by C. A. Sabol
Selene’s rescuer frowned. “Get out of here, Bubo. I’ll have you dealt with later. It’s people like you who give the streets a bad name. It’s a good thing I have her now,” he remarked, anger brewing in his eyes. “Or else I’d give you a sound whipping for saying that. I’m going to take care of her now ... .”
Bubo saw the anger he’d caused in his adversary and shook briefly as he tried to discern whether or not this joker was telling the truth. When Bubo realized that he was in severe trouble, he hurried away, off into the darkened alleyways.
“Are you all right?” the stranger asked. His words were soft and kind, and Selene’s eyes widened with sudden fear and confusion. Her hands gripped at her heart as she stood there for a moment, her searching eyes looking up to meet with his.
She watched as he turned to face her. He had a hard, but not unattractive face; it was a face that Selene imagined could be easily turned into a gentle smile. At the moment, he wore a face of concern mixed with the disappearing remains of battle. He was tall and lanky, and he had to be around her age—maybe a few months or even a couple of years older. He was dressed in simple dark green fighter’s pants, with a sleeveless black shirt. The cloak he wore was black, with a couple of decorative symbols sewn on, but it looked faded and well worn. His black hair was unruly and stuck out in various places. Selene looked up at him to see that his eyes were blazing with a fire that was slowly reducing once more to a spark as he looked down at her.
She was shaking a little from the rush of adrenaline, but besides that she was basically fine. “Yes ... I’m fine ... ” she whispered in what she hoped was a gracious and humble tone. She hurriedly pushed out of his arms and stood up, scrambling to appear to be the graceful young lady she’d been raised to be. “I did not mean to bother you, uh, sir, sorry for disturbing you.”
“Etoileon.” He had noticed her a while ago, heading toward the darkened Oasis before. He had not been able to recognize her. The palace robe she’d been wearing had made him look twice, and he knew as soon as his eyes fell onto her that there was going to be trouble. Maids and other palace workers were not a favorite of the Oasis nighttime regulars. Now that he’d been able to see her face up close, Etoileon was pretty sure that she would’ve had a lot of problems with the drunken men at the Oasis tonight. She was absolutely breathtaking.
Her hair curled at its ends, framing her face and setting it off at the same time. The wind had managed to dishevel it up a bit, but it looked all the more charming and appealing. He almost succumbed to the impulse to reach out and touch it. At the moment she was flustered and trying to pull herself together gracefully. She was no doubt somewhat ruffled from her close call with the ground. Despite her attempts to give the appearance of being grown up, she had to be younger than him. Her eyes were a deep, beautiful blue, like the sea on a clear night. But the thing about her that stuck out most in his mind was the feeling he’d had when he’d held her. He had felt almost certain that he was supposed to be there with her.
Selene, who had been watching the ground with a growing interesting, jerked her face up to look at his once more, her cheeks flushing a bright red at her eagerness. “Beg Pardon?” she asked.
“Etoileon. My name’s Etoileon.”
“Oh.” Selene put on a small smile; it was her first since she had met him. “I see. Euh ... ” Why can’t I think of anything to say? she thought as she hugged her arms to herself. She had never quite felt this way before. She was no longer afraid, and in fact she was beginning to forget the whole encounter with that Bubo or whatever his name was rapidly.
She looked shyly up at this gallant young man who had saved her. There was something about this boy ...
“This is not a nice part of town,” he said. “You shouldn’t be here. When the power’s back, all the other drunks, gamblers, and roughhousers are going to come back. You’d best go home now, miss ... er ... miss ... ” his sentence hung as he waited for her to give him her name.
“Selene.” No time to be shy now, she thought.
“Really? I thought your name was Trouble for sure,” he smiled lazily down at her.
What was he doing? He was never this nice to people he’d just met. Why did he want to make her laugh, make her smile? The questions running through his mind were left unanswered as her mouth curved into a warm smile and she began to relax. “Thank you for saving me, Etoileon. It was so nice and very admirable of you to intervene on my behalf.”
“Bubo is not my favorite person,” he admitted in an angry voice, but he scratched his head nervously and looked away, a sure sign that he was unaccustomed to praise and even more unnerved by how much he liked it. “I’m sorry that he had to cause you problems.”
“Oh, it was an accident,” she waved it off. She frowned all of a sudden. “That’s too bad that you are not friends. I’m sure that you would be a great example for him to look up to,” Selene said kindly. She felt bad for the Bubo person. He’d only been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Euh ... right. Anyway, go home. Someone as naïve as you needs to be safe.” Etoileon started to turn away when she reached out and took hold of his arm.
“Please,” she said. “Please, I want to go and see the Oasis. Will you stay with me?” she looked up at him with her imploring and enigmatic eyes.
Etoileon felt his heart skip a beat. This girl was weird. But there was something about her that he couldn’t ignore, something he couldn’t quite identify ... He did not hear himself say “Yes,” or even see her smile brightly. The only things he could clearly remember later on were her unblinking, mesmeric eyes and the rapid beating of his heart as her hand took hold of his.
SELENE WAS TOO EXCITED about seeing the Waterfall basin she did not see that her new friend felt awkward.
“I have always wanted to visit this place,” Selene confided in him. “It’s been one of my most secret dreams for almost forever.”
Etoileon was unused to this. His life was not all pretty and bubbly like this intriguing girl was. She seemed so aloof, so wonderfully separate from all the evil. She almost did seem to glow. He wondered if he should be worried.
“I haven’t been to this part of the city before, you know. I’m glad I don’t have to go here alone,” Selene whispered to him. “Thanks for coming.”
“Yeah, sure,” he responded. “Look, the power is coming back on now.”
Selene looked down on the scene before her and indeed saw that the lights were starting to flicker back on. It was completely dark and lifeless one moment; the next moment it was warm and welcoming, a beacon calling out through the waves of city life.
Selene could hear the growing intensity of the sound of the waterfall as it hit the waiting water below. She could soon feel the gentle spray of the mist as the wind blew caressingly on her face. Her ears suddenly perked up at a sound of a horse neighing in the distance.
“Did you hear that?” she asked.
“Hear what?”
“What do you mean, ‘hear what’?” she giggled. “I’m talking about the horse. I heard one just now.”
Etoileon shook his head. “There have been no horses around here. Not since before the rebellion fifteen years ago. The royal family outlawed them in the city because they feared that they would be used against them in battle.”
“That’s nonsense,” Selene remarked. “I just heard one.”
“If you say so,” Etoileon shrugged. “But I didn’t hear anything at all.”
“Do you ever think that’s because you don’t want to hear it?” Selene asked, her gaze slanting over to meet his. “Sometimes I think people block out certain things that they just don’t want to accept or know or hear about.”
He shrugged. “I guess ... ” he looked up at the Gemstone Oasis as they reached just around the basin’s bend. “This is it, Selene. Gemstone Oasis.”
Selene’s eyes filled with the array of lights flooding the area. There were more buildings and places than she’d imagined there would be. It was a won
derful, almost unbelievable sight as she looked around. “Wow!”
“This place has everything and everyone—drunks, idiots, and the usual people who make a town colorful—and it looks like we’ve got newcomers here tonight,” Etoileon noticed, a slight look of surprise and interest on his face.
“What do you mean?” Selene asked.
Etoileon pointed over in the direction of the band of brightly dressed newcomers. “Those guys over there in the royal blue outfits, the ones with the emerald trim, see? They are part of the Royal Palace guards. I’ve rarely seen them here before in uniform. Don’t get me wrong though, lots of them come here when they’re off duty.”
“Uh ... Royal Palace guards?” Selene repeated uneasily. When her new friend nodded, she looked away and began to head over in a different direction, pulling Etoileon along with her.
“Hey! Where’s the fire?” he asked as he trudged along after her.
“I just wanted ... I just wanted to get a cone of ice cream, that’s all,” Selene hurriedly explained. “I think I see a stand over there.” She pointed to a less active corner of the Oasis. “I’ve never been allowed to get any of the stuff before, and I’m dying to try it! Hey, can we take the tour up to the waterfall?”
“Sure,” Etoileon agreed. He thought for a moment and then added, “If you’d like, I’ll show you the secret perch you can sit on and see the whole basin oasis from the waterfall.”
“Is it safe?” she asked. When he nodded, Selene’s eyes went huge with excitement. “That sounds wonderful!” she agreed, her smile mile wide. She’d already forgotten about the troops that her brother had sent after her.
IT WAS A FEW HOURS later when Selene sat up on a rocky precipice about a quarter of the way up from the Oasis, licking up her third cone of ice cream. It was absolutely the best night of her entire life, she thought. And it was all thanks to Etoileon.
He was eating his own cone of ice cream at a slower, controlled manner than the Princess was, and he was looking down at the Oasis water, his eyes glazing over as he stared out into space and got lost in his thoughts.
Selene smiled a tiny smile as she looked over her newest friend. He was so quiet, she thought. He had barely talked about anything on their whole adventure together, but Selene had not minded. He’d answered all her questions, and told her a couple of interesting facts she was sure she could not find in any textbook in the Palace. And she loved the sound of his name. Etoileon. Another smile flittered to her lips. It sounded like a name of an epic war hero or something.
He caught her glance as he was thrown out of his distant trance. “What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Selene blushed slightly. She knew it was rude to stare at another person, and she had no doubt been doing that for some time before he’d caught her. “I was just trying to imagine how you’d gotten the name Etoileon, that’s all.”
“I know it’s a little unusual,” he scratched his head nervously. “But I don’t really know why it’s my name either. My parents ... ” He shrugged and let the sentence go.
A moment later, Selene tried once more to get him to talk to her. “Do you like your parents?” she asked. When he still said nothing, she continued on. “I don’t remember mine. I’ve always sort of wondered what it would be like to have a real mom and dad.”
“You don’t have parents? Did they die?” he asked, slightly shocked to find out she was an orphan just like him.
She nodded. “A long time ago. My brother takes care of me now,” Selene answered, looking up at the sky as she talked. “I’m glad I have him, but sometimes he gets distracted with work. In fact, he was paying me no heed tonight, and that’s why I was able to get out. And I have to say, as much as I am glad to be here, I am disappointed in his abilities to pay close attention.”
“Hmm ... ” He shrugged once more. His gaze turned away as he considered it as he ate his ice cream thoughtfully. Someone as pretty as this girl had no parents, just like him. It wasn’t much of an encouraging similarity, but it was there. Looking over at her again, seeing her lost in her thoughts, he felt compelled to tell her the truth about him.
“I don’t have any parents either,” Etoileon admitted. The truth was, he had no memory of his real parents at all. For most of his life, the closest thing he’d had to a parent had been the old Shaman priestess who’d taken him in ‘out of the goodness of her heart’. He almost laughed at the thought. All she’d wanted was a maid or a cheap cleaning service. It had taken Etoileon two weeks, when he was eleven, to figure out that she was out of her mind. He’d fled from her, to a new area of the city, and had scrounged around for years until he had at last been strong enough to carry on by himself. He was now nearly seventeen years old, and he’d learned many things in the last ten years. “I’ve lived in this part of town for some time now. When I’m eighteen, maybe I’ll try and get a decent job at the docks or aboard some ship. I’ve always wanted to travel, see the world.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” she nodded. “I can’t do anything like that, but my brother says he’ll let me go when I’m eighteen.” She smiled ruefully over at Etoileon. “You’re so lucky that you only had a year to go. I have three ... well, almost two and a half.”
“I wish I was old enough to sign up now,” Etoileon admitted. “Battling against corporations and trying to ship everything all over the world sounds a bit more civilized then fighting Bubo and his friends for space and dignity on the streets.”
Selene scooted a few inches closer to him. “It must be hard living alone,” her voice soft, like a whisper. Her ice cream lay forgotten a few feet away as she waited for his response.
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “But no one really wants to trust a street kid. You should know that. It’s a real shame, too. Not all of us around here are like the Demon Chasers.”
“Who are the Demon Chasers?” Selene asked. One could detect the ominous evil from the mere sound of the word.
“Have you ever heard of the stories of the Guardian and Obsidian?” he asked her. “A woman I once knew a long time ago told me about them.”
“I think I have. It was a long time ago, when I was younger, however. Is the Guardian you mean the one who watches over the world of Dreams?” she asked. “That’s the only Guardian I know.”
“Yeah, that’s him,” Etoileon confirmed. “And Obsidian was one of his helpers, before he turned away from his duties.”
“I thought he tried to take over the Guardian position,” Selene said. “I’ve heard the tale about how he was imprisoned in the Four-point Celestial prison, between four of the brightest stars in the night sky.” She looked up. “I was hardly told of the Demon Chasers. I was always told of the goodness of the Guardian and his love for all of us here on Sapphira.”
“That’s true enough. Anyway, the point is, when Obsidian was cast into the Celestial Prison, he vowed to get revenge on the Guardian. In order to do that, Obsidian had taken the Guardian’s most precious dream and had poisoned it with a sickness.” Etoileon held Selene’s full attention now. “And that most beloved dream was Sapphira and its people.”
“So the Demon Chasers are ... ?” Selene shook her head in slight confusion. “Obsidian’s helpers?”
Etoileon smiled warmly at her. “Yeah. The woman who told me was one of them, actually. She’d been a priestess for about forty years. She was probably one of his most devout followers. I hear that she constantly talked with him herself, and pulled off amazing feats of dark magic in his name. Many people came to see her about sicknesses and had them healed. But it was at outrageous prices. She had this one man give up his most treasured possession, a beautifully carved sword, in order that she could heal a broken ribcage. And I remember that there was another woman who had to give up her laughter so her boyfriend was saved from death.”
“How awful to have seen what the darkness can do,” Selene whispered. She thought a moment about her own past, with the prophecy that had been given at her birth in the Guardian’s name, and her own
special dreams. “I’m glad that I love the light too much to be afraid of shadows.”
“It was a little ironic that her boyfriend was an entertainer, though,” Etoileon added, almost as an afterthought.
“Etoileon,” Selene cocked her head to the side and smiled in a curious way, “What if I was in danger? What would you give up to save me?”
“I don’t know; give me an idea or two.”
“Would you walk on hot acid coals?”
“Depends if I get to wear shoes or not,” he smiled at her. “But since probably not for the shoes, I doubt it.”
“Huh. Well, what about giving up something for life? Would you give up your most precious item for me to be safe?”
“I don’t really have items that mean so much to me that it would be a burden to give them up for you,” Etoileon decided after a moment’s thought.
They sat on the perch overlooking the basin, Selene’s eyes catching sight of more guards entering the bars and entertainment places below. The worry in her heart was growing. It was not like the guards to go into the City wearing their Palace uniforms. She almost jumped out of her seat when Etoileon spoke up and asked her a question.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” she asked, forcing herself to turn her eyes away from the guards on the ground and focus completely on her friend.
“I asked if you think someone would agree to give up his life for yours, would he do it?”
Selene looked up at the White Moon Shira as she pondered the question. Her best friend in the whole world had to be Dorian ... could she even call him her best friend? He was her brother, first of all. But nonetheless he was also the King. Hence, his life would have to be protected first of all no matter what the cost was. So she doubted that he would give up his life for her. “Well ... I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that,” she admitted, taking the diplomatic way out of answering. “Do you mean that a person would take a punishment for me, or just die for me to get better?”
