k_a_webb | Heliopath’s World: Ildieu: Benedict: Studying (Reply)

Benedict sat, alone, in one of the Garden’s three libraries, and tried not to think about Kestrel. It had been too long since he’d last seen her, but he’d always thought the next time would be when he was back at the Hollow, having completed the job he had been sent to do by Falcon. Of course things hadn’t worked out the way Benedict hoped they would, which meant he would have to do his best to keep out of Kess’ sight as well as hope that being noticed by Heliopath didn’t affect the preparations that had been made for the future. Sighing, Benedict rested his head on his hand, knowing that the best way to take his mind off his problems would be to start looking into the subject Heliopath had become fascinated by thanks to the unexpected arrival of a female mage, but he couldn’t concentrate on anything else.

Kestrel was in Heliopath’s bedroom. Benedict shook his head. He couldn’t work out how it had happened, because no one should have taken a last resort idea as a serious option. Yet someone had. Someone who was trying to shake things up, maybe, or someone who knew more than he did. The only reason he’d been sent to the Gardens was to make certain there was someone in the house watching over Heliopath, watching over the man who was the cousin of the leader of the Hollow… Benedict found himself wondering why he had agree to do something so stupid in the first place – other than his fascination with the first house that had been created in Ildieu.

Most people believed that the Hollow had been first, but it wasn’t. The Grey Gardens, long before it was named, had been the home of the first mages of Ildieu, a group of people who’d forgotten who they were, on purpose, in order to bring an end to the war that was raging. Did they know that they’d affect the entire world when they chose to hide themselves within the walls of the city? Benedict, like everyone who knew the history of the city, had more questions that he would ever have answers for, even if some of the outside mages did turn out to be allies. Although… it was probably just a story, but there was supposed to be a lost library, in a part of the world that no one could get to, that might hold more the answers to all his questions and more.

Shaking his head Benedict told himself, sternly, to focus. He had a job to do… a job both for Heliopath and for Falcon, because he’d been asked before to look into female mages, and it was something he simply hadn’t had the time for, but it was something he had to make time for if two of the leaders of the houses needed the information. Fortunately he’d known from the moment Heliopath had asked him to do such an important job that Jasper would be hunting in his mind to find out more about his, so he put forward the created memories he’d been given, of a family that had never existed. He wasn’t ready for Heliopath, or anyone else, to learn who he really was – not even Falcon.

Mirrored from K. A. Webb Writing.