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Ash

The night was underway at the bathhouse. After those drinks with Ren, the group returned to their temporary home to relax for the rest of the day. 

Currently, that took the form of Ash sitting in the kitchen with the others as Satsuhiro and Metsumi prepared some dinner for everyone. Ash leaned back, the aroma filling the air with a scent that made Ash even more hungry than she was. 

In front of her, Opah was showing off some toys Metsumi had bought for her to Kaori. 

"Ohhh, nice!" Kaori said as Opah turned a figure of a knight around in her hands. Opah giggled a little, proceeding to push another doll in front of the blonde\'s face. Kaori took the next toy in stride and laughed a little, as Opah waited for her reaction to that one. 

"So, who\'s this?" Kaori asked. 

"That\'s Tom..." Opah replied quietly, hugging her other toys to her chest.

"What does Tom do?"

"He fights monsters..." 

"How?" 

"... With fire powers..." 

"Oh, cool!" Kaori grinned and the process continued. 

The sight made Ash feel a little warmer inside. Then, a finger tapped her right shoulder. 

She turned and saw Vermia there. 

She wore something different on this night. Instead of being covered in black feathers like she had been when Ash had met her, she wore a black robe with white flowers painted onto it. 

Silently, the necromancer gestured for Ash to come with her. She nodded and slipped out of the table, unnoticed by everyone except Kaori, whose eyes briefly flickered back and forth between her and the other woman. 

Vermia led her out to the baths. Here, she sat on the edge of one and crossed her legs. 

"Have you tried out the little gift I gave you?" Vermia asked. 

"Uh, yeah." Remembering the earlier fight, Ash looked away. "I... had a question I wanted to ask." 

"Go ahead, that is of course, natural when you\'re introduced to something new," Vermia\'s tone was laced with a sort of allure that Ash didn\'t comprehend. It was like every syllable she gave was covered in honey. 

"When I used that ability, it gave me a different feeling than what Dark magic usually gives. Normally, I feel mad. Enraged." Ash paced side to side a few times. "But, when I used the one you gave me, I felt... good." 

Vermia chuckled. 

"I suppose you haven\'t given the matter much pondering, but have you thought of why it is that Dark magic fuels such negative emotions within us?" Vermia asked. 

"Uh, not really." 

"It\'s because Dark magic is a unique category in that it relies on the darkness within our souls to power itself. That anger, that rage, is why Dark magic is so lethal. However," she raised a hand and a black aura covered her fingertips. "I\'ve always wondered... Rage can\'t possibly be the only negative emotion we have. So, what if that fuel the Dark magic needs was substituted for something else?" 

Ash tried to piece together what Vermia was getting at as she spoke, but she was a bit too slow to do so. 

"When it came time to design my spells, I wondered about that, and I put an effort into searching for another emotion that could do that job. And..." 

She stood up. 

"I found it. Bloodlust." 

Taking a few steps closer to Ash, Vermia\'s eyes half-lidded as she smiled. 

"Now, every time I use one of the two spells I\'ve created, I don\'t feel that barbaric anger that floods the senses with a conventional Dark spell, but instead... I feel pure elation. My experiments, therefore, have been nothing but a success. Well, I should ask at least, do you agree?" 

Ash looked down at her hands, remembering what it was like to suck the life out of the troll she\'d used the spell on. 

"I don\'t know."  It was scary, after all.  She added in her thoughts.  It felt good but... It reminds me of how I felt when I ate that Nightmare, in my Demon Form. It was the kind of "good" that\'s hard to keep control of. 

That answer displeased Vermia. Her smile faded. 

"Wait," Ash continued. "So, you made another spell?" 

Then, it came back just as quickly. 

"Ah, yes. The second is... less suitable for battle. Still, I am not unwilling to teach it to you but... I just wonder, how far does your open-mindedness go?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, darling, it\'s clear you don\'t dislike me just by virtue of me being a necromancer. So, I have to ask, could that mean you wish to learn a thing or two?" 

"You don\'t really hold back, huh?" Ash asked, surprised at how direct she was. 

"On the contrary," Vermia stood up. She walked closer to Ash, her hands behind her back. Ash had to look down to meet her eyes as the woman was so short. "I\'ve been holding back for so long that it hurts. I suppose a part of me wants to let a little loose now that I\'ve met someone like you." 

As Ash heard her, she then remembered what Satsuhiro had said about her, and took a step back. 

"So, what happened between you and the Saviors?" Ash asked. Again, whatever lightheartedness had been on Vermia\'s face faded when she heard that question. 

However, as Vermia began speaking again, she smirked. 

"Necromancy is the practice of... recycling souls, using them to create creatures more loyal than any soldier," suddenly, with a wave of her hand and a muttered incantation, a skeleton materialized in front of her. "It is different to summoning magic though, in that necromancy allows for more... permanent creations." 

After a few seconds, the skeleton she\'d summoned turned into ashes. 

"Every soul is different and holds a different amount of power. However, they are all the same after death. Mindless, wandering spirits looking for a new home. And, me, I like to provide them with such a thing. Regardless of who they may be." 

She took her eyes off of Ash and started walking around the baths, momentarily dipping a hand into the waters of one. 

"A few years ago, some Saviors and I had to do battle against a group of demons. Basic work that I was still doing back then, though, I\'ve since moved on from such mundane things. Anyway, two Saviors, this gorgeous lady, her name\'s Silvia, and her friend, Barlon, a bard, both fell in that fight. Seeing this, well, what was I to do except offer their souls a place with me? So, I gave them a new home." 

She snapped her fingers, and suddenly, two figures appeared in front of Ash. Both were dressed in golden armor which looked slightly different from the one Ash owned. One was a man with black hair tied into a ponytail and the other was a pale woman wielding two maces. Both had blank eyes. 

"And now, their souls don\'t have to walk through the world by their lonesome... As I once had to." Vermia said. 

Both figures then disappeared and Vermia walked closer to Ash. 

"This is why Satsuhiro has some issues with me," she scoffed, "because he doesn\'t understand that the afterlife that I have provided them is far better than any that the gods could give. They are happy to be with me, they love me, they..." She trailed off, shaking her head. "As for you though," she continued. "You need Dark magic lessons, do you not?" 

"..." Ash was so stunned she had to take a moment to get back into the conversation. "Yeah." 

"I will teach you a few things. I would only ask for one gift in return." 

"Uh, yeah?" 

"If you happen to die in the future, please, do so near me, if you would be so kind." 

---

At night, Ash was in bed, alone. The moon poured in through the windows, as she kept her eyes open, on the ceiling. Vermia\'s words were circling in her mind as she breathed in and out. 

As creepy as that was, 

She would have to put up with it, at least, for now. However, by now, she was convinced that, at the very least, she wasn\'t the pure evil people made her out to be. Was she the weirdest person she\'d encountered in a long time? Sure, but that was different from being  evil. 

The door leading to the room opened and Kaori walked in, her body wrapped in a towel. Her blonde hair, wet from the shower she\'d taken, clung to her skin as she dried herself off. Ash turned her eyes back to the ceiling. 

"So, what did she want?" Kaori asked. 

"Hm?" Ash hummed. 

"Vermia. She kinda dragged you out, no?" 

"She just wanted to explain a few things," Ash replied. 

"Oh... okay," Kaori nodded. "Just be careful." 

"Hm?" Ash turned to look at her. She was putting on that same nightgown Metsumi had pretty loaned her back at the farm, which for all intents and purposes pretty much belonged to Kaori now. 

"I\'m just saying, be careful. She\'s..." 

"A necromancer, I know," Ash replied.  One that apparently wants me to die or some shit. Pleasant.

"It doesn\'t feel like you\'re taking that all that seriously," Kaori replied. Ash, slightly annoyed, responded. 

"I\'m not going to judge her on anything but what she\'s like," Ash shrugged. "And so far, she\'s just... kinda weird. That\'s pretty much it." 

"Well, I don\'t expect her to just tell you upfront that she plans to turn you into a skeleton within the first couple of days of meeting you." 

Well, she did say the whole, "die next to me" thing just now, but, yeah. 

"Look, I get it," Ash said, "but, seriously, haven\'t you considered that rumors are just rumors?" 

Kaori hopped into the bed, nearly falling right on top of Ash. 

"Rumors tend to be exaggerated, sure, but when we got here we literally saw skeletons moving around the house like it was nothing. Skeletons that belonged to people." 

"It was just one skeleton." 

"Whatever," Kaori waved her hand, "the point is, I can\'t see too many ways you can exaggerate about someone who brings corpses back to life." 

"Same way you\'d exaggerate about a half-demon," Ash muttered. 

The conversation died there, with Kaori turning her back to Ash and the half-demon closing her eyes. 

Is she creepy? Yes. Is she weird? Yes. But, there\'s a difference between all of that being outright a bad person...