VII. A Dead Man’s Pleas
"Explain." Caelum said in a low steely tone.
Hector sighed inched closer. His face hovered dangerously close to Caelum's and his bright green, almost iridescent eyes shot him a heartfelt look.
"Dear Caelum," He began in a wistful as his finger snuck underneath Caelum's chin. In a mere matter of seconds, his voice morphed into a husky growling tone. "Let's take this elsewhere."
Without warning, Hector swept Caelum off her feet and bolted through the seemingly endless corridors surrounding the Great Hall. The shorter mage bobbed up and down like a pitiful sack on the brunette's shoulder. Caelum clenched her jaw and dug her chin sharply into the older mage's shoulder in defiance. Truth to be told, she could've easily wormed out of Hector's grasp easily or mutter an incantation to a myriad of paralysis charms. For whatever reason, she restrained herself from doing so. Shs was still incredibly confused and going along with this madman's plan would probably reap more answers than demanding them by force. Of course, if anything went wrong, Caelum was definitely not defenseless.
"You know," Hector unwisely decided to pipe up as his jog became gradually slower, "If it weren't for the whole hating me part, I would have say you haven't really changed that much. You're still Cae, the Cold and Callous."
As he began to chuckle, Caelum growled. Though she would never admit it, she was actually fond of that pet name. Only Hector referred to him as such after all.
But was this even Hector? He had witnessed the retrieval of the corpses first hand. He had attended Hector's funeral service and was given Hector's very own staff. There was no plausible explanation for this, unless he was hallucinating.
Then again, it wasn't possible for hallucinations to carry you, was it?
Caelum was snapped out of her thoughts when she was abruptly dropped onto the floor. Well almost. Hector had half dropped her, then quickly bent down before Caelum made contact with the ground to ease her onto the floor.
"Ok, this frivolous affair ends now. I need answers Hector. Why are you al-"
Hector's gloved hand roughly flew towards Caelum's mouth.
"Not now." He hissed
Caelum nearly bit his hand until he heard it as well. The all too familiar clack of academy boots against the stone floors were drawing near.
"Time to have fun ~" A sultry soprano voice rang out.
"There is a storage room something here, right?" A gravely braitone responded.
"Sorry, it's taken," Hector hollered as he removed his hand from Caelum's mouth and placed it against the wall. "Shortie and I are just getting started."
"...That was hella embarrassing. Let's check the bathrooms instead."
As soon as the footsteps faded, Caelum side stepped and shot Hector an icy glare. "You pig!"
"I had to improvise! What would you have suggested I do?" Hector said in defense as Caelum tugged the hem of his cloak.
"Maybe you could've found a much better place to have this discussion so that wouldn't have happened in the first place." Caelum groused. "What is wrong with you? Have you developed an obsession with me?"
Immediately after Caelum wished she could eat her words. That wasn't an insult to Hector. That was a blow to herself. For the past nine months he had been engrossed in the delusion that Hector was still out there holding onto his promises. That fantasy had been completely shattered as soon as she attended the funeral service. She had an obsession with Hector and now, it had begun to rear its ugly head once more.
Hector stood eerily still for a lingering moment and looked down at Caelum with wide, unreadable eyes. "Just get inside."
He pushed the flimsy wooden door to the storage room open and walked in first. Caelum followed him hesitantly and was unnerved and boggled by why Hector went in first. She could've easily ran away or locked Hector inside.
"Caelum, you're an open book. You always have been. That's why I trust you." Hector said softly. Caelum stumbled mid step in mild shock. Before she even had a chance to process anything, Hector had rushed by his side and put his hand behind the shorter mage's back to prevent his fall. Then, he shut the door behind them and slid the irritatingly noisy lock. "Dearest Caelum, welcome to your master's secret study."
A puff of pastel yellow smoke emerged and as it dissipated, the chandelier in the middle became fully lit. The area was far more spacious than the humble entrance would've led anybody to believe. Rows upon rows of bookshelves circled around them and a massive wooden table engraved with the signature dragon crest of his mentor stood innocently in the middle.
"Quite frankly, I don't care about any of this at the moment. I have access to his personal archives back at his manor." Caelum spat. "What I would like to know is, why are you alive?"
She couldn't wait any longer. She needed to know before she sunk deeper into madness. It had nearly consumed her, had it not been for Sir Aevus.
"I missed you too much and I couldn't die without paying Cae the Callous a visit," He replied nonchalantly as he walked around the round table. Caelum on the other hand, stood dead still and glared at him with unwavering icy eyes.
"Well, it's a long story. But I'll give you answers. You see, I was never dead. That corpse you saw? It wasn't me. Heck, it wasn't even real!"
Everything was now unraveling. The truth was finally coming to light.
For her at least. She intended to keep Hector in the dark about her recent findings for as long as she could.
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