Chapter 66: Okay, okay. I hear you, Lady Sabrina.

Felix woke up with a late-morning hangover, the pounding headache still heavy and dull behind his eyes. He stood up from the bed and shook his head slowly as he tried to sort out everything that had happened during the past couple of days after Leto had left. He had questioned Dune’s tattoo, asking if she had noticed any kind of reaction while Leto had been staying here. She had answered him clearly that she didn’t feel anything while Leto was here, but when he got angry over hurting Andrè she had felt the real pain on her back, as if thorns were wrapping themselves tightly around her body.

He didn’t feel anything at all, at that time. Felix thought about it for a minute and finally came up with a hypothesis that seemed right. The tattoo reacts only to Dune’s actions, and it is not due to his feeling of guilt for hurting her but because the fault was actually hers, although she didn’t understand what exactly she had done wrong at the moment. It seemed to him that the tattoo does not react to emotions as such but to the existing moral code that existed between them, despite the fact that they never really talked about it openly. This matched his previous hypothesis that any fracture of their relationship leaves its mark on both of them.

But then, why did it react when Leto was around? It definitely was not because of the seal he planted on Dune. There must be some other emotion.

Felix came to a conclusion he didn’t want to believe. Leto was falling for Dune. Sure, the facts fit together nicely – the way he helped her without delay, the way his gaze was drawn towards her, the way he complied with whatever she asked for without resistance. But this was nonsense from the logical point of view – Leto hadn’t even settled in town and there was no time for someone to fall in love with another person, let alone a person as peculiar and mysterious as Dune. Not even Hakimi, who definitely had concerns about her wellbeing, felt anything more than that.

But still, he couldn’t help thinking that some unknown stranger managed to draw a border between himself and Dune, and the tattoo branded him for coming too close to that line.

I should treat her better, he concluded resolutely.

Yet, this raised another question even stranger than the first one. Why didn’t the tattoo react to Sabrina? Because she was a ghost, and therefore wasn’t really a threat? It didn’t make any sense either – if everything depended on emotions, then it shouldn’t have mattered if she was a ghost.

But I don’t love Sabrina, do I? I know for sure. But I also—

"Damn, my head is about to explode." He staggered into the living room and pressed both palms against his temples, making his way to the kitchen.

"You are awake. Your breakfast is ready." Dune said while preparing his breakfast. "I was just going to wake you up."

Felix took a cup and drank the water. "You won’t fool me with your games, Sabrina."

"It’s not Sabrina. It’s me." Dune said. "Sabrina just gives me orders."

He furrowed his eyebrows a little. "Sabrina can’t control your body?"

"No, she only gives orders. She is too weak to do anything else right now."

"Hmm." He filled up another cup of water, this time drinking it slowly. Shit. So that was all Dune, then, every bit of it. Damn ghost’s still getting under my skin somehow.

"Sabrina says you shouldn’t drink so much. This is bad for your reputation. You also were yelling in the streets."

"I wasn’t yelling. I got home quietly and went to sleep."

"Sabrina says she has seen lots of drunkards saying that very thing before they admitted that they can’t hold their liquor."

Felix sighed. "Okay, okay. I hear you, Lady Sabrina."

"Ephraim!"

The head snapped up when hearing it coming from the living room. Stepping out of the room, he saw a little boy who was small, thin, and breathing hard as if he ran to here.

"Who is it?" Dune shouted from the kitchen.

"No one." Felix turned and said while moving closer to the boy.

He was in front of the kid giving him time to breathe. After a few seconds, the boy looked up at him. "My mother hasn’t come home in four days. She is missing."

"And?" Felix looked back without being really interested and noticed Dune approaching them.

"A tall guy outside the guild house said that you could help find my mother. He gave me your address and said that Ephraim is the most capable man for such things."

That dip-shit. Last time he got me almost killed because of some eggs. Felix made a clicking sound with his tongue. "Firstly, it’s Felix. Secondly, how much do you have?"

"How much."

"You think that I will do it for free?"

"No, no." The kid dug into his pants pocket and pulled out two bronze coins, holding them out with both hands. "This is all I have right now."

"Forget it." Felix waved him off. "Find another one to help you."

"What, no." The kid fell on his knees with his voice shaking. "Please, I promise you that I will pay you more if you find her. I just want to see my mom again."

Felix averted his eyes. Forget it, I’m not taking any risks for two stupid bronze coins.

Dune went down beside the kid and put her hand on his head. "We will find your mother. Don’t cry."

"No, we—"

"Quite." Dune’s head snapped toward Felix, cutting him off before he could finish. "Yes. We’re going to find her mother."

Felix gulped. "Yes, absolutely. I don’t care about the money."

Dune stands up and says, "tell us about your mother."

"No, no." Felix shakes his head, "tell me about yourself first. And also eat with us breakfast because I cannot think about something on an empty stomach."