The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 35

        "Nobody does that ever had to take it. That shit is awful," Ixillius smiled sadly, kissing Alex's hair again. "She needed to rest, though."

        "You've treated her well, Ixillius. The new swelling in her face is nearly gone. She's healed quickly over the past week," Brasus said, seriously, "in spite of the events she's been through."

        Alex finished the last bites of the bun and wrapped her fist back into Ixillius's tunic. Ixillius murmured a few quiet words to her, and her eyelids fluttered.

        "She'll recover from the last dose soon, but it will most likely be a longer wait than the hour that Verus predicts." Brasus tried to hand her another bun, but she refused, instead turning her face into Ixillius's tunic.

        "Why did you give her so much?" the Optio asked, quietly enough that only Ixillius could hear him.

        "She needed to rest," Ixillius replied in the same quiet tones.

                                                                ***

        Alex fought against the heaviness in her thoughts. Her head felt the same as her lungs had after nearly drowning as a child, but there wasn't any way to puke out the weight this time. Ixillius was gently rubbing her back as he and Brasus quietly talked. Verus and Quintus were speaking together, but apart from Brasus and Ixillius. Their voices were still mumbled jumbles that hit her eardrums and ricocheted right back out, no sense to the words at all.

        Once it felt like she could, Alex started to flex her hands. Curling and uncurling her fists, concentrating on the motion. Her feet shifted jerkily under the blanket, not responding properly at first, then the motion smoothed and she was able to curl and uncurl her toes as well. She rolled her wrists and ankles for a while, waiting for the actions to feel close to normal before resting. The motions seemed to clear out some of the weight in her mind while she was doing them, so when the heaviness settled back in she started again with her fingers and toes, working up to bending her elbows and knees this time before stopping to rest. More of the weight cleared away, and the voices in the room began to have enunciation. Once she quit moving though, the weight came back.

                                                                ***

        "What is she doing?" Verus asked, eyeing the movements Alex made.

        "This is how she wakes," Ixillius said, shrugging the shoulder that she wasn't leaning against.

        "She looks as if she is fitting herself into her skin," Verus stated with a curious frown.

        "Every repetition the motion is smoother," Brasus added, familiar with her routine and noting this time she finished with flexing her torso and rolling her head side to side carefully. "Her eyes are open now as well, although I doubt she can yet see judging by the stare."

                                                                ***

        Brasus sounded close. Alex turned her head and saw a patch that stood out against the room color that could be a person crouching. She held out a hand toward the patch and it moved. Rough cloth, the same as Ixillius wore, pushed up under her palm. She squeezed her fingers, feeling his shoulder.

        "Brass-uss," she slurred after a few moments of her jaw working in silence.

        "Salve, Domina, hoc est Brasus." His voice was quiet, the same as hers had been when she'd quieted Big Man Max the other night, and she gripped his shirt into her fist.