Journey of the Son of Ares

Balgair's mouth went dry, and his heart thumped as he watched the foreign man casually converse with Aurelius before sitting down at their table. 'Why am I...?' he thought, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was that he felt.

For just a second, the foreign man locked eyes with Balgair and smiled faintly before nodding as a greeting. Balgair nodded back twice with inexplicable urgency and zero thought.

It felt like at any second, the room might explode into chaos.

"Just wait here; I'll go order," Aurelius said, prompting the man to avert his eyes.

Cade raised a hand. "No, I can go."

Was she feeling the same as Balgair? Or maybe she was just not feeling social. That's right. Balgair was imagining it all. The scarface in front of him was harmless. He wasn't a bounty hunter, for sure. Aurelius had his hair hidden. No way some bounty hunter would coincidentally bump into them and be able to tell from just the eyes. Besides, it was three against one. Nothing to be nervous about.

Aurelius nodded and sat down next to the scarface who then commented, laying a hand on his bare neck briefly with his eyes squinted in a friendly manner, "You have very nice friends."

"Thanks." Aurelius smiled brightly as ever, despite the weird physical contact. He probably thought of it as a cultural thing. Balgair knew that it wasn't.

Aurelius' brows furrowed as he looked down and seemed to concentrate on something separate from the conversation. It took a few seconds before Aurelius got back to reality and raised his head, and when he did, the scarface twitched. A faint smile appeared on his lips, but it disappeared so quickly that it seemed like just a twitch of his facial muscles.

The scarface then leaned back loosely on his chair and glanced at Balgair again before asking, "So, what are kids like you doing on your own?"

Balgair opened his mouth to speak, but only something high-pitched came out, prompting the man to smile bemusedly. Balgair cleared his throat and asked with a hint of annoyance, "Kids? You're probably like three years older than us. Keep it in your pants, oh great senior."

"Hey, show some respect," Aurelius let out a slight snarl.

The scarface laughed. "Are you siblings?"

Aurelius was about to speak when Balgair took the opportunity. "Yeah, he's my little brother."

"Are you sure you're not the little brother?" the scarface asked with a curious tilt of his head.

Balgair was starting to get over his initial feeling already. But no, he couldn't. He was supposed to listen to his instincts. The scarface reminded him of Laen. Same good looks and charisma. But amplified to the max. His kind were always the worst monsters. The kind that lured you in with a shapeless touch and ripped out your throat when you relaxed.

Aurelius laughed and switched the topic. "Uh, by the way, do you mind if I ask..." He touched his face.

"Oh, my scar?" the scarface said, turning his gaze and lifting his auburn hair. "It's from an old friend. We had a little scuffle a few years back."

"Must've been quite the scuffle for him to slice up your face like that." Balgair said with a firm gaze.

"Oh, it was," the scarface said with a relaxed smile and lowered his hands to his sides. "He was always much stronger than me."

"Was?" Aurelius asked.

"He unfortunately passed a while ago."

"Oh, my condolences."

The scarface flicked his wrist. "Don't worry, he had a fitting death. And I made sure to it that he was buried properly."

"You wealthy?" Balgair asked.

"Excuse me?"

"You mentioned a proper burial. That's something wealthy people say. What house are you from?"

The scarface waved a hand. "A small house, I'm afraid. You wouldn't know it."

The ends of Balgair's mouth curved up slightly as he said, "Oh, I'm a pretty knowledgeable guy."

The scarface turned his face to the side a little, facing away from Aurelius. Then his expression and something behind his eyes changed, sending shivers through Balgair's body. "Are you now?"

'He's... worse than Laen. I know it. This guy's abhorrent,' Balgair said as his side eyes started to get watery from staring right into the scarface's eyes.

The scarface's expression changed in an instant, though, as he turned for Aurelius to see his expression again. "No, but I'm no longer in touch with my family in any case, so I can't really claim my house. That said, I do admire my father. I'm fine being simply a rather affluent wanderer, however."

Aurelius smiled even more brightly than before and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Interesting things. The world is full of them. All waiting to be discovered. I realized that at a certain point in my life and decided to seek all those things out," the scarface explained. Balgair could usually tell lies apart from the truth just by the feel of how they sounded to his ears, not to mention reading body language. But this person. His words had no sound. His body language didn't seem to have any substance relating to the inner workings of his mind, as if the being controlling movement was separate from the one producing speech. It was all a jumbled mess. The clues got mixed up, and signals were thrown all around. The man made large gestures like an innocent little child while averting eye contact like a guilty teenager caught red-handed. The scarface could have been telling the truth, lying, or doing whatever third option existed in the realm of possibility, and Balgair could not tell at all. He was unreadable, like a book with the letters of every word upside-down and disorganized. "I also make a point of helping all the people I can, since my wealth really means nothing in my pockets."

Aurelius laughed. "We're pretty similar, you and I."

"That's nice to hear that I'm not alone." The scarface said with a light chuckle of his own.

"Oh, but what kind of interesting things are you looking for?"

The scarface smiled and pointed at Aurelius. "Things like you."

Balgair got ready, and Aurelius leaned back with caution. "What do you mean?"

The scarface scratched his head. "Oh, I don't know. You just seem special. I don't encounter much niceness anywhere, but you just seem to radiate this warmth. It's like you're the definition of a good person. It's special people like you that I look for. You are very interesting to me."

Balgair was still on guard, but Aurelius seemed to relax. He scratched his head with a slightly uncomfortable-looking smile. "Oh, haha. Thanks, I guess. I don't really know if you're right about that, though."

"I'm sure I am," the scarface said, right as Cade came back to hand him a new coffee. "Thank you, dear," the scarface said, but Cade remained wordless.

'Took long enough. No wonder this place is so empty when the service is so slow,' Balgair thought. He'd already had enough of the scarface a while ago.

The scarface then turned to Aurelius. "Well, I'll be going now. It was a pleasure to meet you." He extended his hand.

Aurelius took his hand and shook it with a relaxed smile. "The pleasure was all mine. And sorry again. My name is Aurelius, by the way. I hope we meet again."

"Oh, I'm sure we will. Fate works in funny ways." The scarface stood and bowed slightly. "And you can call me William."

Then the man was gone. Balgair could finally let out a deep exhale and relax.

"Uh, hey, Balgair," Aurelius said.

"Huh, yeah, what is it?" Balgair redirected his attention, a plethora of possibilities running through his mind.

"When that guy touched me, my essence flow got weird," Aurelius explained. "You think that's normal."

Balgair gulped and remained silent for a bit before laughing it off. "Maybe it was just your body's reaction to you catching feelings for the guy. I don't blame you, though. He was real pretty."

Aurelius seemed to be contaminated by Balgair's nonchalance and laughed as well. "Yeah, it was probably just my imagination."

Cade also seemed to ponder the matter, but didn't engage in the conversation. Balgair pushed the whole thing out of his mind as well. Whatever Kind of fucked-up trouble Aurelius was in wouldn't be any of his concern for long, anyways.