[Moscow] Death is not the end (Amir)

It was a stressful day for Alla, there was much work to do at the funeral parlour and her boss had taken a day off. She was struggling to make the arrangements for a funeral the next day and there was a family who wanted her to plan a funeral with them. Usually her boss dealt with new clients but as he was away, the girl had to do that too. There was nobody else after all. She felt so awkward seeing these people mourn their family member and she didn't really know how to treat them. She tried to be calm and kind but whenever she spoke, she felt like she was saying the wrong things. She'd have to work on that.

When she showed the different coffins, the girl asked one of the men if they wanted to try it and, while saying so, realised that this was not a proposal one should make. She blushed and apologised but the damage was done. The family was having a whispered conversation, probably discussing whether they should look for a different funeral parlour. Alla bit her lower lip, feeling very nervous. However, they stayed on, much to Alla's disbelief, and she tried even harder to get the job then. After two hours of sucking up, the Russian witch got it. That would bring in some money and was the best recommendation for her.

However, the busy day meant that the girl was running late for her meeting with Amir al-Busuri. She had met him for the first time when she had purchased the bones of her now animated pet skeleton. Back then she had still been a student. When she had run into the man again a few months ago they had chatted some more and since Alla had already found out earlier that he was skilled at necromancy she had tried to get in touch with him some more. After the exchange of some letters they planned to meet in the early evening of this busy day. Alla's plan had been to meet him at a small but fine restaurant not far away from the parlour but she realised that if she wanted to refresh her make up and change into something fancy she'd run late.

Afraid he would not wait, if she was late by more than a few minutes, the girl sent a brief note, telling him to meet her at the funeral parlour as she didn't manage to get off work in time. She was relieved to have brought her dress and some black high heels to work so she could change there. The blonde brushed her straight hair so it fell softly onto her shoulders and applied some make up, especially emphasising her rather big blue eyes. She felt a bit overdressed and awkward but she wanted to look like an adult woman rather than like a girl who had just graduated from school. Besides she found Amir rather attractive and she just loved brown eyes.

Should she offer Amir a cup of tea or coffee at the funeral parlour or rather suggest they go to the restaurant at once? He would surely not be appalled by the surroundings. Dead bodies, coffins and all these things would hardly scare a necromancer. However, would he really turn up? She was just a girl, not yet a skilled and experienced necromancer although she thought that she was better than most people her age. She looked around, wondering if she needed to prepare anything and realised that she'd feel a lot more relaxed, had she brought Burmin. However, she was not allowed to bring her pet skeleton to the funeral parlour as her boss found that it scared his clients away. While Alla didn't agree there, she was wise enough not to risk her job by bringing Burmin to work.

“Uriyah.”

Amir stared up towards the top floor of his home where his son was making the loudest noise. It wasn’t the first time, but the new Necromancy professor had been working on his lesson plans and had tried to concentrate. When his son appeared at the top of the stairwell, music down to a regular volume, Amir just arched a brow. There was a silent stare down, then his son just slunk back to his room and the music stayed low. But now Amir had the worst headache. Rubbing his temples, he walked over to his desk and stared at his lesson plan. He was attempting to make something fun for his new students, however he was distracted.

His large clock rang, and he sighed softly. He had so many things to do. He had meetings set up from today ’til the beginning of the semester. Amir knew that teaching was hectic, but he hadn’t expected the magnitude that teaching at a large institution were. He’d just now sent in his text book orders to the school, and they were demanding the supplies list, and if he were a weaker man, he’d be stressed out. However, he just needed a bit of coffee to perk him up and he’d be well.

Long fingers reached up to pull his long hair into a tail. How does someone dress for a meeting with a budding Necromancer? It would be the first meeting that he’d had with her outside of the shop where most necromancers got their supplies. She was a charming little thing, but was she ready to be a true necromancer? He would see.

He floo’d over to the funeral parlour, and dusted the dust off of his dark robes. It wasn’t often that he was invited to funeral parlours. He was amused a bit, peering at the view of all of the caskets, before something blonde attracted his attention. Putting on his most charming smile, he walked over to the young woman. “Ms. Chaikovskaya. Nice place of work you have here…” He chuckled softly, brow arched. “How are you?”

"Good evening Mr. al-Busuri," Alla said in awe, "I'm delighted you could spare the time to meet me." She noticed his amusement but didn't quite know where to place it. For her this funeral parlour was the first working place at which she stayed for more than a few weeks. She had worked as a waitress in the past but dealing with living people didn't always work well for the young Russian. She was much more better at dealing with lifeless bodies. Besides the funeral parlour was always quite nicely decorated with cut flowers, giving the whole place a rather morbid charm that made her feel almost at home.

"I'm good. It has been a challenging day but I think I dealt well with it all. How are you?" She smiled and looked at the man in front of her. While she had seen him before, she didn't yet know every detail of his features and she liked to take a proper look at people she wanted to know better. His eyes intrigued her and she quite liked his long hair that, even though tied into a ponytail, gave him a slightly wild look. However, Alla was not meeting with the older wizard because she found him attractive. Knowing that he was skilled at necromancy, Alla was eager to learn from him. Studying books and making experiments was all good but talking to an experienced necromancer was worth a lot more as she knew from her time at Durmstrang when she had studied with Anton Petrovych Knyazyev.

Still wondering whether she should offer him a tea or something at the parlour or ask him if he wanted to go to the restaurant, Alla bit her lower lip thoughtfully. She would also have liked to ask Mr. al-Busuri if he could show her how to animate a corpse properly as that was a task she struggled with. Keeping Burmin animated was nothing in comparison to that. The girl felt rather certain that she was doing something wrong as it exhausted her way more than she deemed normal. However, the Russian was aware that she was risking her job if she made this kind of experiment at her work place no matter how inviting this prospect might seem. Frowning at the thought of that, Alla decided to go for a meal and a conversation instead.

"How do you feel about walking over to the restaurant? It's just around the corner and it's pretty good. I suppose you like Russian food?" Only now the girl realised that it was not given that everybody liked it. Anyway, he had agreed to meet her when she had invited him to the restaurant. They had only met at the parlour now because she had been running late. He just had to like it. Nonetheless, the girl looked a little insecure after having asked this question.