Chapter 4: In which an hetaera is healed.
Raven lowered the sickly man onto her bed, his eyes flitting open as her dark energy released him. She could feel his fear as she pulled a knife from a nearby drawer but his body never moved. She carefully cut away the black-and-mulberry cloth that once formed his clothing. His green skin matched the ruined clothing where dark bruises were not interrupted by oozing cuts and red-brown abrasions.
Raven concluded that he must have enhanced healing to still be alive with the infection ravaging him, not to mention the amount of internal damage she suspected he'd undergone. She discarded the soiled cloth in the adjoining water room and returned with a bowl of water and cloth. She felt his fear turn into confusion as she gently began cleaning his wounds. Setting aside the bowl and cloth she knelt beside the bed and carefully examined a long, deep gash in his side as her dark energy slowly crept over it. Rotten flesh melted away at the contact as blood vessels realigned and muscles knit together. The tension in the verdant man released slightly as the last layers of flesh and skin came together.
Closing her eyes as she let the pain from healing her new acquisition subside Raven calculated that it would take several days to fully heal the man's numerous wounds without overexerting herself. He also appeared emaciated, however, and while her healing could also aid the recovery of his digestive system, it would slow the healing process. Nine Days, she decided. In nine days he would be fully recovered, albeit lacking in muscle mass. Her healing abilities only went so far. With that thought she pulled herself off her knees to seek the solution to his atrophied body.
Raven entered the room again surrounded by black-wreathed objects. Setting a tray with broth and water on her bedside table she raised her latest hetaera in the air and pulled the blanket from under him. Arranging the pillows she'd brought with her underneath him, she carefully laid him down again and covered him with the fresh blanket. Picking up the broth, with her hands for once, she sat lightly on the edge of the bed and brought the spoon to his mouth, surprised as he turned his head away weakly.
"Do you want to die?" She asked with the barest inflection. He gave his head a small shake.
"Then you must eat." She raised the spoon again but again he turned away.
"N-no... meat." He rasped, a weak cough following. Raven put a hand beneath his neck as she offered the water but gave him only a few sips. Replacing the glass she stood and approached the blank wall where she had entered.
"I will bring vegetable broth." She said, looking at him a moment before once again disappearing in a black swirl.
Garfield's ears twitched slightly as the presence of another person pulled him from sleep. Unable to rub his eyes he blinked rapidly until he could make out the small, dark woman in front of him. He wasn't sure why he thought of her as dark – her pale grey skin and violet hair couldn't be described that way individually – but his mind wouldn't let go of the word. He remembered her buying him. Buying his friends. He'd understood he would hate her, once he could feel anything other than pain. He did not understand why she was caring for him. He could understand her having another slave care for him – that would be protecting the investment she made buying him – but caring for him personally, even indulging his abstaining from meat, that he did not understand.
She sat beside him on the bed and offered a spoonful of broth, made without meat this time his nostrils informed him, without a word. He accepted eagerly, unable to remember his last meal. It seemed after only a few sips that she set aside the bowl and pulled back the blanket.
"You'll get sick if you eat too much too soon." She said to his groan as black energy engulfed her hands where she pressed them to his ribs. Cool relief spread over his abdomen, easing his fever and lulling him into darkness as his eyes closed on violet hair.