Claiming The Remnant

Chapter 35

[ Taiya ]

Almost 3 months had passed. I was utterly miserable.

The news that the King had brought me was heartbreaking and hollow. He told me that he hoped it filled in some of the blanks but it didn't. It was like putting a chair where a door belonged. The King's messenger had ridden back without a letter from my family and the King’s with the letter still sealed.

There had been no one to give it to.

The manor had been burnt to the ground, blackened bodies amongst the rubble. Horses rotting in the stables. My home was gone. My family. Everything.

The theory was that I had escaped the burning building only to fall in the lake and almost drown. Wandering alone and bedraggled I had somehow ended up in the King's city, the capital. Perhaps I had escaped some ruffians who had brought me here with unsavoury plans or maybe they dumped me here realising there was no value to a pale sickly girl with no memories. Perhaps I had simply hitched a lift in my confused state, riding in the back of some caravan and eventually becoming lost in the city.

Perhaps.

Either way my grief was thick and suffocating. It made no sense given that I had no memory of my home or my family. Still I was inconsolable. For weeks my heart felt like it was breaking over and over with nothing to hold on to. Tears poured, falling like a hot summer storm.

Poflorin and Dr. Heathson alternated days and Asperonin came in the afternoons to avoid seeing either of them, I suspected he would avoid me too if he could but the magic in the necklace was depleting quickly and despite being at odds with Poflorin's choice to be with Zach he still care deeply about his son - enough to keep refilling it so Poflorin wouldn't burn out. It was a vile experience as it could not be active and refilled at the same time but I endured nevertheless; there wasn’t another choice afterall.

Josephine however came to my suite every day. She was there from the moment I woke until I closed my eyes. When her powder blue eyes would settle on me, they were always full of glee. She seemed to revel in my misery. I would cling to my bed grieving and she would seem so entertained.

Regardless of how much she appeared to take pleasure from my circumstance Josephine always brought an activity with her and always attempted to coax me into participating. My refusal would fall on deaf ears. When I screamed and demanded she leave Josephine would simply grin as if she had won before settling herself on a chair in my bedroom and gossiping over the sound of my crying while she embroidered or drew or whatever it was that she had bought to fill the time.

When the tears finally stopped weeks had passed and I was no better in my health. Dr. Heathson looked increasingly worried with each passing visit and he kept increasing my medication. Poflorin's appearance became tired and haggard. I felt guilty and responsible, the poor lad had only just turned 16 but looked much older.

I had just enough energy to move from the bed to the sitting room and that was it.

The fire comforted me with its warmth.

The fire screamed at me, tickling my memories and ramming its destructive prowess down my throat. I watched it devour the wood, reducing it to nothing but dark grey ash; just like my home.

"Han? When is the Dr. coming?" I asked, struggling against my lungs.

-YOU SLEEP, DOCTOR HERE.- She answered, -CALL ….?- Han spelled something, a name. Then she mimed something coming out of the floor. Zach, she had spelled Zach.

"Spell his name again, please." I wheezed.

-Z, A,...- Han went slowly.

"I don't know why you bother attempting to converse with the mute." Josephine mocked, her voice soaked in it. "Not when you could have a perfectly normal conversation with me."

"Ye Gods," I exploded, well in my head I was. My voice wasn't co-operating and the words came out half choked, "why are you such a b***h Josephine?! Take a hint and f**k off. Let me die in peace."

While I had repeatedly demanded Josephine leave over these past 3 months she’d never actually listened. Han held the sitting room door open, backing me up in her silent way.

Josephine rose from the chair letting the knitting she had been working on fall to the floor. Her face was twisted in a scowl but it quickly morphed into a look of triumph. She leared over me, one hand on each arm of my chair.

"Well 'Lady Esther', I will go and leave you to 'die in peace' as you put it. I'll think of you while I ride my boyfriend." She grinned, practically purring the words. "I'm going to f**k him hard and scream his name while I enjoy my la petite mort." With a hot hand she squeezed my face in fake sympathy.

She didn't so much storm out, like I expected, as saunter; flaunting how she was everything that I wasn't.

"La petite mort?" Han blushed at my question and very quickly signed something about s*x. It was much too fast for me to catch and I didn't want to embarrass her further so I dropped it.

A feeling of dread bathed me.

"Zach." I called him for the first time, not expecting anything. Afterall I could barely hear my own voice.

"Yes, Lady?" He touched my cheek tenderly.

"Is there a temple here?" Each word was punctuated with gasping breath. Zach nodded. "Would you light a candle for me please?" A tear tumbled down my cheek.

"Go?" He held out his hand for me to take. I shook my head. "Ok."

Zach left after wiping that lonely tear from my cheek. I didn't expect to see him again but that afternoon he appeared with a tray of food. My usual broth and bread duo was nowhere to be seen. Instead Zach had an assortment of little plates and bowls of all different foods.

Just as I went to tell him, that despite how thoughtful it was, I couldn't eat it because I would just throw it up a realisation dawned. I vomited after almost every meal now regardless of what it was and this would likely be my last meal. The shadow in his eyes told me that.

A thank you caught in my throat. Han positioned the table so Zach could put the tray down. He was trying so hard not to bounce as he waited in order not to spill. It was so sweet.

Zach dipped a spoon into something that looked like sweet potato mash, before he could get it to my lips Han rattled a medicine bottle that she had pulled from her apron, indicating that I needed to take them first.

I was patient but Zach wasn't. Han was struggling to open the bottle so Zach simply reached in with his magic and took out a pill. There were five pills for me to take, swallowing them was arduous but the moment I was done Zach was fussing over me, spoon in hand. He made me taste a little of everything. I was falling asleep and he was still trying to put food to my lips. It was sweet but desperate.

Sure, his boyfriend was responsible for taking care of my health, but that was our only connection. I couldn’t understand why he seemed to care so much. It wasn’t like Poflorin was going to get in trouble when I died.

Han gently ushered him away and I managed to sleep straight through from lunch until the day had given way to night.

“Han?” I croaked. It had taken a moment after I opened my eyes to realise that I was still in the chair next to the fire and not in my bed.

Han touched my shoulder and tried to tuck the blanket so it held me tighter. The firelight made her violet eyes brighter and her skin glow. I wished she didn’t look so sad.

“Did Asperonin come while I was asleep?” There was pain in my arms, my back and my neck was stiff. An air of dread encased me.

-YES- Han touched my cheek.

“I want to go outside.” I forced myself to keep the tears in. They were burning at the corner of my eyes, demanding freedom.

-BALCONY?- She asked, confused.

“The gardens, I want to breathe the fresh air and look at the sky and listen to the night.” My words didn’t come easy, I had to fight for each one.

-NO, SICK.- She told me with a scowl.

“Han,” I pleaded, “I’m not going to get better, I’m dying. I - I…” Emotion started to overwhelm me as the sentence I was trying to release floated bright and ugly in my head. “I don’t remember what it’s like to be outside.” I didn’t, not really. The concept of it was there somewhere but I didn’t have a single memory of being between the earth and sky.

-OK, OK.- Unlike me, she didn't hold on to her tears. They fell softly, gleaming as she put shoes on my feet and wrapped me in a thick winter shawl.

The walk to the gardens was a long short one in that the distance itself was small but the time it took was long. The whole way I panted and gasped for breath. Several times I had to stop to rest or cough. I was determined though and Han was my champion. She kept me from falling more times than I could count and when we finally made it outside the first thing I did was throw up; she rubbed my back and wiped my face.

There was a wooden gazebo not too far away, it was raised a few feet off the ground with a couple of steps up to it. I hadn’t the strength to walk the gardens so it seemed the perfect place to go as the elevation would let me look over the garden. Thankfully the sky was clear and the full moon was shining brightly.

Hanging onto the railing so that I didn’t just become a heap on the gazebo floor I looked across the splendour that was the garden under the moonlight. Somewhere there was water, it babbled softly. Insects chirped and buzzed and hummed. The scent of flowers and grass and damp dewy earth invaded my nose and a taste of summer filled my mouth.

But that was all it was - a taste. The moment was just that; a moment. Beautiful, inspirational, fleeting.

Pain hit me. Sharp and crushing. The magic in the necklace had run out.

I screamed, splitting the night air.

My chest became tight but also took on a feeling of fullness, like it might explode.

I couldn’t get air.

Gasping, I sank to my knees clutching my chest.

My eyes rolled back. The moonlight was stolen from me as the world became black. Strangely I heard the thud as my body hit the wooden slatted floor of the garden gazebo.