AUTHORS NOTES:
Slyksylva: Not quite as requested, but I hope this will satisfy. Honestly, I was just going to write the first bit and post it as an interlude, but that would have probably annoyed everyone ;-)
Archer1eye: It should probably scare you. Don't mess with gods (real ones). Crack away, crack away :) Chapter 53
10th Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c
I woke, with no idea of how long I had been asleep, nor even if it was yet daybreak. Something had changed, nearby, something enough to wake me. My mattress was wrong, it was leaning back as if there were something pressing down behind me. I held my breath and tensed. Just before I could spring out of bed and yell, a hand wrapped over my mouth!
"It's me," a voice whispered in my ear.
"Shard?" I asked, my voice muffled by her hand as I relaxed at her familiar sound.
The hand was removed and I whispered, "what are you doing here? You gave me ever so much of a fright! I didn't know who it was."
"Couldn't you feel me?" Her voice whispered in my ear and I realised with a start, yes… I could feel her, just as I felt the loss of her presence as I left the forest.
"Not at the time," I returned, turning over and running my hand over her hip to her back. My nose touched something and I felt her breath on my lips. I ran my hand further up her back to her shoulder blade and up over her shoulder to cup her cheek. I gently moved forward to place a chaste kiss on her lips, "but I do now."
"As for why I'm here," she whispered, "I didn't want you spending your first night… well, any night, alone. Not now that I'm joined to you and you are joined to Tenebrae, to me."
"Do you even sleep?" I asked.
"I don't require it, but I can… mimic it, replicate it," she whispered back, "and right now, there is nothing more I would like to do than replicate sleep with you."
The warmth of love that spread through me then was comforting, relaxing and cherished.
We kissed again, briefly before I whispered, "I love you."
"I love you too," she returned and I rolled over onto the side I was most comfortable. She slipped her arm underneath my head and her other arm snaked over my torso. I grasped that hand in mine and brought it up to my chest, bending my neck to kiss her knuckles before returning them to between my breasts, close to my heart.
That is how I fell asleep again.
And then I woke up. I heard the rustling of my sister or sisters waking. Immediately I felt the loss of Shard's presence. My left hand remained where it was when I fell asleep, clutching nothing to my chest. I considered briefly that I had dreamed it, but I could smell her. I kept my eyes closed, hoping to return to sleep, I was still tired and exhausted physically and mentally from the previous night.
Then I heard a surprised, "huh?"
"What were you doing in my bed Kara?" I heard Illith ask, "you haven't done that for years."
"Well," Kara replied, "I woke up and saw Shard sleeping with Shar," she stopped and giggled then said quietly "Shard and Shar, Shar and Shard…"
"What are you talking about?" Illith asked Kara patiently.
"Well, Mother said that Shard was going to be our new sister and I thought that it wasn't fair that they could sleep together and we were left out."
"What do you mean Shard and Shar...ein were sleeping together?" Illith asked, "see, it's just Sharein asleep there."
"But Shard was there," Kara insisted, "when I woke up, she was."
"Uh huh," Illith said, "come alone, it's just about sun rise and if we are both awake we may as well get ready and start on breakfast and our chores."
Kara grumbled a little and I heard some rustling of clothes that must have been them getting changed before footsteps went to the door and they left the room. Thankfully, I fell back asleep for a brief time.
I was woken again by gentle shaking, "Sharein, wake up," I heard Mother's voice.
"Good morning Mother," I slurred, still a bit tired.
"Well, I'm glad one of us got some sleep last night," she said quietly, "you slept the sleep of the guilty, while I worried all night."
"I'm sorry Mother," I apologised as I matched her volume, feeling immediately guilty.
"Thank you Sharein," she murmured, "and so you should be. So, do you have any plan on how you are going to explain this?"
"Ah," I paused, trying to muster my thoughts, "no. Not really. I just, sort of thought that I'd say that I didn't know how it happened."
"Of course you didn't have any plan," Mother muttered, then spoke very quickly and quietly, "it's a curse. Happens to the eldest born daughter of my mother's line, just lasts for a tenday, nothing to worry about. I never mentioned it because I had hoped that you wouldn't be afflicted by it, no point getting the priests involved as we know it will end rapidly. Understand?"
I nodded and then scrunched up my face in confusion, "but if you never mentioned it, then shouldn't I be a bit surprised that it's happening?"
"Exactly," whispered Mother, "I'll go back out into the kitchen, give me enough time to do that and then scream, scream as if you've just woken up and discovered this, I'll come back in and calm you down. Do you understand?"
I nodded again and I felt Mother kiss my forehead.
She left and I heard her footsteps recede into the kitchen. I tried to picture something that made me terrified in the past and all I could think of was the chicken, the zombie chicken. I tried to remember the horrible fear that I felt in that moment and let out a terrified shriek!
I heard something smash in the kitchen and the thumping of footsteps echoing through the house. It wasn't Mother who rushed in, but Jocam.
"Sharein! What's wrong?" he asked, panicked.
I turned my head towards his voice and I heard him gasp and the sound of the door being force back against the wall.
"Father!" He screamed, almost as terrified as I sounded.
Mother rushed in then, "Sharein! Sharein! What's wrong?"
"I…" I stuttered, "I can't see!"
She took me in her arms and brushed the back of my head and neck with her hand, "there there," she whispered to me, "it's all right, it's nothing to worry about."
For something that was entirely faked, Mother sounded exactly like she was comforting me. I supposed that she had had enough practice over the years actually comforting us girls that it was easy enough to summon at will.
"What's wrong? Aloise! What's wrong?" I heard Father's panicked voice.
"It's all right," Mother said louder and I heard Father gasp.
"By the Light!" He exclaimed.
"It's all right," Mother reassured him, "it looks bad and it sounds bad, but it's all right."
"Her eyes! What's wrong with her eyes?" He exclaimed, "has Celestine cursed her for her transgressions?"
"It is a curse," Mother explained with a huff, "but it wasn't caused by Celestine. It happened to me when I was Sharein's age and it happened to my Mother. The eldest daughters, we've had it for as far back as we know. She'll be blind for a tenday, that's all. Then she'll be right as rain. It's nothing to worry about, nothing to worry about at all."
"It happened to you?" Father asked, "but why have you never said anything?"
"Because it's nothing important," Mother said, "I should have probably warned Sharein about it, but to be honest I had mostly forgotten about it and for the rest I have been hoping that it ended with me. One tenday and you'll be back to normal."
"Oh," Father said, sounding relieved, "should we not have Sister Tera look at her?"
"Priests tried everything when it happened to me," Mother said, "but nothing worked. Besides, it's only a tenday."
"But if it doesn't fix itself by then…" Father began and Mother finished, "then I'll take her to see Sister Tera."
Father and Jocam left, I presumed and Mother helped me to get dressed and go out to the outhouse. She then brought me inside to the kitchen table where she helped me to sit down. I then suffered through the experimentations of my siblings.
"Can you see this?"
"No."
"What about this?"
"No."
"What about this?"
"No."
Repeated until Mother became fed up with them and gave each one a different chore to do. Breakfast eventually began and Mother helped me to locate the bowl of porridge and spoon by guiding my hands to where they were. Once I had the bowl firmly in grasp and the spoon, I managed to get all of it. I had no idea if I had spilled any, of course, but I thought that I had managed it quite well. My cup, Mother had actually placed near the edge of the table such that all I had to do was raise my hand until I hit the edge and then feel along a finger tips length in until I found it.
'All in all,' I thought, 'quite successful.'
Mari had thankfully already walked into town, but I heard the gasp of Missus Meadowbroek and Mother's explanation. Everyone accepted the story well enough.
Until, that is, Mother helped me to Malkarov's Tower.
I heard Mother knock on the door before I realised that we had arrived and after a few moments the door opened.
Malkarov let out a shocked, "Sharein!"
"It's an old family curse," Mother immediately explained, "it will go away in a tenday, by itself. She's blind until then. I could keep her home if you'd prefer but.."
Malkarov finished for her, "no no, she's mine and I'll look after her. We can run through theory for a tenday, that will be no trouble."
I felt Mother embrace me and say, "you know where I am, if you need me."
Mother kissed me on the cheek, then I felt Malkarov gently take my arm.
"It's not the first time I've looked after a blind friend, to be honest. But the last time we had a priest on hand to heal it after not too long," he said and I heard the door close behind me as he escorted me into the comfort of one of the sitting room chairs, "so… Tell me about this curse."
