Comforting Darkness

Chapter 31: The Tutor, The Cruel Face of Truth

Sieglinde Sullivan was sleeping soundly, quite exhausted from her so full and eventful day with so many conflicting emotions. She knew already pain and sadness were walking hand in hand with happiness and hope, in and out of a human's life and she had experienced it a couple of times, but these occurrences were nothing compared to what the teenage girl had gone through that day.

For starters, she had been shocked by the wolf man's attack to young Ciel. She knew the noble beast was a strict warden, but could not understand why he had turned so hostile and impatient all of a sudden; was it possible the strangers' arrival had angered him that much? What for?

Even before she actually heard it, she was certain the village summit would have a homophonous decision that these strangers should leave with no further delay and that was what indeed happened. However, Sieglinde could not see and think of them as strangers anymore. It sounded weird to her too, but the strange boy that stormed in her life, along with his crazy servants had shaken the foundations her whole life had been built on.

Even though Ciel was obviously a physically weak male, she enjoyed his company and liked to listen to his voice when talking, pretending to be a so serious grown up man and failing quite majorly; she found it funny although she could understand why he was acting like that, since she too was trying to be more mature than what she wanted. But the thing she enjoyed the most on him was his blushing, embarrassed face when she made some very spicy suggestions for their relation; just thinking about it she wanted to laugh so hard as she never had. With him she felt for the first time how it is to be close to someone of your age who could easily be your friend.

His handsome dark butler and his pretty blond tutor were also quite peculiar. Sebastian, so perfect in everything that the girl could do nothing more than stare at him in awe; on the other hand, the tutor seemed to be the exact opposite, since she had difficulty in learning even a simple language like German... But was expected to teach one? That was so illogical!! However, given Ciel's strong, clever and cunning mind, Sieglinde was certain he had chosen them to serve him for a reason, these two had more hidden talents and she had caught only a glimpse of the woman's knowledge on magic potions; could it be she was actually a witch too?

Sieglinde had grown attached to these people very quickly, it hurt her that tomorrow they would exit her life as unexpectedly as they entered and she would be left behind, faithful to her duty as Emerald Witch... If only they could come back from time to time and spend some holidays with her... That dream became her motivation and the hope of making it true helped her, it actually pushed her to finally find the key she needed to complete the ultimate spell that very night.

It drained her, exhausted her but at the same time sent her to seventh heaven; since wolf man would be pleased and appeased through the completion of the spell, making it very possible for her dream of picnics under the sun with Ciel by her side, while enjoying Sebastian's divine cooking, could become a very solid reality... which was quickly crushed by Wolfram, exactly as he crushed her legs some years ago. Then it was just some quick movements of his strong hands as he broke her toes, pushed them to the sole of her foot and then pulled down the arch until it broke before binding them. Now it was just a word from his strong voice, reminding her of the solitary duty the Emerald Witch had for a lifetime; but the face of pain and guilt he had was the same both times. It was the face that always made her not wanting to hurt him further; he looked as if he was in real pain every time she was suffering, either physically or psychologically, and that always made her retreat and obey the rules.

As the night came, she felt her brain ready to explode in her small head and it was only then when she decided to go to sleep; thankfully her exhaustion took over, sparing her from lying in bed all night, thinking what she gained and what she would lose within only a week. But now, a persistent knocking sound on her window pulled her from her troubled dreams, driving her to get off the bed and walk to the window while sleepily leaning on her crutch. However, the sight presented in front of her woke her up for good as she pulled the curtain open.