x
Lidea awakened slowly, her head reeling as if she had been trampled by a thousand horses. This was by far the worst bottle-ache she had ever experienced. Vouching to never drink again, she decided that just this once, she could sleep a little longer. With her eyes still closed, she tried to turn deeper into the soothing warmth of her blankets. Only for her peace to be abruptly broken by a sharp pain. Memories flooded her consciousness as she awakened with a gasp. She recalled how the torch had scorched her flesh, and it made her break out in a cold sweat. Raising her hand slowly to her face, she felt her fingers glide over the rough texture of bandages. Slightly trembling due to the effort and emotion, she laid her arm back down. She couldn’t believe that she was still alive.
The thought filled her with a sense of joy, only to be quickly dampened by guilt. A little voice in her head whispered how unjust it was that she had survived. How she had deserved to die, more than any of them. Rationally she understood, that those thoughts weren’t fair but it was hard to shake them nonetheless.
To distract herself, she tried focusing on the room around her. The limited amount of light made it hard for the blurry vision of her remaining eye to discern the contours of the items around her. She was lying in a single bed, aside from which stood a small side table and a chair. Three heavy curtains hung from the ceiling above and separated her from the rest of the room. Blocking light and noise from her environment. The setup reminded her of the healing houses of old, a suspicion strengthened by the faint medicinal smell that seemed to cling to the space.
Where was she?
All old infirmaries had been destroyed during the magic purge and now only the church was allowed to care for the sick. For just a moment, she considered if her savior really had been a priest. Though if that had been the case, then she would have been dead.
Slowly she pushed herself upright while trying to avoid moving her head. Still, a wave of nausea made her groan in pain and almost fall back. As she tried to breathe through the queasiness, she
could hear footsteps rapidly approaching. Her body tensed in preparation, which only worsened the throbbing of her head. The curtain quickly opened and closed, as someone slipped inside.
“You shouldn’t be sitting up yet.”
A woman’s voice spoke and Lidea could almost hear the disapproval in her words. A cool hand pressed softly against her forehead, while another supported her back, as the woman gently ushered her to lie down again. The decisiveness and confidence in her actions betrayed her experience in dealing with patients. Convincing Lidea that she was the healer that had treated her burns. Lying on her back once again, she quickly felt nausea die down. Muttering words that Lidea could not understand, the woman stepped out of her circle of curtains, only to return a couple of seconds later.
“I hadn’t expected you to wake up yet.”
As the pain had lessened, Lidea opened her eye once again. The woman standing next to her bed looked to be in her late twenties and was of short stature with dark-brown hair and clear blue eyes. She would have looked normal, if not for the sizable blue crystals adorning her body. There was one big one on the middle of her forehead, and three smaller ones were evenly spread between each temple up to the bigger one. Giving Lidea the impression that she was wearing a tiara of priceless sapphires, that not even a queen could afford. Her white dress was sleeveless, showing off the smaller jewels that were arbitrarily sprinkled over both her arms. Mindlessly, she wondered if her whole body was covered with them.
As an eyebrow raised on the impish face, Lidea realized that she had been staring. Embarrassed, she tried to apologize but her voice came out in inaudible croaks. The healer seemed to understand her intentions nonetheless as she smiled softly while reaching her the glass of water that she had brought.
“Don’t worry about it, most people stare when they first meet me. I’m going to have a look at your face. After that, it will be high time for you to eat. You are barely skin and bones! Honestly, I can’t believe them. Do they want their prisoners to die before the sentencing is even carried out? …”
As the cool water soothed her throat, Lidea tried and failed at keeping up with the woman’s fast ramblings. Her clipped accent reminded her of the plains people of Udrän, although she had never seen one looking like her. As a neighboring country and a main trading partner, Lidea had met many of them when she traveled through the border areas. They were proud people, who wore rich embroidered clothing and never left their tents without having their hip-length hair plaited into a complex braiding style. Although they lived a nomadic lifestyle, all of their items were well-crafted and fully decorated. So much so, that in Lynoës they often were considered vain people.
Although the woman resembled them physically, with her russet-colored skin and short stature. She didn’t seem to adhere to any of their cultural traditions. Her hair was cut short to shoulder length, and she missed any of their typical tattoos or jewelry. Also, the obvious difference was the crystals that seemed to grow out of her skin.
The healer opened the old leather medicine bag she carried on her hip. It contained some worn books, together with a range of different colored vials and herb pouches. Seemingly without looking, she took out a yellow-colored ampule and held it in front of Lidea’s face.
“Drink this, it will ease the pain.”
Lidea focused on the viscous fluid inside. Even though she didn’t believe that the healer was going to try and kill her, a voice in her had warned her not to trust anyone. Other things could be done to a person, without killing them. She wasn’t naïve enough that they had saved her out of the kindness of their heart. They wanted something of her, and she had to discover what.
She returned the now empty water glass and accepted the little flask in turn. However, instead of opening and drinking the contents, she just let it balance in the palm of her hand.
“Where am I?”
The surprise on the woman’s face told Lidea, that she hadn’t expected her to doubt the healer's intentions. The shock quickly turned into annoyance as she crossed her arms.
“I suppose I should feel flattered that you decided to ‘disarm’ me before asking your questions. If I had wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have let you wake up in the first place.”
Lidea didn’t respond, keeping eye contact while balancing the vial. She believed the woman had no bad intentions, but then again. Life had taught her that people could sound sincere while still lying by omitting or twisting the truth.
“Where am I?”
The woman sighed overdramatically as if she believed Lidea to be the stupidest person in the world.
“You are in my infirmary at the resistance, and my name is Crystal. Might that have been your next question. Will you now let me do my work?”
Lidea didn’t react to her snide remark, as she frowned over her answer. An old pain filled her with vengeful hatred and prevented her from disguising the anger in her following question.
“What do you mean with ‘resistance’?”
The woman seemed to be confused by the sudden intensity of her emotions but smiled at her with a mixture of pity and irritation.
“Did you think that your group was the only ones resisting the king’s commands? You have probably not been in the capital enough to hear from us. The resistance was started ten years ago after the first signs came that there would be a revolt against magic holders. It was a group of volunteers who helped people escape before everything crumbled down. Now, we mostly smuggle children born with magic out of the city before the city guards get to them.”
Crystal had misinterpreted her anger but she didn’t correct her. Lidea had known about the group for a long time since they had been the ones to protest after the first anti-magic laws were instated. After her father had been sentenced, she sent them letter after letter. Begging them to help him, believing that they would as he had been one of the only voices within the nobility to stand on their side. A letter with a single sentence had been their response.
The resistance only helps those with magic.
After that, she learned that the resistance didn’t want peace. They just wanted to go back to the old system in which those with magic almost automatically gained access to a higher standing.
It was the reason why she decided to fight alone, and not even bother trying to work together with them.
“Why save me? I am not of magic.”
The woman looked at her as if she had pondered the same thing and answered her exasperated.
“We do help people without magic occasionally. But I fear that only Warchief knows why we saved you.”
“Warchief…? Does the resistance only use nicknames for people?”
She had noticed how Crystal was a very, on-the-nose name for the person standing in front of her, but it at least still was a name. Warchief was not.
Her confusion seemed to amuse the healer as her annoyed scowl disappeared to make place for a broad smile.
“Maybe. So what will your name be? Maybe rose would be fitting, pretty but prickly.”
The sly grin and mocking tone reminded Lidea of her sister who had always looked down on the fact that Lidea seemed to prefer fighting with swords over dressing up and going to balls.
“Just Lidea is fine.”
“Alright ‘Just Lidea’, will you drink that vial now?”
The last thing that Lidea wanted to do was drink something that would knock her unconscious around people that hated her ‘kind’. Although it had been six years ago, she refused to believe that their core ideals had changed so much.
“Do not call me that, you know what I meant. As for the sedative, I can be treated without.”
Lidea felt just a bit smug as her mocking smile disappeared and was replaced by another scowl.
“Has anyone told you, that you are no fun? As for the sedative, I am a healer, not a torturer. I refuse to work on you if you will be in pain. Just drink it, we could have not saved you if we wanted you dead.”
Although Lidea wouldn’t refute that she was, she wondered if Crystal realized that she was just as or even more stubborn than her. Still, she wasn’t going to give in to a woman, who was easily two heads shorter than her. Lidea was convinced that she could take her down, even in her wounded state.
“I. Can. Take. It.”
Lidea could almost see the healer’s face twitch in annoyance.
“Don’t be foolish, take the sedative. I am not helping you if you don’t. Why would you want to be in pain?”
“Because she wants to keep her wits about her. Don’t forget Crystal, we are strangers to her. It would be odd if she immediately trusted us without question.”
The rough baritone voice came from right outside of the curtain and surprised both women. The rising tension instantly disappeared and left them staring at one another in awkward silence.
With a cough, the person outside called attention back to themselves.
“Am I allowed entrance? I heard you arguing, so I assume our princess has woken up.”
Lidea wondered if annoying people was a skill taught in this group, as they all seemed to be good at it. She quickly glanced to the healer, hoping she knew better than to keep using the nickname princess for her. But the woman seemed to have found another person to point her daggers at.
“If you aren’t going to bother her. Make sure to not let any light in, she is still sensitive.”
Lidea hadn’t even noticed how careful the healer had been while walking in and out of her bubble of curtains. Although the woman’s bedside manners might be lacking, she could only respect how thorough she was in her caregiving.
As a precaution, she closed her eye while listening to the curtain rings gliding open and closed once again.
“You seem like you are feeling better.”
As she opened her eye, she saw the priest standing there. Although he looked slightly different. The softer features had become harder, including the belly that had originally convinced her that he could be part of the clergy. Her thoughts must have been visible on her face as he quickly explained.
“I used an illusion spell. It is not very strong, so it can’t change much but it was enough to fool a couple of bored guards.”
She nodded absently, as she recalled how they had passed through the wall before. In these last couple of days, she had seen more magic than in her entire life. This made her think of how he had somehow saved her. Something that should have been impossible. Had he used magic?
“Tell her that she is being stupid for not wanting to be sedated, Warchief.”
Lidea couldn’t withhold a deep sigh. Warchief looked at her with a pointed gaze, questioning her without words if she would let the healer have her wish. Staring back without blinking, Lidea gave her answer in silence as well. She was rather in pain for a couple of moments than be out of her mind for maybe hours. Who knows how strong a sedative, she wanted to give. Besides, she still had many questions. He just sighed seemingly annoyed, but then smiled.
“Just treat her without.”
“You can’t be serious Warchief. With the kind of deep-set burns she has, that would be torture!”
“Crystal, do it. She will learn the hard way.”
His voice had turned cold and determined again. For a moment, the healer seemingly wanted to protest, but one glance at those eyes and she frowned. Irritated, she grabbed the vial from Lidea’s hands and returned it to her bag, before turning her attention to the knots of her bindings.
With skillful hands, she untightened the bandages. As the support fell away, gravity pulled on the skin, making pain radiate out from that side of her face. Lidea did her best not to show any signs of discomfort, afraid that the healer would force the sedative on her. Although the ‘I told you so’ glares that the woman pointed at her with every twitch, told her that she wasn’t very convincing.
At the last layer, Lidea had given up on hiding her pain. Shivering each time the bandage was carefully ripped from the new healing skin that was stuck to it. A sigh of relief left her as all had been removed and the healer continued the treatment by cleaning the wound before covering it with a salve that seemed to have a cooling effect.
“Can you try and open your eye? Be careful and stop if it hurts in any way.”
She tried to follow the healer's instructions, tensing up as she prepared herself for the pain. Her eyelids were stuck together, but the salve had softened the gunk enough for it to get loose with a bit of force. As she looked around with both eyes open, she was surprised to see a blurry image. Another wave of relief ran through her body and it was hard to not become emotional. She had been ready to accept the loss of her vision as a cheap price to pay for her life, still, she knew that it would have been hard to ever hold her beloved sword again.
“Good. It seems like the eye itself is not too heavily damaged, you should be able to keep your vision. How do you see now?”
“It’s blurry.”
The healer nodded thoughtfully as she further examined the wound.
“Not too surprising. You have been out for five days. I can’t promise you that you will return to full vision, but I will make sure that you don’t lose more. Although, I’m afraid that I can’t help too much with the scarring.”
Lidea was shocked to hear that she had been out for five days. No wonder she was feeling this weak. Still, the shock couldn’t keep the bright smile on her face, aware of just how lucky she was.
“Thank you, Crystal.”
The prickly woman finally seemed to relax as she smiled back. Lidea could see how much it meant for her, to see her patient recover.
“No problem. For now, I will cover it so it is protected against going bad. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, the skin has recovered enough that it can go bare again. I have some creams, to hopefully lessen the scarring.”
Lidea almost found it funny how the healer seemed to be more upset at her scars than she was. She already had so many, that one more wouldn’t make much of a difference.
“It is alright, I’m already happy to have kept my vision.”
The frown reappeared on the healer's face as she shook her face.
“That is not enough. You are too young to lose your pretty face already.”
“I honestly don’t care.”
The healer seemed to be ready to argue her point, but one look at her face made her sigh and mutter something about the ridiculous stubbornness of patients.
The rebandaging of her wound was a far less painful affair and Lidea suspected that the cooling gel, still had some numbing properties but she decided not to bring it up. She still felt clear of mind enough and didn’t want to further antagonize the healer. Or worse, bring her in trouble with her commanding officer who had been patiently waiting the whole time.
While Crystal finished her work, Lidea looked at the man who she had introduced as ‘Warchief’. She wondered how she was able to call him that with a straight face. However, she also knew that there were more important questions to consider. The first being, why he had brought her here. Saving her had been a very risky affair. So there must have been a good reason why he did so.
The atmosphere in the room had changed and the healer seemed to have picked up on it. She finished her work quickly and efficiently, before grabbing all of her things.
“I will leave you two to talk. Don’t bother her for too long, Warchief, and make sure that she eats. There is some broth on the table for her. Make sure she eats slowly! As for you, ‘just Lidea’, try to rest when your questions are answered and your stomach is full.”
Although Lidea was annoyed at the nickname and the fact that she had instructed Warchief to watch over her as if she was a child. She couldn’t bring herself to be annoyed anymore. Too happy with the news that she wasn’t about to lose her vision.
As the healer left, Warchief took her place on the bed. For a moment, Lidea asked herself why there even was a chair, if nobody was planning on using it. However, she soon turned serious as she looked at the man in front of her. “Thank you for saving me. Now tell me, what is the price you want for my life?”
