigning himself to believe that he had seen in the features of a stranger the one who had marked him so much ten years earlier, he made his trident disappear and resumed a human appearance. More at ease, he convinced himself of his mistake and sighed in relief; he would have nothing to fear from this friend of Carmen if he crossed paths with her again, except perhaps reproaches for his hasty departure.