The Witch of Storn

Chapter 17

Rey was sick of this routine of waking up somewhere new every time she opened her eyes. She hadn’t actually experienced it when she (as Rhaenar) had been traveling south to Stormness with Malra and the rest of her entourage, but so what? Rey thought she deserved her moment of self-pity and woe, especially since she didn’t feel her best at the moment. Her throat hurt and her eyes refused to unglue, as if someone had stuck them together with superglue while she was unconscious. Also, her back ached horribly and when she shifted just a little the pain that exploded up her spine made her shriek loudly. So loud that it rang throughout the room and even alerted whoever else was in here with her, footsteps rapidly approaching the room seconds after. If she had been able to move without wincing Rey would have gotten up to stare apprehensively at the door. She couldn’t though, so she resigned herself to lying on her back with her eyes fixed on the door and ears listening to the steady tread of the person who was rapidly getting closer and closer.

She couldn’t stop her heart from beating at the rate it was going though. It pumped faster and faster until it seemed her heart was about to burst through the cage that held it. Finally the footsteps came to a halt, right outside the door. There was a brief silence, during which Rey’s irregular heartbeat seemed to be the only thing she could hear.

The doorknob turned and a woman stepped into the room.

“I see you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

Rey tried to respond, forgetting for a second that her throat wasn’t in the best condition. She was quickly reminded of it however when instead of words a disturbing cough came out. The woman moved quickly to stand beside Rey’s bedside, a cup appearing in her hand the next second.  She brought the cup to Rey’s lips. Rey drank without hesitation, sighing in relief as the cool water soothed her throat as it went down. She coughed a little but soon she felt better. The process of drinking was repeated until Rey raised one hand, indicating that she had had her fill. The woman placed the cup on the small table next to the bed and stepped back, looking on as Rey sat up with some difficulty.

When she was finally settled the woman spoke again, drawing Rey’s attention to her.

“So, again, how are you feeling?”

“I’m – ehem, excuse me—I’m fine…I think. My throat hurts less but my back feels like it’s on fire. Apart from that, I’m just fine.”

The woman nodded. She walked over to a shelf across the room. It was loaded with jars and containers of all sizes and various contents. As she browsed through the contents of the shelf Rey took the chance to study her host. The woman’s completely white hair spoke of advanced age, but her features made Rey conclude she wasn’t that ancient, just somewhere between 40 and 60. It made Rey debate in her head whether the hair colour was natural or caused by old age. Did people in this new world even go grey as they aged?

She was ripped from her thoughts by the return of her host to her bedside. Now she carried a dainty little jar in her hand, offering it to Rey. Rey looked between the proffered jar and the woman for a few seconds. She breathed a soft “Oh” when she realized she was supposed to collect the jar from the woman’s outstretched hand. The woman was starting to look mildly irritated the longer her hand stayed in the air, reminding Rey a little too much of her secondary school principal, so she quickly grabbed the jar, muttering an apology as she did so.

The woman’s slightly creased eyebrows smoothened and her lips drew back into a neutral smile. Rey would have sighed in relief if it wasn’t rude. For some reason she felt like she had narrowly avoided certain doom. She wasn’t jumping over the moon with joy though. Disaster hadn’t been completely averted.

She stared down at the jar with confusion. What was she supposed to do now? She could clearly see the contents of the jar; a light pink paste with a smooth consistency. It looked like peanut butter, only much pinker.

Was she supposed to ingest it? It did look pretty scrumptious. Rey raised her head to look at her rescuer, meaning to voice the question.

The look on the woman’s face made it hard to ask what she wanted, seeing as the woman had that same look of thinly veiled disdain as her old principal. It wasn’t exactly a malicious one; it just felt like the woman was wondering why it was her fate saddled with the task of caring for an obviously lesser being (much like her old principal).

So Rey changed the question slightly, making it safer for her and her pride even if something went wrong along the way.

“Thank you, but what do I do with this?”

The woman let out a small, pained groan and Rey made herself smaller, sinking down in the bed and immediately regretting it when pain shot up her back. She stopped moving. Meanwhile the woman, muttering to herself in a language Rey recognized as not the one Rhaenar spoke, grabbed the jar back with a bit of force. It made Rey frown a little but she hurriedly changed it to a cheery smile when the woman gave her the evil eye. Secretly Rey wondered if all people who came from wherever this woman came from were this mean. Did that mean her former principal wasn’t from Earth then? The thought made her chuckle. A sharp voice interrupted her imaginings of her old principal and this woman sitting together, sipping tea and turning up their noses at the lesser ones.

“—are you even listening?”

Rey gave the annoyed woman a penitent look.

“I’m sorry. I’ll pay attention.”

The apology seemed to mollify the woman. She huffed, but there was no real heat to it.

“Listen then,” she said. “This is Pael salve, made from the bark of the Pael tree. It’s good for pain relief. It has other functions, of course, hut those aren’t important right now. Do you understand why I gave it to you now?”

Rey nodded fervently. “I do—it’s for my back, isn’t it?”

The woman gave a pleased nod and stuffed the jar back into Rey’s hands, a teacher pleased that their blockheaded student was finally getting it after much explanation and sweat. The comparison should have irked Rey, but there were more important questions to be asked.

Such as: “why did you give it to me then?”

“Excuse me?” the woman glared.

Rey didn’t take it back. “I’m pretty sure I’m unable to reach my back without crumbling from the excruciating pain.” She stressed the excruciating, looking at the jar as she rolled it around her palm.

There was a brief silence, during which Rey tried hard not to smile. Then the woman grabbed the jar (again!) with a little more force than the first time. It stung a little, but it was a tiny price to pay for a win. Rey smiled finally, savoring the sweet taste of victory.

“Turn over,” the woman said. Rey ignored the unfriendly tone, channeling her inner Sylphia and smiling sweetly at the woman before obeying. Turning over was easier than she thought; it still hurt though.

As she lay on her stomach, lips pressed into the soap-scented pillow she heard the familiar sound of a lid being opened. For a moment there was silence; she guessed the woman was dipping her fingers in the salve.

The quiet was broken a little while later.

“So, what is your name? I am called Zaria.”

Rey answered with her own name, hearing the woman whose name she now knew hum in acknowledgement. She frowned at the white pillowcase in her face. Zaria had gotten over it so fast? She really was different from her old principal.

“I’ll be applying the salve now,” Zaria said. Rey felt her camisole being lifted up and the nip of air at her exposed back.

Then Zaria pressed a finger to her back and Rey shrieked as she recalled that her old principal was a bit of a sadist too.