Finding Contentus

Chapter 68: Branding Remedy

"I can't believe he did that. Why couldn't he have just stuck to the original plan? His mind could have been killed or worse! What if Bāba decides to unleash his wrath on his sister? What if he makes things even worse for her? What if—"

"What happens to her is not our concern. Genie is our only concern. He's all that matters. Besides, she has Ramoth to cheer her up with outlandish celebrations. Now stop fretting and finish up my work. When you're done with him, let me know. I'll be in my room in the meantime. My mind needs more rest than he does."

"I told you not to stay awake for a full day. You look like you're about to keel over and die."

"Hadi. You wouldn't be saying that if you were bound to his ocean-like mind like I am. Then again, we both know you wouldn't be able to handle it don't we? Being so frail and all. Or maybe you two would match? Since you're The Great Flood to his flooding brain."

A prickling pause, followed by a wounded expression on the face of the Princess and a sigh of irritation coming out of the mouth of the Primary Princess.

"Honestly Ramiya, the least you could do is grow a fucking backbone. Have Musa impregnate you to get his balls for all I care. Maybe then Bāba will finally acknowledge your existence."

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The voices of the quarreling sisters popped in and out of Genesia's diluted ears. Was he dreaming of them? Or was he drifting in and out consciousness? He couldn't open his eyes. He couldn't move an arm or a leg. Actually, he couldn't do anything. It was like sleep paralysis. He could tell that his mind was awake somehow even though his body wasn't.

The same body that had become dull to all kinds of pain. Meat hooks pierced every inch of his flesh. Genesia hung upside down by his skin, limp and lifeless, submerged in freezing cold water.

The immersive cryotherapy soaked his numb insides as his lungs acted like sponges in absorbing the cold to cool the aching after effects of Pharaoh Ra's scorching will. The will he willed his own daughter to do...

PRIM.

Genesia certainly felt like a Prim monster. He didn't feel like a Racaan. His body felt like cut up pieces of sinking meat, held together by stitches that burned without sensation. Sensation that he was blessed not to feel, thanks to the healing power of the woman that felt everything for him. Almost like the greenish light took his pain and made it hers.

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His eyes took some time to open, as though they had to learn how to escape from the prism of his locked senses. He expected himself to cry from the pain coursing through his back, but he just... laid there. His body felt stone cold, like fire that had no temperature whatsoever.

Actually, his whole body was covered in bandages to match the mummy look from when he burst out of the tomb-tank. He sat up suddenly, again, expecting the stitches and bandages around his back to come off with pouring waves of searing agony.

There was nothing, not even a registerable wince or groan. One... two... in...

He couldn't finish Renero's breathing technique, not because of his own inability to feel, but because of the one thing he could feel that made his heart anxious to beat with emotion.

Ramiya's hold on his hand. She held his hand so tightly that it surprised him, he didn't think she had that much strength in her. She slept softly in a forest green nightgown, but even when she slept, her hand refused to sleep with the rest of her. Her hand refused to let go of his.

Genesia watched her sleep for a few minutes in silence, wondering if he should wake her up gently, but then his eyes were distracted by where he was.