"So, where do we go from here?" Seirios asked, propping his head up on a closed fist.
"We leave," Artorias answered with a shrug. "Earlier you mentioned something about killing some fallen spawn, did you leave them anywhere around here?"
Seirios shook his head.
"No, I know how strong their sense of smell is. I dragged their bodies a few streets away before running."
"Is there any blood?"
"Nah, just a bit at the entrance. I made a trail using their bodies, then poked enough holes in them to attract anything sniffing around."
Artorias couldn't help but be impressed. Whilst a bit morbid, it was certainly a smart idea.
Seirios seemed to catch his admiration, puffing his chest out with pride. "Yes, I know, it always seems to surprise people when they realize I am more than just a pretty face."
Artorias couldn't help but chuckle. "Preen a little more and I'll start calling you Pavo."
"Really?" Seirios gave him a dry look, "A peacock?"
"If the shoe fits."
"Pah, you're as unclothe as they come, you know that?"
Artorias shook his head with a small grin, standing up and slipping the knife in his hand back into the sleeve of his hoodie.
"Haven't you called me a 'bastard' at least a dozen times by now?" he asked in return, moving around the room to pack his bloodied bag with the boxes of medication and wrapped bandages.
"Where's your proof?" Seirios said with a groan, finally standing up and stretching his back, a small popping noise echoing through the room. "Oh, that felt good."
Snorting, he slipped the bag onto his back, being careful of his healed arm more out of instinct than any good reason.
"We should talk Ascended abilities," he mentioned, looking at Seirios who pulled a funny face. "What now?"
"Sorry, I was just wondering what era you come from. Seriously, Ascended abilities? Are you like forty or something?"
Artorias blinked, stumped at what was happening.
"Oh my god…" Seirios looked like Christmas came early, drawing his words out as his eyes sparkled. "Have you seriously been referring to your Impetus Talents as Ascended abilities this entire time?"
"My Impe—what not?"
"Oh my god!" Seirios cackled suddenly, a cheshire grin on his face. "Dude, that's what we call it. Impetus Talents! Only the first generation Ascended still refer to them as 'Ascended abilities'!"
"Who the—since when has that been a thing!?"
"Since forever! Have you been living under a rock or something?"
"Shut up," he could feel his cheeks beginning to burn with embarrassment. "I've had a sheltered upbringing, alright?"
If possible, Seirios' grin only grew wider.
"What, a sheltered upbringing in some cave? Come on man, this isn't news to anyone."
"Well, it is to me!" he exclaimed, trying his best to temper the rising blush on his face. Already he could feel his ears beginning to burn.
It didn't help that Seirios, that bastard, was enjoying this far too much.
"Oh, come on now, I was only teasing you- "
Seirios stopped suddenly. Blinking his eyes.
"You know, I just realized I have no clue of what your name might be…do you even have a name?"
"It's Artorias," he said through clenched teeth, glaring at the grinning bastard. "Artorias au Mávros, of House Mávros."
"House Mávros, huh," Seirios' brows furrowed in concentration. "Why does that name sound familiar?"
Artorias had to wonder what type of legacy he was dealing with, if he didn't even know the house charter of his own family.
"You probably heard about it because of my mother. Before she was of House Mávros, she belonged to the Noble House of Pyrphoros, she was the granddaughter of Nymeria."
"Right, that's it!" Seirios snapped his fingers, "There was a massive scandal about her marrying below her station."
Artorias hadn't known that. But he shrugged and responded nonchalantly.
"They were right. My father didn't deserve her at her worst, the less said about her best the better."
Seirios only raised his hands. "Hey man, no judgement. It's not like my family was any better."
"Really?" that was a bit of a surprise, all that he had heard were praises sung about House Lykros.
Seirios seemed to know what he was thinking, shaking his head at him.
"Not House Lykros, no, their nothing but good," Sighing Seirios moved to sit on one of the desk chairs which sat in the corner of the room. "I was adopted actually, well, more like sold for a hefty price of money."
Artorias blinked. That was certainly not what he had expected to hear.
Glancing out through the windows of the room, he noted how it was still night. Knowing they would have nothing better to do than talk, he pulled the remaining desk chair to himself and sat down.
He might as well be comfortable if they were going to spend the next few hours talking.
Seeing him take a seat as well, Seirios cracked a grin, leaning back and speaking. "I was born as an only child to a couple living in the outskirts of old Russia. You probably know how it is for those of us living on the boarder of the mainland's, yeah?"
He did.
They were the lowest of the lows in society. Scraping by with rags for clothes, mouldy food for survival and dangerous work they never got recognition for. It was brutal, but in a world ruled by the strong, the powerless simply had no say in these matters.
He nodded silently, already having a guess of how the story would end.
"Yeah, well, the stories not so different to the others who come from such places. I undertook the ascension process, survived by the skin of my teeth just for a chance to go out there and earn some real money for my parents…"
Seirios paused there, his hands turning to fists as his eyes became distant.
"House Lykros took an interest in me when they found out about my Impetus Talent, asked me to kill this abomination of the deviant rank for a hefty sum of money."
He sighed, his shoulders dropping.
"I did it. Newly ascended and already with the blood of a deviant on my hands. Back then, it didn't matter to me. All I had known was blood and suffering my whole life after all, but, well, in a sense I was betrayed."
Artorias couldn't help but ask.
"By your family or House Lykros?"
Seirios laughed, but it was hollow, devoid of any emotion.
"It was a little of both. Turns out they went behind my back and spoke to my parents after that little mission. In their own words, 'my potential was too great to ignore'- "
Artorias grimaced; he had heard those exact same words from his father too many times to count. He knew it was meant to sound like a compliment, but it only made him feel like an investment.
Like he was owned and somebody else was living through his life, controlling the strings until he had no choice but to follow the predetermined path, they had set out for him.
"-They offered my parents that same bag of money, and within that same week I was no longer the son of two people surviving in the outskirts, but a scion of a noble house."
Artorias didn't say anything for a time, granting the other teen some quiet to gather his thoughts.
In hindsight, it made sense that Seirios didn't know as much about the houses of the world as he did. He had been displaced from a world with no information, to a life where information was the thing that controlled a person's survival.
"That won't do," he finally said with a sigh and shake of his head.
"Huh?" Seirios looked at him with confusion.
"I have a responsibility to teach you it seems."
"You do?" if possible, Seirios' confusion only grew.
"I do," he nodded. "My mother had three siblings." He lifted his hand, showing three fingers. "Uncle Caelum, who has gone mad enough to never attract the attention of any woman to build a house with, Aunt Misae who inherited the title and legacy of House Pyrphoros, and Uncle Antares- "
"-My father!?-"
"-Who created the cadet branch of House Pyrphoros, the Noble House of Lykros."
Artorias nodded, a smug grin on his face at the befuddled face Seirios now wore.
"Adopted or not, you're still seen as a son of House Lykros, the cadet branch of my mother's maiden house, meaning that you and I, are now cousins."
It was a lot to unpack even for him.
When Seirios had first introduced himself, Artorias had been confused, paranoid and still recovering from the mental fatigue of whatever had happened to him. That confusion and paranoia hadn't left until now.
He had studied his family charter extensively after his mother's death, and no cousin of the name Seirios had ever shown up.
Now? It all made much more sense.
He couldn't help but grin, a thing too sharp to ever be considered friendly.
"Welcome to the family, Pavo."
The glare he received made the teasing he had suffered from before all the more worth it.