Damien felt Edi’s fingertips drift across his arm, tracing the scars that marred his skin. After a moment she got up carefully and stood. He rolled over and slid his arms under the pillow beneath his head. He felt her lips kiss his head and she pulled the covers over his back before walking lightly out of the room.

He laid there for a moment until he heard the shower turn on across the apartment. Damien snapped his eyes open. A faint beam of morning light flooded in from behind the thick curtains across the room. He rose up and reached into the air, stretching the tightness out of his back. He felt a faint pop in his lower back and rotated left and right before standing and bending down to touch his toes. He moved across the room and opened the curtains, letting in the light, illuminating the room.

Damien felt all the familiar aches and pains of the scars across his body. The newest of those pains was a dull pounding in his head. He held out his hand and watched as it shook slightly. It had been too long since his last dose. Damien made his way over to the bed and sat down. He twitched his fingers drawing a small glyph pattern in the air. The yellow gold energy of conjuration swirled around his fingers. He felt the tightness growing in his hands and with a dull burst of energy the glyph faded into a drizzle of sparks failing to conjure anything.

Damien shook his hands out and cracked his knuckles in frustration. He massaged the muscles in the back of his hands and flexed each of his digits. He drew the conjuration glyph once more and this time the yellow gold energy exploded and stretched into a small rift floating in the air in front of him. Damien nodded his head and reached into the tiny pocket dimension.

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He could still hear the shower running across the apartment as he pulled forth a small vial from the rift. Inside the vial reflected a magenta-colored powder suspended in a clear liquid. Damien shook the vial, and the powder mixed with the liquid fading the concoction to a dull lavender. Damien popped the cork on the top and breathed in the relaxing aroma of pure Fate. The throbbing in his head slowed and he closed his eyes. Fate smelled differently to everyone. For Damien it smelled of some sort of spice he could never place and sandalwood.

Ingesting pure Fate could allow its user to see into distinct fragments of time and space. Past, present, and future. It was an unpredictable and highly addictive substance derived from crushed Void Rock. Damien opened his eyes and felt the craving in his bones. His body ached and Fate would relieve those pains. Euphoria in a vial. With his thumb over the opening to the vial he tilted it upside down and then righted it. This left a small amount of Fate across his thumb. He corked the vial and placed it back into the pocket dimension. Snapping his fingers, he closed the rift. He laid back on the bed and pulled the blankets over his legs. He was careful to avoid dropping any of the precious substance. When Edi came back into the room it would be better if she saw him sleeping soundlessly in bed. Damien watched his hand tremor for a moment where the Fate lay on his thumb. He breathed in the scent once more. Using this could help solve the case, Damien thought. He could glimpse the future and might discover the killer’s next victim or their location. His use of Fate was altruistic. Right?

Damien placed the Fate in the center of his tongue and immediately felt a shudder wash through his body. He breathed deeply and let the aroma wash down into his lungs. Every discomfort in his body eroded away. He felt nothing but bliss. He thought of the future. He thought of the victims of this deranged killer and of the Essence he had found with Fred in the Ethereal.

He smelled smoke.

Melted flesh.

He felt searing heat across his face.

Fate was unpredictable.