"No too dull," she muttered, skimming her eyes over the quest board, "Laughable." she continued, taking another one, "Pathetic, but gives more money." It wasn't that the ways of declining it would make Lilja decided that she would no longer do a quest but doing this good jobs sure made her roll her eyes out of frustration as they were actually all pathetic, but she turned to her friend, "I don't mind which one, so you can pick whatever." She still didn't really see how some of these jobs would help her out in a better understanding of well her new found magic. Something that teleported her out of a bar and onto the streets. Sure a hell of a lot of fun.

But she didn't know really how to see it for that matter and the only way to continue was to simply continue as Lucifer told her, no she believed he had another name and that he had told her but she lost it and this damn amnesia wasn't making it easier and sitting on this picnic table wasn't very comfty either no matter how much she swung with her legs. "I do hope we can throw in some fun."

From the ridiculous to the downright embarrassing, Orchidia's quest board truly made Odin aware of how different dark and light mages operated. Where previous missions for Odin included assassination plots and thefts, the bounty board for 'the good guys' was much more about helping find lost cats and investigating stupid rumors. Hell, they were basically the tasks that even the Rune Knights couldn't be bothered doing, and they had nothing better to do than these stupid requests. Odin couldn't explain it himself, but looking at the missions with Lilja by his side really made him want to go dark right then and there and start a murder spree. At least illegal requests had been fun and interesting, Odin didn't know what these were beyond boring.

Lilja felt the same way, deciding that so many were not worth their time, and that they should pick whatever can give them the most money. Unfortunately, there weren't too many like that, and even those ones wouldn't really be interesting enough, or dangerous enough, for Odin to help awaken Nastasya's newfound power. Where were the dragon slaying requests when you needed them.

A quiet voice broke the silence, "E-Excuse me? Are you Lucifer Morningstar?" Intrigued that someone would ask for him by name, Odin would turn around to face the child, who looked terrified despite not even being able to see Odin's skeletal visage, the latter having covered up in his festival outfit to hide the Lich body that was his. The boy was holding a letter in his hand, and he offered it up to Odin, who took it and gestured for him to leave. He would sprint away as fast as he could, causing Odin to stifle a chuckle before opening the letter, curious as to who would have sent it. Scanning the contents, Odin would pass it over to Lilja with a grin on his face. Well, the grin was always present on his face due to the skull nature of his head, but this was one of those rare occasions where Odin felt likewise.

"It seems that work has found us. You ready to go?"

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She moved her legs, together, back and forth, sitting on her hands to not fiddle with them and be a distraction to herself. She couldn't remember much jobs, most were just things she tend to do and not mind probably, she remembered vaguely that there was a job that was fake and she had done quite some work to achieve that and she still had that person on her to kill list, luckily for that person she didn't remember her for now or him, she wasn't sure about it who it was. The thing was only that at this point that every thing did sound dull and it was better to get an amount of money. Even pushing and getting people out of a bar by starting a fight was more fun than what they had written here. There was no thrill in doing this jobs and she believed that, that might be the issue of today.

The gray haired mage stared at the endless amount of dumb quests, where there that many people depending on mages for bullshit stuff, getting a pizza delivered? She shook her head slightly and her eyes wandered towards her friend, wondering what he thought and planned to do. She wouldn't complain, money was always a nice thing even if she was now a barmaid it was mosly to stay close to Odin or no, his name was Lucifer. She didn't really understand why she thought another name all the time but never was at the point of asking him.

She raised her right eyebrow as she heard a petit voice calling out with a stutter to her friend, someone dared to be brave. Who was so pathetic as to send a child instead of going themselves, she hated lazy people too, unless it was a good reason but she doubted that, but if this was an interesting job, why would she complain? She noticed the letter that the child handed over before following it with her bright red eyes as it run off, how sad. Thank god for the child she did no longer eat or should she say drink blood, she wondered if her vague memory would ever trigger again that she got answers, was the blood of children better than elderly people? She turned her eyes back to Odin and took the letter that he offered her, which she quickly read, it still sounded pathetic but at least more fun than she would have guessed the first time, "This person sounds crazy. I like it." She jumped off the picnic table and smiled at her friend, "Jup, let's go." she had no idea where the meeting point was though as this was her first time in Orchidia.

Odin wasn't quite sure why the man had been so specific about where they were to meet this Dex Miller, but he also knew that he would likely be a strange individual, and probably not entirely sane. After all, he signed the letter with his initials, as if trying to remain anonymous, and yet introduced himself by his full name at the beginning of the letter. Regardless of how sane, or not, the man was, he was at least somewhat interesting, and had asked for Odin by name. At the very least, this was surely going to be interesting, right?

With Lilja next to him, the two would make their way to the requested location. Lilja seemed excited about it, after understanding how crazy the man sounded from the letter. On the way there, Odin wouldn't really say much. He was tempted to ask if Lilja felt ready to go straight into work, having only realised her magical potential very recently, and still being without her memories. Whether that would include her fighting ability, or if that had been driven into muscle memory, Odin was not sure, but that was why he was here. These quests were in the hopes of allowing Lilja to once again become Nastasya, or at least become some hybrid of the two and regain her memories. The memories of Nastasya, yet the magic of Lilja, Odin was curious to see what kind of person that would be. That was why he was here, to see his friend become powerful. He had gone through his journey, now becoming the Necromancer that he was, it was now Nastasya's turn.

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She held up the letter to hand it back to Odin as she finished jumping off the table, it would be nice to be able to trick someone, this guy really wasn't the smartest, that's why it could only be more easy. And just make some more fun than to actual do something within the lines of a good guild. It still didn't sound like a good idea but perhaps with some more fun and with that the possibility of teleporting, it could only become better. "Security purposes of who? Is he afraid someone will take that note and walk to the meeting point, again he sounds like a joke. So let's go."

Perhaps a bit back into her childish Nastasya behaviour, she skipped along side her friend to get to the location of to where the Dex Miller guy wanted to meet him, "So even good guys write you letters for help. You must have quite the different reputations." she said happily, because who was she to care about that, at least it gave them a job to do instead of being a waitress all the time, which had its fun moments! When there were customers that were fun that is.

So after the impossible description from the letter, the two of them arrived and there was a weird looking guy waiting. Perfectly fitted the way he had written the letter. He was at the end of the alley and before he would be within hearing distance she wanted to tell Odin to make it fun and burn the paper but that made her stand still shortly as she realized that she didn't even know if he used fire magic, it surely didn't make sense if he was, no she didn't know. There was obviously something missing in the connection from her brain and she vaguely memorized it but too vague to actually be able to form a sentence with it or to actually get her point across. So she let it be and walked over to this man of the hour. He walked over to her and took her hand and firmly shook it, that it was a delight to meet her and she had no idea if he had any idea who she was as she said no name or whatsoever. So she simply looked at Odin, a bit forlorn.

But he let go of her hand and took a step away from her to explain why he had called upon them, well actually he called upon Odin here alone but she decided to not break the deal, he better talk fast. Else she would get bored already.

The more they found out, or rather made an educated guess, about this Dex Miller, the more Lilja got excited about the coming request, although Odin doubted it was because she was looking forward to being good. The sandy haired girl didn't have a decent bone in her body, she was mischievous to the core, and even losing her memory hadn't changed that. She was excited to meet Dex as she had him pegged for an easily manipulable man, and that was something that Nastasya Crowe lived for, "I don't know who this guy thinks is after him, but we might as well go and see what he wants. Work is work after all."

While on their way to Dex's location, stopping occasionally to decipher his 'extremely well encrypted' code of exact directions, Lilja made a comment about how even good requests came towards Odin, and the Lich hadn't realised how odd that had seemed until now. Realistically, he was one of the most prolific dark mages of his generation, having had a substantial hand in the attack that overthrew the current king. He was the only Lich in the world, or at least the only one that did anything and didn't live under a rock, not to mention the only Necromancer that was around: a combination of traits that hadn't existed for a very long time. So why did a bog standard man request someone like that's help? Odin just shrugged slightly before speaking, "I dunno, guess it's because I stand out in the crowd? People think I'm a good guy, and I've become an easily recognisable man, both in name and face. More people know the 'bar owner Lich Lucifer Morningstar', so I guess they're just hoping I'm him and not someone who will steal their soul." The people of Fiore were strange individuals indeed, they were never quite sure what they were doing, and made assumptions that even Odin himself, who had literally plunged a dagger into his heart for a gamble, couldn't fathom.

Eventually, they found their way to Dex, who was standing in the alleyway drinking a brandy with a cigar in one hand, something Odin wasn't even sure if it was legal, but he decided not to press it, and instead just see what it was that they had been called here for.

"It was a dark, stormy night", (it wasn't, it was a bright, beautiful summer's afternoon, with barely a cloud in sight), "As I stood here, sipping my drink and watching the people live their lives, I couldn't help but wonder, why me?" Odin wasn't capable of rolling his eyes, but by god if he could he would probably have lost them in the back of his head listening to Dex, "Two figures approached me, they didn't know me, and I didn't know them." Well that was clearly false since he had requested for Odin by name, and signed it off with his own name, making it quite obvious who everyone, except perhaps Lilja, was, "I turned to face them, to tell them of the hardships I had endured to get to this moment, and of what I would require them for." As if on cue, he turned to face the two, but effectively gave a recount of his life story, a story which it sounded like had been rehearsed countless times in the mirror, "The people needed to know who I was, but they would never believe it. I, the great detective, had to make them believe. I had to crack the omelettes myself to make some eggs." So he'd messed that proverb up entirely, good for him, "Animal blood, and lots of it; weapons that are long past their prime days, those were the things I needed. The people didn't want to think their world could be shaken by a crime, but someone had to show them the truth. I couldn't wait for a crime to find me, I had to find my own crime." With that, he smoked his cigar, coughing after every inhalation as he said nothing else to the two mages, having seemingly given them all the information they needed to know.

Of course, it's always the crazy one's that know me isn't it.

1475

Work is work afterall sounded more like something dull, their work was fun. Every time different again, ”We did this often right? Work together I mean.” She said, it was not that she could remember but it was something that gave her a feeling that she recognized and she had a few icky feelings about it, something with Dahlia perhaps but well bad jobs weren’t there to be particularly cute and pretty so that was to be expected. Lilja didn’t worry too much about it, she simply went on and would see how it would go. She laughed a little when Odin simply stated that he might be considered a good guy, that might happen to pub owners perhaps. She nodded, exactly as he just worded himself and she simply let it be, ”Good that I look cute, that makes it easier for the future. Someone asked me to set up a bar fight, I let people flirt with me.” She said, faking a pouty face and batting her eyelashes a bit slower while they walked. She quickly stopped this acting though and grinned, ”Worked wonders.”

Finally they arrived in the alley where this Dex Miller or should she call him D.M. as that’s how he stupidly had signed the letter while mentioning his name before. But she decided not to say anything at all, the person looked ridiculous with his cigar and brandy, at least she believed it was that, it could have been ice tea for all that it mattered to her. Her mouth opened a little out of sheer surprise with how stupid this guy could be. She quickly simply placed her hand in front of her mouth and thus shut her mouth without too much of a hassle. She wanted to say that he should get to the point because man did he go on and on and on about bullshit, it was all lies and she hated liars. She turned to Odin as Dex didn’t look at her and turned her right index finger around at her temple, this man was a lunatic. But fine if he would pay them. She waited for a short while when he finished talking and watched how he almost choked in the smoke, amateur. ”So, I am okay with this job and let’s say you pay us double for all that amount of money.” had he mentioned 3000 jewels before, for each would be better. He seemed to have no problem with that, and she wondered if what he had said last would be what they needed to do, gather animal blood? Blood gave her the creeps.

The both had their unique gifts to bring to the table, and that was ignoring their magical prowess and racial powers on Odin's part. No, they each had a much more powerful set of skills that would come in handy much more often than Necromancy or anything of the sort: they could be people they weren't. Lilja felt it too, and she knew how to use her natural 'charm and beauty' to get what she wanted. After all, she was rather small and could be considered cute, which meant she would be underestimated for her appearance, which could easily give her an edge in a fight against someone who would be physically stronger. Odin's set of skills were different, but followed the same trend. Being a Lich, it was less likely for him to be underestimated: everyone assumed he was an evil dark mage already so there was no changing that. But his set of skills revolved around his charismatic way of speaking, his bartending skills and his friendly demeanour. Sure, outside of the pub, everyone would think he was an enemy, and scream about his existence, but inside the pub he was king, and everyone knew better than to mess with him. He was also happy to chat to any customers who came in, which made it much easier to get information. Odin was, if nothing else, in the perfect position to be an information broker, something he'd considered getting into once his time as a mage ended, if that was ever to be. He knew many names, many people that came into the pub, he could easily make a little bit of cash for his troubles.

Speaking of making some cash, Odin and Liljaboth had a fun conversation with Dex Miller, as he told them what he needed them to do in the form of an inner monologue, barely making any indication that he saw Odin or Lilja, other than a brief mention in his story, a footnote perhaps. The Lich's partner then decided to up the price of the request, due to what was being asked of them. With another minor monologue, Dex agreed to pay them both individually what he normally would have paid in total, giving them both double the amount of winnings for completing a relatively simple task. Sounded relatively easy.

Odin then beckoned for Lilja to join him at the end of the alleyway where they had entered, thinking of an easier way to get this done quickly, "Should we perhaps split up. I'll gather the blood if you would like to get the weapons? That way you don't have to come into contact with the blood and we can get this done much quicker. Thoughts?" Odin was trying to be kind to his friend, as he knew she wasn't a fan of blood. Her vampire traits may have disappeared, but some habits weren't that easy to discard, and Odin didn't want to have to deal with a triggered Lilja. He remembered Nastasya in Dahlia, and her inability to properly focus when near blood and, while he doubted Lilja would have quite as strong a reaction, Odin didn't want anything to go awry in this quest. It seemed relatively straightforward, there was no reason to make it more difficult for either of them.

2039

Lilja didn’t know if it was the vampire part of her. She got goose bumps thinking about blood, it gave her a feeling as if she was hungry but that must be something of the vampire parts that she had before, because now thinking about drinking blood it only made her nauseous. So it was perhaps best to split up but for some reason she was also afraid that something might go wrong and she would be relatively helpless, there were sure a few things that she could do but it was better to discuss this and she was glad that Odin came with the question, so it wasn’t her own cowardly behaviour that would form the words on her lips. She thought about it, she didn’t have to see the blood if it was in bags that weren’t see through but the job would also be quickly over before someone would spot them and it wouldn’t take them all day to do this whole shopping list that Dex seemed to be having ready. ”It’s perhaps for the best indeed to separate.” She said with a small encouraging smile, mostly to herself but well not everyone looked in the mirror twenty-four seven. ”Thanks.” she told her friend, after all he wasn’t an idiot and it was for her sake that it was better too.

Now that they decided to split up she went to ask Dex where they would pick up the blood, so Odin could go there and the weapons that he had in mind and she would soon be separated and on her way to the forge. Of course they didn’t just borrow the weapons or just buy them, that would only cost more money, so it made her giggle slightly inside her mind that she would have to steal weapons. This was ridiculous for a good job and she wondered if Dex ever did something like this again how other people would treat it but at this point, she didn’t care much. She would get to the point that she would simply go on and fix it. Lilja skipped towards it and looked inside first, making sure that the man working here didn’t spot her, that would be suspicious. She spotted some weapons near the back of the shop that looked old and done for, he would probably melt the iron again and such to mend the weapons and use new accessories, shame he would have to miss that opportunity. She spotted an open window nearby and the only issue would be that she was small but while walking around the shop, she picked up a box where she could stand upon and as the window was large was easily manoeuvring the weapons out while the smith was working at the force, the sound of the hammering and the fire were loud enough to not hear her. What a wonderful thing to do. So it would be time to head back to the alley where they had met Dex and she wondered how far Odin would be with his bag of blood for she rather did not see it. So with her arms full of spears, old swords and even an axe, which made her think shortly of Kurdran, she headed towards the alley.

“Miss, what are you doing with those weapons?” Oh for god sake. She stopped walking and turned to look at a guy obviously dressed like a Rune Knight, she now had some experience and who stared at her. ”What do you think?” she said with a grin, ”Did no one tell you about the festival’s theatre play? You should definitely come to see it. I just picked up the old props, they look amazing don’t they?” It was the best thing she could think about. A festival, now that came as a welcoming thing, the knight didn’t seem to know too much about it so it was an easy thing to say.

It seemed that splitting up was an agreeable situation for Lilja too, who thanked Odin for suggesting it. The Lich didn't respond, as it was one of the rarer acts of kindness that he did, and he had no reason to sugar coat it. Lilja hated blood, really she had every reason not to be fond of it, but Odin had no such care. If anything, the sight of blood greatly amused him. He wasn't a vampire, the blood wasn't amusing for the idea of succumbing to his primal desires and consuming the blood, nothing quite so harsh. Instead, Odin just enjoyed seeing the things that made people human, as they were now things that he was lacking on his own. No flesh, no blood, no organs, he was barely human, in fact he wasn't human at all anymore. His mind was as sharp as the quickest of humans, but his body had evolved, becoming the Lich that he was today.

As Dex informed the two of where they could find their respective items, Lilja headed off towards the forge as Odin made his way in the opposite direction, heading towards the butchers shop. He was rather confused, as the butcher's dealt in meat and, while there would be a lot of blood in the area, he didn't see any reason why the butcher would keep bags of pig's or cow's blood. Then again, Odin had been explicitly told that it had to be animal blood, so he couldn't just go around draining some poor sap of all their blood, he had to stick to the request at hand, which was fine to be honest. Odin had no care as to which kind of blood, as he reached the shop.

Instead of following the same plan as Lilja who, unbeknown to Odin was sneaking around and stealing the weapons from the forge, the Lich decided just to ask and see what happened, "Good day my friend, I was wondering if I could take a couple of bags of animal blood? I don't mind which animal, but I'd need a sizeable amount if that's okay with you." That request sparked an interesting debate, with the butcher naturally confused at the start, before trying to work out a price that Odin could agree to. The butcher had no need for the blood, that was obvious, but Odin did, which made the butcher think he could swindle the Lich and get some money for an otherwise useless item. A couple of well placed threats towards his family and the summoning of a couple of skeletons soon caused the butcher to change his mind and just give Odin the blood for free. How kind of him.

As he began making his way back towards where Dex and hopefully Lilja would be waiting, with the two white bags slung over his shoulders, Odin noticed his partner talking to someone obviously dressed as a rune knight. Approaching from behind, Odin couldn't see the man's face, but he could tell by his posture that he was on duty and slightly suspicious, to which Odin would place a hand on his shoulder, terrifying the man as he spoke, "My friend, have you ever heard of Dex Miller, the greatest detective in the world - self proclaimed naturally?" The roll of the eyes of the knight told Odin everything he needed to. Explaining that Dex wished to stage a harmless crime scene to then investigate and cement himself as a great detective, the rune knight sighed and allowed them to pass, but stating something about the magic council taking over the investigation. Shrugging and with a nod, Odin moved to the location of the crime scene that Dex wished to stage, both Lilja and the rune knight in tow. Now it was time to set the scene.

2696

It didn’t completely work to convince this knight about the play that the festival would use because it would mostly be harmless things, some dances and so on. This guy didn’t know a thing about tragedies or something. But then again she wasn’t ready to talk more about it as she had not come up with a plan, her second plan was to simply tell this man about Dex but she noticed a skeleton hand on his shoulder and her eyes trailed on towards the rest of the arm and the body and she looked at Odin with a raised eyebrow, or well new second plan. It was funny to see how the knight tried to not react under the situation but he at least seemed to be slightly annoyed by the idea of Dex Miller which was humorous for Lilja to see. The knight added that he would keep an eye on this investigation and she rolled her eyes, ”Really, you are going to be bothered?” It seemed the man didn’t like her but she quickly made up an excuse that it was an embarrassing to say she played along with Dex Miller and the Knight seemed to be a bit more sympatico with her and that made it easier. She didn’t need to be friends with them after all. She grinned at Odin as they walked to the alley where they had to stage this happening. So she walked next to him, listen to some past happenings that happened with Dex Miller.

She nodded and could imagine that it could be a handful, she gave him a path on the shoulder and he seemed to cheer up a little. They arrived at the same place where they met Dex but he was gone now and they would have to figure out a new plan of attack for the scene he wanted to perform. She held on to the weapons still and tried to brace herself to dip some of the tips of the spears into the blood bag and scatter some of the blood drops around. She tried to imagine it was just paint but it didn’t work alright but all that happened was that she just turned a bit paler than normal and she would just go on. She was perhaps a bit of a coward now with her amnesia but she definitely didn’t plan to sit and wait for it to go away. She gave a wry smile to Odin in case he checked out if she was fine and made sure that everything was alright when they were done. Now she wondered how to get the attention of everyone towards the alley without getting them in a pinch and her face started to brighten up, ”Let me try to teleport again!”

There was nothing more that she could do but she could scream for attention and disappear that would even make it more interesting. So she would in case Odin wanted to use a spell and made sure the knight wasn’t watching so they could get out of this place and there would be no one there but weapons and blood. So she yelled, and focused on the pulling sensation in her stomach to show up a street away from this. Which was hard to imagine but it worked as she focused on the place where she wanted to be. She giggled at herself and would hop off the spot where she stood to head to the confusion to find Dex and Odin again.

They finally arrived at the location where Dex wished to set up the false crime scene. Odin, Lilja and the random rune knight they had found during their travels, all they had to do was make it look like something had happened without anything having actually happened. Realistically, it was quite simple, as Odin already had a plan for how to do it, being able to summon skeletons and then make them disappear into nothingness, it would work easily, but Lilja wished to use her new powers to make an effect, which Odin was more than happy with. After all, the reason they were here was to help Lilja regained, or at least learn the extent of, her new magical powers. Teleportation seemed to be one of those powers, so it made sense to let her try that power out.

She started dipping the weapons into the animal blood, with Odin having ripped the bag open to allow her the chance. Once she had dipped as many as she wished in the blood, Odin himself would spread the blood all over the place, on the walls and around the floor of the ground on which they stood. Lilja's plan was to scream and disappear, and Odin's plan was to make it look like she had been attacked. Nodding at her idea, Odin waited for her to scream before he raise his hands, summoning a few of his skeleton warriors to make it look like the blood had been taken by their own blades. Lilja disappeared, and a crowd began to form. Once Dex himself appeared behind Odin and Lilja, who had moved back towards them from wherever she had teleported to.

Dex was overjoyed, and wasted no time in paying the two mages, before pushing through the crowds and making his way to the centre. Dispelling his skeletons, Odin would nod at Nastasya before departing, "One mission down, hopefully the next one has us actually doing something."

-Exit-

3026/3000

It was a strange sensation that the teleportation gave her, a sort of bubbling in her stomach and that made a knot and that knot disappeared and so did she. The whole description would be over in a matter of seconds but she would have to be better with streets and locations, how else would she teleport very well, thank god she didn’t fall in a dustbin or so, that would be noisy and disgusting at best. She wondered what would be the smartest thing to do now but simply followed Odin while the Rune Knight with no name made sure people stayed relatively calm, how would you do that when a girl disappeared and skeletons and stuff, people were easy. Like sheep as she had considered more often. She would never be so simple minded as a sheep! But that didn’t matter for now, she got the pouch of new jewels and looked at it shortly with a satisfied feeling and put it in her pocket before following Odin more out of this crowd, the best they could do was not linger around. She looked up when she heard her friend speak. ”This was fun because it was dumb.” she said with a short nod and she would be okay with a few more jewels, to be fair as a waitress but she didn’t want to complain because that mainly was to stay close to Odin. She looked up as she walked a few steps behind him and shook her head and disappeared into the streets of Orchidia, time to find a better job!