The unveiling

Unveiling Chapter 5

Chapter: 5

"There, does that feel better?" Her mother asked Eshter. It turned out her hip wasn't broken, just dislocated. She'd helped her mother get it back into its place and watched as she gave the woman something for pain.

"Much better dearie thank you." Her mother smiled and turned back to her bag. Esther turned to her and patted her on the hand. "How have you been, sweetheart? I haven't seen you since, well before you took off last year." She tried to make her smile believable.

"I'm fine, just trying to keep busy." She said and Eshter nodded.

"How is our young warrior, I hear he was hurt pretty badly in that last battle?" She squeezed her eyes tightly a moment and took a slow deep breath.

"He's fine physically, but he isn't the same." She nodded.

"Give him time, I'm sure he's traumatized by what happened. I've seen our kind get hurt before on hunts, they come back terrified of their own shadows, but your young man is strong. He'll pull back from this."

"Agnar wasn't just hurt Eshter." Her mother said, sitting back down beside her on the bed. She placed a bottle of pills on Eshter's bedside table and told her how much to take and when.

"What do you mean?" The woman asked with curiosity.

"It nearly killed him, he'd already stopped breathing. I was sure his heart had stopped as well." Her mother said and a small choked sob escaped her.

"But it hadn't, it was slow, and the beats were numbered, but I was able to pull him back." Turid said, wiping at her eyes, everything was quiet for a while.

"Well, we'll let you get some sleep." Her mother said and stood, she started to follow but Eshter's hand shot out grabbing hers with a strength and speed you wouldn't expect from a ninety five year old.

"You say his heart had almost stopped completely, and you were able to heal him?" She nodded in confusion.

"I know it's wrong to use healing magic like that, that I could have done more harm than good, but I had to try." Eshter pushed herself up a little in bed with effort.

"And you say he's been different since, how?" Her mother set back down on the bed. It was obvious the woman wasn't merely curious anymore.

"He has no emotion anymore." Her mother answered for her. Turid was trying not to sob, she hated thinking about it, and talking about it was much worse. "We thought maybe he was a shifter, or possessed, but when I checked for possession, I felt an emptiness inside him." Eshter nodded.

"Turid look at me." She lifted her eyes off the bed and Eshter took one of her hands in both of hers. Her face was intense but she couldn't tell what her emotion was. "Has he been cold?" Her eyes went wide and she nodded. "Thirsty? Extreme thirst, like he's been drug through a desert, no matter how hard he tries he can't satiate it?" She nodded again.

"Do you know what's going on with him, Eshter?" Her mother asked. Turid began to feel hopeful for the first time in over a month, but the look on the elderly woman's face was enough to squash all that hope before she ever even spoke.

"It sounds like he's lost most of his soul."

...

Kian lay coughing and sputtering on the shore. Despite his going into the water to save Agnar, it had been the other boy who had pulled him out. He'd swam out several miles before trying to surface for air when a wave drug him back under. Disgusting water poured into his mouth and down his throat. He didn't remember much after that.