Page 56 of The Ballad of a Bard

Fifty Fiv e

A knock sounded and West bolted upright from his bed, his dark hair falling in his sight. It wasn’t like he’d actually been able to sleep the last few days anyways. He tossed the covers aside and made for the entrance, curiously placing his fingers on the handle and turning it, surprised to find it unlocked for once. They’d added the lock after he’d tried to hide Crimson, and it was an addition that would be removed once he’d gained his freedom back and this was all over.

Other than the guard who slipped food in and retrieved it an hour later, no one came to see him.

He opened it a fraction of the way, peering out to find Damien’s brown head of hair standing in front of him, Thalias warily keeping an eye out for other guards who were nowhere to be seen.

“What are you two doing here?” West interrogated, opening it a bit more. Then he glanced down as tiny arms wrapped around him.

Cobalt .

He sank down and hugged him back, relief flickering through him that the boy was alive, still alright. He sighed as he caressed the onyx hair, burying his face into the boy’s small shoulder.

“Leysa thought it best that we bring him here for safekeeping. Altivar hasn’t made any moves to harm him yet, but it’s the yet part that we are hesitant on. We can sneak in anything he might need, but my brother and I both agree that he should remain with you.” Thalias didn’t finish his statement but there was no need for it.

Because if something happened to Crimson, then West was all this boy had left. He’d take him in without any issue, but he prayed to all of his fellow Saints that that wouldn’t need to happen.

“I didn’t want the Prince to keep using him as a bargaining chip after we heard what happened.” The taller Steele said. “No one should be used against their family.”

“Hey, Blue.” He murmured and broke apart with as much of a warm smile as he could muster up. “How are you holding up?” He ruffled his black hair with a playful hand.

“I’d be better if I could see my sister, or my father.” He swiftly answered and began to chew on his lip in the same fashion that his sibling did.

West’s head snapped up to the two men at the door. “Heartache’s here?”

It worked then.

Damien bobbed his square chin. “Altivar took him down to the cells about a day or so ago. My best guess is that Crimson has reunited with her father by now.”

He rose from the ground, gently ushering Cobalt even further into his room. “Saints, I can’t even imagine what she’s going through right now.”

He wanted nothing more than to see her, see how she was doing and just… be with her. He wanted to take her in his arms and turn them back towards the bed, to have both of them curling into the other as they had before.

“We aren’t allowed to see her, otherwise I’d bring you an update, Captain.” Thalias regretfully said. “I’ve tried multiple times, as had Damien but we can’t get past.”

“I’m not a captain anymore.” He informed them both, dragging a hand through his umber hair. He’d reorganised his room back to the original state after Altivar’s men tore it apart looking for Crimson, but it still was missing something.

Missing her.

“You will always be our captain.” The brothers said in unison, warming his heart that had felt so cold as of late.

“Bed!” Cobalt scrambled onto the messy bed, mused from West’s night of tossing and turning. Even if Dream had granted his wish, Crimson had haunted him all night long. He shoved his legs under the blue covers and slipped down until his small head hit the pillow and curled into himself.

Thalias snorted and Damien chuckled.

“I need to see her.” West quietly rumbled when the silence had lasted long enough. They knew him well enough to know his strained relationship with the lesser Saint. “I don’t care how or when, but one way or another I need to get into the cells.”

A spiralled galaxy bloomed inside of him as stress and fear cultivated. His inner stars twisted with each day that passed and became a storm of beautiful shapes that collided and crashed with others. The midnight sky that he embodied had been lacking in light and radiant luster as she slept a few floors down. Even his own light had become dull without her.

He hated how scared he felt, how his emotions were tied to her fate. How close he was to toppling into the darkness and falling for her entirely .

Damien cleared his throat. “We’ll try to sort out a way to distract the guard, bribe them or something for you, Captain. You’ll see her, one way or another.”

West respected these men because they knew who he was, what he was and yet they didn’t cower to his magnificence like other mortals did. They didn’t treat him like a god or worship as he walked by, kissing the very ground he walked over. They treated him like a man who earned his place, and it was for that reason that he trusted them wholeheartedly.

“Thank you. For that and for bringing Cobalt to me. Send Leysa in once a day if you can so that she can keep up her examinations of him. I don’t want him to have an episode while we’re stuck here and not be able to do anything about it.” He ordered them.

Thalias dipped his head in understanding. “We’ll do our best considering the circumstances.”

His brother stepped forward. “I think you should know that we’ve been keeping an eye on the Bronzed Goblet and Grimm like you asked us to, and Red Lyric’s name has resurfaced in the establishment.”

His gut curled into an ugly thing.

Terror spiked claws down his back, over his shoulders, through his tall spine as he asked, “In what way?”

“There’s talk that he’s to start in the Blades of Blood again.” He elicited with a long sigh. “And that they’ll be facing a full Saint in two days’ time.”

His blood chilled to the point where West thought that it had become pure ice. There, the largest part of Altivar’s plan surfaced at last. He’d been stuck in the dark, unliking it even if he ruled over it all.

“He’s going to make her face War.” He uttered and brushed his hand over his mouth, tracing at the stubble that had begun to grow there out of his isolation induced madness. The Imp would have found it hilarious, welcoming him to their ever-shifting world. “There isn’t going to be any Saints-damned trial, he’s just going to send her to her execution, to make a show of it.”

Cobalt jerked upright in the bed behind him. “Crimson’s going to die?” His little voice wavered as terror struck him hard. “What?”

Guilt hit him as West turned to face him, striding over to the bed and taking his freezing hands in his. Not a good sign. “I promise you, Blue, that I will do everything in my power to make sure that that doesn’t happen.”

Cobalt didn’t look as though he believed him. “Because you’re a Saint?”

He opened his mouth to respond but he wasn’t done yet.

“Or because you love her?”

He immediately shut it, jaw flexing. That single word rippled over him, sending the brilliant moon to crash with the sea, jagged shoals tearing through every bit of him. “You have my word that I won’t let her die.”

He looked sceptical as West didn’t answer either of his questions but found it a decent enough response to fall back into the bed and tug the blankets back up to his thin chest. West stood and rotated back to the door where Damien and Thalias still stood, waiting for him.

“Damien, get back down to the Bronze Gate and see what other information you can retrieve in regards to Red Lyric making another appearance in the Blades. I want to know who she’s fighting, when she’s fighting and who’s sponsoring her if there’s anyone at all.”

He clapped an arm to his chest, bowed at his waist and departed without so much as another sound .

West looked to Thalias. “Find out how I can get into the dungeons unnoticed, or bring me information about Crimson’s wellbeing if you’re able to get in yourself. Heartache, as well if he’s truly down there.”

“Can do.” The man repeated his brother’s action before swiftly turning on his heel and disappearing around the bend.

With a swift poke of his head, West caught sight of the two sentries that headed his way, a changing of the guard that allowed for the brief window of time that his loyal companions found him in. They must have planned for it, working in the schedule and finally slipping by to speak with him at all costs. To bring him Cobalt, even if it was a treacherous thing to do.

He shut it quickly before they could see him and released the handle, swinging back around to the boy in his bed. Cobalt sniffed, and he could make out the tiny tears that fell into the sheets, vanishing.

“I’ve got a pack of cards in my drawer if you want to wipe the floor with me at King’s Crown?” He offered up in hopes to dissuade him from crying. “Along with a handful of sweets somewhere if you win.”

Cobalt shook his head. “I don’t feel like candy.”

He might have been surprised had the situation around them not been so dire.

“Then what do you feel like?”

He thought about it, drawing his gaze up to meet West’s. “I feel… blue. All of my life, my sister took care of me. She put on the mask of Red Lyric to pay for us, to feed us. She gave up everything for me and I can’t help but feel like this is all my fault.”

West pulled himself into the bed, sitting against the headboard as he tugged Cobalt into his arms. “It’s not your fault. It could never be your fault. It’s not even Crimson’s fault for this entire mess. ”

“I want to leave this place.” He said, voice muffled. “And I don’t ever want to come back.”

“Me too,” West admitted down to him.

An idea came over him, one that wasn’t too terrible once he truly thought about it. He’d pictured it before, over and over again when he imagined himself to be anything other than an immortal who had seen ages come and go. But everything with Crimson and Altivar and Heartache only made him yearn for that life even more. So he offered it to the young boy, uncaring if he ever recovered from the raging war of feelings that he had yet to deal with.

Instead, they sat frozen within a block of his own adamant ice, refusing to even so much as touch them until Crimson was back and safe.

“When this is over and done, when we get your sister back, we can leave, Cobalt. We can leave this place and never look back.” He’d only joined the Watch to look after Muse, to protect her and he’d failed at that. There was nothing in it for him anymore. No reason to stay like a loyal guard dog that he’d become over the years.

“Where will we go?”

“Back to the Spinning Compass. I’ve got an apartment just like this at the very top level, with nearly the same amount of rooms. We can turn one into one just for you, with your own bed.” He smiled fondly at the idea. “How do you like the sound of that?”

“Will you be there too?” Cobalt questioned.

“Yes,” He promised. “I don’t intend to be anywhere else again. ”

“What about my father? He’s back. I don’t want to leave him out.” The covers moved as he straightened his spine, pushing out of West’s comforting grasp and sitting just like him against the backboard. “Can he have a room there too?”

“I don’t have enough space for him in my apartment, but I’m sure that he’d love to return to his old home.” West was sure that the Saint missed the place where Crimson had grown up. Where Cobalt had been born and they all lived together as a family.

Now, West was creating his own family.