Obsidian

six

Brooke

The cloudy haze kept me under, but I knew that it wouldn't last long. It would dissipate and I would feel the pain again. I didn't want to, I couldn't, my life was already a nightmare because of the pain and I knew that it would only get worse. Whatever the gods and goddesses had in store for me, it wouldn't be good. Fate wasn't good to those who had more than enough power to deal with it.

My mind drifted through the glazing hue of nothing, everything blank. There wasn't anything around me that meant anything, nothing substantial that could make me see any sense in what was around me. I was alone, confused, scared and in pain. I wanted to yell or scream or anything, but it felt like I was just made of fog and floated around the empty oblivion like a ghost.

A sudden convolution coursed through my body, like someone had tasered me, only afterward it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. My head lulled back into darkness and oblivion, for what felt like year I just drifted through.

My haze didn't feel as though it lasted too long, yet it felt as though it had been forever since I last opened my eyes but my mind was having problems grasping that I was a physical person, not some random consciousness floating around a dark room.

At first I was confused. I thought I was still in a dream. I was in a room completely made out of white washed stones. The floors, walls and ceiling were white stone with contradicting dark wood furnishings. The dresser, coffee tables, bedside table, the frame of the four poster bed, they were all a dark wood that stood out from the white walls. Ancient rugs carpeted the floors with vibrant colour, despite their old age, woven into the elegant designs.

I was laying on the bed, the soft mattress pressing into the sore contorts of my body. I was confused and disorientated. This wasn't where I had been when I passed out, nowhere close to it. I struggled to sit up, but when I felt the sharp pain of a bruise on my abdomen I gave up and fell back against the soft pillow.

Out one of the large windows I saw the sky was grey with overcast and there was the steady rumble of thunder behind the clouds, never stopping for a single moment. I felt my mood reflected in those clouds, my emotion churning and rumbling inside of me, waiting for the perfect moment to erupt and ruin everyone else's mood.

Moments later the door on the far side of the room opened and I shifted my head to see Nove bracing the door with her hip while she dragged something inside on a cart. My gaze followed her as she moved across the room with the cart trailing behind her. There was a tray of food on the top portion of the cart and on the bottom were two large bison's of water.

She hummed to herself as she moved around the room. Carefully she placed the tray on a table on the other side of the room before going back and pushing the cart towards a large claw foot tub under one of the massive windows. She lifted one of the bison's and emptied their content of water one at a time before settling it back where it began. I watched as she rested her hand over the rippling waters and her brows scrunch in concentration.

The liquid suddenly began to glow a soft blue colour and a low hum reverberated off the porcelain tub. What the hell was she doing? I was an expert of most things water, and normal water does not hum unless something very bad has been added to it.

As she straightened and turned she saw me staring to her from my immobile position on the bed. "Mornin'" I said to her shocked face. Obviously not expecting me to have been awake this soon. What was it with people not thinking that I was early riser? It doesn't seem that unlikely, do I just have the face of someone who sleeps in for half their life?

Nove didn't move from her spot for a good long while, calculating what action she should take next. It took quite a while for a shaky smile to plaster itself on her lips and she took a few steps towards the end of the bed. "I'm glad that you're awake," she said, even though there was no sincerity behind it.

I kept my face neutral for a while. Why would she care if I was awake? It wasn't as though we bonded in our short lived time in the dungeon. Call me cautious, but I didn't trust this woman as far as I could throw her. Granted, that might be very far, but I still didn't trust her. "Where am I?" I asked, assuming she knew. She should know, it was her that was walking around freely.

She looked like a deer in the headlights. Shock was evident across her features, as though she wasn't expecting me to notice that we had switched locations. Why the hell wouldn't I notice that I wasn't in some dingy dungeon-like basement anymore?

"Umm..." she shifted around on her feet, pulling at her hair. "Actually, I'm not allowed to say."

Silence took over us again, and it started to get uncomfortable. "Why does my tongue feel fuzz?" I asked, just noticing the raw feeling of my tongue scraping over the roof of my mouth. It was like the time I had eaten an entire bag of sour skittles in a single sitting. I felt awful for a few days after and my tongue was sore for so long. I didn't know why I felt like that now. I don't remember eating anything sour, and I probably didn't.

She looked guiltily at the ground. "Sorry. It's a side-effect of a spell I tried to keep you unconscious. I think it'll pass in a few hours."

"You think?"

She flinched, her shoulders hunching over. "I'm still just learning magic. There are only so many witches that talk to me anymore."

I felt guilty. I knew how she felt. It was hard learning things when no one around you knew how to use the powers you had. "It's fine," I said, "don't worry about it. I know what you're going through. So you can you tell me anything right now?"

Her face brightened a little bit. "Yeah, I can tell you a few things. Right now I need to help you get into the bath so that your wrist can heal." I looked down at my wrist and saw that there was a blue things around it. I don't know what it was and I couldn't feel it at all. "Don't worry about those, they just keep your wrists from being exposed and getting really infected. As soon as I get you into the water it'll hopefully help to heal you more."

I nodded, not really getting it at all. I told her to do whatever she needed, because at this point what was I going to accomplish by fighting a witch that doesn't have control over her powers? Absolutely nothing. She told me to relax and not freak out.

So I planned to freak out.

Suddenly I was being lifted into the air by absolutely nothing. Nove was holding her hands out in front of her with a crease of concentration wrinkling her forehead. It was no wonder all those old witches are all wrinkly, if they have to do that to their face when they try to cast spells.

I hovered over the bathtub for a moment and then she slowly lowered me in. That was about the time I realised that I was still fully clothes. Jeans and a bunny-hug in a bathtub aren't really the best combination. And my socks!

It was a cringe worthy moment at its finest.

Nove came up and gently took hold of my wrist. Her hand hovered over the blue thing for a second before taking hold of the other one. I don't know what she did, but she looked very proud when she stood up.

"I'll leave you alone for a bit," she said, turning around and walking out. I opened my mouth to yell after her, but she waved very hand over her head and suddenly I felt the warm rush of water against my bare skin.

I make a girlish yelp and jumped a little as I felt my clothes disappear. But my embarrassment was quickly overtaken by the rush of calmness that rushed over me completely.

I swear, I closed my eyes for a moment with the bright sun light streaming in through the window. The next thing I know I open my eyes and moon light is pooling across the door, I'm sprawled out on the bed again, as a pair of silver-blue eyes stare straight at my face.