The Dark Blooded Duchess. Ep1

The place called the community center is large and beautiful, set in the heart of the quaint village called Secernere.

Children’s laughter reverberates throughout the otherwise sparse bottom floor, but the space feels anything but empty.

Seeing such joy makes me feel strange, not to mention lightheaded.

I wait for a comment from either of my shadows, telling me that it’s the injuries rather than the human emotions that are causing the dizziness, but it doesn’t come.

For the dozenth time since I’ve woken, I wonder where they are and if they’ll ever come back.

I listen to the story that Donny tells and wonder how much of it, if any, could be true. I certainly don’t recall any stories of the primordials from my studies of earth. I make a vague, if not entirely weak mental note to follow up on that.

I stare after the children that are adjourning in the most glorious yet foreign discordance of chattery and laughter. My feeble human heart seems to flop around in my chest for no reason at all.

‘Nothing like it, is there?’ Donny says, from right next to me.

I hadn’t noticed him, and I don’t look at him. I look at the children until the last wild-haired skipper disappears through a large tent entrance.

‘I’ve never seen so many smiling kids’ I say, my voice disbelieving and raw.

‘Not many rugrats where you’re from then?’

‘Not that kind’ I say. Not the smiling, free-living, happy kind.

‘They’re pretty great’ says Donny leaning against the wall, with a warm smile. I caught his eye, and they were like pools of splendor ‘how are you feeling?’ he asks.

‘Like I need to think about anything other than how I’m feeling’ I say with a sigh and a small smile.

‘I’m sure,’ he says, crossing his arms over his chest. ‘Would you like me to take you back?’

‘Sure,’ I say ‘I wouldn’t mind that’ and I realize it’s true. His presence has been a calming force to the madness of surfacing here ‘but I’d like to go see officer Talo first’

‘Of course,’ says Donny, taking hold of the steering handles of my assist chair ‘been meaning to go check on her myself’

Red hot pain shoots through my side as the movement starts and I hiss.

‘Sorry’ the chair stops ‘I’ll be gentle’

‘Yes. Yes do that,’ I say, still cringing.

My human body sure has come a ways since hell. From hardly feeling the toxic claws of a hellhound, to nearly pissing myself when the chair moves.

It’s not that that’s entirely bad, it could mean that the metaphysical fusing is coming along well, but the pain is less than ideal and somewhat worrying since my hell form does not experience pain.

The medical building is much larger than the initial treatment room, expanding to the back of the rectangular building on either side. I believe I’ve seen healers retrieve medicine and supplies from the room to the left, but I didn’t know that the other part was occupied as well.

This is where Donny takes me, down a long, narrow dirt path to the right of the healer’s building. Trees covered with round, deep green leaves and with thick, moss-covered trunks tower over each and every building.

I haven’t felt this small since before I left hell, but in contrast to that, the trees made me feel protected, sheltered and peaceful.

I wonder if these people always feel like this. If Donny does.

‘Is Donny short for something?’ I surprise myself by asking.

An amused sort of chuckle emits from behind me, a rich, deep sound that warms up something in my chest.

‘What?’ I feel my face heating ‘is that not something that’s ok to ask?’

‘No t’s fine to ask,’ he says, amused ‘it’s just that no one around here really ever asks me that. Other than kids.’

‘Oh,’ I frown ‘why is that?’

‘I suppose,’ he seems to search for the words, ‘it’s because they’re afraid of my kind’

That information just doesn’t track in my head, Donny has been nothing but cool and kind, and yes, handsome as hell since I’ve gotten here. But before I can ask about it we reach the entryway of a smaller patient room with only two beds. One is empty, but in the other lays Talo.

She lays entirely still and there are machines on the wall above her, that (I assume) monitor her in every possible way.

The technology of earth sure has come a long way since hell’s last records.

Donny wheels me into the room, next to the sleeping Talo, while he pulls up a chair on the other side and takes a seat between the beds, facing his, er, officer.

‘Why hasn’t she woken up?’ I ask.

‘The healers don’t really know what’s going on’ says Donny ‘her body is physically fine, apart from a few minor injuries. I think she’s fighting to wake up’

I focus my sight on her, willing my magical sight to manifest in my human body. It takes a few tries, but with the help of my palm receptors, I manage. Her chakras are glowing and strong, apart from the crown chakra, which houses the spirit. That one flickers slowly like a candle that is mostly strong but is burning out fast.

‘Perhaps,’ I agree with Donny ‘and perhaps she needs help’ I say, laying a hand on her arm. Silently I call to her, and I ask for her spirit to come to me.

As if in answer, her beautiful brown skin starts glowing like it’s got gilded light turned on inside it and she looks nothing short of mythical, laying there with her hair draped over her chest and hand gently atop the other.

‘Wow,’ I say, in awe.

‘Amazing, isn’t she?’ Donny smiles proudly ‘she’s a sub-earth wielder.’

‘I’m sorry’ I frown ‘a what?’ and besides, it was a response to me and not just a random light flicker.

‘Her powers come from the earth’ Donny says ‘but she doesn’t have traditional earth powers, she can turn things into gold, including living things. Not a lot of folk know that though’

What?

I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

‘She’s an element wielder!’ I say, disbelieving, ‘right here, under my nose!’

‘Well sure, there’s tons of them. Us.’ Donny chuckles lightly ‘But the ones that are considered lesser elemental powers are called minoricals, they stay in vil-’

‘I’m sorry, what?’ I demand, interrupting him.

Donny frowns, looking bewildered ‘What’s wrong?’

‘You’re saying that element wielders are a coming thing here?’ I scrub a hand across my forehead, ‘how is that possible? None of my books mention that mortals have elemental magic’

‘Well I can’t speak for your books,’ says Donny leaning onto the bed ‘but I can tell you that this has been the world for as long as I can remember. And mortals? They’re not all that common here. There’s a mortal settlement 200 miles from the southern border, I think.’

I swallow hard as the confusion washes over me. ‘Perhaps my sources were unreliable.’

‘Could be’ says Donny gently ‘where is it that you’re from, Morgen? Maybe that can help us figure this out.’

I chew on the inside of my lip. Should I? I wish that my shadows were here to help me figure this out.

I look into his eyes, pools of splendid sapphire and it’s as if the words come out on their own accord, ‘I’m from hell,’ I say, lifting my chin ‘I’m descendant from demon royalty and the rarest of demon bloodlines’

Donny’s face does something amusing then, his eyes double in size and his mouth falls open ever so slightly. I’m also not entirely sure that he’s still breathing, that’s how completely still he’s sitting, staring at me.

‘Donny?’ I ask ‘are you broken? Did I break you?’

‘Captain,’ says Healer Hannah from the entryway ‘Could I-’ she starts ‘blazing fires, are ye alright?’

Donny blinks then, regains his ability to breathe, and speak - apparently.

‘Healer,’ he says with only a slightly shaky voice and a most artificial smile, ‘Fine. I’m fine. Are we in your way?’

‘On the contrary captain, I was looking for you’ the slender, greying healer clasps her hands behind her back ‘could I have a word wit ya?’

‘Of course'

They leave me alone with Talo and go and converse under a tree outside.

While I have them, I spend a few minutes tuning into Talo’s energies. My magical powers may be depleted but energies I’ve always known.

I try and divine where she is, not her body, but her- her essence. But it’s like scratching a phantom limb, every time I come close enough to sense her she slips out of my grasp.

‘Formidable fire-breathing fuck.’ I hiss under my breath. I scrape my hair out of my face with both hands. I shake my head, contemplating my options.

‘Morgen’ Donny says from the doorway ‘are you ready to go?’

I’m really not, ‘Actually,’ I turn to Donny ‘I want to spend some time here, it might help me figure out what’s going on with Talo. Could I stay here?’

Donny looks from Talo to me and back again.

‘I just want to help, I swear it’ I assure him.

He swallows ‘sure, let me just talk to-’

‘Hannah, yes’ I finish for him, suddenly winded ‘I’m going to need my belongings as well. I assume you have those somewhere to inspect them, yes?’

‘Er, yes’ says Donny, turning on his heels ‘I’ll go get them.’

Sweat drips from my crown when I rest my head in my hands and I realize it’s magical exhaustion.

I will need to rest up in a semi-professional manner if I’m to have any hope of helping Talo.