Salt of The Earth: The Fall of Barcelona

by Vlada Asta

  He felt this familiar helplessness again – he had no idea what kind of Hente could’ve done this. It looked like there was a new subspecies in the city.

  But Ulmanas was the only one who believed that. The warriors behind his back had a different opinion. They had been quiet for a while, studying the results of the massacre, until one of them said:

  “Looks like this Aeterni dealt with all the Hente here and started hunting humans…”

  ***

  The courtroom was dark and stuffy. It had no places for observers in it, not this time. Only those who had anything to do with the case were allowed to enter – witnesses, prosecutors, judges… and executioners. No lawyers. No-one was brave enough to protect the Hente.

  Sebastian wasn’t happy to be here. He didn’t want to accuse her, and he knew every word he said would be used against her. He wanted to stop it, but he didn’t know how. He was the only person in this room who believed she was innocent.

  She couldn’t kill those humans! Aeterni saved the city from Hente, and how did they repay her? Couldn’t they see it wasn’t the first time someone was trying to set her up? They should’ve been more attentive about it!

  Among the growing spite and hatred, she was the only person who remained calm, even though she was chained to the wall. Her black eyes were watching Sebastian without offense or bitterness. As if she was trying to support him while she was the one in grave danger!

  “Answer my question!” the church prosecutor attracted his attention again. Sebastian had never seen that monk before. “Are the things Gabriella told the warriors true?”

  “I don’t know what she told them.”

  He couldn’t stand seeing Gabriella ever since the accident on the beach. Everything was going so well before she interfered! Maybe it was sinful, but still… He now knew that some things were more important than following the rules blindly.

  The prosecutor couldn’t understand this, and no-one could.

  “Have you been involved in any sexual activities with that creature?”

  Hearing that question made Aeterni laugh out loud, which caused another wave of angry whisper to fly over the audience.

  “Any sexual activities…” she repeated through laughter. “Humans! Why do you have to make everything so confusing! We were just kissing, that’s all!”

  “Do you confirm that, Brother Sebastian?”

  “I do…”

  The whisper was gradually getting louder. Even kissing a human woman would’ve been a crime for a soldier of the Church. And he was kissing a Hente!

  Sebastian didn’t regret it. There were acts in his life he wasn’t proud of, but now he knew he was doing the right thing, something he truly wanted with every part of his being.

  And the prosecutor sounded triumphant:

  “Another crime of the Hente proved!”

  “What crime?” Sebastian resented.

  “Seduction! Adultery! This creature came here to tangle us in her intrigues! She decided to seduce the soldiers and kill the citizens…”

  “That doesn’t make any sense!” Sebastian was trying to explain. “She had been helping us for weeks only to start this massacre out of the blue – is that what you’re trying to say?”

  “She simply lost control over her instincts. Hente, no matter how smart they might be, are nothing but animals. Besides, by that time she thought everyone believed her, like Brother Sebastian! I’m sure she had everything settled with other Hente all along, and now they hold no grudge against her for killing their kind.”

  “That’s absurd…”

  “Sebastian, stop it,” Aeterni interfered. “They’ve already made up their mind, and everything that’s happening how is just a show.”

  She was right. He saw it and felt it, but he didn’t want to believe it. There was no serious investigation or search for clues. At first there was a claim that Aeterni had killed those people, and now she was facing that hastily organized court.

  Why did they make those conclusions? Aeterni said she had killed all the spies, and those deaths proved her wrong – thus she was lying. Those people were killed in an unusual manner, so she must’ve done it. Those statements were superficial and often illogical, but nobody seemed to mind.

  They weren’t even impressed by the fact she came here on her own and allowed them to chain her to the wall. She wanted to talk this over, but humans remained aggressive. No-one took her side, even the Cardinal! And Robert Laas, who swore to be so sympathetic to her, didn’t even come here.

  She ended up all alone by that wall – against the world. Just like Sebastian had been against the pack of Hente! She was surrounded by foreign creatures that were getting ready to kill her.

  He had to stay with her, even if it meant dying. He was returning his debt to her this way – and he simply wanted it.

  The others knew about it. He could see warriors standing between him and Aeterni, they were ready to stop him if he tried to get to her. Lucas was also there. He was noticeably displeased by what he was seeing, but he didn’t dare to argue with the church management.

  “All crimes proven” the prosecutor announced joyfully. “Homicide, deceiving the Church, seduction, defilement! This creature brought dirt and sin into our house! That can only be punished by death!”

  “She came to protect us!” Sebastian reminded. “Doesn’t that mean anything?”

  “Don’t take her lies for a good deed! Brother Sebastian, you’ve been fooled by her, but that will pass soon. And so far you’d better avoid any speeches in that creature’s defense – or you’ll turn from a victim into her ally!”

  “I’m not a victim and I never claimed I was! I love her, that’s why I kissed her, and that’s it! She didn’t force me or anything!”

  It was as if he was hearing his words from aside, without any control over what he was saying. But Sebastian couldn’t deny it was true. As soon as he voiced it, things finally became clear. That was the feeling that hadn’t been leaving him alone all those days! It was sinful – but only by human laws. The laws of nature were different.

  They didn’t understand him, but he didn’t expect them to. He wanted to reach her, to tell that to her personally – but he didn’t make it.

  “The creature must be executed immediately!” the prosecutor whined. “Before it completely destroys the soul of our Brother!”

  According to the protocol, they should’ve used water cannons to execute her, but the rules had changed. The warrior standing next to her took his sword out and slashed her across the chest.

  The wound was deep, almost cutting her in two, and lethal. But Aeterni didn’t make a sound; she continued looking at Sebastian and smiling, even though black blood was already escaping the corners of her lips.

  And he could feel her pain! As if it was his own… Casting his eyes down, Sebastian was shocked to see it wasn’t a mere feeling. The wound on his chest copied Aeterni’s wound, large and bleeding… It hurt him, but it didn’t scare him. On the contrary, it brought a strange feeling of understanding: it would be better for them to leave together, even if they couldn’t touch each other at that moment.

  He wouldn’t have been able to live without her anyway. Not after what he felt – and what he admitted. His body knew it, that was why it copied her horrendous wound. There were only a couple of minutes of life left for him…

  He jumped up on his bed, breaking through the nightmare. Sebastian pressed his hand over his chest instinctively, to stop the bleeding, and felt nothing. No blood, no wound. He was lying in his bed, all alone, and it was still night outside his window.

  His breathing was erratic, he was trying to shake that dream off and he couldn’t understand why he was facing this punishment. It wasn’t the first time that happened! Nightmares became frequent guests of his nights, and they always overwhelmed Sebastian with how realistic they were. He was suffering and dying with her every time – and he always loved her. The surroundings might change, but his confession to her and everyone aroun
d him was part of every dream he had.

  Sebastian had no idea where that feeling came from and whether he recognized it correctly. In his dreams everything was so simple and obvious, but in reality he kept denying that love. It was unnatural! No-one could love a creature born to be a cannibal… Not even born, but created out of dead bodies by a bigger monster!

  But it was a fact he couldn’t deny. Aeterni managed to stir something in his soul that he had kept locked for years. When he tried concentrating on that emotion, he felt so good he wanted to accept it without questions, to succumb to it. But when Sebastian imagined that feeling in his old life, things weren’t as simple. He had no right for it…

  He laid down on his pillow tiredly and closed his eyes. His skin was covered in sweat, he felt hot, and his heart barely started to return to its healthy rhythm. He didn’t feel sleepy, and he knew he would stay awake till the morning light. That happened after every nightmare he had.

  But this time the silence surrounding him wasn’t absolute. A window that he normally left open for the night squeaked, and that sound was enough to make Sebastian sit on his bed, a knife held ready in his hand.

  “Don’t throw that thing at me!” Aeterni demanded. “Where did you get it from anyway? Are you sleeping with weapons? Nice alternative to a teddy bear!”

  She sat on the windowsill, her back to the city, and she was swinging her legs carelessly in the air. She made everything look like it was just a casual friendly visit… in the middle of the night, through the window. His bedroom was on the third floor.

  “Why are you here?” was the only thing Sebastian could utter.

  He didn’t need to hear how she got here – he understood that. He had seen her turn her fingers into claws more than once; that was all the tool she needed to climb up the wall, she was agile enough for that. Sure, there were cameras all over the place, but Aeterni could easily turn them off – or ignore.

  “I missed you,” she replied. “Can you believe that? I had more fun with you. But you spent the last days outside the city, and I had to wait.”

  He liked her words, but he wasn’t going to show it. Although she would know… she always did somehow.

  “I’ve heard they blame you for killing four people,” he said.

  “I’ve heard it too. That’s not true, and I hope you know it.”

  “I do,” Sebastian sighed heavily. “But I’m not sure the city shares my point.”

  “Why should I care? You know there are few people whose opinion matters to me.”

  “Yes, but it’s the city that decides whether you leave or stay. And those were horrible deaths, they scared people…”:

  “I know,” Aeterni became serious. “And they should be scared.”

  “Do you know who did this?”

  “Only one Clan kills this way, no other option. It’s Nuria’s Clan. So… we have a problem.”

  She wasn’t afraid, just like before. But the fact she considered something a problem spoke volumes to Sebastian.

  “Why haven’t you detected them in advance?” he asked.

  “I can’t sense them as clearly as the other Clans. Plus, it’s a big city with many places to hide! This Clan is perfect at disguise… But that’s not the only thing that bothers me. Nuria wasn’t interested in the peninsula in the past, her children have never hunted here. And now she appeared… I don’t know why. Perhaps her actions are connected to me, or she reached some sort of agreement with Tsiara and Goar. But I don’t think so. Nuria is very strong, and that’s normally accompanied by great pride. She won’t work with anyone else until she makes sure she won’t handle it alone. Until I know her intentions, I can’t say how hard it will be to defeat her. Your help would make things easier…”

  It was a reason for them to work together again – and a good one, the type that the Church would approve! The feeling of joy that flashed in his soul was almost sinful…

  “We need to discuss this,” he said. “Can you wait for me outside? I need to get dressed, I won’t sleep anymore in any case.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why get dressed?” she winked at him. “I like you the way you are!”

  She jumped off the windowsill and crossed the modest space of the monastery cell slowly. She stopped in front of his bed, facing him, but not touching him – yet.

  Sebastian felt nervous, but it was a weird type of nervousness starting with a hot feeling at the pit of his stomach. He knew what it was. He remembered he had no right to feel it.

  They hadn’t talked about what happened at the beach, there was just no time for it. And later he didn’t have the courage to go through those memories again. It was easier for him to act as if nothing had happened.

  Aeterni didn’t let his pretense last. She leaned forward, until she was basically on him. They were separated by a barely-there distance and a thin sheet between them.

  The hot feeling in his body brought along that special helplessness, the one he wanted to accept. Sebastian didn’t like that.

  “Don’t do it,” he frowned. “We’ve got things to discuss!”

  “Nothing urgent.”

  “You’re inside a monastery!”

  “It’s just a building to me, you know.”

  “What if someone knows…”

  “There are so many stupid things in your head!” Aeterni rolled her eyes in mild annoyance. “You’re attracted to me, and we both know it. It’s new to me, I didn’t expect it, and I want it to develop. Why not?”

  “Because I’m a church warrior and you’re a Hente!”

  “So?”

  “It’s wrong!”

  “Says who?”

  “There’s a law…”

  “Made by humans, and not the brightest ones. Listen, if we view this from your God’s perspective… He created your body the way it is. He permitted it to have desires, so is it truly wrong?”

  “We believe that such desires come from the devil, not God,” Sebastian noted.

  “You’re so boring! I’d understand it if you were really stupid, but you’re not. You know the truth, your body knows the truth. You should stop deceiving yourself!”

  “I’m not deceiving myself, humanity has followed such laws for centuries!”

  “Oh, enough of that!”

  She stopped holding her weigh and leaned over him fully. At the very same moment she pressed her lips to his, and this time it was a familiar sensation, a desired and needed one. Her hands touched his shoulders, burning him with inhuman heat. Sebastian held his balance with one hand, while he touched her hair with the other, feeling her silky locks slide through his fingers.

  He didn’t want to accept she was right, but he couldn’t deny it anymore. They were together in his bed, and that was against the law, but at the same time it brought such harmony into his soul! The emptiness left by their forced parting was gone, he finally felt complete because he was doing what he wanted to.

  He lifted himself to free his arm, and his fingers reached for the loose shirt Aeterni was wearing. It was so easy to lift it, to feel more of the soft, burning skin, sense it with his body pressed tight against hers…

  A door slammed shut somewhere in the hallway. Not in his cell, just close to it, but it brought him back to reality. He remembered who he was and what would happen to them if they were caught like this. It took Sebastian all of his willpower to move the woman he loved away from him softly.

  Some love just shouldn’t exist.

  “You’re stubborn,” Aeterni stated, clearly disappointed. “You’re hurting yourself.”

  “I want to be with you, but… not like that. Not discretely or breaking the law by it. I’ll ask Lord Cardinal to let me work with you again.”

  “As you wish. I’ll take any help I can get, it’s not easy to track Nuria! Especially since she tries to make everyone believe I’m the one behind those deaths.”

  “Do you even know where to start?”

  “I have a fair idea,” Ae
terni nodded. “Remember I told you I felt the Hente presence in Laas’s house? Really weird and very faint… Well, when I moved into his house, his wife couldn’t stand living with me, so she went away and took her doctor with her. The feeling of Hente was gone with them.”

  “But you’ve said that both of them are humans!” Sebastian reminded.

  “Yes, and I still believe it. That’s quite a paradox. Okay, I’ll be leaving now. Find me – when your owners allow you to!”

  At some other time Sebastian would’ve ignored her irony, but now her words were a slap in his face. Judging by her smirk, she noticed this. Aeterni left the same way she came – through the window.

  But the heat she awakened in his blood stayed.

  Chapter 12

  Aeterni was in a splendid mood, in spite of all the clouds gathering above her head. The trouble was connected to her work, but it wasn’t supposed to be easy, while all the surprises were part of her personal life, and she liked them.

  She felt there was a connection between her and Sebastian. She didn’t do anything to create that connection, and she didn’t know what to call it. Was it love? A true human love? She wanted to believe that, but it was just too weird. How could love appear in a Hente’s heart? It wasn’t even a real heart after all…

  Aeterni’s body was an exact copy of a human one. It was created in complete accordance to the original – from her bones to the hair on her head. But it was functioning differently! This body was a perfect fake. It didn’t have nerve endings, hormones, even parts of the brain responsible for arousal!

  She couldn’t understand any of this, but it wasn’t scaring her – rather, she was fascinated by it. Something theoretically impossible was slowly becoming real. When she touched Sebastian, it wasn’t some farce meant to embarrass him. The contact of their skin and their lips brought true pleasure to her! It filled her with desire she didn’t want to suppress.

  But she had to hold herself back, because she knew Sebastian wasn’t ready yet. He would be soon though. He was smarter than most humans, he just had to understand his true nature! And then… She was looking forward to that moment. It filled Aeterni with such thrill that she felt like she was human – or equal to humans at least.