The Forgotten Light

9. Fairlight

What are you doing to me?" Fairlight felt almost completely awake since tiny, warm fingers forcefully lifted her eyelids, and her pupils were struck by a blinding light.

The white beam blew out. Confused, Fairlight could see nothing but black spots in front of her eyes. She felt warmth surround her, and yet she had the impression that her skin was covered with ice.

"It's good to know that you're alive after all," a girlish voice called back. "Everything will be all right, just don't move."

The stranger leaned over her healthy shoulder, warning "This might hurt."

Fairlight hissed, feeling the needle going under her skin. Her head was spinning. "What is it?"

The girl looked at her. She was human. Her head was wrapped in a green shawl, her hazel eyes looked at her gently with sincere sympathy. Fairlight was surprised that her vision suddenly blurred and she couldn't see more of the girl's face. Annoyed, she tried to blink, but with each passing moment the image began to get blurry.

"What's that?" she asked weakly.

"I gave you morphine. I have to take care of your arm."

***

The bliss did not last long, it seemed to her that she was free from pain only a short while.

'You don't have to pretend. I know you are already awake."

Fairlight woke up a few minutes ago, feeling slowly increasing pain, on top of which her head was so dizzy that she preferred to lie comfortably with her eyes shut. Her head and left arm were wrapped in a bandage.

"I'm not pretending," she grunted, eyeing the stranger.

The girl must have been not much older than she was, and she looked tall and very thin in her white kit. She was busy organizing her medical instruments and equipment. "As long as you're here, you can feel comfortable. Invicta don't often look in here," she said, walking over to a cabinet and put away a few bottles. "I assume you don't know where you are?"

Fairlight, ever since she first opened her eyes, noticed that she was lying in a hospital bed in a small white room with a single hanging cabinet on the wall and a small table. She knew, or rather remembered something from the conversation between the two Beings before she passed out, that she was far from Florence. Far from home.

"San Diego. We are in San Diego," she finally said.

The girl turned to her surprised. "So you know. I don't recall anyone mentioning it here."

"It was one of the last words I heard before I woke up here."

She tried to change position, but was hindered by her bandaged arm. The doctor noticed her movement and approached her. "You shouldn't get up for now, at least not by yourself. You've lost a lot of blood, Darksen has severely savaged you."

Fairlight held her breath as the girl held her down, quickly adjusting the pillows behind her back and leaned her comfortably against them in a half-sitting position. She remembered the look in the black eyes and shivers went through her. He was their freaking Prince...

"You mean that murderer Prince?"

"For a barely alive, you get a lot," she said with a smile. "I'm Kendra, and you?"

She measured her carefully with a tired look.

"And you take care of people savaged by Invicta?"

Kendra snorted with laughter, wrinkling her freckled nose.

"It can be said that this is what doctors deal with in these days. Your turn."

Fairlight looked her straight in the eyes. She had only known her for a short while, and she already had the feeling that this girl was a real treasure. Usually she wasn't able to trust strangers so quickly, so what made her not feel such prejudice at the moment? Or did the effects of the morphine still stupefy her?

Kendra sat down by the bed and gave her an encouraging look.

"Come on, don't be shy. I'm sure it's not that awful." She furrowed her eyebrows. "Or maybe you can't remember your name?"

"First promise not to tell those bastards," she asked weakly. She had her own rule of not introducing herself to those she didn't trust and with whom she wanted nothing to do. You don't give your name to your enemies.

"I swear." The doctor even put her hand over her heart. "I just have to put it in your file. I'm the only one who has access to these things."

"Fairlight," she saided briefly, closing her eyes. It surprised her that even talking could be so tiring. She felt herself slowly drifting away.

"And what do you do?" continued Kendra in a quiet voice, as if she wanted to soothe her to sleep.

Fairlight smiled crookedly. "I certainly talk less than you."

The girl laughed briefly. Finally, she adjusted the soft blanket on her patient and stood up, saying "Get some sleep. You need to gather your strength to survive in this hell."