It might become a habit for the sand haired mage to lay with her head over the edge of the bed and stare at the ceiling below her and the floor above her. She certainly was bored as was a usual thing for her. The problem was that answers she wanted to have and that yet couldn’t be provided became more annoying than usual too. She had given up on getting answers from the barkeep from the Swineherd pub and also planned to not go there every other day to do something, so it was a bit useless or that’s how it felt. Lilja Oswald but who was Lilja Oswald and what had she done? The red eyed human had no idea, all she knew had to do with her past but didn’t add up to her future, she had been a vampire but now she wasn’t? Were Esperia and Asmodeus sure that she was the same Lilja Oswald? To be honest how many of them would there be and with the same face.. too much of a chance. She sighed and stared at the ceiling, but what happened to her? Had changing back to human anything to do with her amnesia? ”To hell with it.” she muttered and heaved herself upright by holding on to her knees and stared out of the window, the weather was dreadful, clouds and barely a sunray to be spotted. She bet she liked that weather when she was a vampire, it was annoying that she didn’t know anything or well barely anything.

She got up from the bed and decided to change into her working attire instead of sitting in this stupid baby doll that she had bought days ago, for she thought it would look good. Perhaps it did but it was everything but comfortable to her. She sighed as she stood in front of the mirror and fixed her short sand coloured hair with her fingers, too lazy to even think about getting a hairbrush. It was at least nice to have a hotel room with practically her name on it as it was big enough for her alone. Her eyes lingered shortly to the ground as if she would see someone there but no one was there, Lilja wondered still how it would have been when she had a companion. She would give up for that now. She took the black leather pair of jeans out of the wardrobe and threw the baby doll without any second thoughts on the ground. She changed into the jeans and stood in front of the wardrobe for a while before she picked a red tanktop and grabbed a black vest to cover her bare arms. If she would go on a job, she better fix her attire without a leather jacket as she had lost it anyway. She perhaps should work on her image and she picked on the beauty mark underneath her left eye. She couldn’t even remember she had it but perhaps she had it before turning into a vampire.

It was no time to be sentimental, she believed that she hated people and herself for being weak hearted when it came to shit like that. It was not needed to be like that especially now that she had gotten this opportunity, she didn’t see it like that but perhaps she should. She got a new start and as annoying as it might be, she could also use it to make better for herself. Why care what others thought about her, if she could forget herself than so could they, she snickered at her reflection and turned around. It was time to leave and find something to do today, something that would make the whole story more fun to go around. She did see herself at the moment as a character in a book, not that Lilja liked to read but that didn’t matter. If she saw herself like that she could understand that she wasn’t the weak hearted girl that she had been the last couple of weeks. Afraid and angry because of no answers but now she was frustrated, she seemed to be a great person, a mage, a vampire and now she was a dumb human without powers and that showed off nothing but cowardice and clinginess, which was ridiculous. So she brushed her hair out of her face and walked towards the door, grabbing her keys that were on the little table next to it and headed out. Nothing extra, just herself, the keys and a mindset of doing something more fun than finding flowers for a funeral in a dumb dungeon that had taken away the opportunity of seeing an amazing castle.

She walked down the one stairs that she had and stared at cloudy sky, she couldn’t even see the Phantasm Castle from here with this weather, but that wasn’t a problem, she didn’t plan to go there in a while. Perhaps if the lord offered a job that would give her something to do inside, she might reconsider. There were a lot of people on the streets, which annoyed the no-longer vampire and she tried to catch a glimpse of where they were going. So in the end she remained standing, digging the heel of her black boots a little in the mud as she eavesdropped on some ladies that seemed to be ‘so excited about such a supreme gathering’. Only the words already made her want to puke but finally she understood where they were all going, they seemed to be going to the gallery. She had not even visited there once and it didn’t interest her at one point and thus the sand haired girl decided to walk on when someone pulled on her wrist and pulled her into an alley close to the Majura Gallery. She stared with big eyes at the young man that looked at her and made a shushing sound, ”Lilja, I could use your help.” Oh great, another acquaintance. ”What?” she asked the person without a name and she eyed him suspiciously.

Perhaps the way she said it, very grumpy, made the mystery man wonder if he had the right woman. But let’s be fair, who would jump up out of happiness when pulled into a dirty alley, ”Lilja, it’s me Remy. You are Lilja right? I mean you changed your hair and all.” She took a deep breath and frowned with an annoyed glare at him, ”Yes, I stopped dying it red and cut it.” She unconsciously grabbed a short piece of her hair and pulled on it, she didn’t actually mind her hair, it wasn’t in her way so it was fine. She was at least a bit better now that he introduced himself but she understood very well that people didn’t have to do that when you are officially acquainted. But she didn’t plan to tell this man that she was suffering from amnesia as she got the feeling that they weren’t close. She wasn’t close to anyone but the person from the silhouette and finding him had been impossible. She even guessed it was a him. ”Sup?” She said putting her hands in her pockets and tried to act casual now that they had established that they both knew each other, more or less. So Remy looked shortly at the entrance of the alley and explained to her that there was going to be an auction soon, ”Oh for the supreme gathering.” She said faking a high voice that would sound way too cocky for her own liking and Remy couldn’t help but laugh shortly. He continued that those snobs were actually the problem because of the amount of money they had and he didn’t feel the need to spend a lot of money on items that he would rather have for cheap. Which she would clearly understand but then why was he here? She felt a bit uncomfortable by his eyes fixed on her, where was that stare for? ”That’s why I’m glad I bumped into you, you did some great work for me before, you could help out.” She looked left and right as if some magical explanation would pop up and tell her what she needed to do but as of course that didn’t she looked back at Remy with a perfectly arched right eyebrow, saying the silent question: how? So he told her more, that he wanted her to temper with the auctioning. Well so far she could have thought, genius.

So she finally took a step closer to him and took another deep breath, ”Well go on, explain please what you had in mind.” she tried to say as politely as she could, it didn’t even seem to cross Remy his mind that she was fed up already by him. So Remy explained to her that every item was held back in a ‘backroom’ within the gallery and if she would get in there, she could switch some of the items to change the value of them and thus giving Remy a item that would be more worth than anyone would know. What a strategy.

She wasn’t very well raised into the knowledge of what the auction was about and what prices for items were but Remy had a solution to that as well, which was a very easy one, he held in front of her the auction catalogue and she took it and looked through it, listening shortly more to Remy as he pointed out what he wanted to buy. So she closed the catalogue and nodded to Remy, ”See you at the bidding.” She only had to figure out a way how to get into the room where the items were waiting for the bidding and well before the auction would be starting in general. She eyed the room in general of the gallery and hid herself behind a group of people to see the person guiding the door, some sort of big oaf protecting the valuable items. She stared at the people she was hiding behind, it was the same woman who had mentioned the supreme gathering and Lilja was definitely not the sort of people that she meant with and she tried to hide her grin for them. One of them eyed her and she grinned and gave a wink before calling out very loudly, ”I might look far better than your wife but that still doesn’t mean you can just pinch my butt.” She took a few steps away and held up her hands in front of her chest, ”Please sir, I ask you to stop staring like that.” and she faked the tears on her face, well she had always tried to be a great actress, another memory simply jumping up in her mind. But since they were standing near the security man, of course he was the one that showed up and she quickly ran towards him to stand behind him, shaking and still holding her arms in front of her breast, ”Sir please throw out this vulgar man!” She said hysteric and the security man looked from her to the group she mentioned, to which the wife started to scream about that he promised her that he would tell her if he missed something in his life. Wonderful, the right arrangement, probably not very happily married for money. She tried to hide her grin and asked the security man now softly (mainly because the wife was screaming very loud, so much for being discreet), if she could sit in the back without people staring at her and catch her breath for a second.

As she was still crying a bit, the security man seemed to be thinking that she was but an innocent assaulted woman and nodded and guided her friendly towards the door and pointed her at the chair where she could sit and she took that seat gratefully, well so said the expression on her face, and she would wait till he closed the door, she had now this room for herself and she noticed the bling in the corner of her eye that showed her a bit of the items.

She sat for a few seconds before she looked at the door, that man wouldn’t hear her right? She had to figure out how to be aware if he would look inside. So she took the catalogue again because she wouldn’t have much time and well she had rolled it up and read it again but when she tiptoed into the room next to hers, there was much more art than just in the catalogue, she grumbled and cursed in the back of her mind because she wouldn’t have much time. She looked at the items that Remy wanted because that was most important and she would have to find almost identical items so that even the auctioneer would be fooled and not notice two names were switched. Well it might not even be such a difficult task with many items around but it was damn annoying to find it because there were so many items around. She finally found two that looked alike and that were much cheaper, what a luck she had.. let’s not answer that question, she thought in her mind and she quickly switched the items so they would be in the right order and look if they were in the catalogue so she could explain it to Remy and made her way back to the chair where the security man had allowed her to sit. But she noticed a better item to switch the item from Remy with and when she wanted to take it, she heard a door open from the other side of the room. There was another door? And she quickly lowered herself so she wouldn’t be seen but hidden by the tables and the table cloths that were on there. Pushing her hand against her mouth so she wouldn’t even be clearly breathing, she wasn’t a vampire anymore, she must be damn loud.

But she was apparently silent enough and she had not been spotted so she stood up again and quickly switched the items that she had in mind and heard the door again, damn the auction had started and she needed to tell Remy which one he needed to bid on. So she quickly lowered herself again and stayed hidden. She had to make her way back to the door to sit in that little hallway because it wouldn’t take long before the security man would want her back as the auction had started, what if he had already gone to fetch her again? She felt a bit nauseous because of that idea and tiptoed back to the hallway where she ought to be, but didn’t make it before the door was opened for a third time and she bit her lip not to scream out a curse word and waited for the door to shut again and slipped into the hallway and knocked on the door and opened it to stare at the man before, ”Thank you so much.” He had apparently not checked upon her and she made her way to the room to speak to Remy quickly.

She had found a pencil lying around somewhere and wrote the right numbers on the catalogue so she wouldn’t have to speak to Remy, since the security man thought she belonged here, no one stopped her and she found Remy soon enough and gave him the catalogue and walked out. She would wait outside, this nasty building would be nothing for her and she also didn’t feel like watching the last pieces of the gallery that she could see. She went to sit in the cloudy outside world and waited for the auction to be over, which would take a while considering the amount of items she had seen. She surely hoped Remy wouldn’t wanted something that wasn’t mentioned in the catalogue because those things might become overprized. It took perhaps two hours and she had a lot to think about and a lot of minutes to be bored before people started to drop out of the gallery, Remy seemed to be one of the first people and she stood up and quickly walked towards him. He smiled at her and thanked her softly for the work she had provided and she brushed her hair behind her ear and smiled back and only nodded, it was better not said out loud and as they walked on, she had no idea where they were going, he handed her a small pouch with jewels for her effort and it was the amount that he spared and she nodded once more, hid it in the inside pocket of her jacket and walked on to her hotel. Enough work for today, it was nice to be able to do nothing again, she still had no need to pay for her hotel as her former self had done that long enough. So the red eyed maid looked up to the huge building and wasn’t entirely sure what she should do about it. She should perhaps work on something about her magic, she had not seen Jeremiah again but well anything could just suddenly jump up and she believed that there were damn more knights in town than she would have liked.

Perhaps that one was here too, the one she remembered his introduction from but she had no idea what he looked like and she looked left and right as she crossed the street and stepped into the hotel, while she stopped on the first stair step as she counted her money, which was a nice amount and she quickly hurried upstair and wondered what she could do to start the spells or how that worked. She walked into her room after opening it with the keys and threw the pouch of money onto the desk and dropped herself on the bed, how did magic work? Did something collapse, explode in her mind so she forgot who she was and was it to blame to not being a mage anymore that she lost being a vampire? That made no sense to be honest and she wondered what would be the solution to all this.. but in the end she just fell asleep.