FOREVER KNIGHTS: #13 Salvaging Souls

WaterRose, Meadow Mountain, Grier

SEBASTIAN

Often Elsabet tested the walls, finding Sebastian’s magic withstanding.

“Don’t bother.” Calisto was sitting on the edge of Sebet’s bed in the nursery. Watching the little girl sleeping peacefully. Her silhouette was a gray outline. Purple eyes vivid and her hands almost white as she caressed the back of a hand against the girl’s cheek. Rays of morning light cast in the window and pierced her outline. Flakes of dust from a tapestry running the wall next to her floated through Calisto’s form as though she were only a reflection on the outside of a window.

Sebet shuddered against the wave of cold, Calisto’s touch elicited.

Calisto sighed. Shoulders slumping as she retracted her.

“Why didn’t you have one?” Elsabet asked her. Nodding toward Sebet.

“Never had the chance. I was always worried it wasn’t the right time. I kept putting it off. I thought things were finally getting safe enough for us to do so when he was taken from me. And I was turned…like this.” She looked at her filmy hands sadly.

“I’m sorry for your pain.”

“And I am sorry for yours.” Calisto responded. Watching Elsabet standing near the window. Holding the drapes back with her fingertips to look out. “You have everything. Yet you’re often sorrowful.”

“I miss being free.” Elsabet looked over at her. “I will be again one day.”

“And what about her?” Calisto stared at the beautiful child sleeping next to her.

“I’ll take her with me.”

Calisto looked at her sharply. “And what of him then? You’ll leave him nothing!”

“He can join us.”

“He can’t leave here.” Calisto objected.

“He does all the time!”

“But if he were ever gone permanently this castle would crumble. It’s his magic that ties it together. Binding it into a sanctuary.”

“I thought it was all of them?”

“They all contribute. But his is the stitching that holds it all together. Haven’t you realized yet he’s far more powerful than the rest?”

“I have.” Elsabet let the drape fall. Casting Calisto into deep shadows. Making her purple eyes nearly glow in the shrouded corner. Her white hand visible as she moved.

“He won’t let you take her.”

“He can’t hold me forever.”

Calisto grunted. “His magic is as strong as the man himself. How do you plan to escape?”

“I don’t know yet.” Elsabet walked from the nursery and Calisto fell into step with her. Dark hair shining as they neared the torchlights. Making her violet eyes shimmer. “Where is he?”

“That knight of yours?”

“The animal that keeps me, yes.”

“Bast will come home to you. He always comes back.” Calisto assured. A fond note entering her voice as she caught Elsabet’s hand comfortingly.

Elsabet raised their joined palms to study them in confusion.

“Lordy, Girl are you telling me no one has held your hand afore?” Calisto was astounded.

“What would be the purpose?”

“And I’d thought myself the coldest creature who dared call herself woman.” Calisto stopped to stare at the blonde.

“I am not cold.”

“No indeed. You’re the very embodiment of warmth.”

Elsabet looked around the hallway in a concentrated effort to avoid Calisto’s assessment.

“Would you like me to tell you about him?”

“Sebastian?” Elsabet asked warily.

Calisto nodded.

“Yes!” Elsabet brightened. “I’ve tried to coax him to tell me of himself, but I find I lack the skill to be persuasive.”

“Were you to be warmer Girl, I think you’d find it much more effective.” Calisto laughed at Elsabet’s horrified expression.

“I’ve looked in the library but can find anything mentioning him…Other than when you helped me.” Elsabet paused. “It was you, afterall, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was.” Calisto grinned. “You’ve no idea how much in there is about them. Him…”

Elsabet gave her a puzzled glance.

“Stacks upon stacks of books have been written about these men of ours, Dear. Just by different names.”

“Different names?”

“Different then what we know them by. They’ve been around since the 1400s. Wandering in and out of our history. In the background of battles among men to help maintain nature’s balance. To establish cultures, entire civilizations and tip the scales toward justice. Especially your Bast.”

“Sebastian maintains balance?” She frowned before quickly adding. “He isn’t my ‘Sebastian’.”

“He is practically those justice scales, My Dear. He’s everywhere. And nowhere.” She said slowly. “He sees everything.”

“He doesn’t know my heart.” Elsabet cut in derisively.

“He sees your pain, just the same.” Calisto interjected. “I’ve seen him look at you. I’ve been there with him sometimes. I saw how deeply he looked into your face. Passion written over him.”

“It’s a deception.”

Calisto gasped. “Bast knows charm, charisma and getting what he wants. But he’s no liar, and he knows not how to deceive! He simply comes at you with the truth, emotions be damned.”

“He has done such to me.” Elsabet admitted. “Sometimes his truths are cruel.”

“He doesn’t mean them that way.” Calisto explained. “He just speaks his mind and heart. And believe me, if you’re not in his, he’ll tell you that too!”

Elsabet shot her a look.

Calisto frowned. “I made it no secret I thought myself in love with him once.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Calisto laughed. “You’re the only woman that’d need to ask-” She cut herself off, shaking her head. “He saved me from an evil I’d never seen the like of.”

“What?”

“The knights call him Radix Malorum.”

“Root of Evil.” Elsabet filled in.

“Yes.” Calisto shot her a surprised look. “Your Old Language is very good. He is the Root of Evil. A demon appearing as a twisted old man. Commanding a legion of his own kind. Fallen angels and humans he’s consumed the soul of, become his minions…Part of his army. Mindless creatures bending to his mental orders.”

“Why was he after you?”

“He recruits, collects, things like me. For his army. And if he can’t have you. He kills you.” Calisto’s eyes were huge as she recalled the malicious being. “He and I had come to a crossroads and had reached the phase where he was prepared to kill me because he couldn’t seduce me, and I wouldn’t be controlled.”