[M] Hate the game, not the player

Amora didn’t know whether to like this city or to hate it. It was crowded and the people were annoying. The men made it obvious that they were basically undressing her with their eyes and while she usually used that to her advantage, it could be tiring as well. She knew with her black hair, three colored eyes and the way she dressed that she was a sight to see, but damn, did they have to make it that obvious? But it also gave her a powerful feeling to know that she could wrap them around her little finger if she wanted to, especially if there was business involved. Oh, how she loved to seduce them and to scam them, then see them wither in frustration when she left them with… nothing. It brought an almost devilish smile to her face which she felt was hard to contain.

As a part of her usual routine, Amora wandered around the pubs in the city. There were usually some hot specimens to find around here, but also a lot of drunkards who she could easily trick. There was never a dull moment in her life and she could owe it all to Castellan. And her own magic source, which had drawn Castellan to her in the first place. It was all about her magic and never about how she was as a person. A weaker person would revel into that negative feeling for a lifetime, but Amora wasn’t weak. And she also didn’t give a fuck about other people. She would drop those closest to her in a heartbeat if it would make her better and never feel remorseful about it.

It wasn’t long after Amora entered a peculiar pub that her eyes rested on an interesting person. With his dark brown skin and eyes that were as unusual as her own, he attracted her attention quite quickly. He seemed to be around her age, maybe a little bit older. Amora, dressed in a short dress that reached mid-thigh, high boots and nothing to cover her slightly tattooed arms, approached him without hesitation. ”Now, tell me,” she spoke softly, almost seductively. ”What is a good looking human being like you doing alone out here?” She slid on the stool next to him, never averting her three colored eyes from him. She was interested in him and she didn’t make it a secret to let him know, but if he wasn’t interested in her, she would just drop him and search for her next victim for the night.

No hard feelings. Never any strings attached.

Amora almost licked her lips in satisfaction when the man did a double check on her. He was probably just checking her out to figure out of he had seen her before, but it was still satisfying to watch. She cocked an eyebrow when he didn’t answer her, but instead reach for his bag and started to write down something. Her different colored eyes slowly traveled from his face to the paper he held in front of her and read the words he had written down for her. Well, if this wasn’t special treatment, than she didn’t know what else was. And no, she wasn’t stupid. He probably had some medical condition which made it impossible for him to speak. Annoying, but his handsome looks made up for it. He couldn’t help that he was born this way either. Or had an accident or whatever. Amora didn’t really care about that stuff. She was here to get action, not to hear about sentimental stories she would forget about the other day anyway.

”I am as well,” she told him with a smile. Then she made a hand gesture to the bartender. As she had seen a lot of pubs in her life, she knew what kind of signs she needed to make with her fingers to make herself clear. The bartender stuck out his thumb towards her, showing that he understood what she meant and, clearly pleased with herself, Amora averted her attention back to the handsome young man in front of her. ”What kind of work do you do?” she asked. It didn’t really matter to her, but the best way to get the action was through small talk, right? Or feed him enough drinks to get him drunk, then tell the bartender that the drinks were on him. That would also be a fun thing to do.

Now that she was here, she could figure out enough ways to toy a little with her new plaything. And then she would move onto the next guy. It was as simple as that.

Amora smiled at the stranger when he wrote his words down. ”It certainly was,” she reassured him, almost chuckling to herself. Oh, how some people would be devastated if they found out what kind of schemes Amora got herself into. And how many people she deceived along the way. Castellan and her were never around one place for too long; the chances of people finding out about Amora’s schemes were too likely if they stayed around one place for too long. Word would probably spread out anyway, but by that time they would have hidden somewhere, finding themselves able to make a living out of the money Amora had made so far with her schemes. By the time they ran out of money, people would have forgotten about her for a long time. And most people were desperate for some weapons, especially around the kingdoms, so Amora wasn’t worried in the slightest.

The man in front of her seemed to be a tanner. ”So you can make a nice scarf out of some squirrel fur for me if I asked nicely?” she asked, blinking slowly with her eyes and giving him a playful wink. Of course she wouldn’t be paying for the damn skin with any money. No, she had other ways to pay a men. Ways that Castellan didn’t like, but Amora gave no fuck about that. Or at least, she tried not to. ”But I sell weapons. I’m a traveler, so I bring my merchandise all around the kingdoms,” she spoke with a smile, leaning a bit back in her chair.

This was usually the part where people would either get interested or dismiss it. If it would be the latter, it would be no harm. Amora already had other plans to make her night interesting if the man was willing to go along with it. And if not, she would soon find another victim. Men were pretty weak, after all.

Amora kept her gaze perfectly steady when he spoke his words, but on the inside she wanted to roll her eyes. Seriously? He tanned animals, but he couldn’t even provide the animals himself? What kind of lamo was he? But she knew she couldn’t voice those thoughts, not if she wanted the conversation to go her way. Honestly, she couldn’t care less about that stupid fur. But she could sell it for some money. If he was good at his job, she surely could use his work to make money off her own. And the fact that she had to provide the squirrels could be used to her advantage as well. ”I can do that,” she said slowly, bending a little bit forward so that the front of her dress fell a bit open. She didn’t care. If she wanted to lure her prey in, using her body was the least that was on her mind if it meant achieving her goals. ”But that wouldn’t make it fair to let me pay for the fur if I have to do all that kind of work, right?” She winked at him. ”Of course we can also figure out some other kind of payment.” She seductively and slowly licked her lower lip, finding it amusing to how he would react. He seemed like a stiff, polite young man who had never encountered any vulgarity in his life. But she could be wrong, of course.

But it seemed to be she lured him in another way. He was talking about his sister and a sword, bla bla bla. ”A sword, hmm?” She would need quite some life force to make that kind of weapon. It would surely drain her energy for a few days so that she couldn’t take on any other requests. The larger the weapon, the more life force she needed to take. She could pull it off with something like a big hare, probably. ”I can manage that, but it’s going to cost you,” she spoke, leaning back into her chair. ”At least a few golden coins I would say. But I can assure you that I can give your sister a nice sword, even with a cute emblem if you want to.” The sword would only last a few hours, but by that time Amora would hopefully be on her way to another kingdom.

Nobody would ever have to know.

Amora raised an eyebrow when the man spoke his words. Either he was gay or he was too dense, but he seemed to miss the point she was trying to make. Most of the time the kind of proposals she made worked for her; men were too easy when it came to physical contact. But this guy seemed to be a though one to crack. Or he was just dumb, that could be the case as well. But she didn’t want to lose herself a customer, so she just nodded along. ”A copper piece sounds fair,” she agreed. It wasn’t that much money, not as much as she would ask for a weapon that wouldn’t even last long anyway. His fur or whatever he would make for her would last and she could sell it for a higher price, but her weapon would evaporate after a certain amount of time. And his money would be lost then while she would get all the credits. The thought alone almost made her smirk.

Amora didn’t move a muscle as he announced that he would like to look at her selection. She didn’t have one. Of course she didn’t. Her weapons disappeared after a certain amount of times and the people she got involved with were the types who hung around the black market. She couldn’t get reported to the royal guard without the people themselves getting in trouble, so even if they did find out, they would most likely try to settle the score themselves with her instead of getting authorities involved. Those people from the black market were also too dense to delve themselves further into the topic of her magic. They heard what she could do and they gave it no thought. But Amora knew that she had to be careful with what kind of information she would share with this guy.

”Well, since I travel around, I don’t really have a store or anything,” she told him. ”I produce my weapons on the spot and they get sold out pretty quickly. I also work with requests, meaning that I don’t produce weapons just to show them off. That would be a waste of my time and efforts. Why make a weapon when the chances are slight that people will actually buy them?” She smiled. It sounded logical to her. ”But I can visualize an explanation from someone else quite well. I usually work out a design from the description someone gives to me and if the other party agrees, I’ll make a weapon out of that design.” Luckily she was good at making drawings, otherwise this whole scheme couldn’t even have worked out.

As Amora found it utterly useless to discuss the topic about the squirrel fur any further, she decided to not comment on what he wrote down. She wasn’t going to do so much work to gain some squirrel fur, although she could sell it for a higher price than one silver coin at the black market. Her eyes traveled from the notebook to the man and an amused smile appeared around the corners of her mouth. She was fairly sure that even if she told him a bullshit story he would find out later anyway before the deal had even occurred. Nobody could be that dense. And it wasn’t a huge secret that she was a mage. In fact, it was probably the reason why people were approaching her. Because they were interested in her magic and the kind of weapons she could create. Telling him would do no damage. Even Dark mages who were practiced in other kinds of dark magic didn’t know to what extent her magic could go. But then again, a Dark mage wouldn’t bother with buying magical weapons. They had their own magic as a source of protection.

”Well, to be fair, the kinds of weapons I make are… special.” She gave him a wink. ”You mustn’t tell this to a lot of people, but I’m a mage. I can create weapons out of my magic.” She gave him a wink. ”But I don’t want a lot of people to know because of the amount of requests I would get. It’s kind of draining to carry out a lot of requests, so I like to keep my business low key.” Of course she couldn’t tell the man that she was practiced in dark magic and that she was a dark mage. If word would spread out to the royal guard, she could get into serious trouble. The way she made those weapons didn’t have to be known by others as well. It was a duty she would have to carry out in secrecy.

Usually people didn’t ask too many questions, so she hoped the boy would be the same. But she had an arsenal of lies at the ready if he would ask her some questions, so it would be fine either way. Even if the weapon evaporated, people still couldn’t link it to dark magic because any kind of magic could evaporate after a certain amount of time. But it was the main reason why she couldn’t stay long in once place; if people would find out and ask too many questions, if another Dark mage would rat her out, she could be in serious trouble. But sharing this kind of information was fine.

Amora gave a friendly smile to the young men and just nodded when he wrote down his words. He didn’t suspect a thing, just like any other fool who would hear her story. Only a Dark mage would ask himself questions; she was pretty sure that she wouldn’t have been able to mislead someone like Sirach. And he was wise enough to not rat her out. Why would he even? He had no other business with her aside from the job she had given him. The young men was fiddling with his pen and just when Amora thought she should wrap things up, he wrote down a few words. She was surprised to read the words she had written down. Men usually didn’t want anything else than either engage with her physically or make a deal with her and then get physical afterwards, so it came as a surprise to Amora when she read the words the young man had written down.

”It has, thank you,” Amora spoke, giving the man a smile. ”I’ve traveled many places with my friend since I was young, so I’m kind of used to being around other people. You really get to know how people are once you’ve been in their presence for long enough.” She had encountered so many tragic things in her past that it didn’t even bother her if some scumbag would lash out at her. And it helped that Castellan was around when things would go downhill. He would probably never admit it to her, but he was fairly protective of her. And if Castellan wasn’t around, there was always some other fool he claimed he could be her hero and save her from the big, bad world. It almost made her roll her eyes. Almost.

”What about you? You’re not from around here, are you?” she asked. If he was going to ask her questions, it would only be fair to get to know him as well. Not that she really cared about that. After they had done their business, they would likely never get to see each other again. But it amused her that the blow would only land harder in his face once he found out that she wasn’t the polite, sincere woman he thought her to be when he eventually found out about her scam. That would make this waste of time all the more worthwhile.

Amora suppressed the urge to click her tongue annoyedly against the palate of her mouth. While she didn’t mind small talk from time to time, she didn’t like where this way going. She was used to men who either invited her to go home with them or invite her at an inn, not men who asked a lot of questions. She could be sticking around here for longer than it needed for all she knew with the way his questions were going, but on the other hand it would make it more devastating for him when he found out that the polite woman he had spoken to had deceived him and his sister. So that would make it worthwhile, wouldn’t it? With that in mind, Amora tried to answer as honestly as she could without giving anything away that would blow either hers or Castellan’s cover.

”I do,” she answered with a smile. ”It’s nice to figure out how different kingdoms work and what the people are like in it. Of course there are always experiences that are not so nice, but overall it’s been a blast,” she answered truthfully. There were always some fools who thought they could intimidate her. The stupidest of fools tried to hit her in front of Castellan. She still could have a good laugh whenever she thought about a certain encounter where Castellan had beaten the absolute shit out of three idiots who thought they could harass Amora. It had been fun, but the show must go on.

She nodded when he spoke his words. She had already guessed that he wasn’t from around here, but it made more sense now that he told her that his mother was from Xaila. Without hesitating she softly grabbed his hand, stroking the skin on the backside of it. ”That explains why you have such beautiful skin. Very dark in comparison to my pale skin. I almost look like vampire,” she joked, but slowly traveled her eyes from his arm towards his face, still not letting go of his hand.

Let’s see how dense this young man was.

Amora thought hard about the question he asked. Favorite locations? Well, she actually didn’t give a shit where she travelled to, as long as she gained something out of it. But if she had to choose, then she would probably pick Lemuria. The city was quite beautiful, being surrounded with water and all. And she wanted to visit Avalon to see what that was like, but it wasn’t high on her list because she was fairly sure she couldn’t do her business there anyway. But she knew that if she wanted to have a thrill ride, she should go to Avalon. ”I think Lemuria is quite nice,” she answered his question. ”But I don’t have a favorite, to be honest. I’m not very picky.” When it came to locations, anyway. Customers and men were another story.

Amora smirked when she saw that the young man’s cheeks turned red. Well, he wasn’t as dense as she thought he would be, but it was still low key compared to other men she had met. It wasn’t that she had slept around with multiple men, but it was still a fair amount. And she had met all kinds of men, but no one as dense as this one. But they were getting there, it seemed. He even gave her a compliment, although it could’ve been hard to guess if it was a compliment or not. Amora liked to believe that it was, purely for her own selfish reasons. ”Why, thank you. I’m still working on my tan, but I’m getting there,” she joked, playfully traveling her fingers over his skin.

”You’re not very comfortable with women, are you?” she asked bluntly, smiling cheekily as she almost caressed his arm and hand between her fingers. She slowly traced her nail from her finger over his skin, knowing that it would give him goosebumps. ”Can you tell whenever a woman’s interested in you or do you usually avoid those kinds of situations?” Amora wasn’t going to sit here all evening just for small talk. He seemed like a nice guy, but it would just be temporary. Better get it done and over with soon.

Amora could barely hide her amusement when she read the words he wrote down. It was even funnier to see his embarrassment both written down and shown in his facial expression. She didn’t even bother to answer his written words, as she was fairly certain that by now he should already realize what she was after. It wasn’t that she was always out to have some fun with the men around the city, but what could she say? He was handsome, they hade made a good deal and she wanted to try out her luck. And who knows what kind of animal could be hidden in this timid creature once they would get to the point. That was the fun part about all of this, after all.

”Yeah, I kind of figured that out already,” Amora spoke in an amused tone when he wrote down that he hadn’t realized her intentions. She leaned back in her chair and gave him some time to write down his next words. She had to give credits to herself for being so patient; usually she would have just upped and left. She leaned back forwards when he was done writing and nodded after reading his words. ”Well, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. If we’re going to do it, it’s all in good fun. No strings attached,” she promised him, but at the same time wanting to make clear that if he would go through with this that she wasn’t the type of girl who would want to get in relationship after that. She wasn’t romantic.

”So, what do you say? There’s a first for everything, isn’t there?” she teasingly spoke, only slightly touching his fingertip with hers. But she also held back a little; she was fairly certain the puppy would change into a tomato himself if she kept teasing him more. And she also wasn’t some kind of predator who forced others to do anything against their will. You could say a lot about her, but she would never do that.

Amora couldn’t help herself; she rolled her eyes in amusement when she read the words that the man had written down not so long ago. She couldn’t help but admit that he looked kind of cute when he was blushing like that. He looked like a young puppy who seemed eager to get what he secretly desired, but didn’t want to admit that to himself. It was also cute how concerned he was about her while he should be more concerned about himself. She was going to deceive him, after all. She was fairly sure that this would be his first time and she was pretty sure that nothing could shatter once’s confidence more than to be left behind in the dust like he was about to, even when he claimed that he was alright with it. It was all the more reason for Amora to go through with this, really.

”Relax,” she inquired him. ”I’m not made out of porcelain, you know. This isn’t the first time I’m doing something like this. And I feel comfortable around you, so that counts for something, right?” She winked at him as she stood up. She didn’t want to waste anymore time. She knew she couldn’t take him to the inn where she was staying at with Castellan, but she knew a few other places they could go. This pub didn’t seem to have any rooms, so they would just have to figure out something else. ”Come,” she simply told the man, turning around and winking over her shoulder at him.

She knew an inn nearby where they could stay for the night. And she was also pretty sure that if she gave him more time to think, he would be less likely to comply to her wishes. So it would be best if they would get this over sooner than later. Amora smirked. She would almost feel bad about the fact that she was about the break his trust. Almost.

Amora turned around as she heard him scribbling another thing down on that notebook of his, leaning and narrowing her eyes so that she could read it. It was getting pretty dark outside and the only source of light was coming from the scarce light sources around them. ”I would really appreciate it if you wouldn’t catch feelings for me. We can keep doing this, but as soon as you catch feeling, then I’m out,” she stated clearly, fixating her three colored eyes on him. She would want to leave him the next morning after, but she still had to make some deals with him regarding the weapon she would have to make for sister, so it would be more beneficial if she would get something out of their further meets to come. ”Other than that, I don’t have boundaries. Just enjoy yourself.”

Renting a room wasn’t a hard task to do in the inn she had chosen. The inn was barely visited by commoners, so it had a lot of space. After she had given the money to the inn keeper, she grabbed the key and headed to the room they were assigned to. She unlocked the door and waited for the man to enter, then locked it behind them. Without giving him time to think this over or to make thing awkward, she pulled him towards her by the hem of his shirt and stood on her tiptoes so she could kiss him.

Amora almost laughed out loud when she read the words on the paper, but there was also a tight know that was being the form on her insides. This was the first time any man bothered to ask her about what she wanted. To any other woman he may have sounded like a dream guy, but these kinds of things only confused Amora. She thought that every man was only thinking with a specific body part instead of what a woman like her wanted, especially because it was just a one night stand and nothing more than that. Most men didn’t even bother to ask what she liked. Hell, she had to finish the job for herself more often than she could count. So she wasn’t entirely sure what she would think of this. ”I’m fine with whatever you want to do. This isn’t the first time I’ve been doing this, you know. I can handle it.” She paused for a second. ”I will definitely let you know if I don’t enjoy it.” Would he be reassured by that? She couldn’t care too much about that. She didn’t care about that. She shouldn’t let matters like these mess with her head.

So she didn’t give the both of them time to think after she locked the door. She noticed how nervous he was and it was almost pretty hard to believe that this wasn’t his first time. He had told her that he didn’t to these kinds of things very often, but she would almost believe that this was his first time ever doing this. Oh well. That wasn’t her problem. She was just here for a good time and if he could put his damn worries away, so could he. She almost smiled when she felt how tenderly he kissed her back, but she decided not to say anything on it. He should just do what he likes, really. Every man did. Who was she to change him into something different while after this they would most likely rarely see each other again? It wasn’t her problem.

While she let him take his time, she surely was going to be a lot more assertive than that. She teasingly let her hands travel to the him of his shirt, where she traveled with her fingers under his shirt towards his chest. She slowly kissed from her cheek towards his neck, sucking the skin there. She was kind of curious on how she could make him lose his mind quickly, so her goal would probably be tonight to see how far she could go before he would lose of his gentle side and behave like every other damn man she knew.