The Uncrucified [ALPHA] - Ch.8 - Parting Gifts

RATING: R
- Gore

Kalara didn’t know how much time had passed before she came to a version of consciousness dulled by poppy milk and filled with the metal smell of blood.  A doctor was suturing the wounds on her back and sealing them with herb-filled poultices.

“What a waste of a slave…”  She heard him say as he sucked his teeth and moved on to the next wound.

When she came to again, she was covered in a cold sweat, her entire back aflame with throbbing pain.  She had the awareness to puke in the bucket beside the bed before she found herself blissfully carried away by darkness again.

 Sunlight peeking in through a window next to her bed summoned her from the depths once more.  This time the pain had lessened and she could finally begin to process the motion of the world again.  A kind nurse who came to change her bandages explained her situation.

“You are in the house of the venerable apothecary and doctor, Nezam al Benir.”  The soft-spoken woman explained as she squeezed out a cloth and applied a soothing salve to Kalara’s back.  “Your master paid well to assure your well-being and lodging until your full recovery.  You’re quite lucky!”

The thought of being ‘lucky’ made Kalara nauseous again.  She’d had enough of such a stupid label that did no more than taunt her with its meaninglessness.

“Is…Cynis Varia still my master?” She ventured weakly.  No doubt, she’d already been sold to an even worse fate.

“Yes, as far as I’ve been told.”  The nurse replied as she casually continued her duties.

That surprised Kalara.  She was sure she would have been sold by now.  What was going on?  The stress that knitted her brow caused the nurse to lay a sympathetic hand on her cheek. “Shh…don’t worry about that right now.  You must rest!” 

Kalara found a steaming clay cup that smelled of bitter medicine placed in her hands. 

“Drink this.  We’ll have you proper soon. You shall see!”  The nurse’s adamant ministrations lulled her back into a stupor encouraged by the relaxing tea and the opiates within it.

Kalara spent most of her convalescence confined to the bed and laying on her side, lest she tear any of the stitches of the wounds that moved across so many active muscles in her back.  She was staring out of the window, her one solitary view of the outside world, when she heard the footfalls of a visitor enter the room.  She had thought it the doctor until her strained glance revealed another familiar silhouette.  Her eyes snapped back to the window, Kalara unwilling to acknowledge her visitor’s presence.

“I…I’m glad to see you’re doing better...” Varia’s voice floated to her from across the room.  A moment later, she felt the weight of him on the bed as he seated himself on the edge beside her.  She thought she felt the shadow of his hand about to reach out and touch her shoulder, but he withdrew it.

She didn’t turn to him.  Instead, she kept her eyes glued to the finches circling outside the window.  Varia had a wide open view of her horribly disfigured back still plastered with bandages.  Here and there, red and brown blood dotted the patchwork of dressings and sutures that held her skin together.

He didn’t say anything for a long while as he took in the sight of his handiwork.  Neither did Kalara.

“She wanted me to sell you to the lowest bidder, but I couldn’t do that to you…”  Varia finally said at length.  “Your new master awaits in Nexus.  He’s a shrewd, but decent man, Kalara.  You will be useful there.”

“I’m sure you fetched a high price for an educated slave…” The words sprang from her without thought, though she still didn’t turn to face him.  He could beat her to death for her impertinence, for all that it mattered to her anymore.  He’d already done the job halfway.

Varia sighed in response, once more caught tongue-tied by his own guilt.  “She…wanted me to leave you there for the crows…but I refused.”  Varia couldn’t look at the wounds anymore, instead fixing his eyes on the floor in shame.  “I’m not a monster, Kalara.”

Even still, she would not turn to face him.  After awhile, she felt his weight lift from the side of the bed.

“Rij will take you to your ship two weeks from now.”  Cynis Varia spoke the final words Kalara would ever hear from him again.  “Be well, Kalara…” 

After he left, Kalara dared to turn around to face the seat where he had been.  In his place, he had left the jade coin necklace as one last parting gift.  Kalara could only imagine what trouble this must have gotten him into with Sana, but such problems were no longer hers to care about anymore.

Years later, she would learn Varia had disappeared only a few seasons after their last encounter. After he vanished, his bathhouses failed, leaving Sana destitute with nowhere to turn but her own small dynastic house.  Rumor had it that Varia had inevitably gambled himself into extreme debt and that he had been spirited away, his debts paid in the inventive ways the Serene Viper was known for. 

Some say the Viper took their souls for his own morbid collection.  Others whispered that he had been sold off to the Fey, his dreams a feast for their extravagant tastes, for the dreams of a decadent nobleman were sweet, indeed!  Some deep-down part of her would take a twisted sense of satisfaction at this most ironic fate for Varia, if it proved true.

Some other deep-down part of her would also be grateful to him, in time, for he had cracked open a door to knowledge and language she would never have been privilege to otherwise, knowledge that allowed her to begin to imagine she was more than just another soul in the cycle waiting on the chance for a better life.

As promised, two weeks after their last meeting, Rij came to collect Kalara, the head servant so kind as to bring her meager possessions, basic supplies, and a small sum of money for her journey.  He would escort her to Nexus, himself, until she was properly situated in the household of her new master.

The slow rocking of the ship that would take her to Nexus lulled Kalara into a state of emptiness, the gleaming glass ruins of Chiaroscuro shrinking into the distance.  The waters that ebbed and flowed against the ship beckoned her with their promise of deeper silence.  It would be so easy to jump.  Rij had been kind enough to leave her to her own devices in respect of the ordeal he’d taken a small part in.

But she didn’t jump.  She couldn’t.  Something deep down in her soul refused to let go of this meager existence where chunks of her life could be bought and sold like common camels.  Still, the sun peeked through the clouds, promising clear skies for the journey.

Instead of herself, she tossed the necklace to the waters.  It floated for only a moment before it tilted and sank into the depths, the jade face of Luraname enjoying one last moment in the sun before it disappeared.