The setting suns painted the world in their fading glow of twilight. Under the few rays escaping the fog and the horizon, in north backstreet, Elyas and Noah were standing.
In front of them was a building no different than the other hovels in the backstreets. It was as if someone had tried to build a mediaeval house. But midway through, realized, what they had access to was only wood, and rubble of a fallen city.
Elyas and Noah weren't alone either. A few dozen stood in a small line, waiting for their turn to step inside. People kept coming out of the building like leaking water. Some went in only to come back more dishevelled, others coming out with happy, satisfied expressions.
Elyas's back pain seemed to worsen in the cold, so he tried distracting himself by observing the crowd standing a few metres away.
"Are you sure this is where a seer lives?"
Noah glanced in the same direction, a hint of understanding appearing in his eyes. "What? Did you think only the "good" parts of society had Dreamers?"
Elyas raised an eyebrow. "No, that's not what I meant. I just thought not everyone would be able to afford the services of a seer. "
Noah shook his head. "It is hard. The only reason you see these street rats here, is because most of them are part of a syndicate. More importantly, some of them have other business inside."
"So it's like that… by the way how long do we have to stand here?"
"Oh, we can go right now."
Elyas stared at him for a solid minute before speaking. "Then why are we standing here?! Let's go!" Noah let out a laugh as he followed him behind. To Elyas' dismay, Noah seemed to become more and more like Julius with each passing day.
They got some dubious looks from the line as they passed by, but it didn't take long for the glares to evolve into a fury of slurs. Ignoring the insults, they stepped inside.
The house was surprisingly big. Much like most houses, its interior was wood. Mostly rotten by the damp air, but wood nonetheless. Elyas glimpsed into a small part of the living room. From what he saw, the walls had been covered by a soothing green, the furniture a mix of dark brown contrasting the velvet carpeted floor.
The thing that captured Elyas' attention however, was not the furniture or the room itself, but how clean it was. No speck of dust was left to be seen. This seer must be decently wealthy…
To hire cleaners week to week, one ought to have enough disposable income to either hire a single maid, or contract a company providing cleaning services. Neither option were cheap, leading Elyas to believe the seer to be a well off individual.
Walking through the foyer and onto the stairs In front of it, they climbed up. The stairs lead to a narrow hallway that could barely fit two people. Noah had to walk behind Elyas, and yet, walls were close enough, to make the smell of rotting wood not easy to ignore. Each wall housed several rooms, and in them…
I guess I know where a brothel is now. But why would a seer live here… are they the owner? Walking past doors and ignoring the moans and pounding of flesh, they reached the end of the cramped hallway.
There stood a single door.
The only reason they knew the seer was operating in that room, was a single customer leaving. They weren't naked.
Knocking on the door, Elyas waited for a response. "Come in." A strangely soothing male voice entered his ears.
Opening the door, they were met with a small and sparingly lit room. Opposite of them was a round wooden table and two chairs behind which, a single round window stood, illuminating the lone figure in the chair.
It appeared to be a man. Short hair, an angular face peeking behind the crude wooden mask, and a worn out worker jacket covering his body. But despite all of it, the man's perfect, beautiful face made one doubt themselves.
The Seer raised a hand to gesture for Elyas to sit. But soon, he froze. The man's eyes —what could be seen from behind the mask— widened in horror.
"Take off your clothes." He? She? Said. It was hard to tell with the seer's enchanting voice. It was just as hard to say no to it.
Before he knew it, Elyas was already taking off his shirt. Noah looked at them both with shock written all over his face. Shaking Elyas' shoulder seemed to have worked in beating some sense into him.
Coming back to his senses and seeing himself half naked, Elyas jolted away from the figure.
"Sir…ma'am? I'm not sure if you know this, but I'm not one of your workers." The seer did not have time to appreciate Elyas' sense of humour.
"Take off your clothes. Now!" The enchanting voice was commanding. Yet, there was a sense of desperation in his words, one that did little to lessen Elyas' willingness to oblige.
Elyas did as the seer said. This time, Noah did not stop him. Since he was standing behind his friend, he was first to notice it.
"Wh-what is that?" On his face, a look of utter disgust took shape. On Elyas's back, was a strange black tumour the size of a man's head. It seemed to have eaten it's way into his flesh. Little teeth glistened with his blood as they detached from his skin only to dig further inside.
But despite this, Elyas looked unbothered, "What is it? What are you talking about?"
Noah was about to tell him, but at the same time the seer started to act. "Do not move!" Elyas stood motionless and so did Noah. The seer acted fast. Taking off his worn-out jacket, he placed it mid air.
It extended from all sides, forming a giant wall housing several small safes and cabinets made from fine silk and cotton. Grabbing seemingly random things, the man rushed to Elyas' side.
Drawing a few overlapping circles under his feet, he moved rapidly and with precision. Strange bags of powder and candles were placed neatly and with faint, ominous reasoning.
When the seer was done, he drew a silver dagger from nowhere, carved several symbols on gemstones, and placed them one by one on each circle. After that, he said, his voice returning to its usual, soft and soothing nature.
"This is going to hurt."
And with that, the knife was thrusted into Elyas' back. As soon as it reached the tumour, the circles ignited and shone with cold blue moonlight. Elyas' entire body spasmed as he coughed violently, falling to the ground.
Opening his eyes and glancing at his hands, he saw blood, his own, pooling on the ground.
…
The tumor let out a silent shriek, spasming violently as smoke came out from its disgusting form. Slowly, the smell of cooked flesh filled the room.
Noah's expression was grave and full of worries. Although it had only been three months since he met the bumbling fool, he had grown fond of him.
From his new friend's strange lack of knowledge about anything regarding the world, to his comically bad luck in the past week, to the strange tales he shared of his life as a detective to…who he reminded him of.
Noah didn't want Elyas to die. And that is why he did not intervene. Not yet.
As the seer twisted the knife in the black tumor, Elyas' body shook again. His screams of pain ran through the whole house, startling the seer. Enough, to loosen his grip.
The black tumor, seemingly having gained intelligence by the pain of being stabbed and slowly erased, used this opportunity to escape.
Slithering and leaving bite marks on Elyas's back with its teeth, it rapidly climbed down and fled toward the window. But shortly after, its escape came to an abrupt halt.
Noah had drawn a silver stiletto from the small coin pouch attached to his belt. Currently, he was thrusting it again and again into the tumor with fury as he let out an angry growl. "No one… no one will take him away from me again!"
For a moment, a memory flashed before his eyes. One of the dreams he once had. One about a young man with brown hair and a warm smile. He cared for the man. He feared in his place. So Noah wept when he saw how the man's life would end.
He drew his blade one last time, and with a swift horizontal slash, cut the black stain in two. The mass of teeth, coagulated blood and bone writhed in pain. At the same time, the circles of light slowly dimmed and vanished, as if not ever present. All except one.
The seer fell to the ground, exhausted. After a moment, he noticed that he had misplaced a few ingredients. Barely standing up, he moved and changed the place of two bags.
Noah gave the pool of black blood and bone one last glance, making sure that it was dead. After that, he rushed to help Elyas.
Propping him up and putting him on a chair, Noah examined his wound. On Elyas' back was a deep, bloody hole. It was as if someone had excavated a quarry or tunnel in his back. Their destination… seemed to be his heart.
Turning to the seer, Noah asked with urgency.
"Do you have any way to treat him?!"
The seer nodded before falling to the ground again. He started taking his robe off to cool himself down.
Noah fell silent after seeing the strange scene. But his attention was suddenly diverted by Elyas' sudden scream. This time, the cause seemed to be the strange orange glow coming from his back.
Turning his head, Noah was met with the sight of molten steel filling the wound. It made Elyas' flesh sizzle, burning him from inside. Slowly, it cooled and a giant piece of cold, hard metal closed up the tunnel.
By then, the beautiful man was covering his half naked body in his jacket again. Shaking off his sweat, he turned towards them, walked to his chair, and sat.
After a minute of heavy gasping from both Elyas and the seer, the beautiful man spoke as he re-adjusts his crude, ugly wooden mask.
"Should we begin?"