*~*~*

"That's simple, Sebastian. One man will be able to verify that the other existed. Now bring me my tea."

"I'm afraid you haven't quite solved the problem, young master."

"Why not?"

"A man's memory can prove to be a faulty, fanciful thing. It can be deceived, or it can forget. Or it can invent. Who's to say that one man did not simply imagine the other?"

*~*~*

He sat on the school steps, waiting for his mom to arrive and pick him up. He fiddled with the hem of his shirt, trying to recall whether she'd said she'd be picking him up there or at the library. Or was Dad picking him up?

He sighed and stood, just about to leave when—

Bee-beep.

"Sile! Honey! Over here!"

His mother's golden hair caught the sun and flashed as she leaned her head out the car window, making him squint, even behind the tinted lenses. He gathered his things and pulled one of his backpack straps across his shoulder, jogging to the car. He was huffing a little when he got there and his mother looked at him sternly.

"Sile, you know you have to be careful when you're running because of your—"

"Yes, Mum, I know. I'm sorry," he interjected quickly, hoping to stave off another lecture by sounding appropriately apologetic. It worked, and Rachel's face settled into a fond smile as she helped her son throw his things into the back seat.

"So, how was school? Did you have fun at recess?"

"…Yeah. Lots of fun. I played dodge ball with some of the other kids." A blatant lie, and they both knew it, but his mother didn't say anything. "I…didn't get my homework plan done, though."

Rachel sighed, but smiled at her son in the rearview mirror. "That's all right. I talked to your teachers before I came to pick you up, and they gave me a list of your assignments."

Sile smiled back at his mother and turned to watch the scenery of their quiet little suburb pass by outside his window, when suddenly—

"Mum! Stop the car!"

"What?!" Startled, Rachel braked and then pulled into the shoulder, glad that there was no one behind her. "What is it, honey? Did you forget something at school?"

But Sile didn't answer. Instead, he was too focused on the man in a black suit who stood on the sidewalk by the corner store. Seeing his intense concentration, Rachel turned to see what he was looking at.

As they watched, the suited man turned to help an elderly gentleman out of the black car that was idling by the curb. Rachel knew him to be a very mean, quite despicable old man, and not someone who she'd like her son to be associating with.

But Sile was already out of the car.

The ten year old boy had slipped out after fumbling with his seatbelt and begun to dash across the road. And while the street was not usually busy, school had just gotten out so there was a fair amount of traffic from the high school.

Rachel could only watch in horror as her only son darted out onto the pavement and into the path of an oncoming minivan.

"Sile!"

The minivan slammed on its brakes, as did the other cars behind it, and soon all traffic had stopped. The man who had been driving the van exploded out of the driver's side door, whipping his head around frantically as Rachel bolted across the road.

"Sile? Sile! Honey, where are you? Are you all right?"

"Ma'am—"

"Oh my God. I'm sorry! He just came out of nowhere!"

"Ma'am—!"

"Hey, is everything okay? What happened? What's going on?"

People began streaming out of their cars, crowding around the scene. This was a small town, so everyone recognized Rachel, and they knew that the only person in the world who could have been hit must have been her son—

"Ma'am!"

Everyone fell silent and turned to the man in the suit. In his arms was the shocked boy—gloriously unhurt. Rachel's strength crumbled and she dashed forward to take her son from him, smoothing Sile's gray-blue hair away from his face and rocking him back and forth.

"Thank you, thank you so much, sir. I don't know how I could ever repay you," she sobbed. "You saved my baby's life." She lifted Sile's chin to examine his face, but he was unresponsive, the shock still overloading his brain.

The man smiled gently, brushing slightly too long dark brown hair out of red-brown eyes. "I require no payment, madam. It was my pleasure. He looks like a fantastic young lad."

The light British accent and slightly outdated way of speaking broke Sile out of his spell.

"Ah!"

"It's all right, honey, shh…you're okay." Rachel hugged Sile closer, and then looked back at the stranger, who was being impatiently gestured away by the elderly gentleman from before. "I can't thank you enough, sir. If you ever, ever need anything, my name is Rachel Phantom."

The man nodded and was about to reply when he was cut off.

"Tamesis, come along. We don't have the time to waste all day here."

The man, Tamesis, nodded to the elderly man and turned. His eyes seemed to linger on Sile as he did so, but he didn't stay behind as his acquaintance began to walk. Rachel carried her son back to the car and fastened him securely into the seat, even as he squirmed and twisted to keep his eyes on his savior.

She was too relieved to lecture him now, but it was coming.

Tamesis stayed a step behind Mr. Sullivan as the man went along his way, planning his conquests and talking to himself while his dark shadow stayed silent. Indeed, Tamesis was deep in thought. Something had been so familiar about—

"Sebastian!"

He froze dead in his tracks. Whipping around, he saw young Sile craning around his mother, who was trying to close the car door, staring at him. The tinted lenses had fallen away to reveal startlingly blue eyes that were so familiar

"Sebastian!"

Unconsciously, Tamesis took a step forward, feeling the delicious burn on the back of his left hand that signified a direct order from his…

From his…

Rachel shut the door and tossed him an apologetic smile over her shoulder. She smoothed back her frazzled blond hair and slid into the driver's seat before starting the engine.

Tamesis could see Sile still shouting, but his ears could no longer pick up the sound of the boy's voice. But he could hear it, ringing inside his head.

'Sebastian!'

"Tamesis! Come along, I don't have all day."

"I—Yes, my Lord."

And though his body turned and left that fateful spot, his mind remained there for days, running the scene over and over again in his mind.

'…Young master?'


And so a man in black appears. His new name, Tamesis, is an old English name that means 'Dark One'. Sile is Gaelic for 'sky'. Aren't I creative?

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