I watch her over the rim of my delicate china. Her skin looks pale and lifeless. She looks like she is being haunted.
There is nothing visible around her, but I can feel the dark aura. A lot of things about her don’t add up.
It’s not my business, though. I just need her to help me get out of this forsaken place. There is no guarantee she would be able to do it, but I am a desperate man. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Her tea cup falls from her hand and clatters on the table. The translucent liquid spills around and darts for the edge of the table. I can see the steam rising from the spilled liquid.
It starts dripping from the table and onto her lap. She does not react.
I quickly grab a napkin and contain the spill, watching it soak up. Rames would have been able to dry this up with his air bending, but, that always destroyed more than it fixed, especially hair.
I mop the hot liquid without taking my eyes off her. The napkin becomes too hot for my grasp and I discard it.
"12095A!" I call, refusing to use her actual name.
This feels somehow dramatic even though it is a very serious situation.
A mark starts burning itself into the skin of her neck. It looks painful. This is the work of the demon queen. The mark is red and swollen, the form of a dragon.
I jerk her to her feet and shake her, trying to make her come back to her senses. Even with all the experience I have garnered, this is beyond me.
"Arya". I say softly, hoping that the sound of her name would awaken her conciousness.
Her lashes flutter lazily. Her eyes look drugged and heavy.
"I’m not yours". She whispers and closes her eyes slowly.
By heavens! I thought she would be beyond fainting. It is so like women to always faint in a man’s arms.
Her purple eyes are now concealed from my view. The last thing I see in her glassy gaze is my long flowing white hair.
Kross chooses the best time to come out of his room.
"Xi, did you drug her? It never always turns out well, believe me". He says with a dramatic shake of his head.
I don’t understand his meaning.
"She’s never going to talk to you. It’s worse than rape".
My eyes widen into saucers.
"Why is your head always in your anus, Kross? She seems to have fainted".
"How convenient for you". He murmurs sarcastically.
I hoist her into my arms, ignoring him and take her to my room.
I lay her on the rug and charge my fingers. What I am about to do will hurt, but I have no choice.
I touch my electrified fingers to the base of her neck where her pulse is.
The current jolts through her entire body, causing her to spasm.
She does not wake up.
Cursing, I attempt it again.
I learnt how to channel the electricity in my body to my hands for combat. I discovered the gift by accident. It was during a storm. The youths were training in the yard with their swords. I was one of them. The clan leader refused to let us take shelter from the rain. He wanted us to be able to fight come whatever weather.
Just as I struck my opponent with the back of my sword, a bolt of lightening darted downward, aiming for my fallen opponent. I jumped on him to protect him and the lightening struck me.
I was somehow able to focus the energy to my core and expel it through my arms.
Everyone stared at me in fascination. No one really minded that I had just destroyed the holy temple.
It jolts through her body more violently, but still no response. I know she isn’t dead. She is just trapped in her unconcious state. I have witnessed this happen to someone before. There are several causes of the entrapment.
It could be a way of escaping reality by the person, it could be a curse, it could be a sleeping spell. There are a large variety of factors, but the one that weighs on me is that her conciousness has left her body. She has been taken somewhere else.
The last thing she had said was ’I’m not yours’.
"System, I need to borrow some coins". I say.
"You have no tasks to complete. Your coin balance is zero with an outstanding of 520 coins".
I close my eyes at the mention of the debt. A privelege of being a member of the diamond rank is that you can borrow coins from the System if you are falling short.
"I need to borrow 200 coins".
"I’m afraid you have exceeded your daily limit. Try again after your next nightmare".
I ball my hands into fists. What I really want to do is to smash them through the damn System, but it’s just a hologram. It’s not physical.
She jerks again and her eyes flash open. She jerks away from me immediately with frightening speed.
I know how it must appear to her. I only unfastened the strings at the neck of her robe so I could reach her pulse. Nothing more happened.
"Welcome back to wherever the hell this is". I say dryly.
She keeps rubbing her hand around her neck.
"What...what did you do... to me?" She forces herself to ask.
She sounds exasperated, like she can barely catch her breath.
"I gave you a jolt. It is more conventional than dunking a pail of icy water over your face".
"It should wear off soon. Your nervous system took quite a hit".
We remain silent for a while.
"Are we going to avoid the elephant in the room, or are we going to talk about why you fainted in the dining room".
"I fainted? I never faint".
I can’t help but chuckle.
"Fainting is for the weak". She continues."I was merely unconcious".
"We can discuss the propriety of the terms later, 12095A. Tell me what happened".
"Our plan is discovered. She can hear everything we say, she knows everything we do, everywhere we go. Even if we can harvest power stones, we can’t bring them back with us. They would get lost in the portal on our way back. The forcefield cancels out any attempt to open a portal. I’m afraid to inform you that there is nowhere out of here".
"And how do you know all this?"
"Because I saw it". Read complete versıon only at nοvelfire.net