16 Chapter 14: Where the Moon Shines

Calista's consciousness floats in an endless void of hazy memories. As she tries to look at the passing glimpses of still-framed images glimpsing from her mind, a voice breaks the silence.

She is unable to understand what it's saying, nor know from whom the voice comes from. It started as a buzzing whisper before it turned into an unintelligible noise that distracted her from drifting further.

"Ca...liiiiss..taaa.." the syllable rhyme her name, "Caaliii...ssttaa." the disembodied voice called again.

Her consciousness became focused on the voice, following it from her mind. The voice sounded deep and calm. It sounded familiar as if she had a conversation with the owner of this voice before. Her mind starts to wander again, but it wasn't some far-fetched memory she was thinking about. Her mind moved, passing the still-frames one after the other until she reached a halt. She remembered now! She knows who exactly that voice belongs to. She found it! The memory of his red eyes staring at her, piercing through her.

Her eyes suddenly found the strength to move, and without a second more, she finally opened them.

" Calista? Oh! You are finally awake." the familiar voice said.

Her eyes tried to focus on the face she saw when she opened her eyes. She saw nothing but a silhouette of a face lined with the white rays of pale lighting. His eyes were fierce and wild, but there is a certain softness in his brown eyes.

"Master, let me carry her." a voice hissed from the background, " It is not for you to do such things. That's why you..."

"I have her already in my arms, get her a room!" commanded the voice.

Calista realized that she was carried by a man with strong arms and broad chest. She could smell him from where she was; he smelled amazing. Godly, if for a lack of a better term. She hid her face as she blushed.

"What are you doing? Why are you covering your face?" he asked.

"Master..." she timidly replied, "Why are you carrying me?"

"We found you slumped on a post by the dock." he replied, " You were bloody and there were talons stuck in both your arms."

Calista tried to get out from his arms, but he insisted on carrying her to the room, which he commanded Tagahatid to prepare. She tried it again, but this time he glared at her, changing his eye color to red. Calista felt the wave of shivers through her spine, for a second, she feared for her life again, and the flashes of her arms and legs torn away from her body flooded her mind. She cowered again and hid her blood-drained face with her hair.

" I apologize about that, Master," she said with a tremble in his voice.

Sidapa was silent for a moment, " It's okay, even I should apologize to you as well, Lady Calista." he replied as he softened his gaze on her. He bowed his head a little and continued walking towards her newly prepared room.

" Tagahatid will tend to your wounds later, for now, we'd just wrapped it up to stop the bleeding," he said.

" Am I gonna die?" she asked then realized how stupid the question was. She can't take it back now.

"What? Pfffttt…" Sidapa cannot hide his amusement and laughed so loud it echoed through the hallway. " I've torn you to pieces before, did you die?"

She opted to remain silent for the rest of the interaction. She was both embarrassed and scared at the same time as Sidapa wouldn't stop laughing at her, even until they reached the room and laid her on her bed. She could still hear Sidapa's laughter from outside her room even after he left.

Calista woke up sometime later. She's not sure what happened, but it looks like the comfortable bed she laid on, made her eyes heavy, and got her to sleep. She focused her eyes on the space in front of her. She looked around, seeing the grays of the huge room accented by the mellow strands of white rays coming from the canopy of Sulad.

She felt a numbing pain on both her arms and was reminded of the incident that occurred earlier. She looked at the wounds she had and saw it was already neatly patched up. She tried to move her hands to check it. There was still some pain when she clenched a fist, but otherwise, her hands are functioning quite nicely.

"I see you're awake, Lady Calista." Tagahatid came out of nowhere, "Pugay! A pleasant evening to you. I hope I didn't surprise you." he bowed low.

His voice startled Calista, who was concentrating on the welfare of her hands. " Oh my gosh! Can't you NOT do that?", she annoyingly asked.

"Do what, Lady Calista?" the confused alagad inquired.

"Yyyooouuu..." she pointed at him. "...don't pop-out of nowhere! This is a lady's room!"

"What do you propose for me to do?"

" Use the door, please. Call out my name first before knocking," she said.

"Would it be more efficient if I immediately materialize? That would save us the effort." he retorted.

Calista sighed as she tried to explain the reason, " Because, I'm a woman, and that's the proper way to do it."

There was silence in the room. Tagahatid bowed low to her and went back to the shadows.

Calista sighed as she calmed herself down.

"Laaadddyy...Calistaaaa.." Tagahatid called her by the door. " I shall now knock." he then starts to knock.

Calista felt dumb about it. She could see the sarcasm her "mentor" is doing, " Yes, come in...", she resigned to the jab.

Tagahatid opens the door, "Good. The master needs you immediately, and we need to hurry."

She stood up and followed Tagahatid to the door.

" Can you walk until the dock?" he asked.

" I think I can. But it might..." she cringed thinking about the pain.

"That won't do! I can sense the Master now, and he's bored waiting for us." he lays his hand on Calista's head.

She shivered at the cold hand that was laid on her head, she wanted to protest, but she could hear the urgency in Tagahatid's voice, so she chose to remain silent.

"Take a deep breath," he instructed.

"Huh? Wha..."

Suddenly a thick blanket of darkness began to cover them. Calista was unable to breathe. It's as if the wind was taken out from her lungs.

Not a second later, they were already at the docks. She knelt as she gasps for air.

" You took your time, I see." Sidapa annoyingly said.

Calista looked up and saw Sidapa's eyes turning to red. She immediately stood back up and stiffened her pose, like a cadet face-to-face with the superior officer.

"Hmm... You don't have to do that.." Sidapa said, "Tagahatid! What are you teaching, Lady Calista?" he turned his gaze to Tagahatid who bowed low to apologize for the lack of supervision.

Calista could feel their Master's rage, she took a deep breath and tried to intervene in the scolding that Tagahatid was going to have. When suddenly they heard thunderous wings flapping above them.

"Pugay, Lord Sidapa.", a screeching voice echoed through the docks.

"Bow low, Lady Calista," said Tagahatid.

She did her best to bow while also glancing at the strange visitors that came to Sulad.

Calista then saw twelve humanoid creatures descending to the docks. Their head was covered in feathers and their body in black spiky hair. She also noticed that the creatures had talons for both hands, the same as the one that attacked her earlier.

The creatures bowed to Sidapa, who slightly nodded to recognize them. The birdmen, as Calista perceived them, turned into human beings, albeit with a slight distinguished look. They have almond-shaped eyes with a shade of blue for color. Their noses are aquiline-shaped and their lips are full and red. Their most prominent feature is their hair as it takes the color of the feather they had when they were at their "beast" form.

"What brings Hari Ramana here?" Sidapa inquired.

" My Lord, I am here to find my daughter," he answered.

Calista noticed how Hari Ramana didn't bow to Lord Sidapa. She felt the tension as she knew her Master might strike the visitor for not respecting him. She took a glance at her Master to see how he would react.

"Lower your head, Lady Calista," Tagahatid whispered.

She lowered her head, but before she did, Calista got a glimpse of her Master's face. It was calm, eerily calm.

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