Unknown Passage of Time
I woke up slowly, like coming from a haze. It felt like fighting through molasses to reach a far shore. Difficult and exhausting but I still tried. When I did reach the far shore it was easier than I thought to push my body to move. I opened my eyes and expected to be standing in front of Dean Hilem's office but I was laying in a bed in a white room that reminded me of the medical clinic. Confusion swamped me and a beeping beside me picked up rapidly.
I looked around, attempting to sit up with trembling arms. Black dots swam in my vision and I slumped backwards, too weak to truly move from the spot. I swallowed convulsively my throat and mouth feeling like cotton, as if I hadn't drank anything for a very long time.
I couldn't grasp what was going on. I didn't remember what had happened after the chain of my medallion snapped. My hand snapped up to my neck and I felt the familiar links underneath my fingertips to my relief. It was a rather calming feeling and the beeping slowed down.
I turned my head slightly and noticed the machine was heart rate monitor. A wireless one that was probably hooked up to the bed rather than the person. They were much more efficient and required less wires. I blinked slowly before I stared up at the ceiling. My throat was really dry and I wanted to know what the fuck had happened.
"Hello, Liviya." Ghilesh's voice was soft and I turned my head to look at him. He looked worn out and tired as he stood in the doorway to the small medical like room. I opened my mouth to reply but the dryness made it impossible. He came forward with a soft smile and with a cup in his hand. I stared at it intently. "I bet you are thirsty." I nodded and he shuffled over before pressing a button on the side of the bed that helped me to sitting.
I wanted to thank him but he said nothing as he pressed the rim of the cup to my lips. I drank greedily and when I had drained half of the glass he pulled it away and then held a strange pan out in front of me. I looked at him and opened my mouth to ask him what it was for when I threw up.
My entire body seized as I heaved again and again. Tears filled my eyes as it felt like it wasn't going to stop. The vomit had a strange taste and came out black and thick almost like tar. It felt like something was pulling it from my body and my muscles clenched tightly as I continued heaving for what seemed like an eternity before it stopped entirely, leaving me feeling limp and exhausted.
"I am sorry, Liviya. That was not nice. I know." He pulled the pan away from me before patting my forehead with a cold damp cloth. I felt too tired to keep my eyes open and he smoothed the cloth down my cheeks. "It is okay. Sleep. I will be here when you wake up." His words faded and I fell backwards into nothingness once again.
~~~~~
Consciousness crept back onto me slowly but unlike the last time I awoke I was aware that time had passed. I slowly cracked my eyes open and winced at the light above my head. It seemed too bright even though I knew it was dimmed.
"Hello again, Liviya." Ghilesh appeared by my side with another cup in his hand, I eyed it warily. The last drink I had sent me into a heaving frenzy. "You have purged your system already. Besides, these are just ice chips." He shook the cup and I could hear the crushed ice moving around. I swallowed, that strange taste was still in my mouth and Ghilesh held me out an ice chip. I opened my mouth and he fed me several more before he moved a chair to right beside the bed.
"Do you remember what happened?" His amber eyes had heavy bags under them and he looked so worn out. I didn't like it.
"Dean Hilem's office. I stepped out." My voice was raspy and raw and my throat burned on every syllable. "Someone grabbed." I patted my medallion and swallowed with a wince. "Yanked it off." I frowned, trying to push through the pain in my head. I needed to remember what happened.
"Did you see who did it?" He asked it quietly and I shook my head. It hurt to think but I knew that much.
"Not well." I swallowed convulsively again and he fed me another ice chip. The coldness soothed my throat. "Grey eyes, sharp face. Just a glimpse." A tiny, tiny glimpse before I was sucked away, to where I didn't know. The heart rate increased as my heart started to beat faster at the thought of what happened.
Ghilesh grasped my arm and squeezed it softly, rubbing my skin in an attempt to get me to calm down. I breathed deeply, focusing on doing just that. "Was it Kher?" He asked it softly and I shrugged slightly. I was at a loss. I was nearly positive it was him deep down in my gut but I didn't see enough to make a formal decision.
"I don't know." I swallowed hard and turned to look at him. "What happened?" I wanted to know. I need to know what the hell had happened to me.
"Someone yanked off your medallion." His eyes darkened slightly in anger but his hand was gentle on my arm as he patted it. "It... it caused your soul to leave your body." I felt myself pale as my stomach rolled. I wanted to heave again. My soul had been disconnected from me, I hadn't gone unconscious like I thought. I had virtually died. "When the chain broke your medallion disintegrated into nothing, the magic it held simply returning to the Source." He moved his hand down and grabbed my own. "Your soul left with it." He looked saddened and I swallowed.
"Why?" Why would my soul simply leave my body. I didn't understand.
"It is what happens when a medallion is broken. Usually we can fix it quickly. The Source holding the souls until we can recreate the broken medallion and then place the soul back within it. You were... difficult." His eyes were almost watery as he said it. I didn't like that look.
"How?" My throat was so scratchy and sore it was nearly unbearable.
"When a mated pair is the subject of a medallion breaking, one soul will return to the other. We would know where it is and where to find it. Your soul got... confused." He swallowed and looked at his lap. "The potion you were taking confused your soul. It was meant to go back to Rhex, your soul would rest within his medallion until we could fix yours but the soul separation potion made your soul believe it had to go back to the Source." Tears burned my eyes. I had gotten lost out in the dark abyss of nothingness? I had been stuck out there alone?
"You were lost in the abyss of darkness, Liviya. And she was mad." Ghilesh shuddered under it as if he could still feel the fury from the person he spoke of. "She was so mad that her fury was felt through every medallion that came close to your body. We had to quarantine you to the lower bays because people were suffering third degree burns from their medallions." I blinked at that, reaching up to grab my medallion as Ghilesh squeezed my hand gently, as if afraid I was going to break.
"She screamed at all of the Soul Makers for days. Over and over again. She would not let us rest until we had your medallion ready and then she screamed at us to find you." He let out a heavy breath and I had a moment of realization that he was talking about the Source. The Source had been upset with my soul being lost. It was a rather disconcerting feeling to think about. "We almost couldn't find you. It took every bit of power we had to reach out towards where your soul had gotten stuck." He looked at me again and the tears finally fell down his face as he attempted to swipe them away.
"You were gone for a month, Liviya." His words made what ever calmness I felt, disappear entirely. My heart rate picked up and I felt my breathing come out in gasps. "Your body was dying and we could not find you. We tried so hard until we felt just a tiny pulse, a tiny call for help and then we realized we had been losing you too. The darkness wanted to consume you entirely." He wiped at his eyes again, as if the motion would stem the flow of tears and I had to look away from him, my mind racing with the information. I hadn't just died, my soul had nearly been extinguished entirely. I swallowed heavily against the bile that crawled into my throat. I hadn't thought I had enough in me to throw anything up again but apparently my body was showing me just how much was left.
"Rhex?" My voice was a hoarse croak as the tears trailed down my face. I just wanted to know if he was okay, that it didn't hurt him.
"He knew. He knew the moment it happened. He said he could not feel you anymore." He heaved out a breath. "They had to sedate him to keep him from going completely mad." My heart jumped into my throat and I squeezed Ghilesh's hand.
"Talk to him." I needed to talk to him. I needed to hear his voice just to assure myself that he was okay and safe. I just wanted to hear his voice because I was scared.
"You cannot right now." He said it gently, as if the tone of his voice could deliver the crushing words softly. I felt like my throat was constricting as it burned with sobs that wanted to escape. I needed to talk to Rhex.
"Talk to him." I watched him stand up and I held his hand as tightly as I could, my arm trembling from the whisper of a grip that I was using. "Ghilesh, please!" I wanted to beg him, to plead with him to help me.
His amber eyes were full of regret as he pull his wrinkled hand from my own. "You need to recover first, Liviya." He pressed a button on my bed and I felt a sudden, foggy warmth slowly start to spread through me.
"No." It came out as a faint, slurred whimper before that warm fog covered me completely, dragging me down, down, down.