Does Your Soul Remember Mine

Chapter 3: Carlist Wars, Spain 1835

She was living in Barcelona, Catalonia where civil war was breaking out all around her, fighting over who would rule the throne; Infante Carlos or the true heir, Isabella II who was the only child of the deceased king Ferdinand VII and who was also only an infant at the time.

“I do so wish we could get more flowers in the manse.” Said Maria Luisa in disdain. She was wife to Infante Carlos and had become a close friend to her children's music instructor, Elyse Cabrera.

Elyse gazed out beyond the lavish patio they stood on. The space around them was surrounded by silks, pillowed chairs, servants, and a few scraggily carnations; beyond that they were surrounded by stone walls and frightened guards; beyond that still they were surrounded by a bloody civil war tearing apart this once beautiful area. And yet, Maria was more worried about her flowers.

“Yes.”Said Elyse, playing to the hopeful queen-to-be's ego. “Such a shame that the gardens around us have been destroyed by war, these carnations would have looked lovely alongside your décor.”

Maria nodded and wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Would be that I would wear a blossom or two in my hair but these sorry sights are hardly fit to be seen by the likes of I, let alone worn by me.”

Elyse poured her friend some tea and tried to direct the conversation to more important matters. “I noticed that you are preparing the guest suites. Is Carlos expecting company?”

Maria waved her hand nonchalantly. “Yes, tomorrow he has a few military advisors arriving. They have some new plan to rid the throne of that dreadful Isabella and her evil mother.”

Elyse eyed her employer with a shadowed gaze. “Surly none of this is the child's fault. Isabella is hardly old enough to understand what's going on in the country.” She sat back in her chair to sip her tea. “Do you ever think that maybe, just maybe, the girl would grow to be a just ruler?”

Maria snorted. “Elyse, my dear, your heart and head are full of fantasies.” She leaned her elbow on the armrest and pointed a finger at Elyse, not unkindly. “Most certainly due to your chosen profession in the arts. You obviously have your head in the clouds and don't see the world as it truly is.” She gave her friend a pitiful shake of her head as if to say you just couldn't possibly understand. “Carlos says that it is against God's will to let a woman be heir to the throne, that is why he should have been crowned when his brother passed.” She glared back at the sorry looking bouquets. “Then you and I would not have to sit here and stare at wilted flowers.” She sipped her tea. “Those liberals don't understand the trouble they are causing.” Turning back to Elyse, her eyebrow raised and a smirk showed on her face. “The gossip amongst the royals is that the Queen Regent, Isabella's mother, is possessed by a demon and that is why she is trying so hard to destroy this nation. It is said that she intends to tear down the Catholic Church and turn all of Spain into a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.” She leaned back into her cushioned chair once again. “Good thing my dear husband is standing up to this rise of evil.”

Elyse bit her tongue. She had met evil and she had met the queen regent. They were most definitely NOT one in the same. “I should have your oldest play for the company!” She plastered an eager smile on her face so it would be harder for Maria to object. “She hardly gets to spend time with her father since he is so busy and, who knows, maybe one of the rich and powerful men at tomorrow's meeting would take a liking to her.” She winked at Maria. “They probably have sons that would make suitable husbands.”

Maria, who was frowning at first, began to smile when Elyse had mentioned the sons of the rich and powerful. “Carlos never usually has musicians playing while he does business but I shall talk him into it.” She hesitated. “Will you accompany her? She gets ever so nervous and if her hands falter at the keys then she will only embarrass herself.”

Elyse smiled. Maria was playing right into her hands. “But of course, dear, I will be by her side. I shall pick duets to play alongside her; I shall cover her mistakes and pick up where she leaves off if she falters.” She put her tea cup down. “I assure you; I will not let her be embarrassed.”

A warm breeze had found its way to where the two women sat. Maria flipped open her fan and began flapping away. The weather hardly ever changed; sure, there were rainy days but Elyse had heard tell of places where the raindrops froze in the sky and fell to the ground as white powdered ice.

I wonder if I'll ever see these places....

She had asked a travelling merchant once how people lived in such areas where water froze before you could drink it. The man had smiled and spoke of summers nearly as warm as Spain's. Places like these had to do all of their farming during the warm months. It was hard to imagine, standing where the weather went from comfortably hot to uncomfortably hot, that there were places where the air around you could one day be uncomfortably hot, and another day, it could be so uncomfortably cold, along with everything in between.

Later that evening, Elyse was standing by her window in the servant's quarters. She had the largest room amongst the family's employees, courtesy of Maria's fondness of her. A rustle of feathers behind her was music to her ears. “Did you listen to our conversation?” She asked Constantine as he appeared.

“Unfortunately not.” He frowned apologetically. “I was in heaven, updating myself on things going on around the world.”

“Was there a lot to learn?” She said. “You've been gone for a week.” So many things had changed for him now that she was no longer human. He was no longer required to constantly stay by her side at all times and he had far more freedom to intervene in earthly matters at her request…only at her request, as to not forsake her free will. At first that made Elyse nervous. What if she made wrong decisions? She would prefer to have him step in and stop her when she was wrong and make her do the right thing no matter how difficult…at the very least, she wanted him to just tell her what to do; but he would not. Instead, his advice was often cryptic and he encouraged her to make her own decisions and suffer her own consequences. Nevertheless, he was her best friend and her day always became so much better when he showed up.

He nodded. “Oh yes, and I travelled to a few of the places to see for myself.” He sighed. “If only more people had the holy spirit within them, then there would be far more people striving to make this world a better place.”

Elyse raised her eyebrow and nodded out the window. “There is a civil war here, each side claiming to be right in the eyes of God, each willing participant of this war is trying to make the world a better place and every single one is failing.” She sighed and closed her eyelids as if they were too heavy to hold up. “Including me.”

Constantine regarded her with age-old glistening eyes and a grin like a parent whose child had just discovered something an adult would find simple. “There are people on both sides who have the Holy Spirit, but they are few and far in between. Those that have it refuse to hurt innocent people and, instead, love one another. Doing something wrong, even for the right reasons, is still wrong.”

She thought about that for the moment. “I know Carlos is wrong.” The wheels in her mind were turning. “Souls have no gender…not really, so to say that a woman could not rule with God's favor makes no sense. He started this war because he hated her for being born a woman and he hates that her mother is ruling with forgiveness and not adhering to his strict laws and traditions. He's jealous. He cares more about birthright then he does life or innocents and would kill every poor person if it meant achieving what he feels he deserves; then he would call it a righteous victory.” She tilted her head to Constantine. “His priorities are all in the wrong places and so he would make a terrible ruler.”

Constantine's grin grew wider. “And now you see why I suggested you find employment with the Carlos household.”

Elyse grinned back. “Keep our friends close and our enemies closer.” She turned back to the fading sun. “I'm assuming you chose now to return because the city will be attacked again?”

Constantine nodded, his smile gone. He hated war more than most. “Isabelle's forces will attack the people again tonight, last month, Carlos' forces were able to hold them back but they will fail in this night.”

The sunset shone gold, gracing all these people, poor and wealthy, a sight more stunning than the most beautiful bouquet of carnations that Maria could desire. Clouds bent the colors like strokes of an artist's paint brush, showing reds and oranges amongst the gold. Immense and towering over half the sky, her view encompassed more shades and colors than anyone could ever paint onto the canvas. Breathing in, the smell of carnations filled her senses, adding to the lovely glowing sight before her. She watched as reds turned to blue and oranges turned to purples; deepening the sky with promises of a starry night. Peeking through, she saw that great northern star at first, then its friends began to show up as well. Peace…she loved the feeling of peace and rarely missed a sunset or sunrise. If she could see a million of them it would still not be enough.

“Very well.” Elyse turned from the window, now showing only a night sky. “Let's venture out into the town and see who we can save tonight.”

Guards were already shouting frantically at everyone to get inside, “the enemies have made it into the city!” They were crying out.

Calm steps through the shadows, Elyse kept herself well covered in a rough hooded cloak befitting of a commoner. She made it to the outer edge where soldiers were breaking into houses. “Don't let the doors splinter, don't let the locks break.” She whispered to her glowing winged friend who remained invisible to all eyes but hers.

Constantine nodded, shooting forward he began touching doors, blessing them to hold strong as soldiers tried to beat them down. Without the cover of resident homes, they would be sitting ducks ready to be picked off by Carlos' army. Despite being on the side she desired to win, she couldn't let the bloodthirsty men kill innocents, even in the name of a just ruler. “You'll just have to fight in the open streets.” She whispered apologetically to the queens soldiers, none of which heard her.

She found a villa being ransacked, the doors already torn off of their hinges, which most likely had been started before she and Constantine could slip out under the cover of darkness. Avoiding the door, she crawled into a window. It wasn't hard to find the people inside…they were screaming.

“Don't hurt her! Please! Take me instead!” An older woman, plump with a double chin and soft-looking hands begged a soldier holding her daughter.

The sneer on the man's face was as closer to pure evil than anything her dear friend Maria would ever comprehend. It was only a fraction of what she had seen in the past, having witnessed exorcisms at Constantine's suggestion, and a smaller fraction yet of what she had experienced in hell…but evil nonetheless. “You gross wench! Your husband must sleep with you blindfolded.” His companions, three other soldiers of the queen's army, laughed at his insult. “You're all going to die tonight anyway. You, your husband, the child at your hip and this pretty little thing we're going to play with first.”

The girl, about the age of a teenager was shaking and her face was twisted with a silent cry too tense to let out any sound, despite the tears and hiccup-like motions of her shoulders. Her wrists were already showing signs of bruises from the evil man's grip, but it was what she saw in the room floating in the spaces between the people and, sometimes, through them that held her attention the most.

Purgatory, it was where ghosts were sent if they were not welcome in heaven nor hell, just like her, and like her, they resided in the world….unlike her, these souls wandered around, haunting buildings, hardly able to affect the physical world without great effort. Demons also wandered the Earth, and she saw one here. It had his claws in the evil man, filling him with sickening desires for violence. The demon rewarded the man with good feelings at the prospect of hurting others. She recognized this demon, as she recognized them all, this demon cursed it's victims with fetishes for torture. The other men were not unaffected, if not enjoying the display of fear and promise of blood and pain, they were, at the very least, unbothered by it.

They have not let the demon get quite as tight a grip on their psyche….They just may be worth trying to spare.

First thing's first, she uttered the demons name from where she crouched in hiding. It reared its two heads and snarled so loud that she was sure the people in the physical world could have heard it had they been listening. “Yyyooooouuuuuu!” Its speech was hardly understandable; its pronunciation, like that of an ape trying to form the word. With a sucking sound like pulling your hand from mud, the demon retracted its claws, in that same instant the evil soldier's grip loosened ever so slightly and his sneer seemed ever so less genuine. Still…he was too far gone to be saved with so little time, the demon had infected his spirit and Elyse had neither the time nor the energy to try and heal him of all his evil feelings.

The demon lumbered towards her, showing one head with a wide-eyed and crazed look while the other donned a look of anguish. Both spoke in unison. “I will bring you back hoooooome…come, feel my touch and you will have your love…..” It stunk of sulfur. “Yoooooo'er love will be for things I looooove.” His mocking of the word love made her angry as he stretched his arm with six clawed fingers towards her. “Abandon this world…come home and love pain as I doooooo.”

She felt it…oh she felt it; the longing that was being put in her mind trying to hypnotize her. The lie that told her she'd be happier in misery, the depression, the sadness that made you think it was a sweet feeling and not a tragic one; it was all a ploy to grab her soul and worked on so many mere mortals over the millennia. It would not work on her. “The Holy Spirit brings me peace; joy comes from people you love with kindness. Anything else is counterfeit. Now be gone and never return to this place.”

The beast staggered back as if it had been shot. She did not let it escape; she leapt back, further beyond a doorway to bring herself farther from the sights of the people in the other room. She knew the monster would follow her. Like a cat inching towards a mouse, it moved towards her.

Just a little bit closer….

She kept her mouth shut, not speaking any more words that may cause him to be frightened away. Demons listened to commands but, like a child who doesn't want to do what their parents say, they often had to be told many times and chastised before obeying. Like a child throwing a tantrum, they were known to lash out when you asserted your commands. It lunged, but Elyse was ready. She stretched out her hand, planted her feet, and steeled herself. She flooded her mind with prayer, memories of love, the peace of the sunset, the aura of Constantine, and as much good and God-given wisdom she could muster. Her hand embedded into the creatures chest and clutched its heart just as it had been clutching the heart of its victim, who was now aiming to victimize a young girl…she had to hurry.

She prayed that the heavens grant her the authority to banish this demon then said, “in the name of my father in heaven, you are not allowed to step foot on this property again.” The monster squirmed in pain, the anguished face beginning to show tears in its eyes. “You are no longer allowed to touch any person on these premises ever again, no matter where they go from here.” She felt her hand burning inside him but her light was too strong for him to escape. “You are banished.”

With a terrible cry that shook the floor, the demon burst into flame and disappeared. There was a silence. Then she heard one of the men, a friend of the evil man's, say “did you feel that? It was like there were tremors in the floor or something.”

“Who cares!” Said the evil man, who was clutching at the girl's dress, about to try and rip it. “If you don't shut up then I might not let you get a turn at her before I slit her throat!”

“Eh, he might not care if his turn was before or after that." Jibed a short, fat soldier who was one of the three that followed the evil man's lead. The third soldier laughed with a snort but the first soldier, the one who spoke about the tremors, his anxious smile was forced. Elyse could tell that this man was starting to regret his involvement in this. With the demon no longer in the room, the heavy air of evil had lifted and those who were least oppressed now began to see the situation clearly.

By this time, Elyse had slinked back to crouch by the doorway once more, only this time she carried a heavy candelabra. Jumping suddenly far into the center of the room, Elyse released the makeshift weapon with her strongest throw, coupled with her forward momentum. It hit the evil man square in the face, making him drop the girl so he could bring his hands to his injured head. The wailing maiden ran back to her parents and little brother and they all held each other in tight embraces. The father looked upon Elyse with a sense of hope clear in his eyes.

Evil Man was bleeding and the short, fat man had drawn his bayonet. The string of obscenities that exited Evil Man's mouth carried spit tinged red with blood. She ignored his threats of r**e, pain, and death; instead she was smiling from beneath her dark hood. She taunted him with a wink of her eye and saw his rage turn his face so red that the blood pouring from his wound blended in.

Evil man charged, just like she knew he would, so she threw her own weight into a single punch, aiming for the injury on his head. Her fist met its mark and her fingers broke under her weight, the weight of the charging soldier, and what remained of the man's cracked skull. He fell to the floor…motionless…dead.

“Ouch.” She breathed as she clutched her aching hand. Distracted by the unnatural bends in her broken fingers, she didn't see the bayonet coming, but she felt it ram into her belly. She felt the tip go right through and out the other side. With a gasp, she looked up at the short, fat man's face, she saw the guilt in his eyes as the demon's energy continued to fade from the room. “I forgive you….” She breathed.

“What?” He said confusion on his face.

Elyse began to sweat from the pain and feared she would pass out. “I forgive you.” She said again.

I don't have much time….

She looked over the short, fat man's shoulder at the other two soldiers. “Your Queen Regent preaches tolerance for Catholics and the followers of Carlos. She wants peace and would be ashamed to hear about how you are treating these people.” She struggled to take another breathe. The room was beginning to blur. “Your lives are no more important than theirs and God will judge you as harshly as he would if you committed these crimes against your own friends and families.”

Her last vision was that of the three shocked soldiers, looking at her with awe…even the one holding the weapon which sliced her through and through. They gulped and looked away, ashamed as Elyse fell to floor unconscious.