ShadowBound: The Need For Power

After studying him for a long, drawn breath—searching for even a flicker of deceit or hidden motive—Serah found nothing in Marcus's eyes but that same maddening, carefree gleam. She sighed.

"Well... I guess I might just believe you then," she said at last.

"Wow," Marcus said, grinning with a flash of teeth. "That's sweet. So we can move on to the next stage of our relationship, yeah?"

Serah flinched slightly, caught off guard—again—by his words. "There's nothing to move onto," she retorted quickly.

"How boring," Marcus replied with a mock-wounded look.

A brief silence passed between them before Serah leaned slightly forward, her tone calm but tinged with curiosity. "This might be none of my business but... as a dark mage, don't you think making a living in one of the Kingdom's most tightly-guarded Zones is kind of... suicidal?"

"Oh, I know it is," Marcus said with a shrug. "I know Zone 16 has knights patrolling nonstop, hunting for folks like me. It's basically a death zone for dark mages."

"Then why risk your life working here? Why Heyh of all places?" Serah asked, her voice firm.

"Because this city's where the coin's at, duh," Marcus said casually. "If I didn't need the money so damn bad, I wouldn't even think about being this close to the Kingdom."

Serah stared at him for a long moment, as though trying to weigh his words against her own understanding. "So... I'm guessing you've probably run into a few knights that tried to take your head off, right?"

"Nope," Marcus replied simply. "Been chill since I got here. No knights tried to gut me, not even once."

"What?" Serah blinked. "How? Your dark magic radiates so heavily it could wake the dead. Are you seriously saying no knight has sensed you since arriving?"

"Yep," he replied, sounding annoyingly proud of himself.

"That doesn't make sense. You don't have a second affinity to cloak it, do you?"

Marcus snorted. "Nah. Having two affinities sounds like a pain in the ass. Mother Nature did me a solid giving me just one."

"Then how are you walking free in a city like this? You should be lighting up every mage sensor in a five-mile radius," she said, genuinely baffled.

Marcus leaned forward slightly, a smug little smirk creeping across his lips. "Simple. Since the last time we met, I've gone cold turkey. Haven't used a single ounce of magic. Not a flicker. And doing that? It dulled my presence. These days I give off the same vibe as a one-star nobody with no elemental affinity."

Serah's brows lifted. "You dulled your magic?"

"Yep. Nice trick, right?" he said, tapping the side of his head.

Serah sat back, stunned. She had never heard of someone voluntarily dulling their magical affinity just by refraining from using it. It was insane. And yet... the more she thought about it, the more it made some twisted sense.

Before she could respond, Marcus tilted his head with a sudden look of curiosity. "Hmm, now that I think about it—how did you even find me?"

"What?"

"I mean, with my magical presence that dim, I shouldn't even register unless you were, like, a few feet away. You weren't that close to the construction site or I'd have noticed. So…" he trailed off, giving her a sly look.

Serah's eyes immediately shifted away, her expression faltering as she sensed exactly where Marcus was about to take this.

"Tell me, Princess," Marcus said, voice dripping with teasing mischief, "have you been tracking me for the past four months just so we could have this cute little fun date?"

"Yes. I mean—no!" Serah snapped.

"Oh-ho-ho," Marcus grinned wide, leaning across the table, "so you did want to have this date with me."

"No!" she hissed, face now visibly flushed. "I was tracking you, yes, but not for this thing you're calling a 'date'—I was after what you promised me last time we crossed paths."

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Promised? What, like... my virginity?"

"Huh?! No, you idiot!" Serah blurted, half standing from her seat. "Why would I want your virginity—and I doubt you even have one left!"

Marcus leaned back with a smug little grin. "Can't say you're wrong."

Serah rolled her eyes so hard it was a miracle she didn't fall out of her seat.

"I meant the Pureblood Blood Demons," she said, her tone cooling. "You said you'd tell me more about them... the next time fate allowed us to meet."

Her gaze locked onto him once more, firm and expectant.

Marcus simply leaned back in his chair, expression darkening ever so slightly as he placed both hands behind his head and exhaled deeply through his nose.

"Well, there's nothing that special about Purebloods, really," Marcus said with a casual shrug, as if he were talking about the weather. "They're just... more like us humans. Move like us. Talk like us. Think like us—hell, some of them probably think even sharper than we do. Purebloods are basically full-on humanoid demons, the kind that'll smile at you while plotting your death in ten different ways. Sadistically dangerous, but clean about it."

He jerked his chin toward a table a few feet away. "See that woman over there?"

Serah's eyes followed the direction of his nod and landed on a well-dressed woman sitting beside a man who looked to be her husband. They were laughing gently, sipping on drinks like nothing in the world was wrong.

"She could be a Pureblood," Marcus said, leaning back. "And you'd never know it. Not in a million years. Even that little boy chasing his friend over there... yeah, him too. He could be one of them. Just waiting—patiently—for the perfect moment to rip every soul in this place to shreds."

Serah blinked, her gaze lingering on the boy. A chill slipped down her spine.

"See, Purebloods can shapeshift," Marcus continued. "They don't need to cloak their energy or creep around like Redbloods. They just become us. That's what makes them ten times more dangerous. Redbloods are smart predators, sure, but at least they still look like demons. Purebloods? You could share a drink with one and not know until they decide your time's up."

Serah listened in complete silence, letting every word sink deep. Her mind began to spiral. If what Marcus said was true, then her whole reality just shattered. Friends, allies, mentors—any one of them could be something else. Someone else. She felt herself breathe slower, more carefully.

"So... is there a way to tell?" she asked finally, her voice low. "I mean, if someone's pretending—can you tell?"

"For us dark mages? Yeah," Marcus said, tapping his nose. "We've got a rare sense for myst. Every living thing that's ever touched magic gives off a scent—and we can sniff it out. Different affinities, different smells."

Serah's eyes widened. A flash of memory returned—four months ago, back when they faced off against the Redblood. Before it appeared, she remembered Marcus pausing... nostrils flaring like a predator catching a scent. She hadn't thought much of it then. But now?

"It makes sense," she murmured. "Back at Caelmoor, before the Redblood showed, you sensed it coming. You smelled it, didn't you?"

Marcus gave a soft grin. "Yeah. Lucky trait, huh? I guess nature knew we dark mages would get the short end of the stick, so she gave us something extra to survive with."

Serah nodded, her expression softening as a faint smile touched her lips. "Feels like she did. Like she tried to balance things out for you."

"Yep. I guess she did."

The silence between them grew a little longer this time—less heavy, more reflective—until Serah spoke again. "So... what about the rest of us? People with different affinities. Is there any way to detect a Pureblood?"

"Nope," Marcus said plainly, without hesitation.

"I see..." she muttered, looking down for a moment.

"But," Marcus added, reaching into the folds of his coat, "you can use this."

Before Serah could ask, something small and clear sailed through the air. She caught it easily and studied it. A smooth, translucent orb rested in her palm, faintly pulsing with a dim, silvery light.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Don't really have a proper name for it," Marcus replied. "Just a little tool I keep around for when my senses get foggy. It's a myst detector—glows blood red when a Redblood's near, glows black when a Pureblood's within range. You'll figure out the rest."

Serah stared at the orb, then back at Marcus. "You're just... giving this to me?"

"Yeah."

She furrowed her brows. "Why? I mean, sure, we're talking freely now, but let's not act like we're best friends or anything. I'm the first daughter of the Solara King—the King who basically wants your entire kind wiped from existence. Why trust me with this?"

Marcus studied her for a moment, eyes unreadable, then smirked. "Your father? Yeah, he hates my kind with the fire of a thousand suns. But are you him?"

Serah flinched slightly at the question, her throat tightening.

"I doubt it," Marcus went on. "That night at Caelmoor, what you said about us—about how we're treated, how we suffer—it stuck with me. You were honest. You saw us for what we are, not for what history turned us into. That meant something. You're one of the few people who look at dark mages and don't instantly see monsters. And I like that."

Serah blinked, caught completely off guard by the vulnerability in his tone.

"But don't get it twisted," Marcus added, tone snapping back to casual. "I don't trust you. I just like you."

Serah tilted her head slightly, confused. "What?"

"Something about you captivates me," Marcus said, resting his chin in his hand. "Don't know what it is, but I like it. And even though I'm giving you that orb, and talking to you like this... if things go sideways and you try to screw me over?"

His eyes locked onto hers, now cold as winter steel.

"I won't hesitate to slit your throat where you sit."