"See who I found here, a perfect candidate for serving the god of darkness," the man from my memory had said. 

At that time, I had been kneeling in front of the temple of the god of darkness, praying that the god of darkness might assist me in my revenge. The huge wooden door of the temple had then swung open without a sound. Someone had stood in front of me saying nearly the exact same words. 

"So it's you who raise me from my sleep," he had said. "It has been a good nap. Are you coming in or not?" He had looked at me with a lazy grin on his masked face. All I could see at that time was his lazy grin and bloody red eyes behind the mask. 

His expression at that time overlapped with the scene in front of me. 

When my eyes met his, realization finally dawned on me. It's really him, the high priest of the god of darkness. It's the first time I saw him after two lifetimes. The last time I saw him I was heading to my death. 

With a snap of his finger, my two guards and coachman went unconscious. 

"I need some tea," he said nonchalantly as he swung around and returned to his carriage. When he settled down on the seat in his carriage, he asked, "You want some?" 

"It's my pleasure, High Priest," I replied with an elegant smile. I returned to my carriage and dug out the hamper with a tea set, water and tea leaves Sarah had placed in the carriage before I kicked her out of the carriage. I brought the stuff to his carriage and started to brew tea. 

When he said he wanted tea, he meant he wanted you to brew him tea. He was too lazy to do it himself. I placed the cup of warm tea on the low table in the carriage in front of him. 

The lazy grin was still on his face as he sipped the tea slowly as if he had all the time in the world. 

"I need a spy, you seem to be a nice candidate," he said breezily as if he was merely talking about the weather. 

"A spy?" What did he need a spy for? If I remembered correctly, he was wandering around the temple with nothing to do all day in my second life. He as the high priest of the god of darkness was only called upon when the continent really needed him, such as at times when the beasts in the forest near the border became uncontrollable and required priests from every temple to join forces. 

"You can do it, can't you?" he said with a smile on his face, his ruby red eyes piercing at me. 

"For what? I am just a pupil in the temple of god of wind." 

"I know," he grinned. "It doesn't suit you. You're more well suited as a pupil of the god of darkness. Your soul reeks of darkness." 

That's what he had told me in my other life too. He said I had such a bad personality that I would probably suit learning the arts of dark god more. I was too easily driven by jealousy. 

"I want you to spy on the treasure your temple holds so dear. Oh don't try to play dumb now, I know you know there's a treasure kept in your temple." 

It's no surprise he knew about the treasure, from what I gathered in my previous life most temples seemed to have one. They're all shards of some jewel. In every life, soon after Rachelle started studying in the temple, she would break some sort of wards that sealed the shard in the temple. The jewel shard acknowledged her as its only owner. This sort of boosted up her power. Rachelle then went on a journey collecting other shards from other temples. Of course the other temples did not want Rachelle taking away their well guarded treasure. This led to a huge debate and battle between Rachelle and the other temples. 

"You want me to steal it?" I asked hesitantly. That's an impossible mission for me. I couldn't fight Rachelle. 

"Of course not!" his grin widened. "Why would I want that shard? It has no use to me. You just have to track her progress."

"Her progress?"

"When she collected one shard, report to me. It's simple, isn't it?" 

I nodded. 

"Great! Now let me give you a gift. You're doing work for me, I should give you some reward." 

He whistled and then his crow peeked in from carriage window. "I am finding your friend." 

His crow had a friend? But he only had one crow familiar. I was getting more and more confused. He was the same as before, but I did not understand his actions. I did not remember him getting particularly fixated on those shards in the past. He seemed more interested on my attempts to take revenge.  

"Meow. Meow." A black kitten jumped in from the carriage window. She had sleek black fur with golden eyes. Isobel?

The cat landed on the lap of the high priest and she purred as he patted the kitten. 

"Your owner," he said as he placed the kitten on my lap. "My gift for you." 

"What... what's the cat's name?"

"Guess?" 

The kitten looked exactly like Isobel, her appearance, the way she purred when I touched it, the way she snuggled on my lap. 

Without thinking, I called out, "Isobel?"

"Meow, meow." She responded as if she had done that many times before and then started licking my fingers. Just like how Isobel had been in my second life. 

I glanced up to see the familiar lazy grin still hanging on his face. At that moment, the crow with golden black feathers flew in. It landed on the priest's shoulder as it cawed. 

"It's nearly time." The carriage door opened by itself. "Send words to me through Isobel. It's a pleasure meeting you." 

"It's my pleasure too, your grace." I climbed out of the carriage with Isobel in my arms. 

That's when I felt his colder than average human's breath trickling by my ear. "See you soon, Odette." 

I was still standing in the same place when my guards and coachman began to wake from his deep sleep. I looked at the kitten in my arms. This kitten was definitely Isobel. 

It couldn't be... 

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Author's note

Wohoo! This story hit 2k views! Thank you so much for reading! 

Things are getting exciting ;) What do you think of the deal between Odette and the high priest? Stay tuned! See you next time!