Erik willingly explained anything they were curious about, but he showed resistance whenever the subject turned to him. Maya wondered about his rank—he seemed skilled and knowledgeable—but she didn't know enough about the hierarchy to gauge whether it would be considered high.

"Then give me a tattoo machine. I'll do it myself." Elena moved forward and tried to grab it.

"You can't." Erik resisted, evading her reach.

"Sure, I can," Elena scoffed, "I'll do what you just did on her."

"No, love. You literally can't put a normal tattoo on yourself," he clarified, annoyed. "Your healing factor won't allow it to stay. And I'm not giving it to you if you just like the sting of needles."

"I still have my tattoos. Stop being full of shit."

"That's because they were a part of you before you died."

A new curiosity sparked within Maya during their exchange."But isn't it strange that her tattoos stayed then? If wounds heal and the body supposedly perfects itself…"

Elena had always been a striking figure, but since her transformation, her beauty seemed to have amplified. Even if it was hidden under many layers of clothing and her bad personality.

"Ink in her skin tissue would be considered a foreign substance and would cleanse itself, right?" Maya pondered.

Erik paused, raking his fingers through his hair as he realized their misconceptions. "Vampirism is not as the stories depict," he began to explain. "It corrects functional and genetic anomalies, but not cosmetic ones. Hence, scars and tattoos stay on the body."

"Oh," Maya realized the answers were already in front of her. Erik did recently point to a year-old gunshot wound on Elena's shoulder which he wouldn't have been able to notice if her transformation had erased it.

"For example, if you have a limp, that is a functional defect. If your skin is prone to acne, it can be a genetic defect," Erik always did his best to bring the subject closer to Maya's understanding. "So your posture would be better and your skin clearer. But it won't change the colour of your eyes because another one is more trendy."

Maya couldn't help but chuckle at the ridiculous idea. "That would be subjective," she nodded in understanding.

A hint of a smile appeared on his face. "Scars can be important societal marks. Vampires are meant to imitate people; otherwise, why bother looking like anything remotely similar?"

"So, it's not that a vampire's body becomes perfect, but rather it perfectly replicates the condition it was in before death?"

"Correct," Erik patted her on the head. "Although if the skin bearing the ink gets damaged later, her tissue would repair itself without it. The body won't spontaneously learn how to synthesise ink just for the occasion."

"So, a new tattoo would simply be rejected because it wasn't within the image of her body before death," Maya concluded, clasping her hands. She was happy to receive any nugget of information about vampires to better understand her friend. "I thought of this before, but you're a really good teacher, Erik."

Erik smiled at her sudden compliment. "It's not a hard task when I'm facing an excellent student."

Elena stared at them with disdain, as if the warmth and support they had for each other was making her nauseous. "Who do you hope to fool with those fake—"

"I do try my best. I'm glad you appreciate it," Maya clasped her hands, flattered. Realizing she accidentally talked over Elena, Maya glanced at her, only to see her rolling her eyes.

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"Whatever," Elena mumbled and cleared her throat. Her eyes shifted toward Erik. "I bet you know a way around it." A sly smile appeared on her face. "You figured out a way to use runes even with your ruined core. You're hiding cards in your sleeve."

Elena's words prompted Maya to reflect on Erik's previous statements. She realized that Erik's reluctance wasn't rooted in the impossibility of the task, but rather his unwillingness to execute it.

"Could there be a method to make it work for her?" Maya asked, trusting Elena's sharp intuition.

With a heavy sigh, Erik seemed to confirm their suspicions. "It won't be pleasant," he warned.

Maya's face lit up with optimism.

"Rarely things are," Elena muttered.

"Unfortunately, this method isn't guaranteed to work, and it may just create irreversible damage."

"Alright, alright. I get it," Elena was annoyed. "Let's just get it over with."

"If it does work, you won't be able to deactivate it. There's no good way of undoing it," he continued with his cautions.

This made Maya wonder if there was a possible method to deactivate the runes applied to her. She cast a sidelong glance at Erik's left arm. His rolled-up sleeve revealed an entire tapestry of runic spells, each with various purposes, no doubt. She found it hard to believe they could all be active at once.

"Why would I ever want to undo it?" Elena was defiant.

"Some sights are best left unseen," Erik replied, his gaze distant, his tone thoughtful. It was as if he was thinking back to some moments when he wished his Sight hadn't provided him with a glimpse behind the Glamour.

To Maya's surprise, Elena momentarily looked like she had taken his words into consideration. Although she already seemed desensitized to horrid sights, with her photographic memory that archives perfect images to haunt her forever, Maya understood why a glimmer of hesitation flashed in her mind.

Erik, however, missed this brief moment of doubt. When he turned to her for confirmation, she was resolute in her decision.

Maya, who knew Elena well, figured that she saw Erik's warnings as nothing more than feeble attempts to dissuade her for some ulterior motive.

As Erik prepared for the task at hand, Maya's gaze drifted toward his bookshelf, drawn by curiosity about what kinds of books he kept. The collection was surprisingly eclectic: dense technical manuals sat beside weathered philosophical texts, Numerous logs and field journals written by hand were neatly stacked against each other, while leather-bound historical records occupied the lower shelves. Tucked among these weightier volumes, she noticed several slim poetry collections, their spines creased and pages worn from frequent handling.

Noticing his affinity for poetry, her hand instinctively moved to her pocket, checking for the presence of a particular piece of paper.

It seemed they shared a common love for books, although their preferences diverged. While Maya was more inclined towards fiction, Erik's interests leaned towards poetry, non-fiction, scholarly manuals, and logs heavy with data. Perhaps his interest was not so much in reading the books as it was in keeping records.

Eventually, Maya pulled out the same handbook Elena had previously studied and began leafing through its pages.

Erik lined up a strange arrangement of materials for Elena's runic marking. It seemed he picked the most delicate knife he could find, a small pouch of dark powder, the pen-like artefact he had used earlier, and a lighter.

Seated beside Elena on the sofa, he took her arm and swiftly drew the runes with the artefact. However, this time he didn't activate them with the lighter. His hand reached for the knife, causing Maya to gasp as she realized what this method entailed.

"This is just a regular knife," he clarified, displaying the blade to Elena.

She rolled her eyes. "Spare me from the apprising and just get on with it."

"No, w…wait," Maya's shaky voice interrupted before Erik could begin his incisions, earning her curious glances from both Elena and Erik. "Could you craft her an artefact instead? You mentioned that was a possibility, right?"

"Hmm…" Erik paused, deep in thought. "I could," he admitted, "but I'll need at least a week to gather all necessary materials."

"Forget about that and just do this already," Elena grumbled, growing impatient. "Or were you planning on holding my hand like this forever?"

He turned his head back to Elena. "Why?" Then suddenly leaned in closer with a teasing glint in his eyes. "Does it make your heart flutter?"

Elena flinched and hastily pushed his face away as if it were a danger.

If Erik had done this to Maya, her heart would surely have skipped a beat. However, Elena's reaction was one of borderline panic, to which Erik seemed oddly satisfied.

With a neutral look replacing his playful demeanour, Erik cautioned, "Stay still now, or you'll end up with a botched job."

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