Esther

  The room was a mess; something Esther expected after seeing the debris and clothing scattered in the yard. What surprised her, however, was the state of the victims and perpetrators of this disaster.

  Elisa was sitting on the side of the bed, covering her nakedness with a white sheet. Her hair was disheveled, and her pale face was smeared with tears, mucus, and shame. Her left cheek was swollen, and a trickle of dried blood ran from her lips to her neck. She quickly hid her face with the sheet when she saw Esther entering the room, and started to sob.

  Natalia snorted, seeing the woman's behaviour.

  On the floor beside the bed lay two burly men face down, with their hands bound behind their backs with hemp rope. Their clothes were torn, and their faces covered in bruises. One was noticeably more beaten than the other, and had stained the floor with his blood and saliva. Two soldiers held them down, resting the butts of their muskets on their backs.

  A soldier with a beard so thick that it was impossible to tell where his mouth began, let alone whether he was smiling or not when he saw Emma, was standing by the window.

  Next to the bearded soldier lay a man sitting on the floor, with his back against the wall and completely naked. He was thin, with large ears and light brown hair. His face was so battered that he couldn't open one of his eyes, while the other could barely move its eyelids. His body was bruised, notably on his forearms and legs. From the shape and location of the bruises, Esther concluded that in a moment of rage, the attackers had kicked him relentlessly, and he defended himself by curling up and blocking the attacks with his arms and legs. The injured man showed a smile of missing teeth when he saw the priestess, and weakly raised his right arm toward her while making incomprehensible sounds with his mouth.

  Emma throwed her large hat over the bed and rushed toward Bastian, kneeling beside him. “Good heavens, what have they done to you, my child? I saw you healthy not long ago,” she said as she examined him.

  Esther approached Emma. She blushed at the sight of the man's nakedness and looked away.

  “You have to get used to it, my child,” Emma said. “Otherwise, you won't be able to help anyone.”

  “I'm sorry.” Esther took a deep breath and knelt beside Emma. “How is he?”

  "Bad. He's having trouble breathing because his nose is broken and clotted with dried blood. He has a fracture in his left forearm, two fingers on his left hand and three on his right, plus he lost his upper incisors. At least he doesn't have any broken ribs. But what worries me most is the condition of his left eye. He could lose it. Who did this to him?” Emma asked the bearded man. She got up and walked over to Elisa. “Speak, sergeant."

  “Well, ma’am, it’s a long story,” Sergeant Brody said. “My men and I were walking through the village when we ran into our friend Natalia coming out of Mary’s. She told us she’d come to the village looking for her nephew, Michael, and asked if we could help her. Apparently, the poor lad is very sick, and she’s afraid he might collapse somewhere, with no one close to help him. Since we didn’t have anything else to do, we decided to give her a hand.”

  Esther looked at her aunt with a frown. Natalia noticed her gaze and winked at her.

  “Please, get to the point,” Emma said, as she checked on Elisa.

  “Don’t worry, I’m on my way there, ma’am. After we spoke with our friend Natalia, we went to the village green and there we decided to split up so we could cover more ground. But we didn’t even get started, ma’am, ‘cause at that moment we spotted two little ones racing towards us.”

  “I imagine you’re talking about Julie and Kevin,” Emma said.

  “Aye, ma’am. Little Julie saw her aunt and told her there was trouble and she needed her help. We asked her what she was talking about, but the girl wouldn’t say. She just wanted us to follow them. The little ones led us to the backyard of the house, and that’s when we heard the fight going on upstairs and Elisa screaming. We ran in through the open back door and found these two animals beatin’ Luke’s nephew to death, and Elisa yelling and throwin’ things to make ‘em stop. As you can see, ma’am, we had to use force to break ‘em away from Bastian, or they would have killed the lad.”

  Emma finished checking Elisa and walked over to the two men. She did not bend down to examine them; she looked at them thoughtfully while standing. “I can see they put up a fight,” she said.

  Brody and the others smiled. They carried their uniforms rumpled and sweaty, yet they seemed pleased with what they had accomplished. “The lieutenant’s going to be mad when he sees us looking like this,” Brody said.

  “I’ll ask him to forgive you and thank you instead. Y’all prevented a tragedy, gentlemen.”

  “Thank you very much for your kind words, ma’am, but please tell the lieutenant that in addition to the thanks, he could also buy us a couple of rounds at Mary’s.”

  “You have my support, Sergeant. But tell me, what about the three lads you've got detained in the kitchen? Did they have anything to do with the beating?”

  “Naw, we found ‘em standing like idiots by the door, watchin’ these two beat Bastian without doing a bloody thin’. We later found out they were the ones who brought ‘em here. I'm holding ‘em until the police arrive and they decide what to do.”

  “I understand,” Emma said. "And how did the children find out what was happening here?"

  “They probably followed the three lads from downstairs,” Natalia said. “I bet they saw all these people sneaking through the side yard and thought they were going to rob the place. They must have heard the fight and ran to get help.”

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Luckily, you were nearby,” Emma said.

  “Thanks to Esliana’s divine intervention,” Natalia said with a smile that made Esther think.

  Emma shook her head. “However, I can’t understand why they did all this. What do they gain by creating this mess? But it doesn’t matter. I’ll find out later anyway. Now, I ask everyone to please close their eyes for a moment, for I have to do something or this young man might lose his eye.”

  Upon hearing this, Esther felt the sayr in the air begin to stir. She shut her eyes quickly and saw through her eyelids the white flash she knew so well. Then she opened them.

  Next to Emma floated an orb of water as big as a fist, and from it hung a cord, also made of water, that attached to Emma's right hand. Esther noticed that the priestess had three bright marks on her right hand, indicating that she had three active spells on her.

  The giant orb, this new one here… What’s the third spell? Esther wondered.

  The orb of water floated up to Bastian's face, who quickly raised a hand to protect himself.

  “Don’t be afraid, my child. This will help you heal.”

  Bastian showed hesitation, but then nodded at Emma's kind gaze and lowered his hand.

  The orb changed its shape, spreading out like a handkerchief and settling over Bastian's wounded face, avoiding the holes of his nose. Emma approached him and took his right hand in hers. The orb of water began to change colour. Its crystal-clear water turned white, like a cloud, and then began to glow. The cord of water now joined Bastian's right hand.

  “A miracle!” cried one of the soldiers. His comrade echoed his words.

  “Only the gods can perform miracles,” Emma said with a modest smile. “This will energize Bastian’s body and accelerate the healing process. It will also keep his wounds clean.”

  Esther watched amazed at the cord of water connecting the orb to Bastian's hand. No one had noticed, or even understood, the impressive feat Emma had just performed. She had managed to break into Bastian's personal territory and transfer her spell to him without any resistance on his part. Normally, Bastian, or his subconscious, as is commonly the case, would have rejected the invasion of his territory and marked the spell as an attack against him. But none of this had happened. This was what separated an ordinary invoker from a healing invoker: the power to cross into the territory of others at will. It was a skill that very few invokers possessed. Some were born with it, while others developed it over the years, as Emma had. Esther hoped that one day she too would develop the ability.

  Hurried footsteps echoed up the stairs. “Emma, ??Emma, ??where are you?!”

  “Here, my child. To your left.”

  Celeste rushed into the room, carrying a large leather bag. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Bastian’s condition. “What the hell happened here?” she yelled.

  “Why did you take so long?” Emma asked.

  “I’m sorry. I have trouble finding the bag.”

  “And how is the village?”

  “Hysterical, my lady. Everyone is in a frenzy and anxious to know what’s going on after seeing the glow that covered the entire village.”

  “You marked the entire village?” Natalia asked, astonished.

  “It was necessary so that we could take Bastian to the clinic without breaking the spell,” Emma replied.

  “I hope no one in Sermside thinks we’re under the attack of a deranged invoker,” Natalia said, smirking.

  “It was an insignificant thing. I don’t know what all the fuss is about,” Emma said with a sneer.

  Covering the entire village is not insignificant, Esther thought.

  “How is your husband?’ Emma asked Celeste.

  “Very bad. Agnes and her friends are pressuring the poor man to let them into the house. As for the rest, I saw more people present. The crowd looked bigger. Oh, right. Agatha and her companions seem to have left. That’s the best of all.”

  “What’s going on out there, ma’am?” Brody asked. “I went to look out the window and saw a crowd standing in front of the house.”

  Hearing this, Elisa screamed and hid her head under the sheet.

  “It’s too late for regrets, my child,” Emma said. “Natalia, take Elisa to another room. Celeste, go with Natalia and help her find something for Elisa to wear. Esther, take my bag and treat her face, then come back here to help me take care of the others.”

  “Yes,” Esther said, taking the bag from Celeste’s hands.

  “Delighted to obey, my lady,” Natalia said with a broad smile. She approached the bed and looked at the sobbing Elisa, hidden under the sheets. “Come on, darling, it’s time you got presentable for your audience.”

  Elisa responded by crying even harder.

  “Don’t be like that, sweetheart. It’s not the end of the world. Everyone will forget about this in a couple of months. You’ll see.”

  Elisa didn’t seem to listen. She remained hidden, crying.

  Natalia looked at the soldiers. “I ask the gentlemen present to please close their eyes.”

  The soldiers not only cooperated by closing their eyes, but they also turned around.

  Natalia grabbed one end of the sheets and pulled hard, dragging the poor Elisa, who was clinging to them, out of the bed. “Noooo!” she screamed as she fell naked onto the floor.

  “Stop crying and stand up,” Natalia roared. We whores can’t afford the luxury of sitting around and crying like flowers until we wither away. No one will come to our defence. Ain’t that right, my good friend, Emma Green?” Natalia said, looking at Emma with a fake smile.

  Emma said nothing. Esther was surprised to see her unable to find the words to respond to Natalia's veiled remark.

  Natalia helped the trembling Elisa to stand up and wrapped her in the sheet. “Come on, my little princess, this lady will take care of you,” Natalia said softly as she escorted her out of the room. Celeste followed them closely.

  Esther started to go out, but stopped in the doorway when she heard one of the captured men speaking.

  “Priestess, I beg you. Don’t let them see me. Don’t let my family see me like this. Please, I beg you,” the man said with a broken voice. His head was pressed to the floor, and he could barely see Emma.

  Emma sat on the bed near him. “You should have thought about the consequences before you did what you did, Clark.”

  “I know, I know… I’m sorry. I don’t know what possessed me. I just lost my mind. I just. I just wanted ‘em to stop making fun of me. I wanted ‘em to stop.”

  “I don’t understand? Who was making fun of you?”

  “Them. The lads who brought us here. They were laughin’ when they told me my wife was cheating on me. I just wanted ‘em to shut up. I even thought they were lyin’ to me, that it was a bloody prank. But then I get here and find my wife in bed with another man… I just wanted ‘em to shut up, ma’am. I just wanted ‘em to stop making fun of me. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done it.” He burst into tears. His sobs washed away the last traces of anger from the soldiers’ faces.

  Esther stared in shock at the burly man, who not long ago had caused so much destruction and misery, crying as a child would cry under his mother's merciful gaze. Emma remained silent. The soldiers looked away in pity. Esther felt a little sympathy for the sadness and remorse the man was showing, but not enough to forgive or forget what he had done.

  To forgive, and above all to forget, were two things that were very foreign to her.