Caution Aftermath (Resonating part 2)

[Neb]

The diamond had rebuffed Kidman’s increasingly desperate attempts to access Flag’s biological matrix until a flash blinded her. Then she only had a moment to see the sorcerer smile before he swallowed her whole.

Kidman opened her eyes to pulsing darkness. She didn’t know how she had gotten in, nor did she know yet that she couldn’t leave. All that mattered was fulfilling her purpose, and she braced against the swell of life as it rushed past her, consciously manipulating what essential tissue wouldn’t heal on its own in time.

The effort soon took its toll, but when she tried to reallocate energy to support her life functions the girl found her system unresponsive, and then to her horror that she was unable to break away at all. He had locked her in. Kidman pounded on the walls of her mind, but she was far too weak to escape. Burning stripes of frozen light tore at her senses as her life peeled away, dulling and dimming as she fell into the abyss.

In the enveloping darkness she felt such sadness, bitterness wrapped in vicious curls of anger that billowed into malicious, acrid desire.

‘Flag….’

The tension suddenly lifted and somewhere a distant pain radiated through the shifting shadows. From within them a woman’s face took form. It was somehow familiar; warm and benevolent with wise blue eyes and hair like smoke, but before the girl could reach for her the world went black again.

“[Get up, Serrye!]”

Rough hands lifted her and tossed her back into an orange chair. She hated that chair. The armrests were cold and stuck to her bare arms when they strapped her in. Everything was cold here, the light, the bed, the faces. She knew what they wanted her to do, but she hated them and would give them nothing..

“[You will stay here until it is mended. No food, no bathroom, understood?]”

She didn’t look at him, his bespectacled, craggy face. She didn’t look at the beeping machines, the bruises on her arms, the mouse in the cage with its broken leg. But she wanted to look at the mouse. She wanted to take it and run away, but even in her belligerent haze she knew If she healed it, they would only break more.

The mouse kept calling to her, plaintively squeaking, begging…

* * *

Kidman awoke into a body made of sand, unable to move under its weight and barely even breathe. Hours crawled past as her heart sought a steady rhythm, her lucid moments spent trying to comprehend her new reality as the river rolled in the distance.

She surreptitiously checked on Flag and smiled inwardly to know he was alive, but she didn’t wish to speak to him. She didn’t know what to say.

Kidman glanced at her hand as the bank fell into shadow. A small mark by her thumbnail was still visible, where a frightened mouse had bitten her years before. She had healed it after all, she remembered. Her long-held fears were true.

She returned her attention to the man and watched through her lashes as he inspected his pendant, the blue of dusk casting him in a black silhouette above her. Carmen had given her to him. She trusted him, and despite everything that had come to pass, he was a vast improvement, considering what she now knew of what her life had been.

True he had nearly killed her, even smiled while doing so, but he had asked for her assistance and she had agreed. He’d nearly killed her, but he hadn’t actually done so, and in the depths of her heart, she understood what drove him.

Kidman felt his boot push her leg again and she fully opened her eyes at last.

“Happy….?” she asked with much effort.

He raised an eyebrow at the question, but then smiled slightly and nodded. "Quite."

She smiled in return.

“Good.”

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