I shook my head. “No. Eteri just know you not want talk about past. Understand.” I poked the unconscious mans cheek again. Watching absently as his eyes danced behind closed lids. Was what I really did so wrong? He wanted this didn’t he? Did I misinterpret that? The man before me, he was a drunkard. A vagabond who was a member of the gallery. I highly doubted he had any sort of family. Was it really that bad to just sacrifice him? The man revelled in sacrifice for the name of ‘art’.

Now Nevin was bringing up his past, which was something he never wished to do before. I had asked, but he always denied. So I let him be. I figured it was best not to pry. “Eteri thinks Nevin is great man - uh...Great God.”

“I…” He sighed and shifted slightly, moving to kneel next to me, his shoulder pressing against mine. “I was a wanderer. Traveler, because I'd been kicked out of my family because I wanted to learn Alchemy to help people.” His dark eyes were focused on the man, and there was an odd look to them, one I wasn't used to seeing in his eyes. One I didn't like seeing in his eyes. Pain. His longer fingers stretched out and grasped the drunkard’s chin, and he rotated the man’s head back and forth as he continued speaking.

“I was captured by a village that had fallen into worshiping some kind of vile creature that dwelt, dwells, in the Crimson Plane. They were trying to bring it into our world, through a long, long series of rituals. They - sacrificed a boy that they had been raising, and me, to make us into a single host that would be better suited to being a vessel for the thing.” My Nevin’s voice was tight. I felt his body tense up and he retreated in on himself, shrinking beside me as he hunched inwards. “It almost worked. Whatever they tried to invite, didn't last. Because they messed up a part of the ritual when the sacrificed me, instead of one of their own. The thing wasn't truly welcomed into the new ‘vessel’, and when dawn broke, it was banished, or destroyed. Only a tiny part remained - a part of the dead God of the Crimson Plane. That's.. What you've been seeing in me, the divine soul that is slowly merging with me.” I slowly nodded. It made sense...two souls… that I had very slowly been weaving together.

“Think understand. You no want unwilling sacrifice because you was one?” He remained silent. I shifted and wrapped my arms around him, nuzzling into his neck. “Eteri love Nevin. No matter who or what become. Love you.” he leaned against me, and for a moment his eyes closed, and he sat quietly before they drifted back open.

Nevin suddenly snorted, his eyes narrowing. “Wait. This man. Honey, why do I recognize this man?” His dark red eyes turned, locking onto me, and it looked like the side of him, the scared, hurt, side, was locked away again. His eyes slid back and forth between me, and the man on the ground.

I mumbled. “Man from gallery...but Nevin… is… is what Eteri doing right? Merging souls?” I played with a strand of his crimson hair. Lightly tugging on it. “Eteri know can be… stubborn. But if I do anything to hurting you… Tell, please?” His eyes focused on mine, and I felt one of his hands run up my back, until was resting on the back of my head. He pulled me forward, resting his forehead against mine.

“I would, my love. And I do not know, if what you are doing is right, or wrong - I'm not someone who understands souls, or how they operate. I deal, dealt, with only the physical, the real world, for so long. Dealing with this? What I am.. I have no idea. I will trust your judgment far more than my own.” He kissed the tip of my nose before looking down at the man again. His eyes narrowed. “So this man was at the gallery.” And then his red eyes lit up, glowing with an inner brilliance was literally visible.

“What is you doing?” I stared at his eyes in awe, they glowed a brilliant and shining crimson it was amazing, beautiful. “Is so handsome..” I whispered. Those vivid red eyes shifted and focused on me, and they softened almost immeasurably. He reached up and caressed the side of my face, his hand tender and gentle.

“It is one of the powers I developed. I don't use it often - but it allows me to see the bonds between people. How strongly they are connected - and their emotions between each other. For example, I can see the love, and devotion, flowing between the two of us. The flashes of your wonder, your love, and your concerns. And when I look at him… I see…” He sighed and looked away.

“Fanatical devotion. To both of us. Not love but - worship. Especially to me.” His voice had grown soft. Weighted.

“Is that good thing?” I asked. He frowned.

“ ‘A good thing’,” he absent-mindedly correcting me. “And I'm.. Not sure. I'm still not used to - this side of things. I can mentally process your devotion much better, due to our relationship. But this? It's bizarre to me.” He sighed and sat back, leaning on one hand as he rubbed his head with the other. “The members of the Gallery that have joined the church all seem to be almost dangerously devoted to me, and have no qualms with death.”

I smiled, trying to comfort him. “because it's...I don't understand it but Eteri would be happy to die for you.”

“I do not want that.” His voice was very, very firm, as he turned those shining red eyes on me. “I want you, my love, to live by my side. It may take some time to figure out where to get viable life force to harvest, but I won’t take it from unwilling sacrifices who have done no harm to us.”

“What about a willing sacrifice, my king?” Nevin just about leapt in the air at the croaky, cracked voice that suddenly spoke up.

“See! He okay to do the thing! Make live longer!” Nevin was staring hard, at the man.