Phantom Hollow The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly...

Damien takes one step back the moment the other stands upright, taken back by his surprising size compared to his evident age. He chuckles at his own lame joke, but Damien's face remains as stoic as ever. "I am not a boy," he protests, hating it as much as every time he is called a boy. But that is not important, not really, for the old man repeats his previous words and makes everything else irrelevant. Damien's eyes drift quickly to the elder's shoulder, and stare for way too long at the red mark dyed on it.

The elder asks whether Damien is familiar with Mephala, to which Damien could only respond with silence without first asking a question himself. "What is the gift of death?" he says, and stares right into the purple-blue eyes that look at him with curiosity, and feeling an uncanny familiarity with them..