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Marina loved visiting the Necropolis with Emmrich. So much so she often went out of her way to accompany him, even for the smallest task. Maybe it was just the love blooming between them. How she found she was always searching for him when he was gone. Craving his presence when he was away.
Or maybe she just liked the flowers. Viago had taught her so many plants growing up, but mostly those useful for poisons and antidotes. But these existed just for beauty, and she liked that.
Well, for beauty and to decorate the graves of the dead.
The task he had asked her to help with today. One she was happily carrying out with Manfred at her side. The skeleton chittering away as she giggled. They had become close over the last few weeks, and she handed him a moon lily to hold as he gave her what sounded like a happy hiss.
“Darling, you're so good with Manfred.” She smiled as Emmrich appeared beside her, clapping his hands as he beamed at the pair. His love and his son. Truly overjoyed as he slipped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the crown of her head. “It makes me so happy to know he will have someone to watch over him if I pass on.”
“If? Emmrich.” She leaned back to raise a confused eyebrow at him. Not missing the look of unease that crossed his features.
“Ah yes. There's a matter I have been meaning to discuss with you for some time-” She already didn't like this. He was moving too much. Shifting nervously as she leaned into her Crow sense to pick up on his tells.
Her love was seriously an open book.
“Do you know what a lich is, Rook?”
“I have done enough contracts in the Necropolis to have some vague idea,” she replied as she frowned. She already knew what he was about to say, but she wanted to hear it anyway. Give him that one chance to take it back before the irritation building inside her bubbled out.
“So then darling you are aware of what a high honor-”
“I am aware that you will die and come back as an immortal skeleton,” she cut in as her eyes flashed something dangerous. Pushing away from him with a huff as she reached for the comfort of her knife. Fingering it in that familiar way to calm her nerves. “I am also aware that your soul will be bound to this plane. To the bones left behind.”
“Darling when you put it like that-”
“How else am I supposed to put it, Professor Volkarin?” Her accent grew thicker the longer she spoke. Anger deepening her voice as she took a threatening step forward. “You fear death, mi amor. Yet you would leave me before your time. Deny me my right.”
“Darling never. I love you.”
“And I you. Mi alma. My soul. My other half, Emmrich.” He held up his hands as she poked him in the chest with each phrase. “A half that will still be stuck here while I am doomed to wander the Fade alone.” Something wild was unleashed inside her at the thought of losing him. Never before had she minded being alone, but now that she had tasted him she knew what she had been missing. And she would never return to that life once more.
“But Marina, my love. My end will come and you will-”
“CÁLLATE!” She exploded then. Grief and frustration as she threw her arms wildly in the air. For a moment he thought she might slap him, or stab him. Their fights had never turned physical before, but Rook had never been as passionate as she was in this moment.
And it somehow made him want to hold her even more. To crush her to his chest and kiss away every pain as her shoulders rolled into themselves. An unmistakable shine to her eyes as tears threatened, though Emmrich knew better than to call attention to them.
“I am a Crow, Señor Volkarin.” She was quiet. Something broken as she fixated on a lone moon blossom. And his heart breaking with her. “I have been raised to die with every contract. And we fight ancient gods. Neither of us is guaranteed tomorrow.”
She sighed then. Filled with longing as she looked up. Soft sea eyes meeting his as a gloved hand reached to skim along his cheek. “But what I am guaranteed, mi alma, is you.”
“And you feel if I walk the path of lichdom, you will lose me.” It wasn't a question. Her meaning was clear, but she nodded her head anyway as a leather clad thumb ran over his bottom lip.
“Sí, mi amor. I know I will. And while I will never tell you what to do with your life-”
She paused as she tilted her head to the side. Studying the panes of his face as her mouth slightly parted. Loving every crease. Every line. Adoring him just as he was, and hating the thought of him changing.
A dangerous creature with her favorite balm in hand. Her sanity fraying at the thought she might lose the only thing she had found worth living for.
“If you become a lich querido, you will do so without me at your side.” She withdrew her hand then. A shiver as cool air met his skin where her warmth once was. A warning of his future should he choose wrong. “I have loved you these months, mi amor. But I want them all.”
He swallowed hard as he tried to still his racing thoughts. Death terrified him. But losing Marina, that somehow terrified him even more. “I will take your words into consideration, darling.”
“Of course you will, mi alma,” she winked as she returned to her normal flirtatious self. All traces of her anger disappearing as she slipped her arm in his and leaned her head against his shoulder. “What kind of love would I be if I did not counsel you away from bad decisions?”
Manfred, who had been suspiciously quiet, hissed at her final words. Breaking the spell of their fight as she giggled and extended an arm to him. “Come mi niño. I would spend time picking flowers with my favorite boys.” As far as she was concerned, the matter was settled.
And as Emmrich stared down as his fiery Antivan, he would have to agree. There was nothing worth losing his Rook over, not even immortal Lichdom.