Property of Kimra Lelanst, do not duplicate without consent.
Rieishel stared at the roof, her chained hand lying limp above her pillow as she traced the patterns in the wooden knots with her mind. There was a cool breeze in the room, from where she did not know, and the light that had graced it before still lingered giving the room an eerie glow.
She was once more trapped. Not that she could remember being anything else, but there was a definite tang to the feeling of chains that she had begun to detest. And as she had been since waking to this strange existence she was in pain. It didn’t help that she had absolutely nothing to take her mind from the throbbing in her body, from the pinching when she drew in breaths. It didn’t help at all that she was alone in these rooms. Or, that the man who had brought her back had dumped her on the bed with no ceremony and certainly no grace and now the jarring to her body had stopped she couldn’t bring herself to move knowing it would only hurt more.
She didn’t hear him enter, but she smelt him. The subtle change in the air was keenly felt by a body and mind desperate to distract itself. The musty smell of tobacco and leather with a hint of sweet drew closer.
“I know your there.” She warned with a light growl. Pain had a way of grating at her, and she had no tolerance for what ever game he was playing.
“Good your awake.” Foreitiket’s voice was a light as it always seemed, though her association with him was short she suspected he maintained the light indifference in his attitude most of the time. “I’ll bring her in then.”
She couldn’t bring herself to move as the new scent entered the room. The woman, because there was something distinctly feminine to her scent, smelt of grass and dried herbs with just a tint of mildew. Rieishel felt herself relax, there was nothing threatening to the woman’s presence and she was too sore to hold her guard.
A gasp echoed through the room before a scolding voice began. “Fore! How could you let her get into such bad shape?”
“She was like that when I found her.” Foreitiket sounded unconcerned.
Another gasp. “You left her in your room like that for four days?”
“No.” The sound of shuffling papers shifted through the room, his voice sounding a little uncertain. “She was fine when I found her the first time. This morning when she was found the second time is a different story.”
“She got away that quickly?” There was no mistaking the disbelief in the strange lady’s voice, nor the mock reprimand that followed it. “Your losing your touch.”
“Bullshit. Someone took her. The place was a brothel when I found her gone. Besides she was beyond the gates.”
“Haven’t you asked her?”
“She hasn’t exactly been in a condition to talk.”
There was a shuffling noise that approached her and Rieishel assumed the lady was drawing nearer. “No, I can see that. Poor girl. Looks like she’s had a number done on her.” Something cool slithered through Rieishel it traced through her veins and muscles then just as softly as it had entered it withdrew. “Though for all the bruises she’s still virgin. It wasn’t lust that had her stolen.” The lady gave a quick embittered laugh. “Looks like you’ve got an enemy… or she does.”
A slight growl escaped Foreitikets through, deeper then that lady’s voice. “Just my luck. A new enemy. How many of them do you have to kill before they get the picture and leave you alone?”
A set of eyes came into Rieishel’s vision, a faded red tinge around the edges of the blue pupils. Rieishel recognised the tinge as magical residue and the eyes as the stranger woman’s.
“Good, your awake sweet.” The female eyes moved from her face down to her neck. “Where’s the collar from?”
“I guess that guy I stole her from.” He sounded indifferent almost amused.
“You stole a person? Foreitiket child of Lerishte, I would expect you to know the difference between property and person.” There was a definite reprimand in the lady’s voice, something that suggested she had the right to correct his behaviour. A pause followed then the lady began to mutter something that even as close as she was to the lady Rieishel couldn’t hear. The lady’s scrutiny ripped from her and pulled away the agitated look still in place. “Shit Fore. The collar alone suggests she’s worth more then your life!”
“She’s mine.” A shiver ran through Rieishel, she knew very little about this man, but the very tone of his voice said he was deadly serious and would broke no argument.
“Don’t mess with things beyond our class.” The lady’s voice shook a little, and Rieishel knew this stranger had heard just what she had. “Steal their money, not their damnable slaves. Shit.” The tone began to change, to take on the reprimanding tints once more. “If she’s still a virgin, at her age, with a body and looks like that, it means they where saving her for something. She’s probably some magical cults sacrifice. And the last thing you want to do is mix up with magic and cults.”
Foreitiket gave a sigh and his voice when it came sounded much more placating. “Look Carhyl, I appreciate your concern, really I do. But why don’t you heal the girl, take my money and walk away as if this whole encounter never happened.”
“Is she worth it?”
“I guess I’ll find out.” There was a pause, a moment of hesitant silence. Foreitiket pushed through it first sounding awkward and uncertain. “I’m told I have mothers eyes.”
The pause returned, tension straining the air into thin cords that reverberated with every otherwise insignificant move. Carhyl took a deep ragged breath, and when she spoke her voice quivered with an undeniable tone of fear. “You didn’t just say that.”
“As I said. Heal the girl, take the money and forget this ever happened.”
“Fore, your mother would want me to say this. Don’t get mixed up in things that are beyond you. Please.”
“I’ll be at The Lark when your done. Lock the doors behind you.”
* * * * *
Her thoughts where fractured, broken, there where thing she couldn’t piece together things that where irrelevant but she couldn’t put them aside because her brain refused to obey the commands she gave.
Something weighed in her belly like curdled milk swirling around and trying to find a way out of her. She fought to keep it down, remembered the lady’s words when she had left. If they didn’t stay down she wouldn’t heal properly, and if she healed improperly she would forever carry the marks of what ever had happened to her.
Rieishel fought the groan that wanted to sound, knowing it would be a final step before the contents of her belly where spilt across the room. What ever the healer had forced down her throat was not agreeing with her at all.
At least she could move, even a little, the immediate pinch and ache of broken bones had faded into a dull feel at the back of her senses and she was glad for it.
Her stomach clenched and she knew with undeniable certainty she was going to be sick, very soon. Jerking her body upright she lent over the end of the bed and let the action that had been trying to happen since she swallowed the foul liquids to happen. And the moment her stomach was empty and she was sure nothing else could escape her she fell back onto the hard matrices and exhaustion produced sleep overpowered her.
* * * * *
“God’s be merciful!”
A voice woke her up, a familiar voice. Her eyes opened slowly to look about the room and found Foreitiket standing in the door way looking disgruntled. He glared at her for a moment before turning and leaving the room the door open in his wake.
She forced herself to sit up, forced her body to respond even though it had been asleep only moments before. The chains about her wrists rattled with her movement and she spared them a glance. They where heavier then the ones Mezakal had made her ware, and she assumed not as effective, but she had no skill in removing them and however ineffective they may have been to someone else they where perfect for her.
She got her feet to the floor in a slow motion, her belly still protesting although she doubted there was anything left to vomit now. She listened beyond the room as she waited for Foreitiket to reappear knowing he would else the door would not have stayed open. The foul smell in the air made her belly clench once again, but nothing, there was nothing to expel still and she was too tired to respond to her body’s demands.
Beyond the door she could hear Foreitiket’s voice, not raised, nor angry as it approached the room again. She heard the movements of two people, one of which was he, the other she was could not guess. The stranger walked in first, crinkling his nose sharply and glancing at her before looking about the room.
“How long since you cleaned in here anyway Fore?” The frowning man demanded, a note of humour in his voice as Foreitiket followed him into the room. Unlike the stranger Foreitiket made no effort to appear un-offended by the mess she had made, but she felt no reprimand when his eyes fell on her briefly.
“You know as well as I do that it’s cleaned every month or they would have thrown me out already.” The casual reply countered with the way he lent against the door frame, arms folded across his chest a frown on his brow.
“Knowing you, you’ve probably found a nice little way around any of the rules you don’t like.” The stranger clapped his hands lightly, a rhythm she followed with interest, hearing a soft almost imperceptible chant in his breathing.
Foreitiket snorted unfazed by the man’s actions, “I won’t deny it. But I cleaned four days ago none the less.”
A final clap that resonated through the air with perfect clarity as if it where the only sound to exist at that moment and any unappealing scent and substance in the room had vanished. The man turned to Foreitiket, a grin taking the place of his previous frown. “Four day’s? Fore! It’s a record! I should tell the others.”
Foreitiket reached into the pocket of his dark brown pants withdrawing a handful of coins. Carefully he dropped two of the gold ones in the strangers hand all the while shaking his head. “You are in serious need of a life Jopan.”
The stranger looked incredulous. “Me? Look who’s talking-”
“Alright!” Foreitiket interrupted loudly though he was still smiling. “You’ve done your job, be gone with you.”
“Hey, sure thing. I don’t mind being used.” At Foreitikets incredulous look the stranger grinned. “In all honesty that was a pleasure when compared to some of the other things I’m paid to clean. So if you’ve got anymore money to throw away because your too lazy to clean up after your pets…”
“Go away Jopan.” Foreitiket instructed, pointing towards the door. The man only paused in his exit to flash Rieishel a grin and a wink then he was gone. Foreitiket closed the door firmly, twisting several of the locks into place, then turned to look at her. “Are you feeling better or should I get you a bucket?” He looked a little concerned, defiantly concerned about the cleanliness of his room but perhaps about her as well.
“I feel fine.” She replied in honesty, the smell gone, the vomit gone and she felt quite good. In fact she felt better then she had since waking in Mezakals castle only a few days before.
Foreitiket didn’t look as convinced as she felt, and without a word knelt down beside his bed and began pulling out the items that where hidden below. When he rose from his task, kicking a few of the things back under their cover he was holding a large bucket. “Just in case.” He told her with a cheeky grin putting the object on the floor beside her bed. “I always feel that way after a healings done on me
She noticed he was within arm’s reach when he put the bucket down and even a for a few minutes after standing, not afraid of her even in good health but she didn’t expect him to be after all she wasn’t afraid of him.
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Property of Kimra Lelanst, do not duplicate without consent. |
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