They reached the execution area just before the crowd got too thick.
Skazka Illyuzia did not pretend it was a soft city. Even with the circus districts, the bright streets and the clean architecture, it still had the blunt brutality of a place that lived under the laws of the Timeless Realm. Death sentences were public here. People paid to watch. The venue was built like an old civic square that had been turned into a punishment theater with rows of standing room, cheap benches and metal rails separating the crowd from the execution platforms.
Three main methods were already set up in neat, ugly order: ropes for hanging, guillotines for quick decapitation and even giant iron hammers mounted on frames for crushing sentences. It was all very practical and official. In one corner, a basket already held a few heads wrapped in cloth.
The disturbing part was how cheerful everyone was about it. They had actual tickets.
Biolumine, who had somehow managed to get front row seats, looked entirely too satisfied with herself when she spotted Veneri and Yelena approaching.
"I got seats."
"Why?"
"Because Master, people here were talking about it all morning."
"You bought tickets to watch a death sentence."
"Obviously."
Parasphlen gave a small shrug.
"We were already here."
"I'm surrounded by idiots."
The execution area was already full. Some people were standing near vendors who sold tomatoes, overripe vegetables and other produce specifically for throwing. A few children were being kept back by adults who still looked entertained despite the effort. People were laughing and pointing at the condemned with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for sports.
Biolumine looked over the rail.
"The mercenary group attacked one of the five circus families and now they're getting executed."
The condemned were a group of seven mercenaries, all of them standing on the hanging platform with ropes around their necks while officials and soldiers handled the ceremony. They were being forced to stand there long enough for the crowd to mock them properly. That was apparently part of the process. Some of the spectators were already selling tomatoes and vegetables to each other.
Veneri had already seen enough of the setup to know what was coming. One of them was young enough to matter more than the rest. He activated his Soul Vision.
The field around the mercenaries changed in his sight immediately. Their bodies glowed. Their souls were visible enough for him to track the condition of each one. Most were already weak. One of them, the youngest, stood out more than the rest. Mid-twenties, probably. He still had potential in him.
Veneri picked up one of the tomatoes from the vendor line, paid without looking and held it in his hand for a second. Yelena turned to him.
"What are you doing?"
He didn't answer right away. He just looked at the mercenary on the platform and then back at the crowd.
"That one's the one we're saving."
He threw the tomato. It hit the young mercenary square in the face with a wet slap. Yelena blinked, half in shock and half in offended disbelief.
"You bought a tomato just to throw it?"
"Yes."
"Why him?"
"Because he's the one I'm saving. Though he needs to die first."
That got a long, stunned stare from Yelena, who had not yet fully adjusted to how casually he could say something deeply disturbing while sounding like he was commenting on the weather. On the platform, the seven mercenaries were shoved into place and dropped after talking to each other.
The crowd erupted in delight.
A few people whistled. Others shouted insults. Someone near the front yelled something about learning not to touch circus families. The mercenaries thrashed at first, then began choking as the ropes held their weight. It was deliberately prolonged enough to let the crowd enjoy the suffering. Yelena looked away for half a second, then looked back.
Veneri, meanwhile, stayed still.
He was not sentimental about criminals but the youngest one was interesting.
The seven mercenaries died one by one from suffocation while the crowd cheered even louder, then were brought down after the hanging was done and beheaded. The crowd began to disperse once the final sentence was over. Some people stayed to complain, some to celebrate and some to head back to work as though nothing had happened except a minor delay in their afternoon.
Yelena stood there quietly, still holding herself a little stiffly. Parasphlen moved away from them and approached the soldiers and handlers overseeing the execution. Yelena watched her from the side, confused at first, then more curious when she saw Parasphlen speaking to them in a low tone. A few money pouches changed hands. Parasphlen pointed towards the youngest mercenary, the one Veneri had thrown the tomato at. Two soldiers nodded, then covered the body and head with a white sheet and tied it the way people tied sacks or bundles they intended to move quietly.
Yelena looked from them to Veneri.
"What is she doing?"
Veneri watched the exchange without moving.
"Buying the body."
"She can do that?"
"Yes."
"For what?"
Parasphlen came back toward them just then, looking faintly pleased with herself.
"The body is ours. Now all we need to do is revive it."
Yelena looked at him, then at the covered body, then back at him again.
"Can you do that?"
"I've never tried it before, but I'm sure I can." Besides, the man's Destiny and Fate are over for now. He can start anew."
"You bought him because he had a good soul?"
"Something like that. Also, it's because he'll be useful."
Yelena gave them both a look that said she was not sure whether this counted as business or insanity. She watched as Parasphlen waved the soldiers away.
"Leave the body."
The soldiers hesitated and did as they were told.
Veneri stepped forward, crouched beside the sheet-covered body and reached into the remains. Soul Vision let him find what was left of the mercenary's soul structure. It had not been damaged by the execution. The soul still existed, lingering in a weakened state that he could work with. He took it in hand, then drew it out gently and compressed it into a sapphire sphere.
Yelena stared. She couldn't see the soul itself.
He opened Fool's Copy. The golden cube enlarged in his palm just enough to accept the body, then widened its inner space with a soft shimmer that made Yelena's eyes go a little wider. He slid the body inside with care, like placing a fragile item in storage. The body vanished into the small golden box as though the cube had eaten it.
Yelena stared at the box, then back at him.
"You just... put a dead man in there."
"Technically, he's not dead yet."
That earned him a long, incredulous look.
"That is not how death works."
"For most people, no. You don't have knowledge of how death works."
Parasphlen crossed her arms and watched Yelena's expression with open amusement.
"You'll get used to it."
"I somehow doubt that."
Yelena rubbed a hand through her hair and tried to assemble a reaction that fit the last five minutes. Eventually, she gave up.
"So this is just how your day goes?"
"More or less."
-----
They were back in Veneri's hotel room. Well, Veneri and Yelena.
He laid the body out on the floor. Yelena stood nearby with her arms folded. Veneri placed both hands on the body and started with the head.
Body Reconstruction did not look dramatic when he used it properly. The severed head was restored to the neck. The throat knitted itself back together. He then moved through the rest of the functions one by one, making sure every body system returned properly. He rebuilt the whole physical structure until the body could support life again without relying on luck.
Yelena watched him with growing disbelief.
"You can just... do that?"
"Somehow."
He reached into the somewhere with his soul. Veneri held it up for a moment, then used Soul Reconstruction on it. The soul became purer under his control. He was making it stronger than before. He pressed the reconstructed soul into the body and poured an absurd amount of Soul Energy into it until the connection took hold with a sharp pulse that ran through the room. The body twitched once and the chest rose with a full breath.
In seconds, the man was alive again. Yelena took an involuntary step backwards.
"How?"
Veneri let the body settle before looking at her.
"Death works differently depending on the world. In a realm of music I was once in, for example, when they die, their souls can turn into body instruments or reincarnate. In my world, it depends on the race. Most souls go somewhere after death. Heaven, judgement, reincarnation, hell, or erasure, it varies."
He glanced at the revived mercenary.
"In the Timeless Realm, they don't really get an afterlife. Their souls remain as invisible beings and suffer spiritual Decay until they're erased from existence. That's worse than death."
He looked disgusted by the whole concept, which was the closest thing to emotional reaction she had seen him.
"Even I find it disturbing. But it also means the soul is still there and if it's still there, it's easier to fix and attach back to the body. I knew it would work. I just didn't expect it to be this simple."
That made Yelena go quiet. The revived man took one sharp breath and jolted upright. He looked around wildly at first, then froze when he saw the room. Veneri and Yelena. His face twisted into disbelief.
"Am I... in heaven?"
Yelena looked at him. She remembered that she felt that way too.
"No. You're still in the Timeless Realm."
The man's eyes widened.
"Then I'm—"
"Revived by this Deity here."
The man stared at him like he had just looked directly at the edge of reality and found someone standing there casually.
"Resurrection is impossible unless a Deity did it."
Veneri gave him a flat, almost tired look.
"Yeah, I revived you."
The man went completely still. Then, with the same logic people used when they had no idea what else to say, he bowed hard enough to nearly hit the floor.
"Thank you, Goddess."
Veneri's expression did not change but his voice did when he forced it.
"I'm a man."
The mercenary blinked. Yelena, who had been silently absorbing the whole thing, let out a short breath through her nose.
"Believe me. I was confused too when I woke up."
That made the man look even more lost for a second, which was probably fair. Veneri moved on before the situation could become more awkward than it already was.
"I found out why your group was executed. Apparently you wanted to kill a child to retaliate against a circus family member who didn't pay you."
The man did not answer. That was answer enough.
"Seriously. Who does that?"
The silence that followed was heavy and ugly and it confirmed more than an argument would have. The mercenary's shoulders sank a little. Yelena looked at him with a kind of disgust that was no longer generalized. It was specific now.
"So I revived you for punishment."
"Punishment?"
"Yes. For a while, you're going to act as Yelena's bodyguard."
"What?"
The mercenary stared at her, then back at Veneri, then at her again. Veneri did not budge.
"You heard me."
"You want me to protect her?"
"Yes."
The mercenary was quiet for a moment, then swallowed hard.
"I agree."
Yelena's eyebrows shot up. "That was fast."
The man looked down, then back up with a strange, grim sincerity.
"I saw a Deity while I was dead. Then I was alive again. I can't defy that. I need to be punished."
Veneri gave a small nod, as if the logic were acceptable.
"Good. Two hundred years. You'll be her bodyguard for two hundred years to atone for your sins. After that, I'll let you go."
The man looked like he wanted to question the time span but decided against it.
"Understood."
Yelena was still processing the fact that the man who had been executed in front of a cheering crowd was now apparently her assigned bodyguard.
"This is the strangest thing that has happened to me in a very long time."
"I also changed your body."
"What?"
He was already reaching for the mirror behind him before Veneri could elaborate. When he finally looked, he went completely still. His hair was now brown. His eyes were blue. His face had changed just enough to make him look more handsome in a way that made it difficult to connect him to the man who had stood on the execution platform earlier. The man touched his own face, then looked back at Veneri with an expression that was half shock and half fearful gratitude.
"You changed everything."
"Yes. I'm not walking with a criminal."
The mercenary looked at himself again and slowly let the reality settle in. He had been executed, judged, purchased, revived, punished and designed all within a short stretch of time that probably did not feel real to him at all.
Yelena looked from the bodyguard to Veneri and then back again, still stunned that her first real subordinate in this whole new life had arrived by way of execution and resurrection.
"You really just... did that."
The bodyguard looked from Yelena to Veneri again and bowed this time with less panic.
"I'll protect her."
"Good. You better. Yelena, get along with him. He's yours now."
She looked at the bodyguard. He looked at her. The arrangement was absurd but at least it was clear. Yelena crossed her arms slowly and exhaled.
"You are a crazy Deity."
"I've never heard anyone say that to me before, but I'll take it. Tomorrow, we search for another person."
"Another one?"
"Yes."
"You say that like you're picking up groceries!"
"Do you want me to say it differently?"
"Actually, no. After today, I don't think I want to know."
"Then it's fine."
The bodyguard stood up in his newly altered form, still clearly overwhelmed but stable. Yelena looked at him again, then at the room, then back at Veneri, and finally let out a long breath.
"Fine. Tomorrow we'll search. We need an an organiser."