Those We Look Up To
POV: Derek
I didn’t mean to get so close to Jess when I plucked the book, I saw on the shelf in the waiting room but seeing the title, “Book of Life: Talon Esperanza” had really piqued my interest. I had met him once when I was a young pup, he was such a nice guy and so strong that he rescued the Royal family that I had looked up to him. From the moment I met him until now, I had modeled my life around strength and justice. When I found out that Lex was his niece, I jumped at the chance to meet her and guard her. I hadn’t counted on her being just as charismatic as he was. Then again, there were always rumors about House Esperanza and how their members were always either hot tempered or charismatic. They always came in pairs as well so when Lex was born and there was no twin, many in Vellum found that odd. The rumor was that she had ate her twin in the womb and that she likely had both House Esperanza traits. Nothing about her would ever indicate that she had a bad temper though so I found that rumor to be laughable. Jess had told me that she was likely to prod her mother into a rage just to mess with her at times but always knew when to back off before her punishment would be severe. Jess had said at the time, “I was able to witness a few of those proddings and I can tell you that she was masterful at knowing when it was time to concede to her mother. I imagine it was a result of years of experience, trial and error or both.” I had only met Talia the one time when she came to watch over Lex when she was poisoned and she was a ball of worry the entire time.
Jess tensed up when my broad chest brushed up against the back of her head and I could see her ears turn a shade of red that I had not seen before. I had known Jess from when we were both in diapers and she was always prone to blush at the smallest things so this hadn’t surprised me seeing that. I smiled at the reaction I got from her; she was a cute little thing but I had never looked at her that way since we had known each other for so long. I apologized after pulling the book from the shelf and I sat down with it. I had read aloud the story about his heroics from the dragon attack and how he had been crushed by the bricks. When I turned the page, I had expected to find it blank on the back end. Usually, books of life will have a few blank pages at the end but this one had a strange writing on it. Jess and I both stared at it for a while before she asked, “Do the Fates write about the afterlife?” An old hand reached out and snatched the book out of my hand, “They sometimes do. Trust me I have seen Sir Talon’s body with my own eyes. He is dead.” He snapped the book shut and locked the book in his desk. Jess asked, “Is that why it is in a different language? What language is it?” He sighed, “The language of Death. Talon Esperanza was a special person so the Fates are documenting something significant in his afterlife.”
I nodded at Isaiah and turned to Jess, “I saw his body too, that was definitely Talon in the casket that was paraded through the square. There’s no way to mask that.” She sighed, “I just wanted to believe he was still alive. Ms. Tannen deserves her happily ever after, she never moved on from his death and you could see the sadness in her eyes when she spoke of him the other day.” I remembered how she spoke in a longing tone about who he was. I remembered Pretre Jean talking to my father about how Grand Pretre said they were fated lovers when he had asked her to marry him. They were never told this but it’s like they knew from the moment they met each other. Talia had introduced them at her wedding to Reggie and there was an immediate spark.
I had never experienced that myself so I wouldn’t know how that feels but people say when you know, you know. Nonetheless, I had felt something when I met Lex but who knows if that was a spark or pure infatuation. Maybe I wasn’t in love with Lex but something about her made me want to be around her. I also remembered when I met Jess when we were little and I felt something then too but didn’t know what that was either. I looked at her and smiled, she smiled back but turned her head immediately after and her ears were pink again. It never got old that I could make her blush so much because she was the only one, I could do that to. It boosted my ego especially when I was particularly down. I was down this morning with the revelation that Lex would put herself in danger to catch her would be murderer and seeing the gift that the Prince had given her before we went home. I wrapped an arm around Jess and kissed her on top of her head, “Thank you.” She looked up at me with a pink blush on her face and blinked, “What for?” I smiled down at her, “For always being you.” She looked down, “You’re welcome, I guess.” She was fiddling with her hands trying to show she wasn’t embarrassed to receive such a compliment and I chuckled.
The door to the Headmaster’s office opened up and Lex, who was smiling as if her lesson today was a good one, emerged from the room. She looked over at us and saw my arm around Jess, “Are you two getting along then?” I pulled my arm from around here and rose to my feet, “We’ve always got along. I don’t know if you knew this but we’ve been friends since we were toddlers.” She looked at Jess and then at me, “Oh? That’s interesting…” I don’t know what she meant by that but I just shrugged. Jess rose to her feet behind me and I turned to Isaiah, “Have a good day Mr. Maigny. Hopefully it is less stressful than the day before.” Isaiah grunted at me and went back to reading his documents. When we left the room, Jess turned to Lex and told her, “We found your uncle’s book of life in the Headmaster’s library.” She cocked her head to the side, “Huh. I wonder why he would need that.” I told her, “That’s not the only strange thing, he had writing after the story of the end of his life. It was in a strange language that Isaiah said was the language of Death.” She shook her head, “I know for a fact that he passed away. Mom said she hated seeing his body in a box. She would know her own twin brother anywhere. I wonder why the Fates would document something after his death. I wonder if that is normal, perhaps I can ask Aphrodite after Zebinezer comes to fix my communication with her.” I nodded, “That would probably be the best place to go for that information since she likely knows Hades. I am really curious to know too, he was after someone I very much looked up to.”
We walked out to the garden and out through the passageway, it was early enough in the day that no one was around just yet. We had found an area beneath a tree that had a nice bench so we decided to sit there out of the sun. Lex had long wavy black hair that often caused her to overheat and today was particularly hot. She pulled her hair off her neck and started to fan herself there, “It’s too damn hot to be in the sun. I wish my ancestors hadn’t evolved to where we could walk in the sun. Biggest. mistake ever.” Jess looked at her and giggled, “Why don’t you just cut it then?” She shook her head, “Are you kidding me? Talia would murder me in my sleep. Not to mention one time a got gutsy and chopped it off myself. I looked like a mushroom and the growing back looked just as stupid.” I laughed hard at the thought of her having short hair, “Well Lex, I always thought long hair suited you anyways.” She nodded, “Yeah, I agree.”
Just then a cackled sounded out behind me, I had been standing in front of Lex to shield her from the sun from one side. I had turned to see who was laughing so evilly and to no one’s surprise it was Melody. She shot me a seductive gaze, “Hi handsome, you haven’t come to see me lately. I am beginning to think you don’t like me anymore.” She faked a pout and I knew it was fake because I had known her long enough to know that she would use emotions to manipulate a person. I shrugged, “I’ve been kinda busy between my work and the Citadel.” She sighed, “Oh right, you’re guarding the ugly cow over there. I forget and to think she also got you punished because she thought it was cute to seduce you.” I shook my head, “First of all, Lex is anything but ugly. Definitely not a cow either. As for seducing me, she wasn’t herself and you know it. I deserved the punishment which was merely sensory deprivation for two days.” She laughed, “Well if she had to be out of her mind to seduce you, she’s not worth your time.” Jess grunted, “Oh for Heaven’s sake, you know he’s been ordered to do so by the King himself.” She shot Jess a dirty look, “Oh look, the wallpaper speaks. No one asked you, you insignificant ant.” I moved in front of Jess to shield her from the scorn that Melody was sending her way. She rolled her eyes, “Whatever, you ‘girls’ aren’t even worth my time. Come see me some time, handsome.” She got up on her tip toes and kissed my cheek then left. I wiped my cheek when I was sure she was out of sight, “She’s turning more and more unbearable and brazen.” A couple of girls walked by and I could hear them speaking loudly and shooting dirty looks at Lex. She was definitely not beyond suspicion amongst the people of Vellum for the threat.
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