A Sacrifice of Names

Chapter 5

"I warned you."

I blinked, trying to register where the voice was coming from.

"Warned me? For what exactly?"

"Stupid lass."

I flinched at the harsh words floating past me. It was dark, but whomever the voice belonged to, it felt as if they were standing right next to me.

"You should not have come here."

"Where... where am I?"

✒

Earie jolted awake with an inaudible gasp. A dream, a real dream this time. Not one of her many nightmares, but the male's voice had sounded so scarily real this time. Even more so than before.

She lifted her hand up to the side of her head with slight hesitation. That nauseating headache was definitely still there, that putrid smell still lingering in her nostrils. The wound, however, had been closed. She could feel the stitching, but to her surprise the skin didn't feel as sore as she had expected it would. Someone had cleaned her, the crusted blood gone from her right cheek and hands.

And so were her clothes.

Swiftly she pulled the sheets up to her chest, hardly even realising that she had been moved to a different room. The first thing she noticed was the abundance of natural light pouring in through the windows, or where the windows should have been. Delicate shapes carved out of the wall, almost as if nature itself had shaped it like this to let in as much light as was needed.

The bright light pushed a groan past her lips.

"So prude."

The voice startled Earie, and it took her a moment to register that it had come from the other end of the room. Another shadow slowly took shape. The skin of the woman the piercing voice belonged to had a slight green tint to it, but it were her eyes that made Earie again wish this was all just another nightmare. Her irises were a beautiful ochre, but where the whites of her eyes should have been it was completely black.

"Didn't your folks teach you it is rude to stare?" Taking notice of the sharp, shark-like teeth Earie decided it was best not to reply to that question.

"Of course they decided to dump you on my doorstep out of all places. As if I'm not busy enough as it is."

"Dump... me?"

Earie watched as the other tilted her head slightly, wondering if she could smell her fear from all the way across the room. The fae woman pushed herself up, her limbs sylphlike, and her overall height taller than she had expected it would be.

No wings though. Nor did any of the women back in that dark room she had first woken up in have any wings. Why did she expect them to have any? Her grandmother had always described the fae as creatures of otherworldly beauty, but perhaps it had been the pictures in children's books of tiny creatures with wings that had distorted that entire image.

"Like they would have bothered with you." she sneered. "They said you're a weakling, having spent too much time on Talamh."

"On what?" Questions started to swarm Earie's mind, almost having forgotten what manner of creature she was actually conversing with.

"Your precious mortal realm."

Home.

Earie swallowed. They had taken her just like they had taken Elly and the other unfortunate woman. Had they been as lucky as her? Or well, she was still alive. That could be counted as being lucky, right? Had the other fae truly bought her lie?