"New clothes? Yes well… You'll be needing some anyway…"

I groaned, still hardly able to move, lightly placing a hand over my chest and feeling its icy touch against my skin. 'The blisters, they're severe, but what condition are they in… I can't see…'

[condition, drained, treated with herbal salve mixed with clay, (claw grass, stone skin root, and yark bark.)]

'They've already been drained?' I felt my chest rise as I took a deep breath. 'Everything feels numb, but my chest is so hot, and I'm sweating… And what's this strange soft fabric?'

"Siya?"

'Was she saying something?' "Sorry… I'm… Did you need something?"

She sighed. "You asked for new clothes a few days ago, I was just telling you they would be here soon."

'A few days? No that's not…' "But…" 'I'm sweating so why…' "It's cold…" I muttered, trying my best not to sound like I was whining.

"This room is currently warmer than the tea you drink." She said back calmly without so much as moving.

I let my arm relax resting on my chest. "A fever… Then…"

She sighed again, letting it out more softly than before. "You've been running one for three days, it's been a while, but the monster must have worn you out."

'The monster… Right…' I grabbed the blanket in front of me and pressed it to my chest, as I let out a small groan "I'm cold…" I said. This time I really was just whining, I knew it too, but I didn't care. I was cold, I couldn't see, my body ached, and the cuts, blisters, and swelling only made everything else feel even worse.

I felt a slight sting as she flicked me on the forehead. "Maybe next time you'll think twice before you do something stupid."

'I knew looking for empathy from her was a waste of time. Why did I bother complaining…' "Sorry…" I muttered.

She sighed again, each one compounding on the last. Every time I heard her make that noise it felt like a punch to the stomach. The first one didn't bother me, the second was more annoying than anything, but hearing it over and over felt like a weight pressing into my chest, slowly getting heavier.

I pulled the blanket tighter over myself, feeling it glide across my skin as my mind slowly seemed to recover from the fever, despite the chill telling me it was still present. "Uh… Mara…" I muttered, finally realizing why something felt off. "Where are my clothes?"

"Acid doesn't go very well with fabric. It's also easier to take care of you like this."

"B-but still…" I groaned.

"I don't understand you at all. How are you still so sensitive to these things… It's not like you aren't covered."

I felt my face twitch. "Well, it's not so much that… As much as… It… Being paired with the blindfold…" A dead silence hung in the air until I started to think I might have suddenly experienced another gap in time. "Mara?" My voice cracked as chills flooded through me.

Another sigh confirmed she was still there before the thin blanket covering me was suddenly stripped away and replaced with a heavy blob of fluff that felt warm and amazing… Making me relax again. "Is that better?"

'Is this fur? And it must have been warming by a fire.' The moment I had the thought I began to hear the crackling in my ear. 'So that means I'm in her room? Mine doesn't have a fireplace.' "Yes…" I squeaked out, gripping it tightly and rolling onto my side, unintentionally finding her hand as it rested on the bed. At first, it sent another chill down my spine… Too afraid to move I suddenly stiffened up.

She didn't move either though not until another long pause had passed. She finally cleared her throat. "I'll be going now. There are some people I need to talk to about the things you've been learning…"

Her words all seemed to blur like smoke in my head, even though I heard them clearly as my body started to succumb to the miserable state I was in, and as she pulled away I quickly grabbed her hand on instinct, afraid to be left alone… Not without my eyes, not to mention everything else.

"What is it?"

'What? I don't know…'

"What do you want?"

"Suzuki…" I let go and sighed, slowly pulling my hand back under the blanket. 'Yeah… That's what I want… My sister… Mom would always take care of me, but since I was small she would worry so much she wouldn't leave my side if I ever got sick, going so far as to share my bed… Of course, she always got sick right along with me in the end.' I slowly closed my eyes. "It's nothing… Sorry…"

Only after the door closed behind her did I allow myself to cry, and as my eyes burned and my head pounded from the fever it began to feel as though something unlocked inside of me. A fever dream played out before my eyes like smoke and mirrors reflecting the past.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"You cannot abandon tradition and bring shame to this family. The council would take away this land, and even our children would be taken away and raised by the Guardians. At best they would be forced to enlist at the lowest ranks, having to bear the shame that you fathered and raised a frail child." 'Is that Mara?'

"It's still too early to tell, there is still hope that she will grow stronger... At least, it's possible." I could hear the doubt in my father's voice as if he knew deep down how it would turn out.

'Are they talking about throwing me away? Why now of all times? No… This was… This happened already…'

"She's failed every test, She is underweight and small; her skin is easily agitated and she gets sick too much and too often. Even on a day like today with only a small chill in the air, she is probably sniffling."

A door flung open and my father stormed a room. He quickly wrapped me up in a cloak and held me tightly. 'Hold on… That's me… As an infant? Wait, was my hair really red? So… Is it just brownish because of all the mud… I feel really gross all the sudden…'

"See" She scolded him further, maintaining a proud stance. "She is too weak."

"She can grow stronger." He said slowly, I could see worry cover his face though as the image distorted and parts of it blackened.

She walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "This is what must be done. We have to leave her in the past and forget about her, she should be left to the elements."

'So that's how it happened… That's right…'

"You are my wife Mara... And while I have let you do as you wish in raising the other children without question, I will not let you murder an innocent child, much less my own flesh and blood."

The black fog cleared up and everything came into complete focus as if I really was there. Standing right there beside them. I could see my tiny self, silver eyes and soft red hair that flowed like little strands of silk, instead of being frizzy or matted, covered in mud and dirt.

"She is my daughter too, but-" Time stopped and my eyes leaped to her as she froze in place. 'She actually did claim me as her own… She said it… The girl that once went a whole week without saying my name… How could I forget something like that?'

My chest tightened and I gripped at my heart, unable to stop the pain from shooting through my blood as a wave of every emotion came and quickly fizzled back out. 'I guess… That's just the kind of person she is…'

Time slowly began rolling forward again. "No!'' My father's voice was stern and blunt as if he were giving an order. I watched as my tiny hands tightened and he carefully wrapped his other arm around me as well. "She is no longer your daughter, you rescinded that right when you considered leaving her to die. This child is now solely my responsibility and I will raise her myself if I must."

In that moment whatever flicker of pity or sadness that she had vanished. "Even if what you're saying is true Keigan… The elders won't see it like that, neither will the guardians or even the commoners."

"I am well aware of what might happen, but there must be a way. Even when what is right seems to be the worst option, it is up to me to charge forward at full speed. That is what it means to be a father, no… to be a man."

Mara looked down and to the side, submitting to him and lightly gripping his sleeve, looking over his arm at my small, very concerned face "You're being stubborn…" She muttered "Bloody hero…" she let out the same sigh I had heard too many times to count as she grabbed a handful of her own hair.

"Whatever happens, we will face it together… But to kill our own daughter… You could never live with yourself… No matter how we did it."

"I… Know but…"

She timidly grabbed his sleeve, showing a side she must have grown out of over the last decade as she leaned against his shoulder and closed her eyes.

'It was such a warm moment… It was the first… And maybe the only time in this life, that I felt like I was a part of a family… A Crazy and psychotic family maybe… But still…' I closed my eyes and turned around, feeling everything rush past me as I fell even further back in time, deeper into my mind to the vivid memories I bloched out, only able to recount the events like text from a page.

As I opened my eyes again they slowly looked over to Mara. She was standing over me with a knife to my neck. We had ridden out into the forest through the snow. I was at peace with whatever was going to happen, so I lay in wait, preparing myself for a second untimely end.

It was at that moment that our eyes finally met for the first time. I wasn't afraid of a second death, and some part of me sensed that she could see that. Her eyes reflected the same. A fearless, heartless gaze, the kind of gaze, I imagined, she wore to battle.

She slowly applied pressure until I felt the sting from the cold steel cutting into me, but before she finished the ground began to shake.

From out of my small field of view my father flew through the air and tackled her to the ground, both of them rolling through the snow. I heard yelling before a long pause hung in the air. All the while I simply stayed quiet, with nothing to do but watch the snowfall. I still remember the melancholic beauty of the scene and the singular thought that slowly crossed my mind. 'So I'm going to live then…'

…

My eyes opened in a flash and they stung as light suddenly entered them, making them feel as though they were growing in size as I shot straight up in bed. My body suddenly felt cool and recovered… Well, from the fever…

'My eyes? So they healed?'

[Eye function at 89%]

'So they mostly healed…' I growled. Pulling the blanket up slightly higher I looked at my splinted ankle.

[Lateral ankle ligament integrity 24%]

'Any more and I'd need surgery… Not that… THat's really an option here…' I sighed, bunching up the blanket against my chest. 'It's nice to not have the blindfold on… But if my clothes got melted then what am I supposed to wear?'

I lowered my head down into one of my palms and rubbed my eyes before resting there until I heard the door creak open. 'Oh, that's good timing. She should have–'

"Siya." My father's voice rang through my ears as if I had just then recovered from someone firing a pistol next to my face.

I nervously looked up. "Father!" I chirped, tightening the grip on my blanket. "H-hi, there…" 'Wow… I haven't felt this awkward in a long time…'

"You're so pale…" he paused, trying to find his next words. "Are you tired at all, stomach pain, headaches?"

"I'm fine!..." I blurted out, giving a response purely out of habit, without enough time to actually think about it. It was so sudden that I began to hiccup. "Sorry, I– didn't mean to yell." My voice went from too loud, to so quiet a part of me wondered if he could even hear as I felt blood rush to my face.

His massive hand felt electric, in a painful way as he rested it on my shoulder, but I was able to at least partially relax as he helped me slowly lay back down and tucked me in.

Still, my heart raced. I couldn't read his expression without the use of my eyes. 'Will he be mad because I was reckless? Or maybe proud that I killed a monster…' I bit my bottom lip trying to hide how nervous he was making me. "Did you need something? Or a-are you saying goodbye again…" I muttered. 'Maybe he just wanted to see me? No… He's never done anything like that before…'

"Don't you worry, I won't be leaving for a while this time, as for you, are you sure you're alright? You don't look so good."

"um…" 'He should know I'm in pretty bad condition. What does he want me to say? Oh, I'll just give a report, the way I do to Mara when she wants to assess how training is going… I still don't know how she can tell when I'm lying…' I softly closed my eyes for a moment. "

"My hands and feet sting… My ankle still hurts when I move it, but I doubt it's broken. My stomach hurts a little as well, but I think I just need to eat something, doing that is hard though, because of the aforementioned stomach pain. My eyes feel like they are a bit worse. My skin burns all over my body from the acid, but only a little. I think–"

"Ok, that's enough…" He let out a soft sigh and mumbled my name as he gently moved his rough and calloused hand across my cheek. I couldn't help but lean on it. It felt like sun-warmed concrete on a brisk day. It was so hard and calloused, but somehow it still felt like the softest hand in the world. "Is it ok if I hug you? It won't hurt will it?"

I suddenly flinched away, letting out a hiccup as my eyes widened.

He scratched his head. "I guess that's a no then." He said softly. "You really don't take after Mara at all."

I tried to growl but just let out another hiccup, only becoming more embarrassed until I hid my face under the blanket.

"Come now." He cleared his throat. "No time for that. We need to get you up and about. There are ways yet to make you strong."

He grabbed my hands, sending a chill down my whole body. "Open your mouth."

'What?' After squinting for a moment I hiccuped again and did as he asked.

He placed a knuckle in between my teeth and suddenly an intense heat burned through me as the injuries across my body began to heal. My blood shot through my veins like fire and my heart began to pound as my breath got caught in my lungs. Everything tensed, but not nearly enough for me to need to bite on something… Though, that could have just been how weak I was at the time. I didn't even have the energy to speak. It was like I was paralyzed with fatigue. 'Magic? But… After becoming a noble… He vowed to never use it again right? Or he would have had to do something like that sense it's kind of forbidden among the noble class…'

"I'm sorry Siya… But things are going to be different now, and you might not understand everything that's going to happen… But you will become stronger…"

'I will…' Mara had said the same thing. 'I will… Or I'll die right?'

"You have such beautiful eyes… Goodnight."

'Well… If nothing else my hiccups are gone…' Before I even had the thought of resting my body began to fall asleep and I started drifting off to another place.

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