To hell and back

The esense of the innocents

When I got up to leave the library, I did not expect the King to follow me, but he did. And he did not stop there, he followed me out to my car and when he went to the passenger side of the car I stopped for a moment and stared at him.

"What?'

He asked me like I was the one acting weird and not him.

"Ummm... doesn't a king have better things to do, then this?"

For a moment I saw something along the lines of surprise flash in his eyes, but it was soon replaced with the unreadable calmness and a smirk on his face.

"Nice try. If you think that I am going to let you play with magic in my kingdom without supervision, you are mistaken. There are rules and laws here, that I am going to make sure you oblige by... and who knows what else you might do, what sort of demons you might call upon my kingdom."

I stared at him for a moment, both impressed by the idea of that and annoyed by his assumption that he would be able to stop me. And before I could stop myself words slipped out of my mouth.

"As if you would even know what I am doing or who I would be summoning... not that one mare innocent girl would be enough to summon anyone worth summoning, you would need at least thirteen to peak any decently powerful demons attention."

The moment those words were out of my mouth the smirk on his face got wider, but the look in his eyes got even more sharp.

"You sound quite knowledgeable on the subject of summoning demons."

Shit... I need to be more careful with what I say and get my tongue under control or it will cost me my head. After a deep calming breath to get my emotions under control, I put on a fake kind smile on my face.

"Not really, its common knowledge on the other side of the wall."

And before he could ask any more questions, I opened the car doors and slid into the seat behind the wheel. Before I could even start the engine, the king opened the car door and sat down next to me. In no reality did I expect to be sitting next to the light king in the same car, how did I end up here?

Without another word, I starred the car and drove back to the mansion. Throughout the whole ride we both stayed silent with my eyes glued to the road. I was sure that killing the king in a car accident would cause more then a few problems for me that I would rather avoid.

Even without looking at him, I could feel that the king's eyes were glued to me throughout the whole ride. This was probably one of the most tense rides of my life. The moment I finally turned into the driveway, I felt my body relax a little. And I was not sure if it was because of the pressure of driving one of the most powerful men in the world... or just from the intensity that he watched me with.

Before we could even reach the side door of the house as I parked closest to them, the door opened in front of us and a warm body collided into mine with force. The familiar warm and sweet scent of Sara's hair filled my lungs as the girl wrapped herself around me.

"You are back."

She whispered, but before she or I could say or do anything else. A not so shuttle clearing of throat pulled the young girls attention, making her go fully red as she stepped back and fallen into a deep curtsy.

"Your highness..."

Before anyone could say anything else Petro appeared on the other side of the door.

"This way your highness, we were not expecting you to walk in though the side door."

With those words his eyes darted to me with a promise of a punishment for this.

Great... just what I needed on top of this.

"It's okay, Petro. This is not an official visit, so there is no need for the full formalities."

"It would be very improper Sir, please follow this way."

And after shooting one more glare in my direction, he turned on his heel, leaving us to follow after him. Both I and Sara, who was now shy with a complete red face hiding behind me, to let the king walk first. For a moment it looked like he wanted to say something, but after that moment of hesitation he looked us both over one more time and followed the butler. Once his back was turned to us, it felt like the air itself was a lot lighter and I could breath more properly. Sure I still felt his presence looming, but it was a lot less intense.

Knowing full well that we are expected to follow, I grabbed Saras's hand and dragged her after me as we followed the two men that walked in front of us.

Like last time, the King was led to the main sitting room and the whole family was present.

"My King, what a lovely surprise."

The lady of the house said as she made a small curtsy, that the king stopped as he leaned in to give her the hell kiss on the cheek."

"No need for the formalities, aunty. This is not a formal visit, but more of the family sort. Miss Cali made a discovery that might save Bernadeth."

The older woman went a bit pale as her shocked eyes turned to me.

"What? Realy?"

The king turned to me, as if giving me the go ahead to explain the plan as well as what I had discovered.

"Yes, its quite a simple spell that has a lot of power behind it. It relies on pure intentions and the need to protect. It was created by a young girl who wanted to protect her family and by the story it seems that the family was protected from the dark forces that wanted to harm the family. From what the stories description of the harms they suffered from, someone in the family was being targeted in a similar way."

There was hope shining in the older woman's eyes as she stepped around the king and stopped right in front of me.

"Do... do you really think it will work?"

"Yes, if I was not sure about it, I would not have mentioned it at all."

The room was silent for a moment the girls father that has been silent so far spoke up.

"So, what do you need for it work?"

Slowly I turned to Sara, who was standing at the back of the room with her eyes casted to floor as well as her cheeks still bright red from embrement from before.

"We need an innocent girl, with a pure heart to cast a simple protection spell."

"Can you do that?"

It was the first time that I heard Birdies voice today in this room, which was a surprise as she was never one to keep quiet.

A little chuckle from the king broke the silence before I could answer.

"Oh, it has been years since I could have been called that if ever."

"So... so do you have someone in mind?"

Birdie asked again, this time sounding more unsure then before.

"Yes, Sara."

"What?... But..."

Sara was about to say something, but stopped before words could leave her mouth. The king was the one to break the silence.

"Are you sure... that she fits the criteria still?"

I turned to him as the need to protect the girls honor boiled in my chest, but I controlled it. Instead, I took a deep breath and answered him calmly.

"The idea of purity is somewhat of archaic... it has more to do with how the person sees it and feels... loosing innocence is more associated with mixing of energies in purest forms or exploring the depths of magic on your own that is considered loosing innocents... well that or committing the cardinal sin of taking a life or dabbling in the dark arts enough to stain your soul. I know for a fact there were women who done mainly this sort of magic, but had an active life in the bedroom... they just never went all the way..."