CHAPTER 5 " Meeting her again"

  The darkness in the alley coagulated into a physical manifestation, flowing like water beneath Dan's feet. Black tongues of Darkness streamed outward, like a river overflowing its banks, filling the space around the Lord. The Darkness enveloped the deserted alley, devouring the light and the last warmth of the spring night.

  The air vibrated with the released power, ancient and alien to this world. Dan stood at the epicenter, his silhouette barely discernible against the absolute blackness.

  Mana erupting from his body twisted into a vortex, creating a whirlpool-like, spiraling portal. From the inky core emerged a shadow. Not just a silhouette. Human-sized. A formidable warrior's figure took a step out of the vortex of darkness. Clad in armor black as night itself, Rin manifested from the depths of the void. Gaining clearer and clearer form, the outline of the ancient warrior emerged, whose soul had forever become part of Dan's Darkness. The contours of his armor glowed with a bright green, like deep-sea phosphorescence, giving shape to the magical plate. Two bright green eyes, like poisonous emeralds, burned beneath his helmet's visor. In his long, elegant hand, woven from gloom, blazed a phantom sword. Its blade burned with cold green fire, the long hilt gripped tightly in a massive gauntlet.

  The Guardian of Darkness dropped to one knee before his Master, bowing his head. Rin's voice sounded low, like the grating of stone, yet brimming with impatient fire:

  "My Lord! After so many years... Where is the battle?"

  Dan looked at his Guardian. The ancient warrior who had stood shoulder to shoulder with him in hundreds of battles. His loyalty was unbreakable as bedrock, his thirst for battle eternal.

  "Rin..." Dan began, his voice unusually quiet.

  "I will destroy all who dared threaten you!" Rin leapt up, the phantom sword flaring like a green torch.

  "There will be no battle." The Lord's tone held a heavy weight.

  The green lights of the eyes narrowed to slits. The silence that fell after Dan's words was louder than thunder.

  "But... how?" Bewilderment laced the grating voice. "Why did you summon me?"

  Dan averted his gaze. Rin saw a barely noticeable discomposure in his master's posture. A hint of uncertainty in his voice. He had never seen such a thing in the Lord's behavior.

  "There is a task... More important than battle."

  Rin straightened to his full height. The green sword extinguished. His stance radiated utmost attention, almost sacred awe.

  "More important than battle?" The voice lost its battle fervor, becoming deeper, more serious. "If it is more important to you... it is the highest honor for me to execute it." The Guardian's head bowed submissively, awaiting the order.

  Dan gathered his courage. The words pressed down like a pile of stones suddenly dumped on his chest, stealing his breath. As if they were the words of an ordinary man, not a Lord:

  "You must... watch over... watch over one mortal... become her shadow."

  Rin's head jerked up involuntarily. The green eyes flared so brightly they illuminated the alley for an instant with an ominous light.

  "What?!" The grating voice rose to a shout. "Wait... her?! You... you want to spy, My Lord?! You're interested in a girl?!"

  "I'll rip you in half right now..." Dan threatened in a completely calm voice, not blinking, attempting self-control, with an uncharacteristic, slightly hysterical smile. He tried to appear nonchalant. "I need you to be near her. Invisible. She must not know about you. No one must know. And only in case of mortal danger – manifest. Nothing more."

  Rin froze. The green fire in his eyes shifted to an intense, scrutinizing gaze. He nodded, but pressed further:

  "If it is your will... it is an honor for me to become an unseen shield for one who is... dear to you?"

  "Nothing of the sort," Dan cut him off, as if making an excuse. "Just... I have a strange feeling... Worry." Dan recalled the recently looked-up word. He turned away, but Rin had already noticed – a barely perceptible flicker, a shadow of something on the Lord's usually impassive face.

  Rin took a step forward, his green eyes narrowing even more, intently studying Dan's profile.

  "You..." he paused, as if searching for words from a long-forgotten dictionary of feelings: "Your cheeks... for the first time I see rosy hues on your pale face... and your energy... it vibrates differently."

  Dan's left eye twitched traitorously. He felt the heat but couldn't explain its nature. It wasn't like the heat he experienced in battles. Not like the heat radiating from the Lord of Flame. Something completely new. Something that shattered his unshakeable character and image.

  Rin was highly perceptive and caught the slightest beginnings of emotions. He saw that before him now stood far from the fearsome Lord whose aura was so powerful it could plunge a planet into eternal darkness. Of course, that power hadn't gone anywhere; he was still the Lord of Darkness, but something had changed. Something in his eyes, black as the void of space itself, had definitely changed. Rin's long-dead heart was flooded with warmth. He rejoiced. It pleased him to see "life" in his Master's eyes. Feelings unnatural to Lords. For the first time in millennia, Rin felt that the Master was vulnerable, and he couldn't help but take advantage of it:

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  "Master, do you find that mortal… dear to you?

  Silence.

  "Dare...? To me...? Her?" Dan parsed each treacherous, terrifying word of the question that hung like a dead weight in his head. "That mortal? What does that even mean? Why is he even asking this?"

  Dan froze. The Darkness spreading under his feet seemed to stop too. He stood, sorting through thoughts that had tangled into a tight knot in his head. He felt a stab somewhere in his chest. Near his heart. But no one had pierced him. No one could have.

  Rin stood and watched this scene, this being he called "Master". He understood he had hit the mark. If a face had been visible beneath the black visor, it would have been seen spreading into a wide smile. Joyful, sincere. Deep within the Guardian of Darkness, a flame ignited: "How long it's been since I felt anything like this..., Rin thought, the Master is in love... and I...? I am happy! Master! I am so happy! You may not understand... but right now you are beginning to experience the best feeling one can have in life..."

  In an instant, Rin's mood changed. He suddenly felt pain where flames had blazed just moments before. The fire of joy was replaced by the ice of desolation. He realized. They were talking about a human.

  Completely buoyed by happiness for his master, he had utterly forgotten that the girl who had become the catalyst was merely human. Mortal. Whose life was nothing. Just a moment in the eternity to which the Lord was condemned.

  "My Lord... I..." Rin tried to correct his mistake.

  "Go..." Dan said, looking at his Guardian, and added, "I don't know the answer to your question."

  Dan's face was stony, frozen in the horror of incomprehension, like a statue. He stood within Darkness, but not the kind he had summoned. A fog of confusion consumed the Lord.

  "Why do I worry so much for her..." he couldn't answer, but the answers flashed through his consciousness like pictures: golden hair like wheat, barely touching her fragile shoulders. Eyes like crystal-clear, deep lakes. Skin as delicate as silk. That single, timid smile that had flickered across her face for a second when he agreed to walk her home, but which seemed now etched forever in his centuries-old memory.

  Rin saw it all. Saw how the incomprehension of his own feelings was eating the Lord from within. Scorching his immortal soul and body. "Master...," he thought, lowering his emerald eyes whose light dimmed under the weight of realization, "...I'm sorry, what an idiot I am... even if you... your presence alone will kill the girl... even if your power is sealed..."

  "Master," Rin's voice sounded confident and firm, "I will carry out your order."

  Dan finally managed to pull himself together. Regaining control over his mind and body, Dan cast another glance at his Guardian, standing humbly a few paces away. Motionless. Dan asked only one question:

  "Why are you still here?"

  Rin continued to stand, unsure how to tell the Lord it wasn't that simple.

  "You see, Master..."

  "What now?" Dan asked without malice, but with a certain fear of hearing something else that might finally send him into a coma.

  "I cannot..." Rin lowered his head, knowing what he was about to say would send the Master into a coma.

  "And why is that?!"

  "You need to meet... once more... you know the process yourself... for me to slip into her shadow, your shadows must intersect..."

  Both were right.

  That composure and inner calm Dan had struggled so hard to regain was blown away like dust in the wind. Caught off guard once more, he stood rooted to the asphalt, utterly failing to understand why he was so afraid, as there was no threat anywhere near.

  "Rin..." Dan uttered almost inaudibly, then immediately fell silent, as if he'd forgotten all words.

  Absolute, ringing silence reigned in the alley. Rin waited obediently for the next words.

  "H-how... how do you ask a girl on a date...?" The Lord's coal-black eyes stared at the ground. "I've never before..."

  Even under the weight of deep sorrow for the Master's unjust fate, Rin's eyes blazed again with bright green fire. Despite the worries and potential consequences, his heart burned once more. He was profoundly happy for his Master and wanted him to "live" a little.

  "Write to her..." Rin indicated the smartphone Dan was nervously clutching in his hand.

  Now the Lord's other eye twitched nervously. "Write...? What would I even write...? And how... I don't have her number..." he thought, unconsciously staring at his phone's unlocked screen.

  "I can't..." Dan said quietly.

  "And why is that?" Rin asked, surprised.

  "I don't... I don't have her number..."

  The Guardian of Darkness looked at Dan's helpless face and couldn't stop feeling tenderly amused. For the first time in thousands of years, he heard embarrassment and uncertainty in the Lord's voice. He saw that Dan understood nothing right now and didn't know if he ever would, but Rin realized he had to help.

  "Not a problem!" Rin declared briskly. "The internet will help! It's like modern magic!"

  Dan raised his eyes to Rin and smiled faintly. He saw in him not just a servant, not just one of the "Five", he saw a battle comrade who wouldn't just fight beside him, but would lend his shoulder when needed.

  "Thank you, Rin," Dan whispered with a kind, barely perceptible smile. "Now return. You'll know when the time comes."

  The warrior's figure began to lose its definition. Massive armor dissolved into swirling gloom, Rin's bright green eyes dimmed.

  Dan clenched his fists, feeling the released mana that had raged a second ago now retreating obediently. Quietly and calmly, like water receding into sand. Icy waves of restraining force flowed through his veins, freezing the Darkness that had burst forth, shackling it back into the depths of his being. Invisible chains clicked, locking once more. The pressure of the ancient power lessened, replaced by the familiar, heavy emptiness within. The alley air no longer hummed or vibrated. The pressure subsided. The silence of an ordinary night returned to the alley, broken only by the distant city hum and... the Lord of Darkness's own rapid breathing.

  Dan was left standing alone.. He took a deep breath, trying to regain a sense of control. Inside, chaos still raged from Rin's questions, from the realization of the necessity of meeting her again, from this incomprehensible, inexplicable heat under his skin and the unusual tingling somewhere near his heart.

  Dan turned and strode away from the alley. His gait was still smooth, imperious, the stride of a Lord. But inside, he felt not like a warrior of Darkness, but like a lost child carrying within his chest an alien, scorching, and frightening secret. And somewhere deep inside, sealed away with his power, the warrior of the night, the Guardian of Darkness, Rin quietly rejoiced and waited with trepidation.

  Will Dan find her phone number?