There are many issues with being old; your bones creak like an un-oiled rocking chair and you are constantly having to slow down to catch your breath, cursing the ancientness of your lungs.

However, one good thing was that no one paid you any real mind.

What kind of trouble can an old woman get into anyways, right?

Odalia huffed to herself as she shuffled down the corridor stopping in front of a guarded door; the guard looking down at her, eyebrows raised. They stood that way for a moment then she finally sighed.

"Move aside, I want to see him."

The guard looked around then back down at her.

"Why? The Sovereign didn't say anything about you checking on him."

Odalia's face soured.

"What, do you think I plan on making a break with the poor fellow? Move aside and let me in!"

"He's being sent to the servants quarters later today; they will tend to him." stated the guard.

Odalia raised her eyebrows, and huffed, nodding at the door.

With one more glance around, the guard sighed and shrugged, unlocking the door to the foreign healer's room.

Entering, she saw the man was sitting on the ground in a corner of the room that was spattered in blood; a small bed and table, the only furniture in the room were over-turned.

He truly did not look well; his body was twitching, he was bloody, with bruises on his face and his eyes had the look of someone who no longer cared to be anywhere in the circle of his own existence.

She had heard that several days earlier, the healer and Nahkhan had been brought to a room on a lower level of the manor and it was the healer who had been thrown in, then eventually dragged back to this room.

She knew of the room on the lower level, Lucius had set it up years back and told her in no uncertain terms that if she was nosy enough to wander down there, he'd make sure her curiosity led to her own private stay in the room.

He had become quiet then and leaned down grasping her shoulders when he informed her that she would never survive the stay.

She was old, but she wasn't stupid.

So she stayed away.

But now...now she had to find out, to see for herself what was happening to Nahkhan's friend and Nahkhan who Lucius adamantly refused her access to.

"Healer, can you hear me?"

Carson didn't acknowledge her presence; his blank stare eerie in the dim over-head light.

When Odalia moved forward she suddenly noticed another horror that had been inflicted on the man.

Carson's mouth had been sewn shut.

Four long stitches stood out ugly on his mouth, ragged and blistering.

She gasped, bending forward to touch him, but he suddenly flinched, his face morphing in terror and she watched as he scrambled backwards in vain, frantically trying to get away from her; his glazed eyes wide as he pressed up against the wall.

Odalia stepped back in shock.

"Healer?"

A wounded howl emanated from the man who now had tears streaming down his face as he slowly beat his head against the wall.

"No, don't!" Odalia exclaimed.

She quickly grabbed a pillow on the ground near the overturned bed beside him, getting it behind his head before he could do much damage, slowly lowering Carson on his side watching as he rocked back and forth; a soft keening sound pouring from him as his tear-filled eyes slowly faded into blankness once more.

-tbc-

Short chapter - I know...but Carson's pain needed its own personal space.

The following chapters will be back to their usual lengths.

So, let me know your thoughts so far? I'm a little nervous with this story, it's more a slow build then fast action jump start, but it is going somewhere.

Thank you. :)