Angel Wings

Chapter 15.2

EVABELLE

Evabelle fell to her bloody knees on the cool smooth marble of the Sanctuary. "CALANDRA!" Evabelle shrieked.

The mage, who had been sitting at the bottom the stairs reading one of her books, leapt to her feet.

"CLOSE IT! CLOSE IT!" Evabelle screamed, tears streaming down her grime covered cheeks. "YOU HAVE TO CLOSE THE PORTAL! YOU HAVE TO CLOSE IT NOW! HURRY! HURRY!" She scooted her way off the star, shaking and sobbing so badly, that she couldn't see a thing around her.

Calandra acted as instructed by the hysterical girl. She lifted her hands and chanted one of her spells, breaking the connection between them and the kingdom of Portel. Then she lowered her arms quickly, and spun to Evabelle. "What happened?" She snapped.

But all Evabelle could manage was more sobbing. Her friends, she had doomed them all. Aza, Lucis, Del, Faux, Kai, Tru, they were going to die. Evabelle had left them with no way of escape. She was the biggest coward that there was. What a pitiful creature you are. Evabelle shook her head and hugged the bottom of the banister.

Calandra wouldn't have it. She strode up to the crying girl and wrenched her grip from the staircase and looked right into her drowning eyes. "What happened?" She said very slowly and very clearly.

Evabelle swallowed hard and took several painful breaths, desperately trying to pull herself together. "Sh-she was l-like you. She was a w-witch. Sh-she--"

Calandra's grip tightened on Evabelle's wrist. "Who? Stop your bawling and tell me who!"

"It-it was S-Sophie. Sophie and CJ. Th-they they were the ones. They were the traitors."

Calandra's eyes narrowed. "CJ," She murmured softly and then shook her head. "Wait who's Sophie?" She finally released Evabelle, who curled into a ball and did her best to wipe her tears away. She was an utter mess. Calandra shook her head and fetched a box of tissues.

Though the memory seemed to have been a long terrifying trip, it barely took anytime for Evabelle to recall the whole experience to the mage. When she finished, her tears had stopped. She sat numbly at the base of the stairs, her knees curled up to her chest, staring at the star that had taken them all to the trap.

Sophie and CJ. Just as all her books had done, the traitors were the last people she would have even considered. Evabelle took another tissue and wiped more of the dirt and blood from her face. "Why them?" She whispered, staring at her hands that still shook. Something that CJ had said back at Kalas Hem popped into her head. "When someone betrays you it hurts. You thought they were your friend, but they weren't." How perfect that it had been him to say that. Evabelle ducked her head into her knees.

Calandra had paced slowly in front of Evabelle, saying nothing as Evabelle told her what had happened. Now she spoke. "You said that this Sophie claimed CJ to be her familiar?"

Evabelle nodded, still not looking up.

Calandra stopped pacing and this time said softly in an almost comforting voice. "Then CJ is not to blame."

Evabelle whipped her head up to stare at the mage. "What?"

"Your folklore around familiars is wrong, if I'm not mistaken. They say that familiars are an animal-shaped spirit or minor demon that serves a witch as a domestic servant and companion. While this is somewhat true, it's not completely. Demons don't serve witches. It's the other way around. A real familiar is a fragment of the witch's own soul placed into another living creature. That fragment controls the creature. The more the witch pours into her familiar, the more she can take hold. She can control the body, use the being's eyes, ears, and mouth. But by doing that she renders her own body vulnerable. She can pull her soul out and just leave the small fragment making him more of a blank puppet doing as she wishes with a mere thought, and leaving her own body just fine."