Chapter 6

Are you sure you know her?

 

 

Kailah’s punishment ended without any more surprising visits from esteemed persons. Cam was happy to not have anything to do with the Council on a good day as it was. Chelry and Esma threw them a ‘Welcome back’ party a few days after Kailah got out, well, Chelry threw it and Esma just attended.

“Oh yeah, whatever happened to that Body Caster?” Cam asked sipping on some wine after the party. Kailah had passed out sometime around midnight.

Chelry chuckled softly as Esma stared out the window into the gloom of two-in-the-morning.

“He happily turned himself in.” Chelry replied, “You two seem to be getting along better now.”

Cam smiled, “Yeah, she isn’t so bad. She definitely isn’t an airhead like Shalia was. She’s sharp; I actually have to try to pull one over on her. And boy is she a card shark!”

“I have heard the rumors that ya’ll are fifty-seven to four?” Chelry said raising his eyebrows.

“No!” Cam said indignantly, “It’s only twenty-seven to thirteen.”

Chelry laughed, “Like that’s much better.”

Chelry started to fidget, fair warning sign that he was about to broach a touchy subject. Cam took another sip of wine and braced himself.

“You do know what today is, don’t you?” Chelry asked softly looking at Cam with concern.

Cam stared down at the drink in his lap, “Yeah, it’s been five years. I couldn’t protect her like I should have.”

“Have you had any leads on the Mistress?” Esma asked turning her attention back to the conversation.

Cam shook his head, “No, not in five years, not even a rumor.”

Kailah groaned and rolled over on the couch next to Cam. The cover slipped off her shoulder and Cam smiled as he put it back on her. Kailah smiled in contentment as she snuggled deeper into the cushions.

“Is there any way to find out?” Chelry asked.

Cam shook his head, “No, short of storming through Chaos territory. In the beginning I would have, had Maltoris not grounded me.”

“And now?” Esma asked staring at him intently.

Cam met her gaze and held it for a minute. Her gold eyes pierced him as he thought on the answer to that question. He dropped his gaze back to Kailah’s face.

Cam shrugged, “For some reason, it doesn’t hurt as much now. Revenge isn’t as dire a need as it was before.”

Esma stared at him a second longer then turned her gaze back out the window seeming uninterested once again. Cam finished off the rest of his glass and stood up and stretched.

“Well, I should get her to her bed. Thanks for the party.” Cam said holding out his hand to shake Chelry’s. Chelry stood up and clasped Cam’s hand almost swallowing it.

“Glad, you’re both ok.” Chelry said dropping his hand as Cam turned and scooped Kailah into his arms. Kailah curled close to his chest to keep warm but didn’t wake.

Chelry showed them to the door and waved as Cam walked down the hallway toward the East wing the two of them lived in.

“He’s healing well.” Esma commented as Chelry came back and sat down on the couch next to her.

“I think we have Kailah to thank for that.” Chelry mused stroking his beard, “I haven’t seen him smile like that since before Shalia died.”

“I may not understand emotions the way you humans do, Chelriman. But I do think that I would be…agitated…if something happened to you.” Esma said slowly trying to find the correct words. Being a Galic Elf, emotions were something somewhat foreign to her.

Chelry smiled, “As would I, Esma. As would I.”

 

Cam carried Kailah back toward their apartment they had moved into that morning. As Caster and Sword both lived in the same apartment, this saved on room and allowed unattached Swords and Casters to have rooms of their own.

Chelry and Esma’s apartment was in the Northern wing of the Compound close to the new recruits bunkers. Cam smiled in fond, sometimes hilarious, memory of his days spent in the bunkers. He crossed the courtyard that sat in the middle of the four wings of the Compound to the East wing.

Cam got the door opened without disturbing Kailah and locked it behind them after he had entered. The apartment wasn’t extravagant. They hadn’t been in it for long so furnishings were somewhat bare and basic. Most of their stuff was still in boxes, waiting to be unloaded.

There were two separate bedrooms, a common area, a kitchen, and a bath. Cam walked softly to Kailah’s room and put her on the bed. He thought for a minute then shrugged and began taking off her shoes. Once he got her shoes off he went to the closet and pulled out the extra blanket and threw it over her.

Seeing her sleeping face Cam was reminded of Shalia. Surprisingly the pain wasn’t as intense with the memory this time; it was more a dull ache rather than a torturous hell. He had often carried Shalia back like this and tucked her into bed after some party or practice session.

A strand of hair fell over Kailah’s face and Cam tucked it back gently into place. Cam looked at her tan face in what moonlight filtered in through the doorway. Cam sighed and walked out of the room to his.

He stripped off his clothes and got into bed to see what sleep he could get in the remaining hours before dawn. Usually on this night he would be passed out drunk so he wouldn’t have to live through the memories. But even still, they would haunt him when he woke.

As he drifted off into sleep, memories of Shalia’s death, which usually plagued him on this night, were replaced by memories of Kailah’s laughter and the goofy hat she had worn as they had played cards during her week of incarceration.

 

Cam woke just a little before dawn. Taking a deep breath he rolled over and stretched, his joints popping. He sighed and stared at the ceiling, this was the first time he had woken up on the day after the anniversary of Shalia’s death without a hangover, or woken up period.

Cam got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Once he was done he headed back to his room to get dressed, after he was clothed he headed to the kitchen to find something to eat. Kailah’s door was still shut so he assumed she was still asleep and tried to be quiet as he moved around in the kitchen.

Today the two of them had Pair training. New Pairs usually went to training their first month together, to be able to attune to each other and fight better. The two of them had to go because it was part of Kailah’s probation. Since she had lost it and Cam hadn’t been able to prevent it, the two of them had to go to school.

Surveying the cupboards and finding them practically bare, Cam decided to make a grocery list. Most Pairs tended to not be home often because of various contracts they take up, but Cam and Kailah were grounded till her probation was over, so groceries were a must till they could work again.

He started some coffee going in the coffee maker and then headed to Kailah’s room to wake her up. Dwarves were amazing engineers, Cam mused, none of the race had a lick of magic but with what they came up with you’d think they were magicians.

Bearded, short-tempered, and bordering on severely anti-social, the dwarves preferred to stay in their mountain halls and invent than deal with other races. Most of the technology of the day came from the dwarves that shared their mountain home with the Galic elves. The Galic elves lived in the forest on top of the Galic Mountains and left the dwarves to themselves in their tunnels under the mountain.

Cam knocked on the door to Kailah’s room and got no reply. He knocked again and still didn’t receive an answer. He tried the handle, it was unlocked. He opened the door slowly and peeked into the room, ready to shut it should anything heavy come his way.

“Kailah?” Cam asked softly as he opened the door wider.

The light from the common area lamps filtered into her room. He crossed the floor to her bed and looked down. She had the covers over her head and was curled tightly into a ball.

Cam chuckled, “Hey, princess, it’s time to get up.”

He tried to pull back the covers but she gripped them tighter and growled at him.

“Come on, we have training today.” Cam sighed and yanked on the covers.

Kailah sat up when the covers were pulled off and Cam took a step back in surprise. Her hair was a mess, she hadn’t taken it down from the pins the day before but a lot of strands had broken free. The strands that were only partly free fell over her face like a mass of angry tendrils. She glared at him, yanked the blanket from his hands, and laid back down.

Cam chuckled as he shook her, “Get up-ouch!” Cam pulled his hand back from her shoulder slightly blistered. Kailah sat back up and turned to face him.

“Go, away.” Kailah’s fire personality growled at him. Her eyes had the red glow that he had seen when she had flipped out before.

Cam shook his hand, “Not a morning person I take it?”

Kailah took a deep breath and seemed to get herself under control, “Is there coffee?”

Cam nodded and Kailah got up and shooed him out of the room. She closed the door behind him with a bang. Cam thought about retorting but then the sting of his hand reminded him of whom he was dealing with. He shrugged and headed for the kitchen. Pulling out a coffee cup and inspecting it, finding it clean he poured Kailah a cup of coffee and put it on the kitchen table. He then poured himself one, fixed it how he liked it, and sat down at the table and waited for her.

A few minutes later Kailah shuffled into the kitchen. Her hair was brushed down and she wore a pair of pants and a white tunic shirt. She spotted the cup on the table and sat down in front of it across from Cam. After she added cream and sugar she blew on it to cool it off before taking a sip.

“So, is this a regular occurrence where you wake up ready to kill?” Cam asked as he leaned forward and propped his chin on his hand.

“I don’t do before sunup very well.” Kailah replied drinking some more of her coffee, “Never have.”

Cam nodded, “And the whole, heating up and burning people?”

“Sorry.” Kailah grumbled, “I don’t really know why, but the fire personality is closer to the surface than the others. I think it has something to do with me being more proficient at Fire Casting than the others. Coffee calms me down though.”

“So when I come to wake you up in the morning I should bring a cup with me to ward off fiery wrath?” Cam asked smirking at the glare he got from her.

Kailah shrugged, “Wouldn’t hurt.” She drained the last of her coffee then got up to get more.

“We have training today. Don’t know if you heard me before when you were trying to fry me.” Cam said taking another sip of coffee.

“Yeah, I heard.” Kailah replied over her shoulder.

“When we were given that contract before all the mess with the Body Caster, how were you planning to ‘connect’ with me?” Cam asked her as she sat back down at the table.

Kailah shrugged, “I’d figured we’d do it on the way.”

Cam almost choked on his coffee, “What?”

“What, what?” Kailah asked confused.

Cam sighed, “You, obviously don’t know anything about attachment.”

A slight look of indignation crossed Kailah’s face, “Well I was training to be in council so I didn’t need to know. Why, what am I missing?”

“Ok, you do know that when a Caster and a Sword attach, some of the Caster’s power goes to the Sword, creating a connection between the two of them?” Cam asked putting his cup aside. Kailah nodded looking at him slightly confused.

“Well, the connection is always present; a Caster can transfer more power to the Sword causing them to have abilities similar to the Caster. When Shalia and I were a Pair if needed she could transfer some of her Phantom power to me and I could create a double of myself during battle. It didn’t last very long, though, and it was very taxing on Shalia.” Cam explained.

Kailah listened in silence as he continued, “The connection is also a stop-gap measure for when the Caster’s powers go out of control. Like with what happened with the Body Caster. If we had been attuned I could have ‘hypothetically’ stopped you without-“ He paused and the both of them blushed at the memory, “…without…such measures.” Cam coughed and took another swig of coffee.

“Why did that work, by the way?” Kailah asked curiosity superseding her embarrassment.

Cam shrugged, “It was unexpected. I could have probably knocked you over the head and that might have worked. Probably wouldn’t have hurt as much too. I’ve had some fiery kisses but….”

“Well, you did kind of kiss a live torch.” Kailah snickered drinking more of her coffee.

Cam laughed, “So, yeah, this isn’t something we could have learned ‘on the way’.”

“Oh…” Kailah said softly in understanding, “Is it hard to learn?”

Cam shrugged, “It wasn’t too hard for Shalia and me, but I’ve heard that every Pair is different. It’s just a good idea to have someone else there to help if something goes wrong.”

Kailah nodded silently as she pondered Cam’s words. Cam drained the rest of his coffee then stood up from the table.

“Well, it’s time to go. I figured we’d go grocery shopping after training, the cupboards are pretty bare.” Cam walked to the sink and rinsed out his cup. He set it on the drying wrack and turned to leave the kitchen. Kailah nodded and finished off her own coffee then followed him to the common area after cleaning her cup.

Cam went to his room to get his boots and was putting them on as a knock sounded on the door. Curious Cam got up after putting on his other boot to see who was there.

“Yes?” Cam asked as he opened the door, “Oh, morning Chelry.”

Cam stepped back and let the giant through followed closely by Esma. Cam nodded at Esma as she passed him without a glance.

“Morning to you too, sunshine.” Cam grumbled as he closed the door, “We were fixing to head to training.”

“Yeah, Esma and I thought we’d tag along, we don’t have any contracts at the moment.” Chelry said sitting on one of the two couches in the common area.

“It would be entertaining if something were to go amiss.” Esma supplied before Cam could ask anything. Esma said it in such a matter of fact tone that it took a second for Cam to process what she had said.

“I jest,” Esma said before Cam could say anything back, “Chelry insisted we act as your supporters, I merely wish to observe.”

“Ok, whatever.” Cam said slowly still not sure if she had been joking or not. Kailah emerged from her room doing up her hair, she wore something similar to the outfit that she had worn when they first met after their joining. The only difference was the black corset vest was a dark red corset dress that laced up the front but remained opened past her belt.

“Oh, thought I heard you guys, good morning.” Kailah said smiling at them as she finished putting her hair into a pony tail. Esma nodded in greeting as Chelry said good morning back.

“Well, let’s get this show on the road.” Cam said heading out the door.

Reviews

[Gosia]

Another interesting chapter, but I yearn for action. You did the great job portraying the world of Casters and Swords, properly introduced the dream-team (excellent work in this department), but they seem to be sitting around doing nothing so far. I suppose that around this chapter something should happen, something involving trouble, fight or intrigues.

[Warlon]

Jee, reminds me of somebody in the morning.

[Dreamer]

teehee :P So i based her off of me a little. :)