Tales of the Pearly Kingdom (Pearly Tales Vol. 2)

34. Cal Levels Up

Shayley didn't wait for the Nightmare to dock with the enemy Dreadnaught. It had been twenty minutes since the battle had ended with an explosion of black smoke aboard the Enemy ship. Her anxiety was at its limits as the smell of blood was thick in the air for miles. And not just anyone's blood it was Cal's and only Cal's, in a battle against ghosts it couldn't be anyone else's.

The smell horrified her.

Cal, Cal what had happened to her Calloway? What became of her Jasper!

Nothing could have prepared her for the debris coated in Cal's blood. The sea was officially cleansed proven by the calmness that tried to sooth her soul along with the clear sky and almost crystal-clear water. But her heart was tumultuous and in the throes agony.

With every passing second, her worry skyrocketed. Where was Cal's absorbingly smug face? His aggravating sarcastic smile, his eagerness for his next task, his love for his family. Other than the eerie silence of the purified sea brushing pieces of debris against the trekking Nightmare, there was no evidence of Cal's existence aboard the enemy vessel.

"Word of warning. Cal's form may be shocking, but it will be delicate." Kadoka had warned her.

Once she could chart out a path Shayley used the debris to make her way toward the ship. She landed on the deck and was horrified by the splatters of blood over every inch of the ship's surface.

She saw Cal's footprints leading up to the quarter deck and jumped over the fallen mast to get up the stairs as quickly as possible.

On the quarter deck there was only one figure kneeling with their head angled towards the sky in agony. Black smoke swirled around him, reminiscent of a dying fire pit.

Shayley gasped at the skeletal figure dressed in the same clothes as her beloved.

Kadoka landed next to her in her cherubim form. She approached Cal and held her hand over the burned-out husk. She let out a breath.

"Thank the elements he is okay." Kadoka smiled.

"That's Okay?" Shayley said in tears.

"1 Health is still considered being alive, love. With great power comes a great price. He'll be like this for the next 23 hours. This is why I was created. The Cherubim that guards the tree of life with a sword of fire. I guard the master during this time after he has committed The Sin." Kadoka's hand glowed blue over Cal's form. "It's that kind of story-book purpose he makes in all of us. It sounds silly until you realize just how important it is."

"What did you just do?" Shayley asked as she slowly approached the man in the center of a mandala of blood. "Did you fix him?"

"Restorative effects have no power over him in this state. I cast a powerful defense charm on him, but at the moment he is in his most vulnerable state. One hour of overwhelmingly terrible invulnerability for 23 hours catastrophic mortality." Kadoka had sad eyes. "Let's get him somewhere safe. Would you like to carry him back to the ship? Since you are his lover it would only be right."

Shayley nodded.

Kadoka helped Shayley scoop up Cal.

He was so light he was barely heavier than the weight of his equipment. He was so fragile when she picked him up it was as if he might break. This was the man that she stabbed through the heart and didn't budge, but now with one wrong move he could be gone forever.

Kadoka wrapped Cal in a protective cloak that hid his skeletal form. But Shayley was even more surprised by the state of the elementals on the Nightmare. Once the boarding plank was placed between the two ships the crew of the Nightmare stood respectfully in neat organized lines.