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Chapter Ten
The Catalyst
Chapter Ten
The Immortal’s voice was light but soft and after the disturbing shock I had, I found that I was stepping back into him for protection and comfort.
As I did, however, I was abruptly swept off the ground and into his arms; just as Caleb had done to me earlier.
“Why do people keep picking me up!?” My shout was stronger this time, though the pain still hurt just as much. “Do I look like I need to be carried!?”
“Yes.”
I stopped short, and then frowned in annoyance.
“Well …I don’t. I’m fine.” I began to squirm a bit in his hold. “Put me down!”
“No.”
I thrashed slightly until the intense pain of my injuries caused me to discontinue my efforts towards freedom. Once I calmed down he then relaxed some of his grip, which made it a bit more comfortable.
“Why did you come for me anyway? Did Caleb talk to you?”
He grimaced at the mention of Caleb, but nodded in reply.
“So you know what happened?”
He mutely nodded again.
“Would you stop being so monosyllabic and uncaring!” His pace stopped and he looked down at me with mild confusion as I hoarsely shouted. “I died! I was dead, gone, vanished completely from this and every world for nearly two hours!”
After I finished my outburst, I glanced up to find the Immortal angrily staring down at me, like a terrifying statue.
“What?” My reply was timid.
He suddenly looked out into the trees, “Orion!”
My head was getting fuzzy; everything was becoming more and more baffling as the day slipped into night.
Orion stubbornly pushed through the trees not long after being called and seemed to roll his eyes when he saw me.
“Orion, take Jade back to camp.”
I attempted to protest this transfer but as I opened my mouth to speak, the Immortal effortlessly lifted me onto Orion’s back. As I sat sluggishly, I idly scratched my wrist and laid half-way down.
Once he turned from me, I caught a quick moment of tension between him and Orion; the Immortal was placing a heavy glare on him. However when he left, Orion snorted towards his departure; neither seemed overly pleased right at the moment.
I ruffled his surprisingly soft mane, to show my irritation at him and his gesture. He simply shifted his blue eye to me and snickered.
When we headed through the forest, back to camp, I found myself having to lie down along his back and neck since he clearly took no notice to avoid low hanging branches.
I released a sore and heavy sigh against him, blowing pieces of his shining hair.
“Orion, could you slow down a little more? My chest is throbbing from all the movement.”
To my surprise, he complied and lowered his pace. While peacefully riding I began to droop my eyes, eventually I shut them completely. His stride became a gentle rhythm to me, so I started to pet along his neck and shoulder in reply to it.
I heard him bluster at the contact but I was tired and sore and didn’t care right now. Soon he stopped protesting altogether and let me continue stroking his white coat.
I hadn’t noticed until I slid from his high back to the ground, but a pretty humming voice had been coming from my body. Just before I laid onto several strewn blankets, Orion nudged my head with his nose. I looked at his large blue eyes and he then bumped at my forehead, leaving his exhaling nostrils pressed onto my skin.
I quirked my brow, “what?”
He smacked against me again, beginning a bizarre attempt at humming. It was definitely the strangest sound I had ever heard, especially from a horse.
“You want me to keep humming?”
He snorted into my face and nodded.
I rubbed my hand against his long muzzle and I dropped down onto the warm bedding. I was just so exhausted all of the sudden. Furiously I scratched my wrist again before starting to lightly hum the same tune I had been before. A simple lullaby my grandmother had sung to me years ago.
Whisper softly my angel’s lips
Take my hand and soar
Protect my dreams and watch over me
Be there when I slip too far
Guardian with me still
Night’s wings shelter here
And forever I’ll love you my darling
Till dawn’s break into day
I barely managed a second loop before I wholly succumbed to the comfort of sleep.
A sudden jerk pulled my awake and through watery, blurry eyes I saw the fire low and dancing and on the other side sat the Immortal; his eyes appeared closed. I quickly ran my nails along my wrist as I moved to a sitting position.
Orion was quietly standing and sleeping not too far from where I was; his blue eyes were shut and light exhales blew against his long deep auburn mane.
I was so hot; but every breeze that passed across my skin caused me to shiver violently, disturbing my wounded chest and side. I gripped my torso then scratched my wrist again, though more forceful this time.
I clumsily stood up, nearly toppling over two or three times.
The world was spinning in my view; the trees seemed to be changing places over and over...dancing around me in strange patterns. I tripped and caught myself on a tree that abruptly stopped just to catch my fall.
“Nice tree…….thank you….”
I pushed off from the bark and it went back to its swirling, leaving slight dust clouds in front of me.
The back of my hand swept across my forehead and cold beads of sweat stung my against my skin. To keep warm, despite the fire I felt in my stomach, I wrapped my arms around myself; my hands tucked deep into the long sleeves. Afterward, I quickly rubbed my forearm against the fabric of the coat, the skin was beginning to sting and felt raw with each itch that I tried to satisfy.
The area cleared itself of trees as they flew away together and beams of light splattered onto the ground. Young, excited giggling came from a female shadow that ran around me.
“Daela, Daela let’s play hide and seek!” My voice was child-like and as I spun around to chase her I saw my shorter locks of hair swish past my smiling face. Bare feet ran through growing green grasses that glittered in the brightening sun.
“Jade, I want to tell you a something special.” She cuddled beside me while we hid up in our favorite tree.
I leaned closer to her quiet voice.
“I have a secret treasure. No one knows about it, so you can’t tell anyone! Especially grandmother!”
I nodded and crossed my heart.
She slipped a soft box from her pocket; a peculiar design decorated the cover. Before I really got a chance to study it closely she popped open the top and a shining straight diamond glowed from inside. I reached my hand out to touch the piece of jewelry but she immediately closed the lid.
“Hey—“
“Shhhhhh….” She held her finger to her mouth.
“Jade! Daela! Get inside, it’s time for dinner!”
“Come on Jade, we’ll play later.” She took my smaller hand and pulled me away.
Suddenly I lost her grip and she kept moving further and further from me. She turned and smiled happily at me before fading from view, her pretty curly black hair cradling her face.
“Daela….” I whispered.
The trees stopped moving and the ground changed back to dirt and grass patches. I felt like I was lit on fire, melting inside my clothes.
In the dark blackness I slipped off a cliff that came up from nowhere and fell, fell, fell……stopping with a strange thud. While I laid there, the empty nothingness swallowed me whole.
When I awoke, black hair and eyes on pale, flawless skin hovered over me; his hand on my forehead. I blinked away some of the haze that still plagued my vision, alerting the Immortal that I had woken up.
I lifted my arm to scratch at my wrist but the Immortal grabbed at it and stopped me, revealing a bandage covering me from palm to elbow. The white, clean wrappings caught my attention because just at my wrist a brownish red stain was making a spreading pattern in the fibers.
I took a deep breath and my chest only ached a bit, though my side was somewhat stronger in intensity. I was surprised by the lack of writhing pain however and probed at my bruises. It was tender and in a few places sharp and more severe, but all in all I felt…better.
“I’m healed?”
The Immortal finally acknowledged that I had become conscious again and moved my hand away from the wound. “Mostly, though it was much harder with that poison spreading through your system.”
I furrowed my brow and then brought up my once irritated wrist, seeing the bloody bandages again. “What happened?”
He scoffed, his face marred with anger and cynicism. “I’m sure Caleb can elaborate far better than I could!”
I was a little surprised at his flare-up.
I lifted my torso towards him, ignoring the scream that my body gave, and placed my calm, bandaged hand on his fidgeting ones.
“Immortal…are you alright?”
He stopped making his agitating gestures and softened his face.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
He then pushed me back onto what felt like the blankets I had been on before, only more comfortable. I was reluctant to lie back down now that I had gotten up, but I went. When I took a moment to look around I noticed the scenery had changed completely, the trees were a little thinner and much less green and the ground was almost completely barren of any other plant except the few sparse roots from the trees.
“Immortal, where are we?”
I tried to sit back up but he pushed me right down.
“Jade, you have been asleep for five days. Nearly the entire journey is over.”
“WHAT!?” I shot straight up and my dirty hair flung up with me.
“Well, yes, when I found you a few feet away from the campsite five days ago, you were almost completely gone. Your arm was throbbing and deeply bruised with bright colored veins protruding, except for an oozing, bloody slit at your wrist which was surrounded by a patch of normal colored skin. I have been healing you as best as I could since, and Orion has been carrying you.”
I looked over to him and he snorted, turning his face away from me. He was just close enough that I barely managed to brush my fingers against his leg; my best attempt at a thank you.
“So… I was poisoned somehow and now the journey is almost over, yet you also healed up some of my ribs?” I was having a hard time following everything.
“Not much, some of that was Caleb’s doing before I found you…it just had not yet taken hold. Though I took away some of the pain; you would sometimes scream in your sleep.”
“I did?”
“Yes, though actually you hum a lot.”
“I hum? How long has this been going on!?”
“I hadn’t noticed you doing it before; perhaps you were dreaming something specific.”
I tried to recall a dream but the only thing I remembered was the old, forgotten memory of Daela and I years ago, back when we still lived in Maine. “When was it that I remembered this?” I mouthed the words to myself. But, regardless, I didn’t recall any song from that? Out of some habit, I shook my head.
“No, I don’t think I dreamed.” I was looking sadly down at my hands, I couldn’t really describe the feeling but something just felt sad when I tried to recall anything.
“Don’t dwell on it too much.” He stood. “Come on, we need to be heading out. We should reach town by this evening.”
“What?! So fast?”
“Yes, we need to get there before sundown.”
I crawled sluggishly from the bedding and used a tree to help me stand up. “Why sundown?” I mumbled half-heartedly as I brushed the dirt from my clothes and cloak.
“People rarely ever come from these woods. The only creatures known to live here are the remaining Immortals and several mystical forest dwellers that can’t always be trusted, and for good reason…” he began wrapping up all the blankets I had been spread out on. “Although I suppose there is the occasional traveler who unknowingly stumbles in from an area that is not blocked off.” He shrugged lightly with the bundles on his shoulders, “besides, if we just came out at night, it would cause a terrible panic. Our presence will already be unsettling.” He easily tied the packs onto Orion like an expert, which he most likely became in all the time I had been asleep.
I smacked my forehead for that.
Hands suddenly grasped my waist and then I was hoisted up and settled gently onto Orion’s back. I had blushed a little from the unexpected contact. I wasn’t even sure why, blushing was not something I did too often.
“Let’s go, tonight should be the War Memorial Festival, people are going to be everywhere and we need to be there at a good time to slip in quietly.”
“War Memorial Festival...I never heard of that from grandmother...” I covered my mouth… and I had been doing so well with not speaking out loud.
The Immortal and Orion chuckled softly at me; this was already turning out to be the beginning of a very long day.
Chapter Nine
The Catalyst
Chapter Nine
Silence. Nothing but silence; I felt nothing, saw nothing, heard, smelled, tasted, breathed, moved nothing…
The world seemed to have been sucked away from me.
For a few brief moments I felt life tingle into my fingers and in those small instances it was as if a vacuum was pulling on my body in every direction. At least it seemed like my body. I couldn’t really tell.
Sudden pulsing, flaming sensations began feeling their way across every awakening appendage and then abruptly a strong convulsion shot through me. At that moment I noticed my full self, like I were looking down on my own body and saw every vein, organ, and breath that formed who I was. But afterward it was as though I fell away, back into a blackness where I began to simply fade from existence.
Yet another convulsion jumped through me and I saw more, felt more of who I was. Except this time I could see my face; I looked almost sad and a little afraid…also for some reason, wet?
A stronger, exceptionally startling and painful convulsion hit me again. My chest and throat began stinging, like sharp knives running along the walls and in my side an aching, tight knot began to form, growing with each diminishing second that passed.
Once more I jolted before I noticed a familiar rhythm trying to calm my body, though the sharp knot at my side continued to grow in intensity.
The darkness that had pulled at me fell across my eyes again. But instead of feeling its nothingness, I felt contained with several individual beats moving around inside my increasingly warm shell.
Gradually though everything began to quiet down, eventually all that stayed was a calm thumping and slightly ragged, agonizing breaths. Breaths? Air? …Lungs? I was taking small gasps and the more I dwelled, the sooner I noticed the tingling again, this time all over my body.
Body…I was in my body and breathing.
A warm waft of air abruptly swept across the right side of my face, curling against my ear. It was almost like a trigger went off in my brain and suddenly a swift rush of air passed through my mouth and seemed to run its claws along my raw throat as it continued on to unbearably bundle and whirl in my chest.
The additional fire added to the aches I already endured caused my eyes to rip open and abruptly floods that once clenched my gut now came pouring out. I heaved the water from my lungs, coughing sharply.
A cool breeze made me shiver; I saw sandy, wet dirt through blurry eyes covering the ground I leaned on. I ran the back of my hand across my tear covered face and sat up as best as I could to sit back on the sand.
As I looked directly ahead I found deep violet eyes staring back at me. For one moment I felt as though a stranger were before me, the emotion that was held there seemed so foreign. Until a crude smirk replaced it and I could see Caleb kneeling above me. Almost like a bizarre frontal hovering.
He then pulled back and stood up straight, moving to grab a long thick coat that draped across a rock not far from where I sat. Caleb leaned down and handed me what I presumed was his coat but he was gentler than I would have expected.
The fabric was heavy and as I took hold of it I found that I could feel the smooth, worn cloth against my shivering skin, all my skin.
My face flamed.
Though my memories were terribly fuzzy, I was realizing that I was entirely naked.
Caleb smirked again at my embarrassed expression but gentlemanly turned his back to me, so I took the hint and swiftly pulled on the thick jacket, wrapping it around my body as tightly as possible.
“What happened!?”
I had expected my voice to be loud and angry, but instead that fierce noise was a rasping whisper, which forcefully racked against my body. I grasped at my throat and more aches began creeping their way back to me.
A throbbing pain was now eating away at my side; I fell back to the sandy ground and landed on my opposite side while losing grip on the coat that surrounded me.
I reflexively tried to hold my upper torso, but I found that only hurt even more. Trying as best as I could to keep decent, I moved the fabric back to view where my soreness was coming from.
A large black, purple, and even red colored bruise spread over my entire ribcage and sternum. I looked like a truck ran me down or a tree fell on me.
“You moron…you broke my ribs, didn’t you!?”
I awkwardly turned my face up to Caleb while exceptionally gently probing my injured chest.
“I did.”
I glared at him, though it surely appeared more as a pathetic, crippled idiot lying naked in the sand with a poor excuse for any form of expression dancing across my face. Slowly, I released an indignant and wounded sigh.
Caleb looked down at me like I was stupid. Which, in this instance, I wasn’t entirely sure I could deny.
“Jade.” His voice was low and soft.
He very gently came over and moved me to sit up against another large boulder; he even tightened the jacket I quite loosely wore.
I bit my lip hard as I continued to shiver, partially from the cold and still being somewhat wet but also the throbbing pain wracking my body. I had just about gotten situated in my sand cushioned seat, when Caleb abruptly sat beside me. He slid his arms beneath my legs and across my back and then swiftly pulled me in the cradle of his lap.
My eyes were open wide; I parted my lips to speak and then stopped. When my brain finally caught up to my mouth, I tried to speak again but Caleb slipped a warm finger onto my lips.
“It’s just to keep you warm; your body temperature is severely low.”
I blinked noticeably several times while staring at my arms which rested on his warm chest.
“What happened, Caleb?”
A sour, black nothingness started to curl up in my stomach and the longer Caleb stayed silent with his small, deep breaths rising and falling against me the more I became aware of it.
“You died, Jade.”
My still sore breaths caught in my throat and the dark feeling that swelled inside me spread into everything. Terrifying and yet solemn memories came rushing back to me.
Water coming in from everywhere, I couldn’t see; my body hurt and ripped at me. I wanted to scream and to cry but nothing managed to escape. Tears slipped down my cheeks. And then old memories I had nearly forgotten came back to me. A black room, quiet whispers of my cousin speaking to someone I couldn’t see, and then everything was covered in red. No screaming, no crying, black and red splattered everywhere.
The same pit that flooded me now.
I dug my fingers into Caleb. “…How long?”
“Nearly two hours.”
I bit my lip harder than before and abruptly metallic slivers dripped into my mouth and onto my chin and neck.
My hands wiped across my chin and eyes almost of their own accord. For some reason Daela’s face was covering every inch of my thoughts. Her smiling face before that night and another smile I could see but didn’t really remember.
I inhaled sharply a few times and leaned my head onto Caleb’s warm chest; he let me rest even though my blood and tears stained his thin green shirt. As my breaths started to finally calm I looked out over the water I had been in not that long ago and familiar boiling bubbles spun around on the surface.
I curiously watched them grow in intensity, out of further interest I clutched Caleb closer and even nuzzled my face in his sweet scented shirt. The water practically exploded and a shrill female voice echoed across the forest.
The small angry yellow eyes and flowing blue hair appeared as the water fell back into its pool. She hissed at me and Caleb. I felt him sigh in annoyance.
“You did that on purpose.”
I shrugged bashfully. “Sorry…”
Instead of moving me aside so that he could get up, he simply stood moving me from his lap’s cradle to his arm’s. I felt like an awkward bride…naked, in someone else’s dark old coat, still damp, and very much in pain. I nearly managed a giggle until my ribs decided to tell me otherwise.
The woman I now very clearly remembered stepped abruptly closer and hissed yet again only with more intensity. Her eyes were like daggers piercing my already injured body and soul.
“El, stop that!”
She whimpered, similar to a dog, and then slipped on a more seductive expression.
“Caleb, why are you with this rubbish! Aren’t they all dead? Why aren’t they dead and gone from us?”
She came even closer as she cooed softly at him with hints of malice slipping out. However when I watched her face she appeared genuinely confused and upset.
I looked up at Caleb, whose face was almost unreadable.
“El, she is obviously not dead and I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t try to make that be true.”
She whined again and whirled over using the water to hold up her body in its turns. “But Caleb, Caleb, Caleb! I have waited for sooooo long! I miss you, come back!” She purred again.
I found myself really beginning to hate this woman. I mean she had tried to kill me but what tied my stomach in knots more was her sexy, naked swaying and practically whispering in his ear. It was so…so………UGH!
I began to pick at the cuffs of the coat to keep my mind occupied, though her annoyingly beautiful hair kept moving into my view.
“Why don’t you put her down and just come back to me.” I suddenly heard her whisper right beside me and felt her hand beginning to curl around my wrist.
Caleb’s fingers tightened on my arm and thigh. “Eliarya Ktyum Water Nymph of Talen Forest, I command you to back off now.”
She glared down at me but released her grip with a submissive growl towards Caleb, though in the last moment I thought I felt a slight scratch across my wrist…but there was no mark. Caleb felt like a statue. He was a vise holding me even closer as “El” backed away into the waters deeper edge.
“Caleb…please…” Her siren tone wafted past me but Caleb didn’t even seem to breathe.
“Leave El.”
I managed to hear her sorrowful moan again until suddenly Caleb dropped me to the ground, landing with a hard thud that caused me to scream inside at the jerk of my body’s broken parts. The jolt had greatly aggrieved me and in frustration I smacked my left palm to his forehead.
“Caleb, you absolute and pure idiot!”
For a moment true sincerity appeared on his face but once I displayed my reaction he suddenly broke into a strong laughter.
I frowned but then furrowed my brows.
“Caleb…what just happened?”
He yet again paused his breathing and almost reflexively tightened his grip around me.
“El is…” he sighed heavily. “El and I are very old friends,” I wrinkled my nose a bit at the way he said friend, almost like a truthful lie, “but she is also close to some rather unsavory people, all of which are not in any way fond of the Immortals. However El always tended to take a particular liking to the men…….”
I cocked my head slightly away to better see his face. “And?”
“She developed an unadulterated, unrelenting hatred of the woman; especially that of the first family.”
“First family?”
“You should really get dressed and head back to the Immortal. It is getting late.”
I confusedly looked at my hands with uncertainty. “First…?” Caleb didn’t seem to hear my mumbling as he very gently set me back on the sand and dropped my clothes down in my lap.
“I’m sure the Immortal has some cloth you can use to bandage your ribs.”
He began to walk away with an exhausted sadness in his eyes that I clearly wasn’t meant to have seen.
“Wait!” I crawled slightly forward, wincing from the pain that shot up through me. “You’re just leaving me here?”
He didn’t turn around but I heard a smile on his voice. “Don’t worry, you should be partially healed by morning and the Immortal can help with the rest. I’m just wiped.” This time he flashed me a silly eyed smirk before jumping away into the trees.
I sat there in a despondent, while also kind of annoyed, way and began to fuss with the coat’s cuff again as I stared out at the swaying trees.
Quickly as I could I pulled on my clothes but after draping the cape and hood across my shoulders I also slipped on the warm coat Caleb had left behind for me. It was comforting to wear, like I was being held in strong, protective arms.
I wrapped my arms own around myself then began to walk back to the camp and my two traveling companions, an emotionally stunted immortal and an ass with a personality disorder.
A small giggle escaped my still rasping throat which was followed immediately by sharp pain spreading through my chest. I clutched my side lightly and my small breaths helped to push the ache away. As soon as I looked back up I heard a snap to my right …most likely a twig and an animal… Following with my stupid inquisitive nature, I stepped toward the noise when sudden, slow opening lavender eyes caused me to jump back and into tightly grasping hands.
I cried out at the pain that came up through me. The loud noise rattled my head and everything around me, racking its claws against my tender throat.
One of the hands was then unexpectedly on my head, making an affectionate petting motion against my nearly dry black hair. My eyes were wide with surprise and confusion.
“Jade, I’m sorry.”
Chapter Six
The Catalyst
Chapter Six
“What are you doing, Jade?”
“Just…wandering. Why do you ask, Grandmother?”
“Don’t you know where you are, dear?”
“Not really I guess.” I stopped my feet. I had never really thought about it, but in fact had no idea where I was or how I got there. “I’m just…here.” I exhaled.
“Grandmother, where am I?”
I waited to hear the soft sound of my grandmother’s voice, however the silence continued. I glanced around only to notice that there was nothing and no one anywhere near me. The ground beneath my feet was rough and barren going off into the distance endlessly. As I watched the clear sky move slowly up above I felt a tremor run up through my body and abruptly my legs gave out, dropping me to the earth I stood upon.
My hands pushed in opposition to the ground with my nails digging into the hard soil. I harshly bit my lip; breathing had suddenly become so difficult.
A cold wind rushed against my side, forcing me to the ground completely. I looked in the direction the gust had come from and saw a huge black, mist-like mass gradually soaking up all the light filtering down to the wasteland I seemed trapped in. The being before me groaned with deafening strength, compelling me to shield my ears.
I stood up awkwardly, facing the center of the darkness. It was almost mesmerizing, staring as I was, and the longer I watched I began to notice a small figure appearing in the depth. I stepped forward without thinking, merely so that I could see more clearly. Just as I started to reach my hand toward the small creature forming in the black, two bright lavender eyes opened, knocking me backwards with invisible force.
Quickly, I jumped up and looked around, but instead saw the light of early morning shining on the floor of my grandmother’s bedroom. My chest rose and fell with my rapid breaths; apparently it was only a dream.
“I’ve never dreamt something that felt so real before.” I sighed, exhaling a long withheld breath. “…So real.”
I held my head in my hands as my body calmed down from the insanity of what I felt just happened. So strange, a black mass with lavender eyes…
I looked up again, staring briefly at the desk against the wall where my two fruits sat quietly, frozen like crystal. I had managed to perform the frozen spell once more on the peach from The Immortal’s garden.
“The Immortal!” I threw the covers off my legs and jumped to the floor to quickly put my clothes on.
I hadn’t seen the Immortal for almost three days now. “It’s a good thing I had found a bathroom on our way back to the room last time or I probably would have gotten lost and died in this darn tower looking for one.” I slipped into the bare minimum of my clothes, as I wanted to go and try and find him as soon as possible. I put on the under part of my dress and laced up the back.
As I opened the door and began heading into the hall I attempted to comb through my hair with my fingers. “I wish I had a hair brush…I probably look horrible. However seeing as there is no time for me to head into the bathroom and take a quick shower; I’ll simply have to bear with it.” I sighed.
I managed to find a staircase, however due to the darkness and the fact I had spent nearly all my time in my grandmother’s sun lit room I was still not, of course, accustomed to walking around in the black of the tower.
Once I reached the floor again I turned both ways, I couldn’t remember which direction we had originally come from, or if there was even a way, or if it was a huge room or a small passage, or if I stepped forward I’d fall into a hole. It was simply too hard to see, to some degree I could make things out but otherwise I was barely able to notice my own hand in front of my face. “Crap.” My voice sounded quiet and minute.
I chewed on my lip as I thought, eventually I decided on right and once I found the wall I moved across it slowly as far as I could. There were a few instances where I came across a door…but not knowing what I would find kept me from looking even though each time my side smacked into a doorknob my curiousity grew. I didn’t want to come across something I would wish I hadn’t, or perhaps irritate the Immortal, I didn’t think I wanted to piss off the man kind enough to let me, a stranger, stay here. “I suppose I’m not exactly a stranger. I mean he knew my grandmother, and from her stories I almost feel like I know him myself.”
I giggled slightly, which echoed in the hall.
Once I calmed down I heard a small wind blowing from somewhere near me, or at least it sounded as though it was near me. It was difficult sometimes to tell where a noise was coming from in these passages. I continued moving forward until I came across dim light drifting from a somewhat ajar door at the end of another corridor to my left. I could see an opened balcony similar to the one in my grandmother’s bedroom although it appeared to be larger; perhaps it was one of the other real windows I had noticed outside the tower.
I walked toward it, heading through easily without holding against the wall to know where I was going. I placed my hands on the door’s side and edged it open so that I didn’t make a sound.
The room was enormous; books on large wooden shelves lined three of the five walls in the place. There were also two large old desks up against another each having antique objects such as lamps and stationary sets. Lining yet another wall was a huge bed with four posts reaching up to the high lifting ceiling, on either side sat a nightstand lined with books and papers as well as a few old fashioned pens and identical twin lamps both of which appeared to be oil fueled. Up along the last wall hung several types of weapons, most were sword-like in appearance, there were also a few bunches of daggers, some axes of different types, many spears and staff shaped poles, and at the top of this impressive collection were a couple odd looking guns none of which were overly familiar to me. On the floor just beneath the arsenal rack was a bench with a few disheveled towels and blood looking stains spread upon it.
I reached my hand out and ran it along one of the larger claymore-like swords which had a strange greenish stone curved into the blade. “You’re very beautiful.” Grandmother had once taken some sword handling lessons and because of that she had a few antique ones she kept in her home. She always told me that a sword is precious to its handler, just like a child to a parent; you always refer to them by gender and name. In fact, I would even on occasion talk to them when my cousin, Daela or grandmother, or my uncle weren’t around.
“I may not know your name, but you seem female to me.”
I stroked the stone gently when a sudden chill slipped in through the window. I turned around; I was tempted to close the balcony doors, however I didn’t want anyone to know I had been here.
I glanced about the room again and my curious urge couldn’t be stopped. I walked as lightly as I could as I moved over to look at the many things spread out on the nightstands. The papers were old looking, not unlike the ones in grandmother’s grimoire, with lovely articulate letters spread on it. I sifted through a few of the books but paused when I came across one that reminded me of a notebook or journal.
I felt a bit bad for snooping, everything about this room felt untouched and aged but something continued to push me forward and so I opened the cover finding not only words but also sketching.
They looked like plans or something, although nearly every page was in different languages; there were a few that appeared familiar and some I didn’t think were even from my world. I was a bit disheartened that I couldn’t read it. While still flipping through the pages I saw a drawing of a young woman, as I traced the lines with my eyes I found her familiar. I remembered back in my grandmother’s home, all the photographs she had and saw that this…was her. There was something different about her here though, her eyes seemed unsure but happy. Far happier than much of the time I was with her back at home. Her hair was cut a bit differently also.
“Grandmother was so lovely.” A sudden tear fell onto the page. “Oh damn!” I dabbed at the mark and blew on it as carefully as I could, the mark lifted but thankfully still stayed there. I quickly shut the journal and set it back under the books and loose papers. Hopefully it would dry completely and no one would be the wiser if they came to open it.
I moved away from the stand and noticed that there were a few empty and filled sheaths hanging on the banister opposite me. Unfortunately my notice of those belted holders drew my eyes to a green chaise which had the Immortal’s shirt draped upon it. The very one I had seen him wearing the last day I was with him.
“Oh hell…this is his bedroom.”
Now I felt even more like a trespasser than before.
Well I supposed that it’s not the end of the world; I had been trying to find him. “If I wait here, he’d have to show up eventually. I wonder when he actually sleeps anyway?”
There had to be some way I could contact him, especially in a place this large. I walked over to the still opened door and slipped out, making sure to close it just enough to match were it had been before I came. I edged back through the hall until I made it to the crossroads were I turned from earlier. I headed left in order to go along my original path.
After a heart racing trip down a few stairs I managed to take hold of the banister, catching myself before I fell the entire way. Once I made it past the rather long set of stairs I ended up in the room I had first fallen into, meeting the shocked Immortal and a strange pink eyed woman. The ceiling was still broken with my blood spattered on the remnants of it, which sat despondently in piles on the flooring. I lifted a few pieces and looked nostalgically at the splintered edges where my blood soaked into the fibers. I winced at the vague memory, dropping the wood back to its place.
“Exploring?”
I leapt back, running into the broken wall beside the mess on the ground. An average sized woman, running closer to petite, stepped out from behind the floating wall in the center of the room. As she faced me her eyes opened, revealing two vividly pink marbles grinning at me on a breathtakingly beautiful face.
“You’re that woman the Immortal had imprisoned.”
“Oh no, we were merely playing a little game.”
“Game? Torture is hardly a game.” I stood firmly in place, mostly because I knew nothing about this woman to be uncomfortable in her presence.
“Hmm, perhaps it isn’t.” Her exposed shoulders shrugged.
I watched her closely, suddenly her body seemed to vibrate and one blink later she stood directly in front of me her eyes looking at my own, with an expression that was rather unnerving.
“You really are Gwen’s granddaughter; your faces are so similar.” She ran a finger along my jaw line.
I turned away from her touch with a blank visage.
She scoffed with an amused look and like lightning I was tossed onto the floor where two loud brakes were made near my ears. I looked up and the woman was hovering over me, her hands dug into the wood beside my head. As I watched above me, her golden hair slid off her shoulders and fell onto my arms; the tresses were smooth but oddly cold, chilling my skin.
“I think you’re much prettier though. Like a lovely porcelain doll.” I felt her fingers playing with my hair and running along my neck and collarbone. “Must be sure not to break you.”
I tried not to focus on her as she lowered her head to mine; the skin of her cheek touched my own. She was soft but cool, rather than warm like a person would normally feel like. I heard as she inhaled.
“You smell warm and sweet, just like strawberries wrapped in rich chocolate cake.” She licked her fingers as her face appeared to be in delicious thought. I tried to slip from beneath her, but while her eyes were still shut she quickly placed a finger on my forehead holding me still. “Precious dolls shouldn’t try to escape.”
“I am not a doll!”
Her face looked saddened by my words, but only for a moment; she quickly grinned again. “Hmm, fiery are you. You should be careful though, you might burn up.” She laughed.
Her amusement stopped abruptly.
In that moment I become aware of a blood red satin ribbon with the bow on the side tied around her neck and attached to the center knot was a lone silver chain link. The fetter was strangely compelling, if I wasn’t held down I would have been drawn to try and touch it.
“Oh damn, I wanted to play more.” She stood up lithely, pulling me with her and distracting my thoughts from the reflecting object around her neck. Her pink eyes caught mine once more; her hand gently stroked my hair. “Until next time, precious doll.”
Right as I went to slap away her hand she was already at the far wall, smiling with a light giggle, she appeared to vibrate again and then she was gone.
I felt as though her pink eyes were burnt into my brain. They were strange, almost like they were seeing through me and into my soul. Although what hung in my memory the most though was the silver link that was joined with the ribbon; considering how strongly it called to me I wondered if it were enchanted or something…though I suppose I could have also just discovered an unknown feeling of kleptomania.
“Jade, why are you here?”
The Immortal stood in the doorway of the room, his eyebrows down in confusion.
“Uh, it-it was an accident. I just, kind of wandered in here…I was looking for you actually.”
“Me?”
“Well, yes. I mean, I haven’t seen you for three days! Haven’t you wondered where I’ve been? If I needed something? I mean, I haven’t gotten to eat either!” I don’t really know why I hadn’t realized it earlier but I was really very hungry. “And besides, where have you been anyway?!” I put my hands on my hips; irritation seemed to be flooding out the bizarre and unsettling experience with the strange, pink eyed woman.
He shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ve been busy.”
“Don’t you think the person who is also living here would like to be aware of that? And you still have no food I bet.”
“Not as of yet, no.”
I sighed with agitation. “There needs to be food here. I don’t know what or when you ever eat but it obviously isn’t here as everything is decades if not centuries old.”
“I generally eat when I’m out. There is little need to have food here.”
“Now there is. I’m here and I need to eat.”
He sighed and left the room, I hastily ran after him. “You said there was a town nearby…”
He blinked several times, seemingly in thought. “I never said anything like that.”
Darn it, that was Caleb. “Uh, I suppose I thought it was you. Must have been something I considered while speaking to you at one point.”
He said nothing and I exhaled thankfully. “So?”
“So what?”
I scoffed, “So is there a town or not?”
“Yes there is. Two in fact.”
“Good, then would you please come with me to get some food? I would really love to have a decent meal.”
He was silent for a few minutes.
Do you really need to think about taking someone to get food? I nearly mumbled that passing thought right as he began to reply to my question.
“I suppose. I do need to get a few things.”
“I thought you said you were just out, what were you doing then?” I quickened my pace to stand beside him and glance up at his face.
He smirked, knowing I was watching him. “I wasn’t out doing errands.”
“Ah, well what were you doing?” I smiled sarcastically at him.
“Nothing of consequence.”
“Hmm, that’s just a fancy way of not telling me.”
“Perhaps.”
“Fine then. You’ll be taking me to town.”
We were paused in the intersection were the Immortal’s bedroom was hidden down the right corridor.
“I’ll go and finish getting dressed; you meet me there once you have whatever it is you may need.”
“Oh of course, your highness.”
“Don’t be facetious.”
He laughed quietly at me. I smiled to myself; luckily he didn’t seem upset with me anymore. I had almost forgotten in all that had gone on the past three days how angry he was that evening when he found me with the grimoire.
While I moved along the passages to get to my room, I felt my heart beat faster. I didn’t realize how excited I would be to go into the town of another world, especially one as interesting as this. I wondered though if I was more excited as to what people would think of me, an unknown person appearing with the legendary Immortal at my side.
For a quick moment I felt my face burn.
Chapter Five
The Catalyst
Chapter Five
CRACK! POOF! BOOM!
I waved my hands fiercely, trying to move and disperse the smoke now swirling in angry clouds all around me. As the opaque fog began to clear I noticed the charred, broken bits of my ingredients spread in every direction.
“Crap…wrong again…”
I wiped all the debris from my clothes and started sweeping the excess pieces scattered on the floor into an increasingly large pile to my left. My hand reached back and grabbed yet another of the several random objects I had managed to find in the room. I set what appeared to be a half burnt shoe on the floor in front of me and then placed a few dead leaves I had found curled up in a corner on the balcony around it. I then gently placed a small heart shaped locket I had happened across in the drawer of my grandmother’s desk amongst the other pieces.
Quickly I went to make sure the doors of the balcony were still held open and with a brief glance to the sky I ran back and kneeled before my pile of what appeared to be a conglomeration of useless junk.
“Ok…”I exhaled with determination.
I attempted reading another incantation I had found in the grimoire in hopes of finding the correct archaic translation for my grandmother’s English written spell. The locket flamed as it had done every time before, the leaves seeming to melt into the deformed footwear. However instead of freezing, as I had guessed the poem was for, the half flame-eaten shoe expanded. I leaned back from the chaos when it suddenly sucked itself into a thin mass and then fizzled up with the leaves as the locket flames enveloped it.
I thrust my fist against the floor boards. “Darn it!” Sighing, I sat down and then fell to the floor covering my face with a tired arm.
“What are you doing?”
My eyes popped open and I turned back on my head to see who was behind me, as though I were standing and looking to the sky. Upside down, while leaning casually against my open balcony doors, stood my midnight intruder, Caleb. Though I was on the floor I could still make out his face, wearing the same smirk I remembered seeing the night before. “What are you doing?” I replied, somewhat sarcastically.
He chuckled lightly and sashayed over to where I was still lying in irritation with myself and leaned over me. “I asked first.”
“Just shut up.” I rolled my eyes and sat up with my back to Caleb. I heard him step forward and mess with the pile of burnt ashes I had been making. “Stop that…”
“Stop what? I haven’t done anything.” Caleb appeared beside me and gracefully lowered himself to the floor. “But you have obviously got some issues.”
“No I don’t! I just…I just can’t figure out what these spells mean…” I looked to the open book but made my way back to staring sadly at my brand new pile of black residue. “I wish grandmother had made some sort of key to her spell book.” I leaned on my hand.
“They’re not that difficult.”
I had almost forgotten about Caleb, he seemed one to constantly make sure every person around was aware of him, and not hearing his voice made it seem as though I were alone again.
“It is difficult, Caleb. I can’t read this language. Plus I was never very good with finding meaning in poems anyway.”
“You don’t need to find meaning exactly…the words are simply over complicated. Gwen preferred being rather traditional in her homemade works.”
I looked at Caleb while he spoke; I never knew grandmother cared so much for customs…? “Can you understand them?”
“Of course.” He grinned proudly.
I reached for the grimoire and placed it in front of us, keeping the page with the English wording opened. I pointed a finger against the rough, ancient paper directly beneath the words of the small spell I had found and been attempting to decipher.
Frozen.
Drops of red wishes,
Bits of existence yet none that flow,
No breath to have,
Glow of life,
Dance of strength pulsed with text.
Simple answers,
Glean complex regrets.
“I don’t recognize this one; it must have been one of her last.”
I followed his quick moving eyes as he read through the words over and over. “So, do you know what it means?”
“Yes, it’s fairly simple. Permanent though.” He looked about the room several times and then abruptly jumped to his feet.
I watched him as he grabbed the apple I had placed on the desk. He seemed to look it over with great intensity. His violet eyes turned to me as he walked lithely back to where I was sitting.
“Use this.” The apple Caleb held suddenly dropped from above me; looking up I saw his face, a little more serious than I was used to. “Live matter is best for beginners.”
“This isn’t alive…” I turned the apple over in my palm.
“It may no longer be…but technically plants are living matter.”
Caleb’s even toned words were strange to my ears; he was acting very different. It was nice to know he had more than just perverted sly as a setting in his brain.
While he returned to his position next to me, I set the apple on the floor. “Ok, so…now what?”
“I suppose it will be easiest to go line by line.”
“Alright then. Frozen…I assumed that was a title or the purpose of the spell.”
“Pretty much, yes.”
“Ok then, drops of red wishes. What is that?”
Caleb took firm hold of my right hand, “Hey…” he slid his finger across my palm and a bleeding cut suddenly appeared out of my skin. “Why did you do that!?”
He shrugged nonchalantly at my question “It’s not my spell.” He moved my hand over the apple and squeezed with great strength, my bones felt like they would break from the force. Despite the pain I continued to watch curiously as blood seeped from my hand and fell onto the apple, coating it in dark red. “One down.” His grip was released and reasserted itself on a few strands of my hair which he pulled out with no care for me.
“OW! Stop abusing my body!”
He chuckled with a grin as he dropped the few long hairs onto the blood covered apple. “Bits of existence, yet none that flow.” He spoke.
I rubbed my head gently as he yet again stood up. “Where are you going? I thought you were helping me?” I turned and followed him with my eyes.
“I am helping you.” He quietly shut the double doors of the balcony. “No breath to have. It means the air around the spell must be stagnant and still, no wind at all.”
“Does that mean we can’t breathe either?”
“Yes, but only when we begin the incantation.”
I had all this time been watching Caleb move all over the room doing this and that and it was slowly dawning on me that perhaps Caleb wasn’t as bad as I had first thought. After all, if grandmother was close with him he must have something redeeming about him; she always hated idiots.
“Now for the Glow of Life.” Caleb opened his hand up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. I watched with interest, first at his hand then his face. He opened his mouth and began forming words; however I didn’t hear anything which deepened my attention in what he was doing.
Suddenly an intensely bright orb of light ripped itself into existence a few inches from the bedroom ceiling. I had to shield my eyes from the blaze; the small sphere looked exactly like a miniature sun.
“Hmm, not my best.” Caleb lowered his hand and turned back to me.
I quirked my brow at him “Do you make a habit of creating small suns or something? Because…that’s just weird.”
He laughed loudly at me.
I narrowed my eyes and then stuck out my tongue, which seemed to be my favorite expression of annoyance lately.
“Whatever, so now what do we do?”
“Not me, you.”
“But I can’t read this type of script?”
“Don’t worry I’ll teach you how to pronounce everything.”
I sighed lightly and bit my lip. “Ok, but what does this line even mean? ‘Dance of Strength Pulsed with Text.’”
“It appears that Gwen tried to add hand motions to the incantation. HA, I swear she only did that to piss off whoever read this.” He chuckled a little.
“Uh ok, why?”
“Sometimes she added things like that simply to irritate some of the other lower class witches in town. They always snuck peaks in her grimoire when she brought it into town and wasn’t looking.”
“There is a town here!?”
“Well, duh. Did you just think this world was an out of place, fucking castle in the middle an abandoned forest?”
“Sort of…grandmother never really told me many things about other places. She rarely mentioned other people besides The Immortal.”
Caleb’s face ruffled in anger for a brief moment before he took my hand and quickly sliced it once again as he ran his finger’s edge against my palm. The same palm he had cut earlier, though strangely the prior cut was gone.
“AH, What the HELL!?” I tried to pull my hand from him but he held it exact and in place.
“I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. She doesn’t actually want you to do motions to the text, she wants two more drops of blood added, one before and one after you read the spell.”
My face softened in mild shock and confusion. “How do you know that?”
“Gwen and I were very close; I know a lot of things about her.”
His face seemed blank as he moved my hand over the apple and squeezed it, however this time his grip felt weaker than his earlier bone crushing one. I winced slightly from the pain and chewed on the inside of my lip while watching drops of blood fall back to coat the already clotting blood from before.
“Caleb…are, are you alright?” He gave my hand back and I rubbed it gently, until I noticed the still bleeding abrasion begin to suture itself up.
“Yes, I’m fine. Here read these words, I wrote each to suit the way they would be pronounced.” He sat a piece of paper in front of me with characters written on them almost as though they had been typed.
“How did you..?” I pointed to the parchment in front of me.
“Magic, Jade.”
“Duh, sorry.” I shook my head briefly and then nodded. “So I simply read this over the apple, and what, it will freeze?”
“Should, just make sure you don’t mess up. One screwed up word alters the entire thing.”
“Thanks for the confidence.” I scoffed.
“Sure, anything to help.” He smirked sarcastically.
“Ugh, well shut up and don’t breath remember, I’m about to start.” I took a deep breath and started to read the few lines of the ritual.
“Glayceealis,
Occoombow of rootilus vota,
Secooi of veeta eteeamnoonc noolloos oot permoveeo,
Hawd spearitus habayo,
Tripoodeeo of veares comotus per lacoona.
Simplex refero,
Mico ooniversa desiderium.”
Before I let myself take a breath, I moved my hand over the apple and allowed the last remaining drop of blood from my nearly healed wound to slip onto the fruit. Suddenly the clotted blood surrounding the red skinned apple began to fizz slightly followed by small quick exploding bubbles which turned over on themselves, freezing instantly once popped. The splatters combined to make a solid layer of ice, however after a few moments in the makeshift sun the ice slide off the once blood covered skin, revealing a perfectly crystallized apple.
“Oh my gosh.” I lifted the fruit carefully and watched it gleam in the sun’s light. “This is amazing; I can’t believe I did this.”
“Technically, we did this, since you couldn’t figure out the text.” Caleb poked a finger against my forehead.
I growled as I stood to go place the apple beside the peach I also had sitting on the old desk.
“Well, as I read from the paper I realized that I actually did know what that is. The writing is Latin. I wasn’t able to notice it because I never actually took the class at school, my friend did, and she always joked around by reciting it exactly as it was spelled. Because, of course, as no one really knows how it is pronounced, they can’t know whether the idea they have for its pronunciation is correct or not.” I laughed mildly as I came back to stand beside Caleb.
“Yeah, that’s not funny.”
“Well, we thought it was.”
“Ok...so now I’m going to go and not be here with your ‘Latin’.” He stood up and started backing towards the door, giving me sarcastic air quotes as he said Latin.
I frowned at his annoying behavior. “Sometimes I wonder whatever possessed me not to knock you out when you first snuck into my room.”
“Because I’m sexy.”
“Get out!”
He laughed at my command and continued to do so as he leapt from the balcony and away from the tower.
“Men.” I rolled my eyes.
Chapter Four
The Catalyst
Chapter Four
I slowly pulled the threads stitched into an old white blanket spread over my grandmother’s bed. The nervous tears I made in the now slightly damaged bedding helped ease the anxious flutters from my last encounter with The Immortal. Even now, a good two hours later, I could still clearly see his hard black eyes glaring at me with anger and disgust.
“I don’t understand what I did wrong…”my sudden voice in the wide room sounded foreign and abrupt to my ears, especially with the long hours of relative silence. As I shifted position to better satisfy my comfort, clumped strands of my long dark brown hair fell past my shoulder and pooled around my hands where I continuously fiddled with the loosened fibers. “I wonder why he got so upset.” I turned my head in thought while tumultuously picking at the cloth.
“Because he’s got a pole up his ass.” A sudden sarcastic male voice broke into my personal conversation with myself.
I looked up quickly with surprise, recoiling on the bed until I was sitting up straight, facing the intruder. He was leaning casually against the edge of the open balcony doors, a smirk gracing his features.
“Who the hell are you?” I furrowed my brow and watched him closely in wait for his answer.
He shrugged slightly and pulled off the wall to head toward the bed with hands held up as he sighed. “Questions, questions. What’s wrong with being a mystery?” He peeked at me from beneath closed eyes and grinned sarcastically, while dropping his arms to cross them against his chest.
“I suppose I prefer knowing who the perpetrator is beforehand.” I mirrored his movements, in some way demonstrating that I was playing along.
“Perpetrator? What makes you think I’ve come to do something that my incriminate me?”
“You snuck in, how would I know what you’re thinking?” I raised my brow with a grin tugging at my lips.
“Valid points.” He nodded to me, similar to a gesture of gentlemanly defeat.
I released my arms and against my natural instincts crawled toward the man, though I kept enough distance in order to move back if necessary; I looked up at his lowered face and noticed his still smirking lips below closed eyes. “So, who are you then?” I cocked my head while still gradually edging closer to the man in anticipation.
Nothing happened for several minutes; I opened my mouth to speak again and in an abrupt flash the man grabbed my hand, pulled me off the bed and let me land directly on his lips. My eyes were open wide; his strong hold around my waist edged me closer, while his other hand gently cradled my face along the jaw line. I must have been about a foot or so off the ground.
My brain was not really working correctly and so I felt my body take matters into its own…well hands. His eyes opened and looked at mine, I couldn’t make out a single expression in those exquisitely bold violet colors. Suddenly I saw my fist come hurling towards the man’s cheek; when the skin, muscle, and bone collided with his face my lips and body were freed as the victim of my blow nearly lost balance from the force and dropped me to the floor.
“What in the hell do you think you were doing!?” I glared angrily at his hidden face.
However instead of whatever it was I had been expecting him to do, I heard a quiet, clear laugh erupt from his slightly hunched posture. “You are fiery, aren’t you?” He turned up to face me, still smirking, without any mark or drop of blood on his face.
I grimaced in confusion, noticing a small throb in my knuckles. “I really shouldn’t have stopped my kick boxing classes.” I whispered to myself, while examining my hand for any breaks.
“Kick boxing?”
I looked up, quickly noticing the perverted stranger staring at me with puzzlement in his features. I realized I had yet again spoken my thoughts. “Oh, um it’s a sport…a type of fighting practice, I guess.” I shrugged.
“Fighting? You?”
“Yes. I enjoy many sports, kick boxing, rock climbing, water skiing, sky diving, horseback riding, swimming…lots of things. Grandmother took me everywhere with her, anything interesting and unique.” I smiled longingly at the thoughts.
“And how is dear Gwen.”
I focused my attention back on the man, leading me to notice how close he was to me. I took a step back, hitting the bed with my leg before I stopped. “What makes you think Gwen is my grandmother?”
“I can see it in your face, you look very similar…but there is something new and different about you, it’s there, in your eyes.” He reached his hand out to me but I pulled back, nearly falling backward onto the bed. “Hmm…regardless, I welcome you my flaming beauty, I am Caleb.” He bowed low before me.
“Uh…thanks, um…I’m Jade.”
“May I ask you something, Jade?”
I leaned back more with my balance being secured by my hold on the bed post beside me. “Sure, what is it?”
I watched cautiously as Caleb’s hand slid along the wooden post, his eyes watching me. He suddenly grasped my hand up against the timber, “How much do you really know about this place?”
“Um…only what my grandmother’s told me…what’re you doing?” I mumbled anxiously, finding it hard to predict Caleb’s movements.
I managed to release my hand but was instantly pinned down on the bed with Caleb securely holding my wrists. We looked at each other for a few seconds; he was very handsome, with soft masculine features and coiffed yet shagged black hair framed his face. He moved closer to me and opened his mouth to speak.
“There were some things Gwen never knew…” he came even nearer, down beside my face, I could feel his hot breath on my neck and despite the peculiarity of the situation I found myself to be blushing fiercely, my quickening pulse I sensed in places I had never noticed before “…there were secrets we Immortals never revealed.” The light soft brush of his lips sent my body into hot shivers.
“Wait…” I exhaled quietly “…we? We Immortals? You’re Immortal?”
Caleb pulled away from my neck to look into my face. The exciting moments now left and part of me was excessively pissed at myself for halting its progress. I continued gazing into his seemingly endless violet eyes, while I waited for his answer. Instead, he leaned down and lightly pressed his lips to mine, flaring my hormones again. As he slowly backed off the bed I found myself following, not wanting to break our gentle bond.
Caleb moved back from me and grinned “If you ever need me, call my name and I’ll come.” He bowed again with a glint in his bright eyes.
“Thank you…” I whispered though I quickly regained my senses “…but you’re still a creepy pervert.”
He laughed and then stepped toward the open balcony doors.
“Wait!” I inadvertently spoke to him just as he was about to leap from the railing. “I uhh…can I, um if I call for you…will you allow me to ask questions?”
“It all depends on the question.” He grinned slightly and leapt from his perch.
I gasped quickly from his sudden departure and ran over to the rails to look for him. I thought I may have seen him slip beneath a tree but it was so dark I couldn’t really tell whether it was or wasn’t even anything at all.
“Caleb.” I heard the strange echo of my voice flow out over the trees.
“Yes.” He asked calmly from behind me.
“Oh my gosh,” I turned around to find him smirking as he did before with his hands on his hips.
“I’m gone for hardly ten seconds and already you miss me?”
“No, I don’t even know you…I was just testing.”
“Didn’t think I meant what I said, huh?” He quirked his brow at me and crossed his arms.
“I’m sorry for being skeptical but I’m just not used to you guys yet…this is all very weird for me.”
“You guys?” Caleb scoffed, “don’t compare me to that man.”
“The Immortal? Why not? He isn’t that bad really, a little mysterious perhaps, but not bad.”
“He may not be bad, but he most certainly isn’t someone I would leave a young girl with.”
“Oh no … no, he’s not like that… I mean you are, but he isn’t. Definitely not. No.” I shook my head several times.
“No, he’ll bore you to death! He hasn’t been company to even the dust in this crappy tower for the last few centuries!” Caleb shouted with irritation, rolling his eyes and flinging his hands about.
“He’s not that boring, I think he simply needs to work on not being annoying.”
“Annoying?”
“Yes, he’s always laughing at me and teasing me slyly; like I don’t notice it when he does.” I rolled my eyes.
Caleb didn’t respond, he looked as though he were staring into space.
“Caleb?”
“That bastard!”
“What?!”
“That ass, how dare he! Not after everything, no way in hell!” Caleb ran past me and leapt off the balcony.
I spun around in confusion, trying to follow where exactly the conversation had gone and why Caleb was suddenly pissed at The Immortal. Leaning over the railing I was barely able to make out the figure of him protesting loudly and walking in a circle.
“CALEB?” I shouted out to him, but from the way the shape continued to pace I assumed he hadn’t heard my call. For a brief moment I saw the glow of his violet eyes before he ran into the darkness of the dense Talen forest.
I watched for a little while longer but I never saw anything so I went back into the room and closed the two doors behind me. Once I had both shut I noticed for the first time that the wooden panels sporadically placed on the glass didn’t match against each other’s opposite reflection. Instead they made some odd design….somewhat like the symbols in grandmother’s book. I walked over to the still opened text and started flipping through the pages in a quite possibly ill attempt at finding the meaning.
I leafed through every page and image, taking a cursory glance at each, but I couldn’t find anything that matched the sign formed by the double doors. With an almost unhappy realization I knew that there was practically no way I would ever be able to figure out a single word in this book, at least not without the help of a certain person who seems to be invariably unpleased with the mere sight of the old grimoire. I dropped my head down onto the desk with a sigh; I fell faster than I had realized and though I stayed down I could feel the bruise forming on my forehead.
“Ugh…I don’t want to ask him for help…I’m surprised he hasn’t already thrown me out!” I wrapped my arms around my head in irritation. “Damn it, damn it, damn it…there is no way I can learn any of this. I don’t know why grandmother ever thought I would be good at this. How can I hope to be a witch if I can’t even read the language, plus even if I could read it I wouldn’t be able to understand it.” I bit my lip harshly but resigned myself to my fate.
With mental and physical exhaustion, I closed the book and went slowly over to the disheveled bed where I laid down with yet another weary sigh.
“Today has been the longest day of my entire life…I’m just so tired…” I rolled over onto my side, staring at the blank old wall ahead of me. I kept my eyes open for a long while, thinking over the bizarre bits of information I had gotten from Caleb. Everything about him and his words seemed to upset all grandmother had told me; I was more lost in this world than before.
I slid my eyelids shut and began slipping into the weightless feelings of sleep. Confused combinations of violet and black eyes swirled around in seas of black silky hair, drowning me with knotted lies. In my floating unconsciousness I pondered what to believe, my grandmother who raised me more than my own mother or a strange sensual pervert who suddenly appeared with strings of unanswered questions.
“…Caleb…”
