303- The Last Promise
POV Seraphine Valerian:
“It will remain like that… after I am gone.”
He fell silent for a while and closed his eyes. I thought he had fallen asleep, but he looked at me again.
“If you had lived with me… since you were born… you would already be married. You would have been promised… to a good Romani family. Perhaps… from the rich gypsy merchants in the nearby city… Sibiu. They have palaces… thanks to the copper trade.”
I nodded.
Then he surprised me again when he said:
“Some of those beasts… from the Tharnak… trade with them. That’s why… they pass through here…”
“How many have you seen?”
“In the time I’ve been here, a few. Three or four. But he… the one who took Jasmina… was more frequent. They say their origin is in the Tharnak. But our people tell… from mouth to mouth… that more than five hundred years ago… the strongest lived in a valley in Moldavia. As I said… we gypsies also lived there.”
“Lived? Don’t they live there anymore?”
“The Romani pass knowledge and stories orally. Sometimes… they are mistaken for legends. According to what they say, these were more evolved and powerful… they lived in peace with humans. But they were destroyed.”
“Why?”
“Evil rules this world, Teo. Power, ambition… that is what matters.”
“What is the legend?”
“That there was a superior race among them. A wolf and a she-wolf, perfect… he pure, she the best half-wolf and half-human. They would… have offspring and they… would be something like supreme beings, immortal. But a great trap ended… them and an entire city. Few wolves and humans escaped… leaving only those who spread… beasts… cursed.”
“And why have they never appeared on television? The world doesn’t even know about them. Dad, this is unreal.”
“They have appeared. But people deny it, invent excuses.”
“I’ve never seen anything.”
“In Satiricon, a work from the year 60 A.D., Petronius already spoke of werewolves. The same is cited by Plato and Heraclitus in Greece. In Europe… there were several reports in Germany, London, the Balkan zone… and in the Tharnak. Lycanthropy was treated… as a disease. People claimed to be wolves… killed animals and humans. Voltaire states that… in 1600, more than seven hundred lycanthropes were sentenced… to death. Every place in the world has this.”
“But nothing is proven.”
“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, Teo.”
He stopped and asked for some water. I helped him drink, and he seemed exhausted. Finally, he agreed to rest, complaining of stomach pain. I gave him his medication, and he fell asleep.
I stayed there, watching him, stroking his hair. Thinking about our conversation and wishing for much more. That time would stretch and pass very slowly. That miracles could really happen and my father would suddenly be cured.
My chest hurt, and the urge to cry grew stronger.
Then my phone vibrated. I went to the living room and saw Konrad’s name on the screen. I had told my aunt and him that I had arrived safely, but we hadn’t spoken again.
“Seraphine, how are you? And your father?”
“Hi, Konrad.” It was good to hear his voice. I swallowed my tears. “He’s not doing very well.”
“I’m sorry. Do you want to go out for a bit, have a coffee?”
“I want to get to know you, but I can’t lose a single second of his company.”
“I understand. But you should go out a little when he’s resting. Breathe, recover. I’m near the village, at a café in the city of Sibiu. Why don’t you stop by?”
“I think it’s better not.” Camélia had said he slept a lot after taking the medications. Because of that, I changed my mind, realizing I really needed to calm down. “Then we’ll do this: I’ll meet you quickly for a coffee. I can’t stay more than an hour. Is that okay?”
“Perfect.” His voice sounded like it was smiling. “I’ll send you the café’s address. Do you want me to call you a taxi?”
“That won’t be necessary. I’ll leave now.”
And that was how we arranged it.
Sibiu was a beautiful little medieval town, surrounded by walls and with two squares connected by a gate.
I got out of the taxi and walked toward one of the many cafés there, along something like a pedestrian promenade. The one Konrad had told me about was right at the beginning—welcoming and old-fashioned, with tables set out on the sidewalk. I saw him sitting at one of them, a cup in front of him.
He smiled and stood when he saw me.
Even though he looked very much like his profile photo, with short blond hair, bluish-green eyes, and Nordic features, he surprised me by being much bigger than I had imagined. Slim, but strong. Perhaps around six foot three.
Elegant. Sober clothes. Gallant gestures.
“Seraphine...” He looked at me while holding my hands in his. I felt like a miniature beside him, at five foot four. “How can you be even more beautiful in person?”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking about you,” I confessed, enchanted.
He slowly kissed my cheek and I was enveloped by a pleasant fragrance. There was a different smell about him too, but I couldn’t identify it.
“At last we meet. Come, sit down.”
He was extremely courteous, pulling out a chair for me. The smile remained as he sat across from me, admiring my face, my long red hair fastened at the back with a mother-of-pearl clip.
“One year...” I murmured.
That was how long it had been since he sent me a message through the app and we started talking, until we became friends.
The waiter approached and I ordered a coffee. Konrad insisted that I try some local delicacy, but I refused. I wasn’t managing to eat much, worried about my father.
“I can’t stay long. Really, just enough time to talk with you and finish my drink.”
It was pleasant to look at him. I realized I wasn’t the only one. Even the waiter seemed a little strange, staring at him and quickly lowering his eyes. Others nearby were curious too, watching the two of us.
I frowned, unsure whether it was because of his large and imposing presence. But there really was something different about him, beyond the smell mixed with his perfume. I tried everything to identify it. My sense of smell had always been very sharp.
Maybe wool or damp fabric. Cotton, perhaps.
“And your father?”
“He’s in a delicate situation.”