The Return Of A Spoiled Villainess

His confident step became quieter the closer he got to Cali"s bedroom. At the very door, he stopped unable to enter.

When Cali was a baby, he often came here. Lester loved to read, stretched out on the carpet, while the restless angel was crawling around, or play with her, showing his new inventions.

How many mechanical toys he made just for the sake of those laughing eyes and a broad smile. What happened? Where did things go so wrong?

His thoughts were interrupted by voices at the end of the corridor.

A maid leading an old man and a young girl appeared from the side of the stairs. Lestor immediately recognized his old friend. Maitre Gerard El Ceras was already a renowned physician and scientist when the young Count Lestor el Marsters had just begun his work in the Green Castle. Lestor always admired him and often made various tools at the request of his friend. And although they had a significant age difference, they quickly became close friends.

"What are you doing here, Gerard?" - The Count called the friend, backing away from the door.

"I want to ask you the same thing, Les!" - The elderly doctor responded. The count raised an eyebrow in surprise. Maitre Ceras was definitely an outstanding healer, but he specialized primarily in non-humans. Why was it necessary to call him? It seems among the rest of the injured Lestor noticed the shifter. Perhaps that"s why.

"Gerard, friend, maybe Paris was nervous and called you by mistake. But still, I"m glad you"re here."

Lestor started, but apparently, the sound of their voices drew the attention of those who were in the room. The door behind the count creaked slightly. Upon seeing the Maitre, Paris beamed.

"Maitre Ceras, forgive me for having to bother you at such a time, but the time is crucial."

Coming out for a second, the young man picked up the doctor under his arm and not paying attention to the confused face of his father and his friend literally shoved the old healer into the room.

Cali"s bedroom was well lit. In a hurry, the servants managed to tidy up a bit. Otherwise, the room was exactly in the condition in which the young lady left it six years ago. Cream drapery on the walls with small pink flower, exquisite furniture with carved ornaments of soft beige color, paintings, and many statuettes, boxes, vases. It"s all created an image of an extremely girly bedroom.

In the middle of the room, there was a wide bed with a frail white canopy. Just the girl in dirty, torn male clothes in the midst of pink pillows and feather beds did not fit into the overall interior at all.

Two maid servants were desperate to find a way to remove the clothes from the young lady. They were gently wielding knives, cutting off the pathetic remnants of clothing and dirty bandages from Cali"s body, but all this messy state made their task extremely difficult. The girl, on the other hand, was absolutely immovable, like a doll.

As the old healer examined the girl on the bed, his eyes widened, and his eyes darted to the count"s face.

"Lestor, this is .. What the h.e.l.l happened? How..."

His confused questions were interrupted by Paris, still holding the master by the arm and continuing to gently and persistently pull him to his sister"s bed.

"Maitre, you will have to wait with all these questions. But now it is essential that you help her."

The doctor turned to the face the young captain. His expression was stunned.

"Paris, boy, what are you talking about? She needs a human doctor! I treat nonhumans - trolls, shifters, elves - you know? An ordinary doctor can help her much better." - Began Ceras. Paris just silently let go of his hand and approached the bed.

The maids were still struggling with the clothes stuck to the wounds. Without stopping, Paris took the knife from one of them. In one swift motion, he cut the fabric on Cali"s chest and parted the material, inviting the doctor to take a look.

"Paris! " - Lestor shouted in anger, but his indignation was interrupted by a dramatic change on Gerard"s face. The doctor took a step forward without taking his eyes off what he saw in the cut. He tried to blink to see if his eyes were not deceiving him.

But the gray stone remained protruded in place in the middle of the girl"s chest. Tearing off his eyes from the Gorgon, the old doctor turned his gaze, first to Lestor and then to Paris.

From the pale face of the Count, it was immediately clear that he was seeing the stone for the first time, but Paris"s calm, hopeful expression suggested that the guy knew very well what was going on here or at least suspected it.

Without wasting any time, the doctor decided to take control of the situation. Seeing that the count was ready to jump at his son with questions, Gerard looked at his friend firmly and waved at the chair on the other side of the bed.

"Lestor, friend, listen, Paris is right. Now there is little time for chit-chats. Let me first examine the girl, and as soon as we are sure that nothing threatens her life, we can learn everything from Paris in detail. Sit here, hold Cali by the hand. I am sure it will help her a lot."

When the count heard the words of his friend, he had no other choice but to settled himself in the indicated place. Ceras turned to Paris.

"So now I need only the facts. Is this what I think?"

Paris just nodded.

"Ok. How long?"

"She said that almost all this time, but I do not know the details."

"So you talked to her. Was she in this condition when you found her?"

"No, she was fine. As much as possible with this thing in the chest."

"Ok. Now, in a nutsh.e.l.l, tell me what led to the fact that she looks like this now."

Paris winced, shame and pain appeared from the depths of his soul.

"Four days ago, Arians attacked the fortress of Khail-hold in which I served. Part of their army looked like legendary Stone Beasts. The next day, when we with other captains and Earl Wolcroft were discussing the strategy of defending the castle in his office, a group of five people unknown to us entered. They looked and behaved like real Stone Warriors. At first, they told us that, by order of the Arians, they were supposed to hold us in the room. But then strange things started happening. One of them fell and began to writhe in pain. It was Cali. The rest immediately rejected the order and even gave us secret information about the enemy. They said they are not going to partic.i.p.ate in this battle anymore."

"Did they explain why?"

"They said that the Gorgon cracked at the moment when Cali saw me, and there was no way to fix it. To be honest, I did not understand much of this. Everything happened so fast and so messy that I just didn"t have time to figure it all out," - Paris began to shake from the memories of that terrible day. Everything was so wrong and disordered that even now nothing fit in his head. Ceras came closer and lightly squeezed his forearm in a gesture of support.

"Calm down, boy. I understand how hard it is for you. But you have to tell me everything so that I know what I am dealing with."

"All right "- said Paris taking a few deep breaths and trying to make his voice as even as possible.

"Cali and the rest of the Stone Beasts were left in my room so that she could rest and we went to the wall with other commanders to talk. During our conversation, they found us again. Then the attack began and they, like madmen, leaped from the wall of the fortress. Although this jump, they survived without injury. But they could not get out of the battle with the Arians without damage. Just ten of them went face to face with a whole army. They were able to get to the ammunition storehouse and destroy it, and then one after another fell under the onslaught of enemies. We were able to get them back only a little later when they were already in this state."

When Paris finished his story, Ceras for some time looked from him to the girl, thinking about what he heard.

" I see," - the old doctor finally spoke and headed for the bed. After carefully examining the girl and instructed the maids about how to clean the wounds and how to change the bandages, Gerard again raised his eyes to Lester and Paris.

"We should go to another room and discuss everything. Let the maid take care of the girl." - He said, and without waiting for anyone, headed for the door.

After a little pause, father and son followed him.

Maitre Ceras was in the Marsters House more than once and therefore without hesitation went to the library, which was located nearby. Along the way, he pa.s.sed a couple of directions to the stuff, who was pa.s.sing by and went inside the library, finding a cozy armchair near a wide stone fireplace for himself.

As soon as Lestor and Paris set beside him, Maitre looked around attentively at two men and began to explain everything in detail.

"First of all, I would like you to listen to me and try to push your feelings aside. I need your bright minds and not emotional breakdown. The situation is very complicated, and I can not promise anything." - He looked inquiringly at both Marsters. Receiving the nod of agreement from both of them, the doctor continued in the same patient tone.

"As Paris already understood, you Lestor too should accept as soon as possible. Cali has become a Stone Beast." - As if these words were the last straw for the Count. Lestor made a faint moan and leaned back in his chair, covering his face with his hands.

"For G.o.d"s sake, Lestor, get a grip on yourself," - Ceras tried to take a friend out of shock. The healer waited until the count calms down, and then continued.

"The situation would not have been so disastrous if her Gorgon, the stone in her chest, which actually makes the Stone Beasts this way, would not have been damaged."

"And judging by the words of Paris, it was damaged by feelings suddenly gushing on Cali because of the meeting with her brother." - Paris only nodded curtly, confirming the doctor"s guess.

"I, unfortunately, saw this only once. As you know, Stone Beasts are my secret pa.s.sion, I have been studying them for many years. But I had only a few opportunities to meet with them and study them closely. Gorgon is known to be almost impossible to damage from the outside. Stone Warrior can be killed, but it is very hard to do. In spite of this, most often they are killed in battle. The second reason is damage to the Gorgon by the owner. Again, there are two reasons for this. First, the body of Stone Beast over time, most often because of old age, ceases to produce enough energy to fuel the gorgon. Although this is only a theory and I personally have not seen examples of this. And second, with a strong outburst of emotions, the gorgon suffers serious damage and begins to actually die. In this case, if the Stone Beast will not be able to curb their feelings, the process enters the lethal stage. The creature dies for a couple of days in terrible agony. I have seen this only once. The man had to go through a lot, the last straw was the death of his entire family, his wife, and three children. He became Stone Beast, having met one of the elders. But after a few years, by chance he found out that part of his family had survived, his wife and two sons had time to hide during the attack of the robbers, and the bodies that the father saw did not belong to them. When meeting with relatives Gorgon burst. The father hid it from a happy family, ashamed of what he became. When the wife of this man sent for me, it was already too late. After my arrival, he lived another day, and believe me, I would not wish anyone such a death. Therefore, I am not surprised by what Paris said. Everything is logical. They were fully aware of what was going on and chose one of the best alternatives."

"You want to say that my daughter will die anyway and there is no chance to help her?" - Said Lester, in a low, broken voice. Gerard hesitated for a second.

"I want you to understand that the chances are very small, but still ... I heard one story. I can not say that this is true, because I have not seen anything with my own eyes, but ..."

"Speak already!" - barked Lastor, slamming his fist on the armrest.

"There is a theory, and the words of Cali confirm it in part that the Gorgon is a living organism. It gives a great straight to the carrier, and it limits him in many ways at the same time. But the owner has little opportunity to subjugate it. If the Stone Beast is morally strong enough, then he can make the gorgon work for himself without any restrictions."

"And what we need to do to make it this way?" - asked Paris, afraid to hope.

"It is something like the reverse method. As a hot tea in the heat can make you feel cooler. The same way Cali need to experience a very strong feeling and want to live further. And we can try to push her to it. p.i.s.s her off, make her furious, or make her want life as never before so she can start fighting with Gorgon for her life."

"But how do we do that?" - He said in confusion.

"I have a couple of ideas." - said the healer mysteriously, getting up and heading for the exit.