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T H R E E

In the House of Wind

CALLISTO REFUSED TO SHOW ANY EMOTION AS SHE APPROACHED THE KNEELING MAN, HER SWORD IN HAND. He whimpered as she neared him. She kept the stoney ice cold mask that she had worn practically since birth.

"He confessed to the crime," murmured Mina, Callisto's closest friend, "why can't you lock him away?"

"Look away, Mina," Callisto whispered in response, "there will be blood."

Callisto listened to her friend take in a shaky breath. "No. I'm fine, Cal. Just...don't do it."

But Callisto ignored her. She raised her sword above the man's exposed neck, and a column of wind bore the weight from below.

"You confessed to stealing a day's provisions from the Store," said Callisto, her voice more cold than any wind. Her words spread around the town square, her breeze delivering it to each member of the crowd's ear, "and the punishment for any crime is death. What are your last words?"

At that moment, a cry erupted from the crowd that had gathered to watch the execution. Callisto glanced upwards to find a young girl, no more than ten, screaming and sobbing. Several onlookers grabbed at her dress as she ran forward to the kneeling man. From behind Callisto, Mina released an audible gasp.

"My daughter..." the man rasped, a strand of greasy hair covering his face as he turned to face the small girl. "Please, my Queen. I stole for my daughter, so that she could eat. Please. Her mother died. She has no one but me. Please."

He looked up, allowing Callisto to see his dark blue eyes, swimming with tears and pleading. Her sword arm didn't waver, but it also didn't lower.

The town square was silent, with the exception of the man's ragged breathing, his daughter's cries, and Mina's sniffling. Callisto remained still, keeping her sword poised above the man. The criminal.

Mina was crying from behind them. "Cal, he has a child. You can't kill him."

Her heart bristled at Mina's words. Death didn't care if you had a child; it took anyways. Callisto was living proof of that, as were her three sisters. They had a mother, and Death took her from them, and forced the four stranger sisters to kill each other. And, after the first brief years of her life when she hated Death for taking her mother, Callisto opened her eyes to the darkness inside herself. She didn't hate Death anymore; she was Death.

Callisto narrowed her eyes at the pleading man. He was begging for mercy. Her mother, the former Queen of the Kingdom, had died proud and sitting up. She knew that if her mother had a choice, then the Queen would have chosen to die standing, regal and proud and powerful, as any Queen should. Not begging on the dirt ground with unwashed hair and dirt under the nails.

Callisto lowered her voice down to a whisper, and said, "no exceptions; no mercy."

Then, with a heavy gust of wind, Callisto lowered the sword, cleanly cutting through his neck. His begging ceased, but his daughter and Mina's cries only grew louder.