☀️ Arselia and Akonia

- Ha-ha-ha... It's a long story... 😅
- Not that long... But it's the story of how we met Evgeny Kripov. Back when he wasn't a patriarch, but just the owner of a little shop here in the port.
- And with 2,71 barrel of Rinze. Alaria, what do you know about the Incomparable Most Beautiful Only True Great, Mother Of Her, Empress of All the Otherworld, Curse Him Thrice, World, Rinze, May the Celestials Take Her, Reime?
- The very same one whose cult caused Tais to be bombed at the end of July, - Giyyon added, sounding deliberately bored.
- Exactly. Evil, true evil in its purest form! Devouring people's minds with her chthonic, unnatural beauty!
- I'm not sure she's *that* beautiful. Yes, she's cute, but nothing mind-blowing.
- That's because you only glanced at the painting and that was it. But for a while, I seriously believed she was the most beautiful of all beings in the universe.
- Yeah, I remember your idiot face...
- Hm... Alaria, sorry, it's just a really funny story... Right, in order. Giyoshe and I were walking near the palace... Eh, it's not so funny anymore... Anyway, some psycho was trying to break into the palace, waving a painting around!
- Apeiron Logos. An artist.
- Yeah, him, whatever. They tackled him, but they left the painting on the street! We took a look, and there she was... Rinze, damn her. But we didn't know who this Rinze was back then. We decided to hand it over to the museum.
- Yeah. Beata realized immediately that something was fishy with the painting; she wrapped it in my cloak, but... But the painting ate her brain even through the cloak. That's how I realized Beata actually has a brain; I'd had my doubts until then...
- Shut up! - Beata gave Giyyon a light smack on the head. - As if your head isn't just for something to eat out of!
Giyyon snorted, stifling a laugh.
- Fine, forget it, - Beata waved her hand. - I don't remember a damn thing after that. Only that I decided the painting was too good to give to anyone, that it had to be hung in the most prominent place and admired... And that I yelled at Giyyon and fought with him.
- Because *my* brain wasn't eaten by the painting. And I decided to stay far away from it and figure out how to pull you out of its clutches. I made it to the museum on my own, and there they advised me to contact our patriarch. But it was already late, so that also became my first night in Carneole, yay.
- Yeah, we lived in the Hearth back then, in the 69th district; a cute house, and an interesting landlady...
- Yeah. So, first thing in the morning, I ran to the Tentacle to pay my respects to Evgeny. He got ready immediately, didn't even look too surprised, and we ran to the Hearth, where this beauty, - he nodded at Beata, - was sitting and drooling over that fucking portrait.
- Drooling? Really?
- Well, almost. You looked like you were just about to start.
- Nightmare... It's probably for the best that I remember that day poorly.
- For the best, for the best. Kripov immediately goes, "Aha, typical Rinze," knocks Beata out, and pulls a disgusting worm out of a suitcase. He says he can implant it in the brain and it will protect the host's mind. Only you can't overheat with it.
- We later implanted the same thing in Giyoshe; it's a really disgusting thing. But really effective.
- Yeah. I hesitated and hesitated... But I decided it was worth it. At the same time, I dumped this Rinze portrait on Evgeny. Otherwise, I would have chopped it into small pieces myself, but I was afraid it would be risky. Magic artifacts are generally nasty things, - Giyyon shrugged, as if an invisible collar had wrapped around his throat again.
- And the next morning I wake up, my head aching like a massive hangover, and this super-intelligence tells me that I now have a worm in my brain and we owe some shady guy four hundred rem. I don't know how I didn't kill him.
- But you gave me a lovely bruise under my eye with your shoe.
- I apologized! And it went away by evening!
- It's my own fault; I shouldn't have gotten in your way when you were heated 😅 It's not like I've known you for one day. You hit first, then you hit some more, then you kick a couple of times just to be sure, and only then do you start figuring things out... Sometimes.
Beata chuckled.
- True enough 😅 Anyway, I had to borrow some from Aiko... Gods, what would I do without her... And then I went to pay the debt to Evgeny. He was very sweet; he even gave me some candies.
- Those, by the way, came in handy in the mountains. When Nisho was bitten by snakes.
- That's good. In short, that's how we made a couple of acquaintances... One good, the other... The other, f***, Rinze.
- I think it was because of that portrait that Evgeny was able to banish Rinze from our world.
- Or he just snapped after the cultists' bombing in Tais.
- Or something like that...
Suddenly, a thought struck Giyyon — Evgeny couldn't have failed to see the curse hanging over her in the first moments of their acquaintance! And he surely realized that she was obeying Beata! But he... said nothing. They had no problems, Beata wasn't arrested for slave-ownership or any of that. He should share this thought with her... In private, of course.
- And that's the whole kit and kaboodle, - Beata smirked.