Despite Clayton prompting her to speak, Lara did not answer. He found this weird, he was weirded out, even, which was ironic, because him being the mass murderer and all, the last thing he should experience was to be weirded out by a short, cute, bald, twenty-five year old woman.
He held an indefinite advantage over the two people who chose to follow him, that was certain, and yet, he was still weirded out.
Lara looked at the ground, initially, and when he spoke to her, she simply looked up, staring at him blankly, not even keeping eye contact. She stood like that for a solid half-a-minute, without uttering a single word, and at this point, Clayton was questioning if she was alright up there in the noggin.
However, he didn't want to offend someone who had joined him in the Path of Doom, and shared similar motives as him, so he tried to talk to her again.
"It's alright if you don't want to talk. I remember my first month here, I barely said two words. If you lost someone recently, then I'm truly sorry, Lara." He said, "But I don't think I ever heard you talk, so if you're a mute, you have to let me know. A simple nod will suffice."
Clayton believed that he approached the situation well. He was soft, he was kind, and yet Lara did not cooperate. The lack of talking aside, she didn't even move a muscle, as if she was frozen in place, frozen in time.
At this point, he didn't even know what to do, and so, he decided to avoid her all together for a while. He wanted to give her space, but other than that, he did not plan on abandoning her.
'Even if she's useless, I'll make sure she rights any wrongs she suffered. I'll help her get revenge.' He thought, 'As soon as she tells me who to kill, that is.'
Clayton averted his gaze, and took a few steps back, as he had some work to do. Work that included his undead slaves.
However, as he turned around, he was taken aback when he saw Lara pop up in front of him! She didn't appear out of thin air, but somehow, he had this feeling that she had been behind him all this time!
Clayton then turned around once more, and saw Lara again, in that same, original spot where he had bargained with her, where he had tried to get her to talk just a moment ago.
Shocked, he backed a few feet away, and tried to figure out if he had actually lost his nut. He felt fine, initially, but after that massive bloodbath that he bathed in today, he wouldn't be surprised if he actually went insane!
As he backed away, he saw that there were two of them, two bald little ladies, identical to one another. This didn't make much sense to him, and so he started to be convinced that he did actually go insane.
Clayton looked at Rufus, saw that he was unfazed, and so, he asked him, "Rufus, you see Lara, right? Tell me I haven't been imagining her for two whole months."
He felt ashamed to ask this question, especially since he tried his best to avoid being seen as a deranged man, but he had to clear the air. It didn't help his case once he recalled that Rufus did not say a word while he had been talking to Lara. He was wondering if he had been quiet out of respect alone, too kind, or perhaps too scared to point out that there was nobody else around.
"Who's Lara?" Rufus asked.
Just like that, Clayton believed that he did actually go insane. Seeing people that weren't there, usually had simple explanations. Insanity would be one explanation, according to this world's standards, and seeing ghosts would be the other.
Clayton had seen ghosts before, when he was a kid. He saw more of them than he liked to admit, but in this case, he was experienced enough to know what ghosts looked like. They didn't look human, but Lara did.
A moment later, Rufus broke out laughing. His laugh was truly like that of a madman's, so Clayton even started questioning if he had crashed out somewhere, and was having a horrible dream! Things were getting too weird for his comfort.
"I'm just yanking your rope, sir," Rufus said, "You're not crazy, don't worry, Lara just likes to mess with people."
"Oh…" He grunted, and held his head, his heart beating so fast that he felt it was going to pop out of his chest. "Why would you do this to me? It's not funny."
"My apologies," Lara spoke, or, she did technically speak.
Her voice was sharp and direct, which at this point was unfitting with her shy demeanor so far, but that wasn't the weirdest part.
The weirdest part was that neither of the two people who were supposed to be Lara, moved their lips. They remained as still as statues!
A moment later, he felt someone touching his shoulder from behind him. A woman walked forward, as short, and as bald as the two other women in front of him.
She then faced him, and said, "I had to take a short trip in the woods, to… nevermind. But I did hear everything you guys said."
This time around, Clayton was the quiet one. He had a hard time keeping up with what was going on.
Lara enjoyed the hint of bewilderment on his face. It was a whole canvas of confusion, rather than a hint, but she enjoyed it, and felt that she had introduced herself properly, without even intending to.
"I'm an Illusionist," She said, "I'm sure you have never heard of that branch before. I'd say there are only a few Illusionists across the whole Kingdom, but I'm one of them."
At last, Clayton spoke, and asked, "I do understand what illusion means, I just didn't know it could belong to a branch of magic… I have to admit, your abilities can be useful if we implement them properly, but… tell me more. Are there other charms to your abilities, or is making clones of yourself the best you can do?"