"Hey there," a pretty girl with thick auburn hair sat down beside Magnus and smiled.

She had seen the handsome man drinking himself silly at the bar for four nights straight. Every day he would arrive, order the same drink and quietly sit by himself.

On the first night, he had appeared with a woman who looked excited and happy, a girlfriend or his wife she suspected. But after a drink and a short conversation, the woman had left the bar in tears. The man though sat at his table, brooding darkly with his cup of liquor.

He had thick black wavy hair that was artfully messy. With his sleepy-looking dark eyes and a languid liquid grace in the way he draped himself over the chair, the eye-catching man had caught the attention of most patrons in the bar who were looking for a partner to pass the night with. And he'd politely turned down every single brave soul who had dared to solicit his company.Â

"Hey," he replied. His voice was just as deep and seductive as she had imagined it to be.

"You were looking at me," she told him, smiling and blushing at the way his eyes lingered on her beautiful Auburn tresses.

"I was," he conceded. "You have pretty hair."

A flirty giggle escaped her lips and she introduced herself to the man. "I'm Nina."

"Magnus," he returned with a slow smile that sent heat pooling in her guts. "Can I get you a drink?"

____

When Magnus returned home past midnight, Lucien was in the forest with Levia. The little monster had been bugging the redhead all night about exploring the woods and he'd capitulated when he realised that the sandman wasn't working his sleep magic on them. It wasn't as if Lucien was worried about Magnus having fun with 'adults' like adults did.

This was the fourth night that the fire mage had stayed out late. Lucien was cognizant of the fact that he had no ownership over Magnus. He wasn't the man's lover and he had no right to have a jealous fight about his activities but the jealousy burned like magma in his chest. It suffocated him till he was breathing out fury and seeing red.

Levia nuzzled her snout against his palm and it brought him back to reality - cool air on his skin, the smell of the woods, crackling leaves under his feet and the rough scaley skin of Levia that was brushing against his wrist.

"Should I give up?" He asked her. "Magnus isn't interested in me. I'm still a fucking child or whatever."

Lucien cared too much about Magnus to push the issue harder. What if his efforts turned off the mage even more? Magnus would get disgusted with his behaviour and leave him again. The thought of losing the friendship, the bond he had with the fire mage made him afraid. The redhead could only vent his frustrations and jealousy by hiding out in the woods alone.

"Maybe he's right, Levia. He's too old for me."

Lucien imagined that Levia would reply to him saying Lucien, it doesn't matter. Eat him. Because all she did was eat and eat three times her body weight in a single setting.

"You're lucky that Salem and Rowan are both filthy rich, Levia."

The redhead sensed a presence coming towards them. Since Levia seemed comfortable with whoever was approaching, Lucien let his guard down.

"Lulu, what are you doing here at this time of the night?" Magnus asked him. The fire mage had found the room bereft of Lucien's presence and had come out to look for him. The redhead could have been sleeping in another room but the fire mage just knew that he would find Lucien in his favourite place.

"Taking Levia for a walk," Lucien replied. So far so good, he was doing a pretty good job of not spewing out his jealousy and anger.Â

"Oh, do you wanna head back?" Magnus smelled of smoke, wine, and women's perfume. The redhead was tempted to throttle him and demand to know which Elysium wench he'd been screwing.

"Head back with you?" Lucien repeated. "No. Levia and I have stuff to do."

Magnus felt the rejection in Lucien's cold tone and he wasn't going to lie to himself about how much it stung. He hated what he was forcing himself to endure. All he wanted right now was to grab the teenager's hand and take him back to their room but it would have defeated the purpose of his nights spent away from the redhead. The sooner that Lucien got over his crush on him, the better a place the world would be.

"Good night, Lulu," he told the teenager.

Lucien remained silent as Magnus walked back to the house alone.

_____

Artemus had travelled a long way from home. He'd mostly taken the path but today, he was in the boisterous company of a group of people journeying towards a marble quarry.

He'd heard rumours about how an entire bustling camp of stone workers had disappeared overnight at the quarry. 56 men in total were just gone like they'd evaporated. Their belongings remained at the site but not a single man nor a dead body was found by the people who had gone looking for them.

The man who owned the quarry could not find any willing stone workers brave enough to work at the quarry after what had happened and it had laid empty for months. After hiking up the salary and spreading the news about how he was going to send in a powerful priest to cleanse the place, a few desperate families finally signed up.

"You don't look like a mason, son," an older man with wrinkles on his face told the anti mage.

Artemus was wearing rough clothing and brown hide boots. His siky hair was tied back in a low ponytail. He was far too beautiful and fair to be anything but a scholar whose skin never saw the sun.

"I'm not," he replied, affecting a tone of embarrassment. "But I'm strong. I can handle it."

"Ah... I see," the old man responded with a look of pity in his eyes. The young scholar had fallen on hard times and had to make money for his family. Such was life. You could be born to a king one day and end up destitute the next.

"Don't worry, son. I'll show you the ropes. You'll soon be making enough money to send back to your missus. How many kids do you have? A strong young handsome man like you must be married and raising a brood of children. I myself have twelve grandchildren-" the dam had broken loose and there was no stopping his chatter.

The anti mage felt the journey grow longer as the old man kept talking and talking.