A World Of Treason and Tides

Chapter 26: Hot and Nice

Two weeks had passed since I went to The Obsidian. Two weeks had passed since I came to the Kingdom of Water. In these two weeks, I spent most of my time at Myra’s house, mostly lying on the couch in my room, either engrossed in thoughts or reading some book about Odalis. Sometimes, I accompanied Myra to where she bred her fishes.

The healer used to come every three days and on her every visit, she prescribed some herb. She never spoke to me, except the occasional questions she would throw at me while examining my arm—every feedback she had to give, she gave them to Myra.

Yesterday was supposed to be her last visit. She had told Myra that I was supposed to be healed by today. The pain and the discomfort had subsided days before, but apparently an iota of poison still flowed through my veins, which, if left untreated could be fatal in the upcoming future.

I was supposed to take another herb, probably the last medicine the healer prescribed for me, in exactly six hundred seconds. She had said that if I threw up the herb, exactly sixty seconds after consuming it, it meant that the poison had drained out of my blood. If my body absorbed the herb, it meant the poison was still there, and I needed to consume the same herb the next day, at the same time.

Five hundred and forty-five seconds were left till I would be able to take the herb.

My stomach growled. The herbs did not curb my hunger anymore, and I had not eaten anything since morning. With longing eyes, I looked at the narrow door from inside the lavatory, wanting to go out to my room and consume the food that Myra had left for me. She had left me a small container of food on the stool beside my couch—I was not supposed to eat anything until the next five hundred and thirty-nine seconds.

Myra should have given me this later, I thought, then to distract my mind from the thoughts of food, I focused on counting the seconds. Though there were certain ways to measure time in Odalis as well as in its aquatic kingdom (I had read about them in Odalis' books, and the mechanisms were pretty boring), however, in Myra's house there were no clocks—she could count the time from Tides and had informed me the same before going outside.

And I was left alone to count another....five hundred and thirty seconds.

In the human lands, there were books, televisions, cell-phones, internet and a thousand other things to keep a person company, still boredom hit us like the crashing of waves on rocks. In Kingdom of Water, I did not know what kept the faeries company when they were bored—maybe they used to go to The Obsidian, maybe to somewhere else—who knew.

I sighed. Four hundred and eighty-seven seconds left.

The Obsidian. A chill went through me on thinking about those tunnels. I remembered everything that had happened with me there.

I was not supposed to remember anything—the magic of that place was supposed to block that memory—but the memories had started coming back to me a few days after I left that dreadful place. First came the images of the faeries dragging me across the ground, then came, like lightning, the flashes of them throwing bones at me, and at the last came the image of a particular fae opening the knots of my clothes—they had kept coming to me for days.

It was not until five days back when a particular memory of Ryan warning those barbarian faeries flashed in my mind, that I knew those torturous displays were going to end.

The memories used to come at odd times.

The first time it happened was while the healer was examining me. I had frozen all over, and she thought it was due to the poison. I had spent most of that day alone, reclining on the couch in my room. Even when Myra came and attempted to speak to me, I could not say anything to her. I was feeling too tired and too confused, and being all by myself was more appealing than to share the reason of my sudden change in demeanor.