Somanca ( The Healer)

Chapter Nineteen

CHAPTER NINETEEN 🌿

This chapter is dedicated to Steffi-Nicole for voting for this story. It means a lot.

My stay at Azer had turned out a lot different than how I had imagined. If someone had told me that I would be helping out with the cooking and getting to know the Azerian women I would thought that person utterly insane. That was the routine I had chosen to follow, reluctantly at first, then came to enjoy.

But after days of living there I came to enjoy their company. I was still wary of the Chief and I had a feeling that that wouldn't change. He had a powerful aura that overpowered me and made me cower from him. I had to stop myself from fleeing every time I talked to him.

I came to adore the Queen's son, Kian. I was his guardian after all.

The child prince had seeded himself into my heart and refused to release me from his spell. I often found myself wondering if the time came when I'd leave this place how would I feel about leaving the precious gem close to my heart.

He had yet to know me but I had taken a big part in his delivery to this world. I had endured the pain of a mother who'd gone through the savage and unforgiving process of childbirth. It was only natural I'd love him.

I'd began to notice that most of the Azers would discretely bow to me while they thought I wasn't paying attention. I'd dared to ask the Chief of their behavior and he'd released a belly laugh, his body shaking with amusement.

' Dear Healer, it is because you had helped deliver their Prince into this world, " he'd answered, having recovered from the almost daunting laughter.

I thought it strange they revered me in that light. I had never been honored for such a deed. Funny , it had been my first time delivering a child. I hadn't the faintest clue of what I had been doing but the motions came naturally.

Something that I noticed as well was that none of the Azerians came to me to heal innate wounds that could easily heal on their own. And when they came for my healing they came bearing gifts. Refusing the gifts had been followed by an outcry and pleading to accept said gifts.

As days came and went my worries of Prince Alderon's sordid intentions for me ebbed away. At nightfall I was confronted with the loneliness brought on by my undeniable longing for the now Queen of Saëna Plutron, Amanti.

I missed her to the point that it was unnatural. Sometimes I wished rational thoughts would flee me so I would give myself to the need to be with her. To follow her to the very ends of the world.

Why was it she wasn't mine when I had already offered all that I was to her? It was unfair really. The late Queen's wife had all but batted her eyelashes at what was mine without shame. She hadn't even given herself time to grieve for her late lover yet she had readily thrown herself into the arms of another without a moment's hesitation.

Deities above and beyond

Were my feelings so easy to disregard?

Was I too gentle, too innocent?

Was I too naïve and trusting?

It was now that I realised that war was everywhere, and could be roused by even the smallest of things. Love was a battlefield. It wasn't for the fainthearted.

Maybe that was why I had lost my greatest love. I felt a spark of shame for my weakness. I should have fought for her. Should have proved my undying love for her instead of acting like I didn't feel anything for her.

I picked up a pebble and threw it into the river and watched the water ripple in a taunting manner. As if it knew I couldn't hurt it.

I was disgusted with how fixated I was to her. Havens I'd forgotten my people in favour of reminiscing the precious moments I'd spent with Amanti. Mother must surely be roaring with anger where she lay.