Day 99 - Recap - Part 13:
I struggled against the nurse again, and she promised me that tomorrow I could go free, and she used the needle once more and I knew blackness once more.
And such was the ninety-seventh day.
When I awoke again she was changing my bandages and I was allowed to go, but I had orders not to push myself too far.
Like that would ever happen.
Cai was waiting for me and walked me back to our quarters.
It seemed like they kicked some people out and replaced them, because now the cots were just us.
Stikle was in the back, presumably because so no one would trip over his animals. He was bruised and sleeping. In the next cot was Selim, sharpening his daggers, and then was my cot. Across from me was Caiyuo, behind him was Rumaha, and Ludo was at the end across from Stikle. Alyria, Marz, and Dasva were all in their own little secluded cluster.
There were a few empty cots. I guess we had room for expansion.
"Have I missed much?" I asked, sitting on my bed.
"Stikle's been playing with Behemoths, trying to patch them up and get them to trust him again. Not much else," Rum said.
"The Immortals have set up camp all around Qufim. As their leader, I suppose you should fill them in on the current situation," Cai said.
"If I knew what it was," I murmured. "Has Dasva filled you in on what happened?"
"That information is highly classified," Selim said, sounding very bored. "So naturally, we all know. You screamed a fair bit out of it in your sleep."
That sort of information greatly disturbed me.
"What else have I been screaming?" I asked.
No one answered at first.
"Sect, let's go for a walk," Cai said suddenly. He grabbed a box from under his cot and headed for the door.
Confused, I followed.
We did not say much until we were all the way out at the pond in the center of Qufim. We were alone.
He opened the box and pulled out a glass bottle that had an auburn liquor in it. He also grabbed two small glasses and filled them up, handing one to me.
"You've been screaming names in your sleep," he said dryly after a moment.
I sputtered after the first sip. I thought my throat was burning.
"What sort of names?" I wheezed, more from the liquor than the statement.
"Names of people that you've killed. People that you would have never known the names of. Friends of ours... family... We figure that if you scream their name, that's like verification that..."
"Altana be damned..." I muttered, and took another sip.
I closed my eyes and tried to force myself to relax.
"I think... I think I took in more than I can handle this time. I think that demon was really high up."
"He could be. He could have been a direct link to... whatever it is," Cai said.
I looked into my drink and swallowed the rest in one sip. Everything inside of me started to burn. Cai refilled the glass.
"I don't hear him inside me. I wonder what's going on in there," I said.
Cai shook his head, taking another sip.
"Do you have a family, Sect?" Cai asked.
It was a question out of nowhere.
"When I was little, I had one..." I said. It was a delicate subject. All the bitterness I had ever felt was suddenly back culminating inside of me. "My mother left us, and then my father left us. I was too young to remember much of it..."
"Altana... I never had a clue," Cai said. "Siblings?"
"An older sister. One day she went out to look for mom and dad..."
There were some things that I never spoke about. This topic was one of them.
"She never came back for me. I was six years old. Without a trace, they all just left me. I've been alone since then."
Cai looked very troubled.
So troubled that he started to slowly weep and began to drink very quickly.
"Last night, as you slept, you started screaming... You started begging for forgiveness..." he was trying to dodge it.
I felt the icy, still feeling hit me and he didn't need to say it.
"You were asking your parents to forgive you," he choked. "You said you killed them."
We were silent.
I spent my whole life wondering if I would ever see my parents again, only to find out that I had screamed their names in the list of people that I had killed.
I killed my parents.
I grabbed the bottle from him and drank it all down.
"I'm sorry I had to tell you," Cai said.
I could only shrug numbly.
"***happens."