Isidora Castillo - Tumblr Posts

The house was quiet when they came in the front door. Ewan looked up the stairs eagerly, watching for her appearance, waiting for Isidora to come down the stairs. She would greet her father first, of course, but then maybe she would look at him and smile. Thank him for the gifts and the correspondence.

He was half a dozen steps away from Lord Raul when the servants rushed in to help the man and attend the baggage. There were whispers behind him and then the lord’s sudden outburst. 

“What?! Where is she?”

Ewan turned, his smile sliding off his face like a plate from a tilted table. The crash in his soul felt similar. “Isidora?” he asked.

But Lord Raul was already heading to his study, his face far more flushed than was healthy for him, giving orders to footmen and sending for the Seraph. Ewan felt helpless as he followed in the older man’s wake, with nothing to offer save his own fear for the safety of the woman he loved. 

“I don’t care what you do, but find her!”

Lord Raul Castillo’s voice had driven them from the room, a pair of investigators, a former Seraph, and Ewan tasked with the same thing: find Isidora Castillo and bring her home. 

There was little to go on. She’d taken her belongings and left the house. Where she went after that, no one was sure. Lord Raul had already put out a reward for her safe return. 

The investigators and the Seraph knew people, knew how to follow clues. Ewan felt helpless. Useless. No wonder Isidora hadn’t even spared him a glance after Ashlan Kent broke her heart. But he shook off his self-pity. He had a job to do.

He knew people in his old neighborhood, children who had too much time and not enough money. Working for Lord Raul had given him plenty of the latter. 

A trio of copper coins was placed into each grubby hand. “I’ll give you the same in silver if you find anything of use,” Ewan said, looking at the children arrayed around him. “Her name is Isidora Castillo. She’s a fine lady, long brown hair, hazel eyes, young but still an adult. She might have a bit of a limp. She likes books. Find her.” 

He tried not to make that last sound like a plea.

“No, first you will sit and eat. You look horrible, Ewan, and that’s saying something.” Jules Eberhardt settled Ewan on her couch and rang for tea.

Ewan sat quietly, staring at his hands while waiting, Jules shooing her pair of pet shadow fiends out of the room so they wouldn’t suck the heat from it. Then she sat down beside him just as the maid brought the caddy with the sandwiches and desserts. A pair of glasses of sparkling wine followed, but Jules didn’t touch hers for once. She placed her hands on Ewan’s arm.

“Eat something,” she encouraged softly.

Ewan took a cucumber sandwich and chewed it mechanically, his gaze still very far away. Then, to her surprise, he downed a whole glass of wine. Jules didn’t pour more. Drunken Ewan was the last thing she needed.

“Alright, now start from the beginning. I got your letters. It sounds like your apprenticeship with Lord Raul was going splendidly.”

“It was,” Ewan said dully. “Then we got home and Isidora was gone. No one knows where.” He looked up at her, panic in his face. “You haven’t seen her, have you?”

The fact that she’d only seen the girl from afar hadn’t occurred to him and Jules wasn’t about to make him more frantic. “No,” she shook her head. “I haven’t. I would have told you if I had. Ewan, is this a kidnapping? Has there been a ransom?”

He shook his head. “No word from her or any captor. But she...she hasn’t spent money from her accounts. Her father checked. Nothing since she left. He’s got people scouring the whole of the ‘Reach and...” A horrified look came upon him. “You don’t think she’s left the city, do you?”

It was, in fact, exactly what Jules had been thinking. If she wanted to get away from her father so completely, that was the easiest way. “Perhaps she went to Lion’s Arch,” Jules suggested gently. “I know a few ladies there--”

“You know ladies everywhere,” Ewan wrinkled his nose.

Jules slapped him. Hard.

“If you’re going to imply I’m a whore for sleeping with people I find enjoyable, I will ask you to leave my house and know that you will receive no more help from me, Ewan Carmine!” The color had risen in her cheeks. She hated when men were jealous that she slept with more women than they did. But she hadn’t expected it from her oldest friend.

Ewan stared at her, mouth agape and glasses askew. Then he shook his head, tilting the frames back properly on his face. “No, no, I’m sorry Jules. I’m just tired. And upset. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Jules narrowed her eyes at him. “Then keep your mouth shut and your opinions to yourself,” she snapped. “I’ll ask around for her. And Ewan? If you’re so jealous of my love life, maybe you should consider why your own is so barren.”

Jules stood and walked from the room, leaving Ewan to find his own way out.

How he’d lost so much weight in just a week, Ewan couldn’t say, but Lord Raul looked gaunt now, laying in bed, sick with worry. The physician gave Ewan a worried look and shook his head gently. Not a good sign.

Ewan moved to grasp the old man’s hand. “I’ve got lots of people searching for her,” he sat on the bed. “But you have to keep up your strength, your hope. She’s out there waiting for you. If she comes back and you’re gone, I don’t know that she would make it.”

Lord Raul chuckled, a weak sound. “She’ll get along just fine without me, my boy. But I’m afraid I won’t get on well without her.” He squeezed Ewan’s hand, dragged the young man closer with strength that surprised Ewan. “Find her!” he hissed. “Do what you need to, use whatever magic is in your power, but damn you find my daughter! I need my precious Isidora.”

Worn out from the outburst, Lord Raul laid back against his pillows, releasing Ewan’s hand. 

“I-I will, my lord,” Ewan hastened to stand and left the room. If there was a magical way to find her, the Priory would have information on it. He just had to figure out where.

The rain seemed to start the moment he left the Castillo estate, chilling but not soaking. His feet splashed through the puddles as he ran after the illusionary hound. Where it was leading him, he wasn’t sure, but in his heart he knew Isidora would be at the end.

They pounded through the lower city to an apartment in the Eastern Commons. The hound disappeared through the door and Ewan stopped, leaning on his knees. “I can’t...” He stopped, realizing how ridiculous it was to try to talk to a spell.

But before he could figure out what to do next, another image emerged through the door. It was Isidora, or her spectral counterpart. Ewan followed her. For a moment, the image bent down and a cat curled into being, made of the same soft purple magic as Isidora. Her fingers stroked the cat gently. Ewan smiled despite himself, watching her care for the small creature.

Then something changed. The spell burst and shifted, the image lost as flares of chaos erupted around him before it coalesced into the hound once more. Ewan was moving the moment the hound took off again, Isidora’s locket still hanging from its neck.

Again he moved without thinking, without looking for a weapon or defense. He wanted to find Isidora. That was his only desire. And so when Ewan came up before the gates of the house in the Ossan Quarter, he was utterly alone. The hound barked once, turned in a circle, laid down, and vanished. Only the shine of the locket on the ground remained and Ewan swept that up into his pocket immediately. 

If she was in there, he would find her. Tell her about her father. And hopefully convince her to come home. Lord Raul needed her. 

It was hard to gauge how large the house was, with all the houses around it and the twisting roads of Ossan. He didn’t see her at the windows, but they were all closed, shuttered against the rain and chill. Ewan found the bellpull to beg entrance and tugged it gently. He didn’t hear anything from inside, but the servants might be at the back. So he waited until the door opened.

Putting a bright smile on his face, Ewan pushed up his glasses. He was soaking wet, but he didn’t let that stop him. “Hello. I’m looking for Lady Isidora Castillo. I’ve come from her father. He’s returned home and is rather desperate to talk to her. Please tell her my name is Ewan Carmine.” 

His hands worked over and over themselves in nervousness. What if she refused to see him? Could he hire a sedan chair to bring her father here and let Lord Raul make the demand himself? It might be the only way to lure her out if she was being stubborn. Ewan waited anxiously for the servant’s answer.

@typhonius-amrata, @thefreelanceangel