Into the West

Another week, another chapter!
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~The Waxing Moon, Palace Way, Sanc~


The moon illuminated the night sky by the time she found her way back to the rooms she was renting. Swinging herself onto the unlatched window ledge, the girl cautiously slid into the silent, dimly lit room. A fire crackled in the bedroom, chasing away the chill of the night and casting more then enough light for her to see by.

Throwing the bloody cloak to the floor, the girl staggered into the small bathroom and lit a couple of scented candles. Before her eyes, the world around her swam and darkened for a moment.
In the hours that it had taken her to reach here, she had lost a lot of blood. By now, anyone else would have passed out and died.

Resting trembling hands on the washbasin the girl shook her head to try and clear it, then, slowly she cast her eyes towards the small mirror hanging before her.
The face that looked back out at her could have belonged to another person. She was deadly pale, her skin, the colour of marble was covered in a coating of blood and grim. Her eyes glowed softly, but beneath them were dark circles. Her normal pale golden complexion gone with her strength. She looked like she had been to hell and back and that was exactly how she felt.

Resting her head against the mirror for a moment she took several deep breaths and tried to calm herself. She felt so very tired and the arrow wound hurt like never before.

Tugging the buckles loose on her leather top, she began to properly inspect her shoulder.
The bleeding had slowed to a trickle and the flesh around it was bruised a raw meaty red. The actual wound was another matter entirely.
She was glad she had coated it with an antidote earlier, because it would have been much worse if she had not.
Sickly green and brown veins laced across the wound and made even the slightest of movements painful.
She had already thrown up twice after having to use her wounded arm.

Walking back into the bedroom she pulled a small steel bound chest out from beneath the dresser. Then from a pouch on her belt she removed a small ring of keys and finding the one she needed proceeded to open the box.

Inside it were a number of different coloured bottles, small velvet bags, slim metal tins and a palm-sized pestle and mortar. Rummaging through it, she easily found what she needed and within a couple of minutes she had mixed up a poultice to deal with the poison.

Pouring the mixture into a stone pot, she pushed the jar into the bed of hot coals at the edge of the fire, leaving it to thicken.

Satisfied that it would be fine for a while, she stripped out of the rest of her ruined clothing and after pulling on a long robe that covered the wound she went to summon a maid.

-----

The water was just this side of being too hot, but it felt wonderful against her icy skin. It soaked through her, warming her to the core and left her feeling more relaxed and comfortable then she had felt in days.

The herbs from the cake she had thrown in smelt sweet and clean and gave new strength to worn muscles. Even the wound hurt less.
Leaning back into the tub she rested her head on the rim.

Closing her eyes she tried to forget the last couple of hours, but no matter what she thought about, they would not go away. Maybe it was because the injury on her shoulder still ached dully, or maybe it was because she kept on seeing those crystal blue eyes in her mind.

Either way, the memories would not fade into the background and leave her alone. She did not understand the reason it all kept playing back. She had finally accomplished her task. She had taken her revenge and she did not regret it.

She had been dreaming about this day for so very long, but now that it had all come to pass she did not know what to do with herself.

She had been living for revenge, but now there was nothing left for her.

Opening her eyes with a sound of exasperation the girl stared up at the wooden roof of the small bathroom. Of all the idiotic things to come to mind, those thoughts had been at the top of her list. A small smile parted her lips as she realised that the thought had been false.

She was free.

Free of everything. She could finally leave Arisis and begin a new life far from these damned shores where she would always be haunted by memories. Memories of better times when she had not thought such hatred had existed. When she had still been young and innocent.

Below her in the inn’s common room she could hear dim voices mixing in with music. Most of the talk was of the assassination, although very few people seemed to care very much that their king was now gone.

The talking downstairs drowned out most of the sound in the area, but faintly she could hear the sound of other guests in their rooms and even fainter then that was the sound of soldiers patrolling the streets.
Concentrating, she could make out the noise made by at least twenty men in a four street corner radius.

They had not given up their hunt for her. She had not expected them to give up and it did not surprise her that so many guards were hunting her.

Climbing out of the bath, she walked to the hand basin and began to dry off.

By tomorrow, if the tales told about the infamous general were true, he would have every possible escape route covered by dogs and five times the normal amount of guards. That was far from a good thing.

It was difficult enough getting out of the city without all the extra hassle. She knew she should not have left the arrow, the dogs would have her scent from the blood and if she tried to get out, she would surely be caught.

Brushing back her blood and fire hair she shook her head and sighed.

Of all the possible places to be caught and killed, Sanc was at the very bottom of her list. She refused to suffer that humiliation.

There were, thankfully, a few things she could do.

Walking back into the bedroom, she glided over to the fire and retrieved the small pot. It was burning hot to the touch, but she did not notice and if she had, it would not have bothered her.

She had spent her fair share of time tending to the wounded during the war. Healing, even for those who had no healing touch had been part of basic schooling. You never knew when you could be stuck without a healer.

It took her no more then a couple of minutes to pack and bind the wound. It still throbbed mercilessly, but it was now at least at a level she could ignore.

Below in the kitchens, she could smell food cooking and realising that it had been over twenty-four hours since last she had eaten she decided to go down.

Being cautious of her shoulder the girl dressed herself in boot-leggings, a crimson shirt and a sleeveless ankle-length over coat heavy with beautiful embroidery. She had just finished fastening her belt with its twin daggers around her hips when something happened.

The pain in her shoulder gave a sudden jolt and pushing down her clothing she looked at her exposed arm, veins of sickly green and brown flowed down to her hand.
A moment later it felt like her lungs were being squeezed shut by giant hands made of ice. Her vision began to swim and quickly became blotchy.
After that came pain.
It was like a thousand blades fresh from the frozen north running her through all at once.

Her memory flashed on an event from just after the war.

~A room deep within the vaults of Eifa, a circular room lit by star fire contained within a diamond the size of her fist.
Around the room crystal formations grew and some of them already contained other bodies deep in hibernation, like her theirs had not been voluntary, but unlike them she was not a criminal.

Two pairs of strong hands seized her and held her against one of the empty formations while another chained her in place.

Glancing at the chains that held her wrists she recognised runes that would contain even her powers for a time, the chains attached to the shackles moved by themselves and with snake like grace wrapped around her struggling form. With them finally in place the crystal moved to cover her.

Where it touched her she lost all warmth.
It covered everything up to her chest when she finally felt something; agony beyond measure. It felt like a blade of ice had run her though, looking to the other prisoners she knew that was what had happened. Each of them boasted what she had thought was a red stone over their heart, but she had been fooled.

The crystal had cut into their chests, right down to their ribs, sliding past the white bones and finally encasing the beating organ which she could now see were beating so slowly that it was barely noticeable.

She let out a scream as the crystal began to cover her face. Finally she felt nothing but the cold bite of deepest winter and the pain in her chest.~

What was happening to her now felt so similar that it frightened her, but she could do nothing to stop it, all she could do was try not to scream.

White spots began to play before her eyes as the pain built. Finally, as her vision failed and her body screaming for air began to shut down, the last thing she saw before she blacked out was the window being kicked open and a tall figure blocking out the stars.