Of course. Here is the revised text with the requested name changes:
***
After they finished eating, they sat in a heavy silence, trying to digest more than just food. Their breaths synchronized with the rustle of tree leaves, and the fire between them crumbled like a dying ember. **Arion** looked at Evelyn with scrutinizing eyes, his fingers tapping gently on his thigh as if playing a tune of tension.
"You know this isn't fair?" he said suddenly, shattering the quiet that was like a thin membrane. "You keep asking me about my secrets, my past, my ghosts... while you are like a sealed tomb."
Evelyn slowly raised her eyebrows, then her lips curved into a mysterious smile that glittered in her eyes before reaching her mouth. "So... do you want a deal?"
"What kind of deal?" he asked, raising his left eyebrow, his tone carrying a hint of defiance.
"I cannot share all my secrets with you... not now." She paused, her hand playing with the edge of her scarf. "But I will share what I can. And in return..." A deep look pierced his eyes, "...you will tell me the story of Jacob. The real story."
**Arion** frowned slightly, his eyes wandering over her face as if searching for a trick hidden in the folds of her expression. Finally, he nodded his head in agreement, a slow movement carrying the weight of the decision.
"Alright... let's do this."
Evelyn took a deep breath that filled her lungs, and her eyes moved away from his face to stare at the stars reflected on the lake's surface, as if searching for answers in their glow.
"I still remember our house..." she began in a quiet voice laden with painful nostalgia. "It had stained-glass windows that shimmered when the sun rose, turning the floor into a rainbow carpet." Her hands trembled slightly. "And my father... he was an upright man, who loved knowledge more than anything."
She smiled as she remembered, her fingers tracing circles in the air. "I always accompanied him to the library. Oh my God, how I loved those books! The smell of old paper filled the place, and my father would read me stories in a voice as quiet as music."
Then her tone changed, her voice softening as if hiding an old pain. "And I used to play with my twin brother... we were never apart. It was as if we were one soul in two bodies."
Her hands pressed down on her knees. "And we had many guests... they came constantly, smiling and laughing. And my family welcomed them all, sharing everything we had."
Her voice became bitter as gall. "And the irony... my family never stinted on sharing our treasure with them. We shared everything with them."
"But they still... conspired against us." Her voice trembled slightly, her eyes refusing to meet his gaze. "To steal that treasure."
"They stormed the place on a rainy night..." Her hands clenched each other until her knuckles turned white. "They burned the green plains where we used to play. They destroyed the library my father loved... and killed my family."
She stopped, her eyes glistening with tears she fought to hold back. Her head bowed forward, her blonde hair falling like a curtain behind which she hid.
"But... not all of my father's friends were traitors. One of them... was a true friend. He discovered the plot of the others shortly before it was executed."
"There was no hope of stopping them... so he devised a plan with my father to save me and my brother."
"But my brother... had discovered a secret our father had hidden from us. A secret I didn't know about then."
She leaned forward, her voice becoming a whisper charged with fate.
"Those born under the Blood Moon... are either harbingers of ruin, or of change."
"So my brother decided to sacrifice himself... to lay the foundation stone for the restoration of our family. He chose to be a harbinger of change."
"But we are twins... we complete each other. He alone will never be enough."
"So... I was saved. And my family died. And my brother sacrificed himself. And I... am still waiting for the right time to return to my home, and finish what my brother started."
"To restore that beautiful family that once loved me... or at least what can be restored of it."
She looked at him, her eyes bearing an unbearable weight. "So I grew up among the murderers of my family... under their noses. And I watched them shamelessly boasting of my family's treasure... which they can't even use properly."
**Arion** sat silently, only his fingers still tapping a light rhythm on his knee. Evelyn's eyes glistened with suppressed tears, but he did not attempt to comfort her. Instead, he kept looking deeply into her eyes, thinking, feeling, his eyes moving between the features of her face as if reading an unknown map.
'I already told her my senses are special... but she doesn't know just how special they truly are,' he thought
From **Arion's** perspective, he saw radiant colors in the air around her - golden threads of energy intertwined with shining silver, weaving around her an aura of faint light. He felt every breath of air that touched her skin, every movement in the surroundings. He saw the energy and sensed it... the mana... and something else much purer, like a pure cosmic pulse.
And part of the energy he saw... was the enchantment Evelyn had cast over her face. It was clear now - a complex web of energy behind which her real ears were hidden, glowing with a pale silver color.
"Now the picture is clear..."
Her destroyed family... the stolen treasure... her hiding her true form... the Lake of the Weeping Moon... the destruction of the Elves thirteen years ago... and that dance.
"But how can she rebuild that family, as she called it? I don't understand this yet."
Moreover...
**Arion** suddenly smiled, a smile containing both empathy and bitter sarcasm, like someone finding black humor in their inevitable fate.
"So... you were also born under the Blood Moon, how did you say it again? Those born under the Blood Moon... are either harbingers of ruin, or of change. Seems fitting enough," he said in a quiet voice carrying a deep understanding of pain. "Given our lives... it seems we chose the wrong day to be born."
Evelyn looked at him, stunned, her eyes widening and her mouth falling open slightly. Then a small smile began to form on her lips, a smile carrying irony, bitterness, and relief all at once. It was the first time someone had mentioned their shared fate with her in this way.
"...so you too..." she whispered in a voice barely audible.
"Yes..." whispered Evelyn, her eyes glistening with a glimmer of hope for the first time in years. "It seems the Blood Moon has brought us together."
***
After Evelyn's story ended, a heavy silence prevailed for three heartbeats, enough to calm the emotional storm her confessions had stirred. Evelyn tried to break the icy barrier that had formed in the air. She gently pulled her scarf as if drawing a curtain on a chapter of her past.
"Well..." she said, trying to hide the tremor in her voice, her fingers playing with the edge of the scarf, damp with suppressed tears. "I believe it's your turn now. Jacob's story awaits."
**Arion** slowly stretched out on the ground, his back touching the cool earth as if seeking a coolness to soothe the fire of his memory. His eyes never left the ghost standing in the darkness. His fingers dug small grooves in the damp mound under the pressure of tension.
He sighed deeply, the sound emerging like a stone dropping into a forgotten well. "Alright... then." He closed his eyes for a moment, his eyelids fluttering as if gathering courage to dive into the depths of memory.
***
A few days before **Arion** met Evelyn at the lake...
In the capital of the Kingdom of Cadianth, inside the majestic royal palace, the atmosphere was charged with history and ancient conflicts. The sound of Marcus's footsteps echoed in the vast hall, where columns of black marble shone under the flickering glow of torches. The smell of burning wax and old gunpowder filled the cold air. Shadows danced on the walls carved with ancient symbols, like ghosts lurking in the corners.
The giant throne was carved from intertwined dragon bones, gleaming under the faint light as if breathing. Seated upon it was Alister - the Vampire Prince. His red eyes glowed in the darkness like two embers, his pupils dilating slightly upon seeing Marcus. His head was resting on his palm, his fingers pressing against his temple as if preventing violent thoughts from exploding. In his other hand, he held a crystal goblet filled with a crimson liquid that undulated like magma under the faint light.
"I see training the boy has taken its toll on you," said Alister in a hoarse voice, his lips barely moving. His eyes studied Marcus's bent form. "Who would have thought Marcus the Barbarian would look like this after eight years?"
Marcus laughed a raspy laugh that echoed in the empty hall, mingling with the sound of tired coughing. Despite appearing as an exhausted old man, bent like a broken branch, his voice retained that barbaric thunder he was known for. His legs trembled slightly as he stood, but his voice was steady as stone. "I haven't seen you in exactly sixteen years, and the first thing you do is try to anger me. You're truly looking for a fight."
Alister slowly raised his head, his neck cracking from the slowness. His red eyes lit up frighteningly. "A fight? Am I the one who came looking for a fight sixteen years ago?" He stood suddenly, his black robe flowing like liquid darkness. The goblet in his hand shook, the crimson liquid nearly spilling. "If not for Sophia's intervention, the continent would have been destroyed that time!"
"Hahahahaha!" Marcus burst out laughing, but his laugh was dry and devoid of joy, like a crow's caw. "Don't pretend you care about this continent, Alister. We both know you'd be happiest to see it turn to ash."
Alister turned his back, his shoulders stiffening under his robe. His hand clenched the goblet until his knuckles turned white as bone.
"Anyway, I still don't understand why the great Alister... Vampire Prince, the noble with the purest blood among his kind... has reached this state of helplessness."
Suddenly, the atmosphere grew darker. The torches glowed with a deadly, red hue, as if they were bleeding light. "Don't provoke me further, Marcus." Alister's voice became like the hiss of a snake ready to strike, the syllables of his words dangling like poisons. "You know they caused Seraphine's death. And you know I won't let any of them live."
"Those ungrateful fools!" whispered Alister in a muffled voice carrying all the pains of centuries, "After I gave them everything they possess! I left my kind, split the continent to give them half of it, turned their backward tribes into kingdoms, and made them kings. I transformed them from a light snack into people and sat with them at the same table... I gave them security for hundreds of years... and what I reaped was the death of the only person I cared about!"
Marcus smiled a savage smile, his teeth gleaming in the darkness. " Alister... don't pretend your kind had no hand in this."
"Hahahahaha!" Alister laughed a mad laugh that filled the hall, intertwining with the sound of thunder outside the palace. "Do you think I would forgive them just because their king is my father?! That son of a bitch will be the first to die among them!" He gestured with his hand in a wild movement, his shadow on the wall elongating like a monster. "Neither humans nor vampires deserve to live! And you know why I haven't taken revenge yet!"
A heavy silence fell. Marcus's shadow became much deeper and extended to the end of the hall, reflecting a hidden power that was not shown before. "Do you want to try and take revenge now?" he said with dangerous calm, "Don't think I can't stop you."
"You battle seeking manic, anyway..." Alister broke the silence, returning to his throne with broken dignity, his movement as if carrying an invisible shield. "Why are you here? Has the boy's training ended?"
"Not only ended..." said Marcus, his voice carrying a strange tone of admiration mixed with fear. His hand pressed on his cane until it nearly broke. "But he has exceeded my expectations by far. He is simply terrifying. I still wonder how he will become after completing the 'Book's Cover'. He possesses limitless potential."
Alister's eyebrows rose for the first time, the wrinkles on his forehead deepening. "Oh... this is the first time I've seen Marcus impressed by one of his students."
"Don't try to pretend otherwise, Alister," said Marcus in a warning tone, his cane drawing a circle on the ground. "I see you're proud of him."
Alister smiled a strained smile, his teeth gleaming like snow under the moon. "Anyway, would you mind telling me about that incident you wrote to me about previously? About that boy who was called Jacob."
"So the great Alister still cares." Marcus sneered, his head tilting slightly. "If you were interested, why did you never agree to see him? Anyway, that's none of my business."
He took a step forward, his feet dragging memories on the ground. His eyes met Alister's in challenge. "The boy is broken... and that's the least that can be said about him. He pretends to feel other emotions so as not to worry those around him, but he doesn't know how to feel them or what emotions even are. He is a monster who only knows sadness, pain, anger... and regret. A largely rational monster, but a monster nonetheless."
"What an assessment from someone like you!" Alister laughed a muffled laugh, mingled with ancient bitterness. "But let me take care of this. This is how our kind grows, Marcus."
Marcus nodded his head, his neck cracking as he pretended to be tired. Then he added in a serious tone: "And now... let me tell you the story of Jacob ."
Alister closed his eyes, his eyelids fluttering as if trying to expel images of the past. The torches in the hall dimmed, darkness creeping from the corners like a tide of night. The sound of his breathing became suddenly audible, like wind passing through an ancient cave.
And outside, the rain began to fall, its drops hitting the windows like the beats of a mournful bell. The hall was prepared to receive the tragic story about to be told, and the silence became as heavy as a shroud.
And at the Lake of the Weeping Moon, Arion was also preparing to tell his story...