Lunars of the Caribbean

I'm A Princess? (18)

After hearing what Winter declared, Cinder was the one to be frozen. Thorne was broken out of his motionlessness and became quite alarmed.

"What do you mean, she's not whole? She looks perfectly whole to me. She has two arms, two legs, a head for stars sake. What could be wrong with her?" Thorne scanned Cinder up and down a handful of time before concluding that nothing was in fact wrong with his companion.

Cinder wasn't so easily convinced. Her left hand and leg were buzzing with energy and life. While the rest of her body was ice cold and refusing to move, her left hand and leg could have won a marathon on their own.

The priestess went over too a table and picked up a small knife. Before Cinder or Thorne could protest, Winter ripped off her glove and held Cinder's hand, and cut the back of her hand.

"Ow!" Cinder bellowed as she yanked her hand away. She held her hand to her her chest. "You think something is wrong with me?! Why don't you take a look in the mirror, Lady!"

The priestess ignored this, and turned to Thorne. "Look at the blade," she ordered.

Thorne winced when he did. He glanced between the knife and Cinder, not sure of what to do. When he took the time to examine the blade, he didn't understand why. "What about it?"

Winter eyed Cinder wearily. "There's no blood."

Hearing this, Thorne's eyes went wide. He looked to Cinder, who was also unsure as to why there was no blood in the blade. "Show us your hand, Cinder."

Slowly, Cinder peeled her right hand off of her left. Searching her right palm, she did not find one drop of blood. Revealing her left hand too all three of them, Cinder nearly vomited.

Her eyes were fixed on the cut. She couldn't look away while she begged to see another sight. In the cut, there was no blood. There wasn't even flesh.

In the cut, only metal hid beneath her skin. Making matters worse, the edges of the cut didn't even appear to be skin. More like torn fabric or cloth.

None of them knew what to make of this, yet Winter seemed to have the greatest answer. "'Tis an enchantment. Made to make cloth look and feel like skin and metal move like limbs. It makes you think you can feel what you touch, and give life to the objects that pose as parts of your body." She stepped closer to Cinder again, taking her hand once more. This time without the knife. "It would take a mighty powerful sorceress to cast a spell like this. Anything less would not have prevailed."

Like a changing in the wind, Cinder couldn't feel anything in her left hand anymore. Neither did sensation stem from her left leg. "Is it in my left leg, too?"

Winter bent down and place and hand on Cinder's leg. Something Cinder never would have known if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. Her heart felt hollow, her lungs full of lead. In her head, her eyes stung and felt uncomfortable in their sockets.

"Yes," Winter answered. "And in many other places. There is so much metal in you, you could be part machine."

The idea shook Cinder. Her being full of metal was not a happy though for her. Unconcerned with her insecurity, Winter placed her hands against Cinder's temples. "And your eyes are composed of glass and metal. How peculiar."

Eyes made of glass? Cinder brain was on the verge of a malfunction. "Your brain and neck have metal too," Winter added. This was not phasing her nearly as much as it phased Cinder. "You're a perfect combination of man and machine."

Off on the other side of the room, Thorne's jaw was to the floor. "What in the name of stars does that mean?! My new best friend is half machine!"