"Your name?" 

 "My name no longer matters, monsieur. I am no one." 

 The stranger's gaze, icy blue and piercing, swept over me with thinly veiled irritation as I lay broken at his feet. His eyes roamed my body, and shame washed over me. My tattered appearance, sooty skin, and bloodshot eyes were stark contrasts to his polished exterior. 

 "Everyone is someone," he muttered, extending a hand. "I just saved your life. Don't I deserve something in return?" 

 "I have nothing!" 

 "Everyone has something," he chuckled dryly. "I ask for very little." 

 "What do you want?!" His strong arms pulled me up, and suddenly I was in his embrace. Something about the man made me shiver. He was different. But I'd be a fool to refuse the hand he offered. Why he had taken pity on me was a mystery for another time. For now, all I needed was to leave behind the cruel scene from which he'd saved me. The pyre was extinguished. My judge and executioner lay dead on the ground. It had all happened so quickly, and my shaken mind struggled to piece together the sequence of events. 

Not long ago, I had been accused of devil worship, and today was the day I was to burn at the stake. Yet here I was, walking on unsteady legs beside a gentleman whose clothes screamed of wealth and luxury.

Suddenly, his warm coat rested over my shoulders, and my bare feet nearly floated above the frostbitten grass as he helped me along. "Tell me about yourself," he commanded. 

 "W-what do you want to know?" 

 "Your name." 

 "Lumiere Bethuné." 

 "See, that wasn't so hard," he chuckled, tightening his grip around my waist. "Well met, Lumiere. My name is Anthony Du Sallient. I was passing through when I came across the spectacle the bishop had arranged." 

 "The spectacle?" 

 He raised a well-shaped brow and glanced down at me, a sly smile tugging at his lips. "Are you implying you were guilty?" 

 "No!" 

 "You rarely are," he sighed, throwing an irritated glance over his shoulder. "If you'd served the devil, I'd know. Believe me." His words made me freeze. My eyes swept over his form and rested on his face. Clean-shaven, his dark hair immaculate, and he smelled as if he'd just bathed in rose petals. Yet there was something in his gaze that froze the blood in my veins. 

 "How?" I whispered, and he responded with a sly smile. 

 "In due time, Lumiere. You owe me a debt."

"The year was 1456. The town I grew up in was small, yet large enough for me to remain unrecognizable in its streets. I liked it there, but it didn't take long for my father to cast me out. 'It is a great honor to serve God.' Those were his words, not mine. God and I never had a particularly good relationship. He never answered, and I often wondered if he even listened. The monastery was cold at night. Its stone walls always left me with unease and anxiety, though God's house was meant to be peaceful and warm. Perhaps the fault lay with me? If you asked my father, that would be his answer. One could question why a foot that didn't look like others' feet was such a devastating blow to my mother and father. To first rejoice at the birth of their only son, only to despair at discovering the devil's mark—it was too much for them. They said the shock killed my mother, but in truth, it was blood loss. I didn't understand this until I was much older."

"Idiots," Anthony scoffed, seated across from me at the small table in the tavern. His thick cloak still draped over my shoulders, warming me and shielding me from prying eyes. 

 "When I was ten, my father sent me to the monastery. I scrubbed floors and served the priests by day and read books by night." A bowl of hot soup and a slice of freshly baked bread were set before me. I dared not assume they were for me, yet again, Anthony surprised me. He pushed the bowl toward me, and I devoured the meal before continuing my story. 

 "My foot was a blessing, in a way. No one cared about a limping boy scrubbing floors. I ventured into rooms no one else visited. I found books no one else read, and I learned more than the other boys." 

 "And what did those books teach you?" 

 "Astronomy, philosophy, and history." 

 "Let me guess," he chuckled, sipping his wine. "You began questioning the world, your faith, and the men around you." 

 I nodded. "Knowledge was a drug. The more I learned, the more I wanted to understand."

 "And you started asking questions?" 

 "Eventually, as I grew older." Anthony leaned forward, lowering his voice and locking eyes with me. The lively tavern paid us no heed, but I still felt incredibly uneasy. 

 "And what answers did you receive?" 

 "That God's word is law and no man should question Him. That the devil was tempting me, just as he tempted Adam and Eve." 

 "Nonsense," Anthony laughed, leaning back in his chair. "The serpent in Eden gave you the knowledge to understand the world—a knowledge your God feared. You ceased being puppets and seized control of your lives." 

 His words sent a chill through me. Something told me he was right, yet I didn't fully grasp his meaning. Was he suggesting he wasn't one of us? That he wasn't human? "Not quite, but close," he chuckled, and my heart stopped. He had read my thoughts.  "Would you like to know how?" he asked, his smile turning grim. 

His voice carried a weight that seemed to still the air around us. I hesitated, my gaze fixed on his face. There was a sharpness in his features, an agelessness that made him seem both ancient and eternal. My throat tightened as I considered his words, the offer dangling before me like forbidden fruit. 

 "I could give you a new life," he continued, his tone softening but no less intense. "A body free of pain, whole and unbroken. Unlimited time to study, to learn, to teach—all that you crave and more." 

 My breath hitched. The thought was intoxicating, dangerous. For someone like me, who had been denied so much, the promise of freedom from the limitations of my body and time itself was almost too much to resist. But the unease in my chest warned me that such gifts never came without a cost. 

 "What would you want in return?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. 

 His grim smile widened, revealing teeth that were too perfect to belong to a mortal man. "Your loyalty, Lumiere. Your service. And your willingness to step beyond the boundaries of the world you know." T

he room felt colder, though the fire still roared in the hearth behind us. I swallowed hard, a shiver running down my spine. The words he spoke sounded simple enough, yet I knew they held a meaning far more profound, and perhaps more damning, than I could grasp in that moment. "What would I become?" I dared to ask. 

 He leaned closer, his eyes blazing with an unnatural light. "Something more. Something eternal." 

 I should have run then, turned my back on him and the dark path he was laying before me. But I didn't. Instead, I stayed, trapped by his gaze and the seductive allure of the impossible.

A/N - And that is the story of how Lumiere met Anthony! I hope you like it :) Thank you so much for 90k! ❤️ For all the comments and the votes! I wrote this story a long time ago, and I know there's som editing I need to do, my English wasn't great back then ;) The reason I haven't is because I've updated the story and changed the plot quite a bit, so I'm thinking about republishing the whole thing.