Gifted

Chapter Nine

I slowly blink my eyes open. I feel a wet cloth pressing against my forehead. I look up to see Vitalities over me, the cloth in her hand. "Oh! You're awake!" She says, pulling away from me.
Her head has several unattended scratches on it, and her arms are still bleeding in some spots. Her wrists still have rust stains on them, and they're marked with the indent of the metal cuff.

I sit up quickly, ignoring the pain rushing to my head, and grab the cloth from Vitalities's hands. I replace the cloth on her head instead of mine, saying "Are you okay?! How king were you in there?! Have you treated these?!"

She looks down at her hands as I pat the blood off her head. She smiles and laughs. "There isn't a point in treating them!" She laughs again then looks up at the ceiling, tears threatening to spill from her green eyes. "What are you talking about? You could bleed to death if they aren't treated.

I pull her head back down to face me, continuing to pat her wounds. She grabs my wrist and replaces it back onto my head. "If I were to bleed to death, I would be incredibly grateful!" Vitalities exclaims as if death were a release from a torturous life.

My shoulders slump down slightly. "What...?" I ask, confused as to why Vitalities would want a release from life. She continues treating my wounds as she speaks. "Do you know how old I am?" I sit back up; she rings the cloth out in a porcelain bowl of water sitting on the bedside table next to us.

"Not exactly," I say. The book from the castle library said she's from four thousand years ago, so she must be around that age, right? "Just guess," Vitalities says, rubbing the dust off my arms. "Uhmm...fourthousa-" she cuts me off with a chuckle.

"I wish!" She exclaims, continuing to laugh between her words. I sit back and cross my arms. "How old are you then?" I ask, and she stops laughing. "Err...somewhere around eleven-thousand-six-hundred-and forty-seven," Vitalities says.

I drop my arms back to a relaxed position by my sides. "What!?" I exclaim. If Vitalities is over ten thousand then she's surpassed the average age of the oldest magical beings known to Dreaca. "Yeah, after seven thousand years, mortal wounds no longer affect the body anymore. So, when you heard me screaming in pain, it wasn't a simple cut or beating. That...old hag," she looks off in disgust then back to me, "used old and illegal techniques to make my body feel as though it were ripping itself violently apart from the inside out. Her gifts and magic were darker than anything I've ever seen!" Vitalities shakes her head as she speaks, her eyes striking with horror.

"I-I'm so sor-"

"Don't," Vitalities looks away with her eyes closed, holding her hand up, "say you're sorry."

I shut my mouth. Vitalities drops her hand and reopens her eyes. "Sorry, it's just that the very few people I've told about my condition have apologized...way too many times," she says. She seems to remember back to a day in her past and shutters.

"Where...are you from?" I ask, and Vitalities's smile returns. She looks down, fidgeting with her black pant leg. "A glorious planet called Ceinalia. It was practically paradise! There were blue-water beaches, palm trees that provided shade when it was hot, the sky always had just the right ratio of cloud and beautiful blue sky, and animals roamed freely however they pleased!" She says, her eyes shining with happiness.

"Was?" I ask, and her smile fades again.

"Uhm...yeah. Cinalia was destroyed in an intergalactic war when I was nearly your age. I watched my beautiful planet crumble to mere ash from a small shuttle powered by Dreaca's elders," she says. A tear falls down her cheek, but she quickly wipes it away.

"How did you end up trapped in the tower?" I say, forgetting my manners for a moment. Vitalities doesn't mention this as she answers. "My-our gifts were strange yet beautiful to the now elders and passed citizens of Dreaca. Most thought it was a miracle others, however, thought it could be used for horrible horrible things. The figures whispered terrible thoughts to me. They caused me to experiment with dark magic and eventually trapped me in the Caselock. I was trapped there for at least twenty years, but it could've been longer honestly," She says, folding her arms against her as if she's cold.

"What happened...to the old figure-thing I mean," I ask, and Vitalities inhales and exhales deeply. "Don't worry about that. You should get some rest!" She says, helping steady me back down to a lying position. "But-"

"No buts, you need to rest," she instructs, clearly telling and not asking. I sigh, giving into Vitalities as she softly pushes me down onto the soft bed.