I will be watching over you
I am gonna help you see it through
I will protect you in the night
I am smiling next to you...in silent lucidity
Silent Lucidity
Queensryche

The clock by Master Daniel’s bed read 3:17am when Calla’s eyes fluttered open as she woke to the same sound that had lulled her to sleep. Master Daniel’s steady heartbeat had gone from a soothing cadence and soft thump-thump-thump to a primal beat that rivaled the drums on Tiberia. His skin covered with a fine bead of sweat and his breath began to come to shallow draws.

Calla did not want to wake him and so she did not turn on the light next to his bed, rather she sat up in the bed and brought his head to rest between her small breasts, the skin of his brow was soaking with sweat from the nightmare he was having. Master Daniel did not appear to approve when she tried to enter his mind, even if it was only to help him or to understand him better. Right now that didn’t matter, caught deep in the grasp of the approaching nightmare she had no need to consciously enter his mind, he projected the image all around him. As she held him, rocking him very gently and running her finger tips across his brow the images in his head came to her own all by themselves.

Dream or no dream, in this state Calla would have recognized him anywhere just as she had when he first stood in the Great Hall of Kanan’s keep. It was those eyes.

In Daniel’s mind, it was a bright summer day and a small boy and his parents were entering a building where the sign read New York Museum of Art. The three of them very excited as the small boy held on to the hand of his mother. In the dark, Calla smiled at the image of her Master as a young boy, he was just as she remembered him to be, very cute and precocious, full of life and curiosity. His hair was shaggy and he had no need of those glasses yet, his pale eyes looked out onto the world without a barrier.

From the dream, she understood that Master Daniel’s parents had been archeologists as he was and they were at the Museum today to erect a new exhibit.

“Danny, stand over there and try not to be in the way.” His mother told him as they entered a large room where a pyramid of some sort was being erected. From her place as by-stander, she watched as the young boy crossed the room and began to take in the other exhibits as his parents worked. Soon there was a loud noise and she turned to see a big machine which was just revving up it‘s motor. Young Master Daniel wandered around happily taking in the sights and glancing back over his shoulder to see what his parents were doing.

The driver of the machine revved the engine as he began to work. It made a very loud and grating noise as it hoisted a large capstone into the air. Danny began to wander closer to where the cover-stone was being raised.

“Danny,” came the soft voice and Calla turned to see her Mother walking towards her young Master, “Danny, come away from there, it’s too dangerous.” She put a protective arm around his small shoulders and led him away from where his parents were standing. Calla watched as the cover-stone fell from the hoist and crushed the parents of her Master. Young Master Daniel screamed. Those beautiful pale blue eyes filled with fear and then tears. Mother offered the small boy comfort if only for a few moments, she stood with her arms around him, soothed his hair, rocked him gently and told him everything would be all right. Danny screamed. Danny cried.

In his sleep Daniel let out a harsh breath, Calla ran her fingertips across his brow.

"Sleep, Danny. Everything is all right." She whispered. Just like her, Master Daniel knew what it was to lose everything in the blink of an eye, to have it just swiped right out from under your feet. Never to return. He knew what it meant to have that empty gaping hole in your heart, to feel it always throb and ache and to know that no matter what you do or how hard you try, it would never be filled, never be satisfied. Feeling the weight of his sadness and despair, Calla brushed a tear away from her cheek and ran her fingers through his hair. “You’re safe,” she told him, “rest now.” Daniel’s breathing came easier and the sweat that covered him began to evaporate. Calla brought the blankets up around his shoulders. “I’m sorry, Danny.”

In his sleep Daniel’s heartbeat slowed down as his arm laid across her, pulling her closer to him, he laid with his body over hers. Calla looked down at him in the darkness, unsure of what to do. Naganti Kanan had never clung to her like this and had hardly allowed her to lay upon him in recent months. Calla did not argue with her instincts, she wrapped her arms around her new Master and pulled his sleeping frame closer to her. She kissed the top of his head and drew a deep breath to fill her head with his scent.

With her mind stuck on Instant Replay, Calla sat the rest of the night in the dark with Master Daniel’s head on her breast. Filling herself like this was so easy; he would sleep through it and never really know the extent of the gifts he gave. The thought both pleased and disappointed her. Encouraging thoughts began to form in her mind as she stroked his hair and gently drank in the touch of his skin next to hers. The dream had told her that some part of him did remember Mother coming to him and turning him away from the danger that had taken the lives of his parents. Might some part of him not remember her as well? Some small part hidden way back in the dark recesses of his Memory Warehouse? No, probably not. That day was a dark and tragic, one that Master Daniel would never forget. The day that he had met her had been a day just like any other, nothing special really. Just the chance encounter of two children running around a mall in search of whatever it is adolescents find interesting at any given moment. For her it had been records and blue jeans, he had been in search of something to fill his stomach.

It was nothing, really.

Just a chance encounter.

Calla wrapped her arms around him in the darkness and let out a heavy sigh. Yes, just a chance encounter, nothing really.

Nothing at all.

Master Daniel would never remember such a small incident. Why should he? That was just as well. It would not probably mean anything to him even if he did recall. Or worse yet, his memory would lead him to know of her own culpability and that she could not risk.

Calla only wished that she could forget it as easily as he had. On the other hand, maybe not. Maybe it was right that one of them remember. Just for a moment or two. Calla held the sleeping man in her arms and felt the pull at her heart. She did not resist it or try to hold it down while she held him close. Even then, when he was so young, he had made her heart hurt and ache inside her chest when she stared into those wonderful eyes. “You’ve grown to be a very handsome man. I knew you would, Danny. I remember when you were small. I remember everything. I have missed you so much.” Calla cuddled her cheek against the top of Daniel’s head and ran her fingers through his hair. Yes, just for one moment, that would be ok…..

May 15, 1979

Athens, Greece

The sun was shining high overhead and the islands were quiet. Mother had gone off to do what She did best; cast her spells of Love upon the mortals of this land. Father was off doing what He did best; reeking havoc upon the same mortals. Eros was off in his castle pining away for his lost Psyche and Hades was tending to the Underworld. Callestah was alone. She had wandered down to the beach and taken the opportunity to steal one of the small sailing boats that was anchored there. Knowing she would face the wrath of her Father should He find out at this little escapade and without looking back at her guarded island home, off on a grand adventure yet again, Callestah set sail to the main land.

Was it her fault that her Grandfather had bestowed upon His love of their kind?

Certainly, it was not.

As she sailed across the channel Callestah kept her mind fixed upon her goal, which just happened to be the nearest shopping mall. It was there that the lights glittered and music played through speakers while the aroma of hot food tickled her nose. The place where the Mortals lived was very different from her hidden island home. The islands were barren, there was nothing to do and no one to do it with. Callestah was the only child on all three islands, the last one of her kind to be born in more than five hundred years. The Ones that Remained were old and decrepit for the most part, they did not understand her desire to be among those who were not like her. All she wanted was what They had and enjoyed for millennia the chance to walk among the Mortals, to interact with them.

To be like them.

Although she was not aware of it at the time, this was the last trip Callestah, daughter to Lord Ares and Lady Aphrodite, would make to her forbidden shopping mall.

Callestah hid the boat on a secluded beach and wandered up the sand to the city before her. People were milling about everywhere, on the beach and on the land. So many people! She wandered through the huge double doors of the local mall and made her way to the Ladies Room where she could have a moment to herself. Mortals used something called money in order to make their purchases and she had none. In the privacy of the bathroom, she took a moment to conjure up a bit of cash for herself. It was an easy trick, one that Eros had taught her just in case she should ever find herself in a place where she needed it. Oh, Father had been so angry with Eros when He found out! Callestah smiled a little to herself as she exited the stall with two hundred Dinars in her pocket.

The mall was quiet today, most of the people were out enjoying the sunshine and warm weather on the beach or in the parks. Callestah wandered from store to store and quite literally ran into Danny Jackson, a mere mortal boy, and lost her heart. She had been 12 and he 10. Neither love nor desire should ever come to two who are so young, yet sometimes, on rare occasions, for reasons of its own, it does just that.

She had just come out of a record store and was looking into a Victoria’s Secret window, one hand holding a paper bag marked Macy’s which held two pairs of very forbidden blue jeans along with the clothes she had been wearing when she docked and the other filled with record albums she had just purchased. Callestah never even heard him coming. Just one moment she was standing and peering into the window and the next, she was on the floor of the mall with the contents of her bags sprawled across the floor. Her head hurt, it pounded and rang while stars danced in front of her closed eyes. When she regained herself she looked up to see a boy with pale blue eyes holding his hand out to her and saying he was sorry for running into her like that. Without thinking about it, she took the hand that he offered to her, and it did not burn, but it was smooth and warm inside her own.

“I’m Danny,” he offered in a hurried tone, “are you all right?”

Using one hand to brush the dust from her new jeans, she told him she was unharmed. She stared down at the naked skin of his hand still pressed to her own and wondered how that could be. Instinctively she tried to pull it away from him but Danny held on and refused to let her go. It was not an offensive move on his part and it held no malice. With her hand inside his, Callestah could read all the thoughts going through the young boys mind. Danny was still living in era of Girls Are Yucky. The trouble in his mind was the thought that maybe this girl wasn’t so yucky after all. Quickly, he helped her pick up the bags she had been holding while gazing into the store window.

“What’s your name?” Danny asked when she didn’t answer him. “Hey, I’m up here.” He moved his hand in front of her eyes to bring them up to look at his face.

“Callestah.“ She answered as she turned her head to look at him. She was two years his senior and she had to crane her neck up at him even then so that she could look into those soft blue eyes of his. What did she see there? What was that dancing behind his eyes? Callestah saw the man that this boy would become and he was strong of will and heart, he was kind, intelligent and brave. For one moment she thought that she would very much like to know this ‘Danny’ when he grew to be a man. Feeling as though she were standing on the edge of some great abyss, she wanted to reach for his hand again but did not.

“Hey, you wanna go get somethin’ to eat? I got money.” Danny told her.

Heavy footfalls were close behind her and the marks on her neck began to burn, she raised her hand to her neck to cover the glow. Father was near and so was Mother. They had returned to the island to find her gone and come looking for her. Before she could tell Danny to go back about his business a large hand gloved in black leather laid itself on her shoulder. The bags, which they had just picked up, dropped from her hand to the floor of the mall. With her young mind still standing on the edge of that abyss and staring into the boys’ eyes, Calla pitched forward and fell into the gaping hole. “It is time to leave.” A guarded voice held thinly veiled anger, she had defied Him again and she would pay for it when He returned her to His cave. Better to be forever falling into that endless blue abyss than to live with what was coming next. One day, the boy with the pale blue eyes would catch her. No matter how long or how hard she fell, he would catch her.

“Good-bye, Danny.”

Ares began to lead her away from him.

“Wait,” his small voice called back to her but it was too late. “Hey! Your stuff!” Danny shouted as he picked up the bags she had been carrying. When he looked up again, they had disappeared into the crowd. The man who had come to collect her had to be the tallest man he had ever seen in his whole entire life, Danny could not see his head above the crowd.

“That’s enough.” Calla said to herself in the darkness and held the sleeping man close to her the remainder of the night but she did not sleep. Tonight and for many nights to come, she would keep watch and make sure the nightmares stayed away from both of them.

End Chapter Fourteen
Daughter of the Gods: Every New Beginning
By Moon Mistress
Continue to
Chapter Fifteen

This story and all stories in the Kingdom of the Gods & Daughter of the Gods series are copyrighted to Lisa Beth Darling these stories may not be transferred outside of this URL in any fashion.