Demon Heart

Chapter 7.2

CALANDRA

The mage would have given her a sedation solution if she knew what was in that wretched concoction. Instead she was forced to watch Aza struggle and cry as she twisted herself into her sheets. A fever had the girl sweating and gasping as well. Using the old fashioned way, with a cool cloth on the forehead was most certainly not enough, but it's all Calandra could think of, and that pissed her off.

"Is there nothing you can do?"

Calandra ground her teeth and turned to see Faux leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed.

"Don't you think I would be doing something if I could?" She snapped.

Faux was staring at Aza's sobbing form as her hands curled an uncurled around the blankets. "P-Please... Please no." She whispered as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. They had washed away the dried blood and bandaged the girl's head where she had hit her head at least, but that wasn't anything really.

"What do you know about it? The drug she gave her, I mean." Faux's expression was unreadable.

Calandra stared at him. He was actually being completely serious. There were no attempts to lighten the mood. Something was wrong. "I know that there are elements of memordin and fovodroga in it. That means that she's seeing her most feared memories."

It was almost imperceptible, but the mage saw his hands tighten around his arms.

"Are you going to show me my room or not?" A rough voice spoke as Raoul poked his head around the corner, sliding behind the Anahalian.

Faux turned, his abnormally dead eyes glared up at large man. "Can't you see that she's busy?" He said softly.

Raoul grinned. "You aren't still angry about us leavin' you with those wolves, are you?"

Back at Bacardi Hole, they had decided to slip out the back, so Raoul could avoid running into Kenneth's pack. Calandra had sent a telepathic signal to the Anahalian, which was something that wasn't technically legal for mages either unless they were conversing with those at the gates of their sanctuaries so they could decide to lower the spells and allow them to enter. So Faux, being the Anahalian that he was, managed to fight off the drunk werewolves fairly easily, but he had surprisingly been in a bad mood since then.

Faux took a deep breath. "I know you see me as one of those cowardly Anahalians who ran away from Earth, but you were the one avoiding the fight there, now weren't you?"

Calandra stood, stopping this before it went further. Faux had been trained to fight just like all Anahalians were, but he was still part human. Plus, Raoul was nearly four times his size in muscle mass and he wasn't one of those stoned beasts back at the bar. He was far more capable. "I can't do anything more here, anyway." She said.

Faux whirled back. "But..."

"If you want to take care of her, you can." Calandra waved her hand and murmured the spell to allow Faux to enter the room, and then she tossed him the cloth. She walked over to them and faced Faux, who was staring past her again to the squirming girl on the bed. "Don't worry, this'll pass. It's temporary, that much I know. She wasn't poisoned, it's just a-"

Faux's green eyes snapped onto her hers. "It's not just an anything." He hissed, nearly knocking the wind out of the mage. "Our memories can destroy us." He shook his head. "But I suppose you're right, Calandra. That sister of yours didn't poison her, she just woke up the poison that's already poisoned her a thousand times before. Etheldreda's just sent the venom of Aza's nightmares flooding through her mind, when she's done everything she can to forget it. Don't tell me that it was just a temporary memory drug or anything like that." He jabbed a finger at Aza's shaking form, still his gaze piercing Calandra's wide eyes. "That's far worse than any poison I know, because those kind of memories are never temporary. They are forever. That witch called it the worst kind of torture, and that's exactly what it is."