by Mira Zamin
* * *
Despite the warm feeling between Calista and Evadne, Evadne would not subvert the Waveguide’s directions and Calista was confined to her chamber. She would dine with Evadne and Philyra, who would both sit with her in her room. In a way, Calista was thankful for Thetis’ punishment for it forced her to acquaint herself with this second family. They acted like a balm over her longing for her mother and Pyp and she found her love for Evadne growing. But the days still passed slowly, and Calista had even perused a history of Atlantis graciously translated into Latin and provided by the Waveguide.
Claudius managed to visit one day, and after a brief awkwardness, conversation passed smoothly enough between them, and he finally revealed the story of his young captaincy.
“My father…” He shrugged uneasily. “My father in Rome was a captain of his own merchant ship and I had sailed with him since I was a boy. When he retired, he gave me, his heir, his ship.” Stricken, he had paused. “I have four other sisters, you know. A mother. My father. And they all think I am lost at sea. And lost I am.”
His jaw tightened and Calista empathetically reached out to hold his hand. Lightly, he traced the scar down her arm. Calista whipped her hand back.
He did not visit again.
Calista was reading a history of Atlantis when she heard the click of the key turning in the hole. Philyra’s head popped in. “Calista, Hadrian is here to see you.”
Calista’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “What business does he have with me?” she inquired incredulously.
Philyra’s lips twisted scornfully, but Hadrian pushed past her. “I risk myself coming to visit the prisoner and this is the thanks I get? Thank you Philyra for letting me see your sister.”
The dismissal was as clear as Philyra’s annoyance, and she left in a huff of sea green silk. Calista tilted her head, listening to the footsteps fade away. “What business do you have with me?” she repeated, as if she did not feel an excited thrill in his presence.
He stepped closer, towering over her. Heat rushed in Calista’s blood.
“Affecting you, little nymph?” He smirked and his face only grew handsomer.
“Hardly,” she huffed, stepping away from him irritably as he chuckled softly.
“I just thought perhaps you were growing bored in your confinement. I came to lighten your time.”
“I assure you, that is hardly necessary,” she answered haughtily.
Hadrian made as if to leave. “If you do not wish to hear what Thetis wishes to do with you…”
Grunting, she gestured to Hadrian to sit down. “You could have opened with that, you know.”
“How fun would that be?” he said with a quirk of his eyebrow. “Anyways, I do not know much, but I hear that you will be released into Thetis’ custody within a few weeks.”
And so it began. Hadrian would visit Calista everyday, led in by an increasingly disgruntled Philyra. Initially, he stayed for only half an hour, but as the days went on, the hours would stretch as well, until Evadne developed the habit of regularly inviting him to dinner.
Calista was unsure what game Hadrian was playing, whether or not his regard for her was feigned or part of some plot. Even with her suspicions, she found herself looking forward to his visits and regretting his leave-takings. She sometimes wondered whether Hadrian paid her attention out of desire to tweak Thetis’ nose, but she knew when she was with him, he too was a balm over the pain of her family. And for the moment, that was enough.