NOVEL NEXT Vol 1.5 Those Who Tangle With the Witch of Despair pt 4
Eri sat back at the edge of her bed. A thick blanket had layered over her body and covered her entire body. She remained under the covers, shivering. Not from cold, but from what it was she had just experienced. To be truthful, she wasn't too scared of the feeling of death she had just come to taste. She was to die anyways. Rather, she feared the consequences of what her hand in this may cause.
Yes, she knew that from the moment she felt that energy, that the source of it all was going to be directed towards her. Anxiety rocked her entire body. For this was the first time she had felt something like this. Her ability usually told her everything that needed to be done, like an instinctual textbook of answers. She had lead a life as a pawn on a chessboard, led by an omniscient arbiter. No matter what she had to do, it would always lead her through the right way. She maneuvered out of every problem in life and even ascertained a position higher than she could ever dream possible-- all because of her divine gift.
Her ability gave her insight on the best course of action to do. It was as if, someone existed in her head that knew all the maladies that would ail her. So long as something will occur that may introduce an unfavorable outcome to her future, it would alert her of the best course of actions to prevent this. She wasn't certain how this ability worked. She only knew that whatever she does, so long as the voice does not appear, will produce a good outcome. If the voice appears, she need only listen to it to avoid a negative outcome.
However... there was one instance in which the voice had failed to guide her through something... a dead end. This was when she had become afflicted with the void sickness. A terrible disease- or rather, a curse. No-one knows the origins of said sickness. It doesn't quite work as simplistically as one would think. At some point in her life, she had come in contact with the void sickness. It was practically impossible to know what it was that caused her to become afflicted- for, void sickness manifests at uncertain timeframes after point of contact. One could become afflicted, and manifest the sickness immediately, or 10 years can pass after the moment of affliction. In fact, it is surmised that there have even been those who have lived all the way to the end of their lives before the sickness would manifest.
It was thanks to her powers inability to prevent this, that she now lays within this bed, lamenting life within this dark room. Of course, she couldn't even tell that it was dark anyways. Void sickness had robbed her of even lamenting that fact. The cruelty of the sickness is that you die before you are dead... slowly. First your vision goes, then your hearing, then your sense of taste, your sense of touch, your sense of smell... ultimately, even your speech goes. The time it takes for one to die can be anywhere from days to years. The symptoms can happen overnight, or they can slowly occur throughout the course of years. It had been 5 years since she began to experience the symptoms. Not a single day passes by where she wishes it would have been more rapid. What point is there to life, when you cannot feel a single thing, or see or even hear anymore?
As she remained hidden within her blanket, a voice had called out to her. It was within her own head of course. The voice only told her to lift remove the blanket... just as it so told her to cower for what is to come. As she hesitantly did this, Eri could feel nothing but fear. Even the voice hesitated in its instructions. She didn't' know how but even in her blindness, she could tell the being was standing before her.
"R-right here... Lord Resha."
Eri stared off into blankness, unsure of any details of what was unfolding before her. She resigned herself to just looking straight forward. Her white, lifeless pupils, clearly indicated her blindness.
Lusha stared at the young lady. "So... you've taken to showing me a corpse?"
Eri had remained so still, holding her breath in fear of an infraction, that it had appeared she had almost died.
Of course, Lusha only asked this in jest. Her eyes remained somehow fixed in the direction that Lusha had been facing.
"I a-assure you she's not dead, your highness. The illness has taken her eyes and robbed her of her hearing."
Lusha cocked her head slightly at this explanation. "Illness...?"
"--Yes... void sickness, your highness."
"Void...sickness..."
"I'm... not familiar with this term. Explain it to me?"
She spoke, taking steps into the hallow and empty room. It seemed that they had kept her hold readily empty, as there was never a need for fengshui in the case of someone who's blind. The empty room impeded little on her path and as she sat next to the woman, there was little change to her awareness. However, wonderfully, Lusha somehow found the woman's sight resting upon her.-- despite not possibly being able to see her.
This was a fact that Lusha was not blind to. "You perceive me don't you?"
She took the time to observe the woman up-close. She was as pale as a corpse and just as lifeless in reaction. Soft facial features were hardened by neutrality. Her angular cheek bones and kind face could not possibly win against the illness' imposition. Lusha now had the ability to observe the sickness up close. Her eyes knew not what they were staring at. Yet for some odd...reason, she was unknowingly staring directly at her. Her hair appeared to now be taking the same path carved for her eyes-- the path of vacancy. Her hair was a light blonde, so light it might as well have been white. Yet, one could tell that this was simply one instance of the process. Her hair was probably brown... but now, robbed of even her melanin and pigment.
She stopped the attendant from answering her previous question... she could now tell exactly what kind of sickness this was. This was a sickness that she dubbed payback sickness. The truth of it all was that she had died a long time ago.. and prevented her death by borrowing more.
She placed a hand on her head. "heh... thank goodness... if I had awoken any later, perhaps I may not be able to meet this opportunity. I can save you from your void sickness... but know this, girl, should you fail to uphold your end of the bargain, or fail to deliver on the promise you so have... then nothing but sadness and sorrow await you.:"
"Y-your highness, do you mean to say that there is a way to reverse this sickness?"
Lusha glared at the man. "Of course there is. This sickness... it is simply the result of her own action. I care not to explain it to you all. It would mean nothing. However, luckily this kind of death is one of very few within my healing capabilities.
Eri immediately looked up to the ceiling as if capable of hearing such a malicious thought. That was all it took for Lusha to surmise her ability. "I see... truly formidable..." A sense of delight filled her heart. Just as laughter escaped her lips, a voice so quiet manifested... so silent was it, that it was akin to that of a mute mouse attempting to speak in the middle of as stampede.
Lusha's eyes flickered to the woman who somehow mustered all of her courage and strength to put her last traces or vocalization to use. "...pl...ease...."
Lusha focused her efforts on hearing what it was she was going to request.
"P...elease... k..- lease... killl--- kill.... Kill me.. p..lease... kl...ki...lll me!!"
It was a desperate request.Eri didn't know why, but right here and right now, she felt she should defy the voice that attempted to overwhelm her mind. The voice got stronger in each tiny step towards defiance she took. Almost as if trying to subjugate her mind.
'LISTEN! SMILE! DON'T EVEN BREATHE OUT OF TURN. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TOWARDS HAPPINESS. LISTEN AND YOU WILL SURVIVE. LOOK THIS WAY, TURN YOUR NECK UPWARDS MANY DEGREES, STOP RIGHT AT THIS ANGLE. MOVE YOUR EYEBALLS TO A POSITION LOWER THAN YOUR LIGHT OF SIGHT! KEEP YOUR HEAD FACING THIS DIRECTION! DO NOT BREATHE UNTIL ... NOW. DO NOT SPEAK, IT IS NOT YET A TURN TO SPEAK. DO NOT SPEAK. STOP! DON'T BREATHE, STOP SPEAKING! APOLOGIZE! NO- CONTINUE AND STOP HALFWAY! DO NOT MOVE A SINGLE PIECE OF YOUR BODY. STOP. STOP. STOP. STOP BREATHING. STOP MOVING. CLOSE YOUR EYES."
Something about her actions repeatedly got on Lusha's nerves. Yet she decided to ignore all of the annoyance that she was feeling within. Lusha placed a hand upon the woman's head.
"No worries... I'll relieve you of your debt... in time."
An intense surge of energy came over Eri. She could feel a copious amount of strength replenishing within her body.
It felt as if her veins were going to overflow with mana. But just as it had reached maximum dilation, the energy surge stopped.
"Oh my... you're quite weak. Any more, and you'd diabolify."
It couldn't be... just now.. Eri's eyes widened. She had heard them. Very slightly... but no doubt... she had heard words. Being robbed of your senses, one can easily notice when the slightest synopsis had been received. At this tears began to flow from her eyes... It had been 2 years since she last felt a sensation.... Void sickness cannot possibly be reversed... it can't.. can it?
The voice had finally fallen silent. Within the darkness of a world she had been experiencing... there was finally just the slightest light she had felt. How can one feel relief over something so simple? She didn't know. But the tears wouldn't stop flowing.
Lusha embraced the woman in her arms.
"Thank your ability... for if you were anyone else, this amount of happiness would never have visited you."
This amount of happiness.... that was the best way to describe it. There was once a tale about the happiest people in the world. The last passage went like this "Because their pleasure was the greatest... so too was their pain." Lusha would be sure to apologize to her should such a pain come to fruition.