The Everborn - Nicholas Grabowsky [118]
She had never been granted the pleasure of achieving her full potential, not as an empire’s queen of ages past, nor as even a Watchmaid, for the Everborn who’d originally deceived her and tricked her had died as instantly as she’d given birth to him...and before she realized what she was becoming, she became what she was.
She’d remained that way for so, so very long.
Stagnant. Incapable of communicating with or manipulating the world around her.
It was ruled among Everborn that should its Watchmaid see its own Everborn’s death, that Watchmaid would become banished to roam the earth as nothing more but a ghost. That stranger had released its current Watchmaid to be replaced by her...
...by her....
And then he was killed...by her own soldiers....
And she was banished, like a ghost, to be physical in one dimension only, a dimension beyond anything truly of the normal realm of things, but a dimension in which she could observe the normal realm of things around her as well as things normally unseen.
And it just wasn’t fair.
Not in the least.
Not at all.
She would use the Dreg to change all that.
A certain commotion issued at once from the side yard of the house across the silent boulevard from her. She had been in constant surveillance over the house for over the past day and night, awaiting any opportunity to make a run for the home and seize the twin Dreg child who dwelt inside. It wasn’t an easy accomplishment; Salvatia was subject to waiting impatiently for the moment when the true Everborn twin was separated from its Dreg twin. The greater the distance between them there was, the least likely it was for Salvatia to run into a confrontation with that Everborn’s Watchmaid.
And what was her name, by the way, this Watchmaid...? Oh, yes...it was...
...it was Bari.
Bari was that newcomer Salvatia had heard about.
Magdalene were just as efficient in catching vibes as Watchmaids were, for Magdalene had been Watchmaids, so they both shared the same telepathic internet. But if Salvatia could tap into Bari’s presence, Bari could tap into hers as well. More than likely, Bari was aware of the Magdalene’s presence as somewhere not far away and she would know her name, too.
Which was odd, for when Bari would’ve sensed her presence, Bari would’ve sensed her with her true name...which wasn’t originally Salvatia at all, but the human name she’d been born with...
...but she sensed Bari had known her as Salvatia, and that only meant that Bari held certain knowledge of her reputation, of her celebrity status so to speak, of her infamy.
Perhaps Bari bore insight enough to know how Salvatia got that name, that she was one day meandering around sixteenth century England when, not long after she’d heard the words of her own prophecy, she came upon the ramshackle outpost of a church bearing the words SALVATION TO ALL upon a broken wooden banner, the SALVATION portion split in two. She took that as a sign, far beyond more than literally, and, combined with delusions of grandeur, the name hence evolved.
Perhaps Bari had learned of the prophecy itself.
Bari seemed to be more in touch with things than others, for such a juvenile Watchmaid, so contrastingly new to the job.
She could prove a great deal more of a hassle than Salvatia anticipated, so...Salvatia was forced to wait.
For this moment.
Commotion...in the side yard.
She had to be quick.
Whatever the reason, a teenage babysitter was at that moment engaged in verbal dispute at the side of the house behind the outside wooden gate over a matter of who’s chucking dirt clods at whose window with a teenage neighbor cradling over the partitioning fence...
...and the Everborn twin was with them.
As for Bari, even her attentions were drawn into the feud.
And the twins were separated.
Salvatia waited no more.
As she glided her way from atop the Plymouth and across the school parking lot, crossed the boulevard and approached the house, she gazed down upon herself in awe at how remarkably material her silvery skin tone was, and in the