“Of course, Empress,” she replied, still smiling.
I briefly toyed with the idea of infusing my stare with a quick flare of green light to make my point to her more emphatically, but decided against it. I knew that Marli was just having a bit of fun with me and that she would certainly let me know if she ever became aware of anything that needed my attention. So, instead of scaring the daylights out of her, I simply said goodbye as we exited her shop. I still had almost two hours before my dreaded meeting with Líann, so after leaving Marli’s, I stopped at the inn as I had originally intended.
“Can I get a round of ales for me and my friends?” I called out to Jessah as we strolled inside.
“Hold your horses!” She shouted as she was serving a table and her back was turned to me.
The gasp that erupted from one of the patrons in front of her alerted Jessah that something was wrong, and when she turned around, a look of shock and mortification came over her face.
“I’m so sorry, Empress,” she practically groveled. “I didn’t realize it was you.”
“Oh, shut up Jessah and get us our drinks already,” I smiled at her. “Do you really think I’m that petty?”
“Yes… I… I mean no, Empress, right away,” she stumbled before she ran off to fetch our ales.
“You really flustered that one,” Ella commented with a smirk as we took our seats around a table.
She wasn’t so far removed from being in Jessah’s position, and I reminded her of that by placing my hand over hers beneath the table and sending a thin thread of craving into her. Ella stiffened immediately, and I pushed the tendril into her a little deeper before I finally let it dissolve away.
“I’m sorry, did you say something?” I replied innocently.
“No,” Ella croaked. “Never mind.”
Jessah returned just then with our drinks, and Ella grabbed hers and immediately took a deep sip to cover her discomfort.
“Are you very busy, Jessah?” I asked.
“No, Empress,” she replied. “It’s just you and that other table at the moment.”
“Then, please, sit and join me,” I said as I motioned to an empty chair. “I’d love to hear how things have been going for you.”
“Yes, of course, Empress,” she responded as she sat down.
“Relax, Jessah,” I replied. “It’s just me, Dreya.”
“I’m sorry, Emp... um, Dreya Sintári?” She inquired about how I wanted her to address me.
“Whatever you’re comfortable with, Jessah,” I told her.
We talked for a while and she let me know that things had been going well for her and Irisse. Travis and Annia rushed over to join the discussion as well once they found out I had stopped by. I discovered that the inn was doing quite well, and that they’d done a brisk business with both the soldiers from the Garrison and the citizens in the valley. Even a few members of the visiting delegations had wandered over during the past days to sample the home-style food and fine ale Travis served.
“Where’s Irisse?” I asked when I realized she’d never joined us.
“Sick again,” Jessah said almost painfully. “She’s prone to bouts of headaches, and sometimes needs a day or two off.”
“Is there nothing that can be done for her?” I asked. “Crystals, potions, anything?”
“We’ve tried them all. So far, nothing’s worked,” Jessah replied with regret.
“Can I see her?” I asked. “I can sometimes heal things that others can’t.”
“Really?” Jessah replied hopefully. “You’d do that for her?”
“I’ll try, but I’m not making any promises.”
Actually, I really didn’t want to do it at all, but something inside me simply couldn’t let the woman continue to suffer if there was anything I could do about it. So, when Jessah led me upstairs, I followed her to the room they shared above the inn.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Dreya?” Ella whispered to me.
She knew, better than anyone, what I was risking and also just how much I didn’t want any additional entanglements. But I couldn’t fight my nature, and as much as I feared the consequences, I had no choice.
“No, I really don’t,” I whispered back to her. “But I have to do it anyway.”
She nodded back to me in understanding. We’d had the same discussion before, and she knew how conflicted I was on the matter, so she didn’t press me any further as we entered the room Jessah and Irisse shared.
The drapes were drawn closed, and the room was nearly pitch black despite the waning daylight outside, and without my Enhanced Sight spell, I doubted that I would have been able to see much of anything in the gloomy darkness. But with its help, I could make out Irisse, huddling under the covers of their bed, crying softly in pain. I could almost feel the woman’s agony from where I stood in the doorway and I immediately rushed to sit beside her.
“Let me take your hand, Irisse,” I whisper softly as I reached under the covers, but her back was to me as she lay still in the bed and she didn’t react to my words.
“She sometimes doesn’t respond when it’s really bad, Dreya,” Jessah explained as a tear rolled down her face. “It’s like she’s not really here with us.”
“I need to look inside her Jessah,” I told her. “It can be a rather intense experience for some. I would have preferred to ask Irisse for her permission first, but if that’s not possible, I’ll ask for yours instead.”
“I remember,” Jessah replied firmly. “Go ahead. Do it.”
A look of shock came over Ella’s face as she realized the significance of Jessah’s words, but I ignored her and focused on the task in front of me.
As I slid my hand back beneath the blankets, I withdrew myself as much as possible before I pressed it against Irisse’s back. Her skin was damp with sweat, and she shivered despite the warmth of the covers, and I could clearly feel her pain even before I delved inside her. I had no idea what could be causing her so much discomfort, but whatever it was, it was tantamount to torture for her.
I remembered Tási’s precaution about protecting myself whenever I tried something dangerous, and I considered this situation as definitely fitting into that category, so I sent only a thin tendril inside Irisse, stripped of everything except my own sense of awareness, and delved into her in search of the cause of her misery.
I was immediately glad that I had taken my precautions, because inside Irisse was a whirlwind of pain and agony, swirling around like a hurricane and crushing her beneath its powerful forces. I had no doubt that I would have experienced some portion of that pain as well had I not heeded Tási’s advice, and I was grateful that her warning had finally creeped into my thick skull.
With the cause of her pain so obvious, I began searching for the cure. The powerful forces that wracked her with pain were far too strong for me to even attempt to overcome with the tiny tendril I had made, and if I used anything larger, I would be vulnerable to its painful influences as well, so I had to find a way to work with what I had.
Instead of trying to overcome the power of the storm inside her, I simply observed it for a while, trying to detect any patterns or weaknesses that I might be able to exploit. That’s when I noticed the tiny trail that led away from the center of the maelstrom and deep into Irisse’s heart.
I followed the path of that thin cord, drawing myself deeper and deeper inside her until I found the tiny, black seed from which the entire raging storm inside her seemed to originate. As insignificant as it seemed, I knew that the little speck of darkness I had found was far more powerful than it appeared to be. It simply had to be in order to cause as much damage as it was. Or perhaps not, I realized.
The vile little seed may have been a store of great power, but its strength was diverted at that moment, completely occupied with inflicting its pain upon poor Irisse. If I was right, now would be the perfect time for me to strike, when it was at its weakest and couldn’t use all that impressive force to defend itself.
> It was a huge risk, but one that I felt was worth taking. My intuition told me I was right, and that I had stumbled upon a rare opportunity, so I struck, and I struck hard. In an instant, I funneled the entire force of my being into the thin tendril, flooding it with power before I launched my assault on the source of Irisse’s agony.
My will crashed against the shell of the dark font of pain, and I felt it recoil in surprise at my attack. With the contact, I instantly recognized what it was: the semi-sentient remains of some wicked curse that had been cast upon her. It had the putrid taste of the Defiler’s corruption magic, and the foul stench of it erupted as the outer walls that protected the dark seed cracked beneath the raw power that I’d unleashed on it.
The corrupt seed tried to draw its own power back in an attempt to fend off my attack, but I seized upon the breach I’d made in its defenses and pushed with all my might into its center. I felt the seed’s strength grow as it gathered its energy back, but it was already too late—the fissure I’d made with my first blow spread wide open, and without its shell, the energy of the dark seed lost its center and began to dissipate right before me. The fading of the corrupt energy did not come without consequences, however, and I felt it wreaking havoc within Irisse as it slowly dissolved away into nothingness. It was painful to watch, and I did the only thing I could think of to ease her suffering, by spreading my own tendrils throughout her body, and infusing her with feelings of comfort and support.
When the last shred of the dark energy finally drifted away, I slowly pulled my influence out of Irisse, and braced myself for the repercussions of my actions as I waited for her to open her eyes again.
“What happened?” Jessah asked urgently as I came back to myself.
“Tell me what you saw.” I said in return.
“She… she called your name,” Jessah stuttered. “She told you to run away.”
“It was the damnedest thing, Empress,” Ella added. “It was as if she was trying to warn you off.”
“I’m fairly certain that I cured her,” I said, and Jessah nearly fell to the floor in relief. “Do you know why someone would want to place a curse on her?”
“A what?!?” Jessah replied in shock.
“I do,” Irisse whispered softly beside me.
“Tell me, Irisse, why would someone want do that to you?” I asked her.
She hesitated as she glanced at Ella and I realized that the issue might involve something rather delicate, so I asked Ella to wait outside for a moment. She refused at first, but finally yielded when I let her know, quite firmly, that it was an order, and not a request.
“I wasn’t always a serving girl,” she whispered. “I… did other things for money once.”
She hesitated, in obvious discomfort over the admission she’d made.
“Nobody cares about that, Irisse,” I reassured her, and she nodded back to me as she continued.
“When I decided to stop doing that, my employer got really mad at me,” she confessed. “He swore that I’d never have a day of peace until I came back to work for him again.”
“Who is this piece of shit?” I asked her as her story kindled my anger. “I’ll make sure he’s the one who doesn’t have another day of peace.”
Irisse smiled at me for a moment before revealing the man’s identity.
“His name was Jorum, Empress.”
That came as a bit of a shock to me. I mean, what were the odds, really? The web of my life, and the lives that I affected, seemed to be a carefully orchestrated tangle of intertwined threads that all led back to me, over and over again.
“I guess I’m a little ahead of myself then,” I finally returned her smile
“I’d say so,” Jessah replied as she took hold of Irisse’s hand.
“I need to know something before I leave, Irisse,” I said to her, before reconsidering. “Actually, two things.”
“First,” I began without waiting. “Do you have any memory of what happened? Of what I did to break the curse?”
“No, I don’t,” she replied, almost with a sense of disappointment.
“You were talking while she was looking inside you,” Jessah interrupted. “You tried to warn her away.”
“I have no memory of that,” Irisse replied weakly.
“It’s alright,” I soothed her. “That’s not important.”
“What’s actually important is the answer to my next question,” I began reluctantly, fearing what I might hear.
“I need to know if what I’ve done has affected you in any way,” I inquired. “Beyond just removing the curse. Do you feel anything different, like a bond or a link to me inside you?”
I hadn’t felt anything. There had been no bond or link formed between us, at least as far as I could tell, but before I could relax—before I could release the tension that had been building inside me the entire time, I needed to make sure that Irisse hadn’t felt anything either.
“No, Empress,” she replied after seeming to search within herself for a while. “I don’t.”
What a relief!!! I had actually managed to heal someone without creating any deeper attachment. I’d feared to help anyone for just that reason, but it seemed that the bond that had formed when I healed Ella was not something that would always occur. The reason was somewhat obvious to me then—the bond had been created between us because I was already attracted to her in that way, and she shared that attraction as well. I realized that if I could control myself, and limit how much of myself I actually poured into my tendrils, it just might be safe for me to delve into anyone I didn’t have those sorts of feelings for. While it was not a theory that I felt confident enough to test without reason, I felt reassured that I could try to heal anyone I found who was in need of my help.
“Wait, please,” Jessah held onto my arm as I tried to rise and leave the room.
“What is it, Jessah?” I asked.
“Is that why you said no to me?” Jessah ignored me and asked Irisse. “Because of your past?”
“Yes,” Irisse began to cry as she replied. “I’ll understand if you want me to leave now that you know.”
“Didn’t you hear what the Empress just said to you?” Jessah responded as she shook her head and her own tears fell. “Nobody cares about that!”
“But I was a wh—”
“Don’t you dare call yourself that in my presence,” I cut her off with my hand over her mouth.
“You are who you are now, Irisse,” I said as I pulled my hand away. “And you’re only hurting yourself, and Jessah, by denying that.”
“You still want to be with me?” Irisse asked hesitantly.
“Nothing’s changed, Irisse,” Jessah replied. “Nothing.”
As she spoke, Jessah pulled a thin gold band from her pocket and held it out to Irisse. Irisse was obviously overcome with emotion when she saw the ring before her, and her hand shook as she took it from Jessah’s fingers.
“Would you bless us as you did the others, Empress?” Jessah asked me.
“It would be my honor,” I replied sincerely.
I took Jessah’s hand in mine, and placed Irisse’s over it before offering the same blessing I had given to each of the couples I had joined during the diplomatic reception, with a little twist.
“On this day, I am truly honored to bless your union. May the rest of your days be spent together in the happiness you both so richly deserve.”
“Thank you,” they both offered in unison.
“You’re welcome,” I smiled back at them as I closed the door behind me and left them alone for a while.
“You may want to cover Jessah’s shift for a while,” I told Annia when I got back downstairs. “I managed to cure Irisse and they just got married, so I think they deserve at least a little time off.”
“Irisse finally said yes to her?” Annia exclaimed. “Jessah’s been after her for months!”
“They’ve both been incredible workers,” Travis chimed in. “I’ll give the two of them a week off to c
elebrate, but it’s a shame that there’s nowhere else for them to go.”
“Ella,” I asked the Captain of my guards. “Aren’t there a few empty suites on the lower levels of the Palace?”
“Several, Empress,” she replied.
“When they come down, let them know that I’ll have one made ready for them,” I told Annia as both the innkeepers’ jaws hit the floor. “Just have them ask for the chamberlain when they arrive at the gates. He’ll know to expect them.”
“Yes, Empress,” Annia replied numbly.
“We do need to be heading back now,” Ella reminded me. “You’re scheduled to have dinner with Queen Líann shortly.”
“Yes,” I sighed reluctantly. “I suppose it’s time for me to be going back.”
I’d just released Irisse from a terrible curse, and in the process, discovered that I could use my powers to heal without necessarily binding people to me. Not only that, but I’d performed yet another wedding for a couple that I truly cared about and was genuinely pleased that I’d been able to play a role in helping them find happiness. I should have been overjoyed as we made our way back to the Palace, but instead, I was filled with dread over my meeting with Líann.
I needed something from her, but she was apparently a very difficult person to deal with, at least on a personal level. Hopefully, I could avoid having to deal with her as an individual, and we could simply conduct our business in a professional manner, but I sensed that would not be the case. The meeting itself was supposed to be an opportunity for us to get to know each other, and from what I’d learned, Líann was not someone that I looked forward to knowing at all.
By the time we returned, I had less than an hour before it would be time for my dinner with the Ice Queen, as Torgyd has so eloquently named her. So, I hurried upstairs to my chambers to compose myself before I met with the Queen of Íforn.
In preparation for the negotiations that were certain to occur, I made a quick review of the mining reports, specifically our Khelduin reserves. Venna felt certain that the precious metal was what Líann would want in return for the scribes I needed, so I went over the manifests carefully to ensure that I knew both our current yields and how much we had stockpiled. Armed with that information, and after a quick glance in the mirror to make sure that I was presentable, I descended the stairs towards Líann’s suite, dreading each and every step I took along the way.
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