Obsidian

Vanessa 1976

"Take all the time you need," The bank manager offers with a smile. He'd been polite to me from the start, but when I gave him my information, he'd doubled his efforts. What sort of treasure did Romulus have in here that would warrant that?

"Thank you," I smile at him.

As I move to the table, out of the corner of my eye, I notice how his gaze travels up my body. I inwardly groan and turn to the box in front of me. I would have been flattered in the past, but now it's aggravating. 

It's not that I've sworn off men or anything like that. I just don't have any desire in me anymore. I know how sad that sounds, but can anyone blame me? I think it'll be a while before I feel anything close to wanting from another person.

Until then, I guess I'll tolerate the lustful looks I get from certain people.

Don't get me wrong, I know I'm good-looking, but I'm also aware that my appearance can be unsettling for many. 

In the past few decades, my features have changed a lot. My body was settling into the appearance I'd kept for a long time, taking the pieces of vampire, dragon, and elf that best suited me. Strangely, I was only 5'4. That was relatively short for both an elf and a dragon female. Though, I definitely took after my father's elven shape. I'm annoyingly thin. I know many human women want that, but I don't feel like it's the way I'm supposed to be. Especially since a decade ago, I'd had more mass on me. 

I liked my curves, but now they were almost non-existent.

I heard the heavy metal door close, but I didn't need to turn around to know the man was gone. 

"What did you leave for me this time, Jack?" I whisper, staring at the metal box in front of me. 

Part of me wants to take a guess at what's inside, but with Romulus, I've learned never to try that game. 

Sliding the key into the lock, I silently go through the process of revealing my boyfriend's secrets. When I set the lid on the table, I was surprised at what I found.

It's nothing of value, at least not by looking at it. 

"What are you playing at, Jack?" I demand, feeling frustrated with this afterlife game he was playing. I hope he's having a good time because I'm not.

 "Obsidian," I whisper when I pick it up. "Gods, Jack, now you're scaring me."

Obsidian could be used to make countless things. Over history, it'd been used for jewelry and even weapons because it's durable enough to stand the test of time and a few good hits. There's nothing wrong with doing that.

This wasn't the same thing. This obsidian had been carved at its birth. You could tell by the lack of etch marks on the surface. The stone looked utterly natural, as if it'd cooled like this. With deep grooves and symbols running across it. That wasn't possible. This could only be done when the rock was still molten lava and magma. 

You'd have to be in the middle of an eruption, and few in the world could achieve that. Even in our world, only dragons born to breathe fire and some other races that dealt with flames could manage it.

Still, there were immense amounts of magic during a volcanic eruption rumored to do strange things when you were too close. 

Absorbing that amount of raw creation and destruction energy was not something you did lightly.

For those poor souls who died because of it, their souls were never the same again. So if the myths were true, the phoenix race would be the souls of humans who died during powerful eruptions. 

I don't know if there's any truth to the tales, but phoenixes do resurrect. Unfortunately, though, I don't see how that works in reality. I've never met one in person. 

Who made this? Could it have been Romulus?

Romulus could breathe fire, but I don't know if I can believe that he made this himself. Maybe I shouldn't think like that. There were so many other things I didn't know about him.

"What mess have you got me into?" I ask the air, staring at the stone. "Why me?"

There was more in the box, and because things couldn't be stranger, the next thing I picked up was a note Romulus left me.

'Trust, love, faith.' one side of the paper says, and my voice catches in my throat. I flip the paper over and force myself to look around the room. Convinced he was somehow here with me and heard what I said. 

'Only you.'

It was what he'd always said to me. That he only ever trusted, loved, and had faith in me. 

"Somehow, you always know what I'm going to say, even before I do," I accuse with a sad smile. 

I don't know how long I've been here, but I don't want to stay longer than I need to. 

Not wanting to leave anything behind, I make sure to grab it all, leaving the box empty and locked before putting it back in its place. I had no intention of coming back here unless Romulus had decided to leave me something else, but I figured it was best to look like I'd left something. So everything goes safely into my bag, I can look it all over in my hotel room, and I'll decide what to do from there. 

I knock on the door for the guard to let me out, waiting for several minutes without a response. That wasn't right. I wasn't quiet, and there were two guards out there. They should have heard that.

Nothing.

"Don't make me destroy this door," I sigh, not looking forward to the prospect of having to use my dragon breath to get the door opened.

I hear the lock on the other side click, and I shake my head. It might sound ominous to be locked in a vault with little air, and if I were human, it would be, but since I'm not, this was just an attempt at a burn.

It wasn't unheard of in our world. It was a harmless way of letting one Entit'a know that there was another working at a place. 

The door opens, and a guard who wasn't the same as before smiles at me. 

"Sorry," He chuckles. "It's not often I get to do that."

I manage a smile, knowing the guy doesn't know I'm not in the mood to play around.

"It's alright," I step around him, giving him a quick glance to figure out what he is. There was no scent coming from him, but that wasn't strange. Many races didn't give off a signature smell. Others have learned to hide it as a form of protection. "Have a good day."

Walking away from him, I try to seem unphased by what I learned in the vault. Honestly, I didn't discover much, but I'm carrying a load of implications I must unravel.

"You know, he didn't say you were so pretty," the guard calls from behind me, and I stop.

"Excuse me?" I turn around, narrowing my eyes. "What did you say?"

"Romulus," the man's smile is gone, and his expression is serious. "He never told me you were so beautiful."

"How do you know, Romulus?" I demand, storming up to the man. 

"I don't think you want the answer to that, Valkyrae Milla," He sets his jaw, no longer looking in my direction.

How did he know my name?

"Who are you?" I demand. "How do you know Romulus?"

"I've waited a long time for you to show up," he whispers, his eyes changing to molten fire. 

"Who are you?" I ask again,  taking several steps back.

"Your only hope."