All that was left of the god were specks of golden light dancing in the air. At first Sal thought he'd been hallucinating but when he saw the golden scroll still in his hands he realized that this was very real.
He grabbed his bag and walked out the door, passing the busy halls with a swift and sudden urgency.
There were no whispers as there usually were anytime he walked the halls and oddly no one stopped him as he walked out the double doors just as the school bell rang.
It was like he was suddenly invisible to them.
He sprinted down the streets, his head occupied with the things Hermes said.
You have been called, he'd said.
You have been chosen, he'd said.
You will see it, he'd said.
Each sentence as confusing as the last.
The house was locked and empty when he got home, Sal sighed in relief and took out his key and turned the lock. He didn't know how he'd explain his absence from school.
Or the golden scroll in his hands.
He ran up the stairs, the smell of air freshener had dulled the scent of pancakes, and tossed his bag aside as soon as he got to his room.
Percival's name was still on the wall.
It was still steaming hot.
Sal pulled out his chair and placed the scroll on the table and for a while he just stared at it.
The names were written in old calligraphy, and the scroll smelled of fresh ink on old paper, there was no clue as to who they were or how to find them.
No address, no phone numbers, nothing.
And yet....
....you must find each of them first before seeking out Percival, or else you will surely fail.
Hermes had made it sound so easy, like he'd placed the key to finding them in the palm of his hands.
Think Sal, he told himself.
Sal tried to recall everything the god had said, sifting through the words he'd heard only moments ago.
For someone who was blessed with deeper sight you sure are blind to the truth, aren't you?
Deeper sight?, what had he meant by deeper sight?
Sal closed his eyes and placed his hands gently on the scroll.
Look through the screen, tear the veil in half, you have the power to see through the Shade, so see.
See.
Sal felt the mark on his chest burn and he opened his eyes in shock.
For a minute tha world seemed to ripple, like Hermes had rippled before Sal saw through his disguise, and then he looked down at the scroll.
One of the names stood out among the rest, glowing with a faint red light.
Casmir Velasquez.
"The name is the key" Sal realized.
He closed his eyes once again. Memorizing the name in his head, repeating it over and over, until he breathed it out with all the will he could muster.
"Casmir"
Suddenly the mark on his chest flared up and Sal felt his skin itch, like someone was drawing on it.
He looked down at his hand and saw black lines being traced onto his skin, he gulped hard and watched as the lines eventually turned into a symbol, beautiful in it's simplicity.
An eye without a pupil.
Then Sal felt as the name moved outward, spreading throughout the city like a wave, phasing through walls and anything that obstructed it.
Until it was suddenly gone.
Sal waited, unsure of what had just happened, and then, like an echo, a reply hit him.
I hear you.
Sal gasped as the response met his ears, the voice was a whisper, an answer, and as soon as Sal received it he felt a tug in his stomach.
Soon he was out of his door and was walking down the street with the scroll in his pocket, following the feeling in his gut like a mad man.
He walked so fast he almost didn't notice the change that had occured around him, but he did notice, and now he could see what he couldn't before.
He saw pale-skinned people with silver eyes and ageless faces, rings of red and purple linked around their slender fingers, he heard chattering in a language unknown to him and saw that fluttering lights, as small as seeds, danced across his vision with entitlement. He saw a man who looked relatively normal but had a lion's tail sticking out of his trousers talking to a woman with yellow glowing eyes who was half naked for some reason.
He tried his best to look away, but everywhere he looked there was something new.
Something strange.
Something different.
Stores he'd never seen before bustled with inhuman customers, posters he'd never come across advertised fantastical services, buildings he'd thought were uninhabited now buzzed with life.
He walked for miles, following this feeling and staring in wonder at the world he'd never known. The world beyond the Shade.
The Other World.
After hours of walking he stopped at an apartment. It's walls were a dull gray and it was one of the few places that were truly abandoned.
Sal almost walked pass but his instincts told him to go in. He sighed deeply, looking at the mark on his arm that had nearly faded completely.
He ignored the keep-out sign and pushed open the doors.
The inside of the building was of dust and dark places. He walked up the rickety stairs, the steps caked with dirt, the walls decorated with drawings and writings of years gone by.
Soon he was at the third floor, and once he got there he knew he was in the right place, he could see purple lines of aura surrounding the entire floor, all of them stretched and thickening until they covered one door at the end of the hall.
"Magical residue" he whispered, though he didn't know how he knew that.
He walked forward and stopped at the door where the purple aura was as thick as a fog, and as soon as he did the symbol on his arm faded completely and the tugging in his stomach disappeared.
This was definitely the place, but Sal didn't know what to do.
So he knocked, and his heart leapt in excitement as the knob turned.
***
Casmir lay face up on his couch, tossing his dagger into the air and catching it between his fingers effortlessly as it fell towards his face. He'd always prided himself in his knife throwing skills, it was great in combat and was also a great way to vent out your emotions.
Which was what he was doing now.
Casmir had been having a rough fifty years.
He'd spent all his unlife suffering his imprisonment in boredom, he never thought he'd get used to a feeling like this, a feeling of utter hopelessness, but he had, and just when he'd started to enjoy it Lord Hermes had come knocking at his door.
It had been a surprise, having a god visit him, but it had not been appreciated.
If not that Lord Hermes had brought good news Casmir would have walked away immediately he saw the god's face.
The god had said that someone would ask for his help, and that they would be the key to Casmir's freedom.
Casmir wouldn't have believed it, but two days before he had a dream about a purple flower in a blue pond, drifting towards a black bird formed from ashes.
Then today someone had called his name.
It had startled him, scared him even but it had also been years since he heard someone else's voice and he couldn't believe that there was someone out there who knew he still existed.
He'd guessed that after what had happened everyone he knew thought he was dead. What else was there for a rogue, but to die without brothers nor sisters of his own kind?
It turned out there was something more for him after all.
He tossed the dagger into the air again, and it was at that moment he heard a knock on the door and he jumped to his feet.
They were here.
The dagger dropped and stabbed him in the neck. There was a second of pain, and then after that he was just annoyed.
"Fuck" swore Casmir.
He pulled out the dagger with a wince and felt his skin seam shut almost immediately, leaving a thin nearly invisible scar behind.
Another thing exclusive to rogues, you got healed but you kept the scars.
He sighed and walked to the door, he was shirtless but he didn't care.
He opened it.
"How can I help you?" asked Casmir.
The person looked up and Casmir silenced an "oh" that almost escaped from his lips.
The boy standing in front of him was beautiful, he had interesting features, long silver hair packed up in a ponytail with a single thin braid falling in front, blue eyes that reminded Casmir of the pond water in his dreams, and his skin, dark brown and smooth and flawless. He had an energy surrounding him that made Casmir feel intimidated but intrigued all at the same time.
Casmir knew that if his heart could beat it would be racing by now, who was this person at his doorstep and why the hell did he look so.....
Interesting.
"Hi, I'm looking for Casmir, are you him?" said the boy, his voice was deep and smooth, like a bowl of warm, smooth blood.
"Yes, and who's asking?" said Casmir.
The boy sighed in relief, waves of tension rolling off his shoulders, he looked at his hand in disbelief which confused Casmir greatly, but then he faced Casmir once more with those beautiful blue eyes and Casmir gave him his full attention.
"My name is Salome", he paused and bit his lip, "I need your help"
Casmir gulped.
He needs my help.
It was him.
He looked the boy in his eyes, searching for any form of falsehood in their watery depths.
The boy —Salome— didn't flinch, instead he looked back into Casmir's eyes, as if searching for something as well.
Casmir smirked and stepped aside.
"Come in," he said.
***
Sal walked into the apartment as his heart stopped pounding indiscriminately. He looked around the room, observing his surroundings as Boulder had taught him to.
The apartment was painted in splashes of reds and blacks. There was a single couch and no TV and there were what looked like ketchup stains on the floor and couch. There was a dagger on the coffee table, its tip dripping a dark red substance that Sal hoped was ketchup too.
It seemed Casmir didn't get visitors much.
"Ignore it," said Casmir from behind Sal.
Sal turned and examined Casmir.
He looked about eighteen, and was deathly pale and slim with a face that seemed to be frozen in time. His bare upper body was mildly muscular and was a design of nearly invisible scars. He had short pitch black hair that glossed like coal tar, eyes that were silver like moonlight, full of mischief and humor and something else Sal couldn't quite place.
They were empty as well, void of the life energy that resided in every creature that breathed. Sal tried peering into his soul only to see that there was hardly anything there.
Or perhaps, Sal mused, his soul was hidden so deep inside himself that all Sal could see was nothing at all.
"Were you the one that called my name?" Casmir asked, his voice was the most significant thing about him, it was melodious and enchanting, and it made you want to listen.
"Yeah" Sal replied, "like I said earlier I need your help...."
"I know" interrupted Casmir. "Just take a seat and i'll be right back"
Sal sat down and watched as Casmir disappeared deeper into his apartment and then came back a short while later wearing a flannel shirt and holding a glass of what looked like wine but at the same time didn't.
"So what do you need my help for?" asked Casmir, placing his lips against the rim of the glass and taking a gentle sip. They came away bright bloody red.
"Did you really need to have a drink first?" Sal asked.
Casmir licked his lips, smirked and raised the glass, the drink sloshed lazily.
"Are you telling me or not?"
Sal sighed and shrugged.
"That's the thing, I'm not sure, I had this weird dream that these people were trying to tell me something and then, you're probably not gonna believe this, Hermes..."
"You mean Lord Hermes" corrected Casmir.
"Right" Sal noted the tone of recognition in Casmir's voice, meaning he too knew about the gods and Hermes, " he said that you're supposed to help me find someone"
"I suppose I could do that," said Casmir as he took another sip of his drink.
"Great then" Sal said excitedly as he turned, "let's go"
"Wait," Casmir said.
Sal sighed and turned to the vampire who was sipping his drink and staring at him.
"Seriously"
"I can't help you", Casmir said, "I'm trapped here"
Sal raised an eyebrow at him.
"You're trapped in your own apartment?" said Sal.
Casmir sighed and walked to the door, drink still in hand. He pulled it open, and stared at the doorway hesitantly.
Then he did something that made Sal blink twice.
Casmir stretched out his hand, closing his eyes as though he was bracing himself, and then pushed it pass the doorway.
The length of his arm began to sizzle, smoke rose from his skin as if he was being barbecued and the smell of burning flesh wafted through Sal's nose.
Sal could even see the white of Casmir's skeletal hand as his skin fell away from his bones, turning to ashes as they landed on the floor.
"Stop it!, that's enough!"
Casmir pulled back his hand, his eyes were still closed but he wasn't panting, he wasn't sweating, simply clenching his jaws and fists as the flesh began to reform on his arm from nothing, until his arm was covered up again.
"What the hell?" said Sal in astonishment.
Casmir opened his eyes, smiled sadly and took another sip of his drink.
"That's what I said,"
Sal scoffed in disbelief.
"Why would Hermes tell me to find you if he knew you were trapped here?" Sal said.
"He told me you'd be able to fix it" Casmir said. "I mean you're a mage right?"
"A what?"
"A mage" Casmir said. "You know someone who posseses the ability to use magic, that's how you were able to Call my name and pinpoint my location, right?"
"I don't know" Sal said, casting a wary glance at the still open doorway, the ashes on the floor disappearing into thin air. "I'm not exactly sure I understand what I am or why I can do the things I can do but I'm sure I'm not a....whatever you said"
Sal turned away from Casmir, letting his mind settle in this reality that had become his life.
"Look" Casmir said, his voice was calmer now, as if he was carefully picking out his next words "all I'm saying is that I can't help you unless the spell is broken, and Hermes said you could do it, so you probably can,"
Sal looked at Casmir, his face was smug but his eyes were shining with hope, he took another sip of his drink, and Sal finally saw what it was Casmir was drinking.
It was blood.
"Plus" Casmir said. "If you do end up breaking it I promise I will follow you to the ends of the earth"
Sal chuckled.
"Isn't that a bit too much?" He said.
Casmir shrugged with a smile.
"It's better than nothing" he answered.
Sal sighed.
"Okay, just give me a second to think," said Sal.
Casmir took another sip of blood and gave a sly smirk.
"Take your time," he said and then sat on the couch with his legs crossed, as though his hand hadn't been nearly charred a few minutes ago.
Sal closed his eyes and tried to think of something that would help. The cogs in his head turned, information that had been buried deep within him started resurfacing themselves.
Casmir had said he was under a spell but from what Sal knew spells were words imbued with magical energy. They were short lived, only taking effect in the minutes after it's casting, it couldn't possibly last forever.
Unless this wasn't a spell.
"It's an enchantment," Sal said suddenly.
Casmir looked up curiously, his black hair falling, his silver eyes dancing from the effects of the blood he'd just drunk.
"An enchantment?" he asked.
"Yes, it's not a spell, it's an enchantment," Sal repeated.
Casmir sighed and set down his now empty glass, it's inner sides were still red with blood.
"Okay I'm no mage and I probably don't have any idea what you're talking about but may I ask what the difference is?"
Sal didn't answer right away, he started searching.
"Spells are words imbued with magic power to effect visible alterations in reality but it's effect is only temporary", he flipped the table over, dagger and cup went clattering to the floor, "but when you want it to last longer you give that spell an instruction, then it becomes an enchantment"
Sal shooed Casmir off the couch and started to toss away it's cushions.
"Okay... but that doesn't explain how you're going to get me out of here," said Casmir as he dodged a pillow, "and why you're messing up the place"
Sal looked up, there was a rush he couldn't describe, the feeling of solving something people thought unsolvable.
"Take me to your room," he said.
Casmir's eyes widened.
"What?!" he exclaimed.
"Enchantments aren't like spells, okay, for them to last a longer period of time they have to be transferred into tangible matter, like an inscription on a stone or a writing in a scroll, or..."
"What about a symbol?" asked Casmir.
Sal looked at Casmir and then looked at his hand where the symbol had appeared moments before.
"Yes, yes, a symbol," said Sal.
Casmir nodded and walked into his room, Sal followed him, his heart beating with excitement.
For some reason, he was enjoying this.
Sal pushed away the curtain of beads blocking his way and stepped into Casmir's room.
The first thing he saw wasn't the undressed bed or the clothes strewn across the floor or the water dispenser that wasn't filled with water but with blood.
It was the giant symbol on the wall, it was in the middle of a hundred other drawings, all, Sal assumed, were drawn by Casmir when things got too boring.
The symbol took the form of shackles tied in a knot and it was in the middle of two overlapping circles, the symbol seemed to be etched into the wall as if drawn by an otherworldly pencil, or burned by a pen of fire.
The incident of that morning flashed across Sal's mind instantly.
"I thought it was some kind of weird art when I got in here but now that you mentioned it, it looks like glyph magic," said Casmir.
"Glyph magic?"
"Glyph magic" Casmir explained, "the magic of symbols"
Sal gulped and stepped forward, kicking dirty clothes and empty bottles out of his way, he reached the glyph and stretched his hand out.
"Be careful", said Casmir, his tone filled with tension and amusement, "I'd hate to see you blow up"
Sal chuckled and placed his fingers on the glyph.
He felt electricity rush through him and feared for a second that he might actually explode.
He didn't though, instead he saw a glyph emerge in the confines of his mind, four keys connected by a ring, a glyph that spoke of one thing and one thing only.
Freedom.
"This is a Confinement glyph" Sal said, he turned to Casmir who was staring at Sal, silver eyes wide, "it's designed for prisoners, violators of the Sacred Law,"
"What happened?" He asked.
Casmir shook his head, his silver eyes gradually taking a reddish hue.
"Something that I can't say I regret doing," said Casmir.
Sal could feel Casmir holding back information, could feel that any question he asked now would remain unanswered.
"I can break the enchantment," said Sal.
The red in Casmir's eyes dissipated.
"Seriously?"
"I'm gonna need something to draw with," said Sal.
Casmir stretched out his hand. There were a series of crashes until the dagger that had been in the living room flew into his hand.
Casmir tossed it to Sal and he caught it, avoiding the drip of what was most definitely not ketchup on the blade.
Sal took a deep breath and began to draw in the circle. He didn't think about how he was doing it, only about why he was doing it, to find whoever this Percival guy was and get on with his life, and deep down, to help this witty vampire playboy out.
He felt the magic flow through him, a feeling of intoxication, like every cell in his body was suddenly alive with a power that could move anything and everything. He felt the power to raise seas until they touched the sky, to call fire from the heavens and hells, to bend the world in a way that fit his desires.
And all it took was a symbol.
He felt as his mark burned with luminous intensity and he traced the last line of the glyph.
He opened his eyes and saw as the Confinement glyph on the wall faded away, replaced by the Freedom glyph he'd drawn over it.
He turned to Casmir whose face was frozen in a state of shock.
"Your eyes are glowing," said Casmir.
Sal chuckled and tossed the dagger back to Casmir.
"Let's see if it worked," said Sal.
Casmir nodded and glided out of the bedroom, black hair flying as he left.
Sal followed, relishing in the feeling of magical energy flowing through his body, it was unlike anything Sal had ever felt, like euphoria that lasted forever.
He reached the curtain of beads and felt a sharp pain on his wrist.
He groaned and looked to see that both the Confinement glyph and the Freedom glyph were burned on his skin.
He panicked at first, afraid that this was the price for whatever he'd done, but then relaxed as they both faded away.
He sighed and walked past the curtain and into the living room.
When he emerged he saw Casmir standing in front of the door, his head bent as if in defeat.
Sal took a careful step closer.
"Did it work?" He asked.
Casmir sighed and raked a hand through his hair.
"I don't know, I...I haven't tried yet" said Casmir.
"Well what are you waiting for?" asked Sal.
Casmir turned, and Sal could feel uncertainty coming off him in waves.
"You're afraid, aren't you?," said Sal.
Casmir nodded, not even trying to hide behind his pride.
"I've spent so much time in here, so much so that sometimes I even prayed for a better hell, but I can't help but wonder if coming out of this means stepping into that hell that I so desperately prayed for" said Casmir.
Sal sighed and took another step forward, more confident than before, he stopped by Casmir's side and placed a hand on the vampire's shoulder, he felt stone-cold flesh underneath the fabric of Casmir's flannel shirt and wondered what had made Casmir like this. What could kill you and keep you alive all at the same time?
"You're right", said Sal, "You don't know if life out there is going to be worse than life in here but the truth is no one knows, what's important isn't worrying about the what if's, what's important is crossing one rickety bridge and celebrating once you realize you didn't fall over"
Casmir turned to face him, silver eyes unsure.
Unsure but hopeful.
"Cross this bridge Casmir, and we'll see where we go from here"
Casmir nodded, he faced the space waiting for him to walk through and he visibly braced himself.
He stretched out a hesitant hand, eyes reflexively scrunched shut, and then pushed it pass the doorway.
Sal half expected Casmir's flesh to start sizzling again, his skin to start peeling, but it didn't.
His hand passed through unharmed.
Sal smiled, wondering why he was so excited.
"I can't believe this", Casmir let out a sharp breath, a genuine smile spreading across his face, "I'm free, I'm actually free"
He laughed, then he howled and then he turned to Sal, his silver eyes shining like miniature moons.
"Thank you," he said.
"You're welco..oof"
Casmir barreled into Sal and pulled him into a hug. Sal was stunned, Casmir was all bones and angles, but he smiled and returned it, putting his arms around the vampire's back and patting him gently.
"I swear to you, I will spend the rest of my life repaying you for what you've done today" whispered Casmir in Sal's ear.
Sal felt a feeling run down his spine as Casmir said those words, it was odd, something he hadn't felt for anyone but Lester.
It wasn't love, no, it was a sense of responsibility, an urge to protect the person in his arms.
Sal didn't know why he did but he made a promise to himself there and then, whoever the rest of these Shaded beings were, whatever problems they were facing, whatever little prison they were locked up in, he would help them break free, because maybe they weren't just supposed to help him.
Maybe he was supposed to help them too.