Enid held up the Atlantean table and began to scan the various herbs and other things Halva had stashed in her storehouse of curatives. She found some things, but she still required something to attack the fungus directly. She tapped a few more times and raised an eyebrow when she saw something.

“That’s interesting.”

Enid heard Halva speak behind her and silently cursed her lack of super senses during the day.

“What does that fancy tool of the gods tell you?”

“That you don’t have anything that can cure her, but you had something. What was in this jar?”

“Bat dung.”

“I need more of it, but it needs to come from wherever you got it before, exactly from where it came before.”

“I collect it in the summers, the cave it is in is not accessible with the ice and snow.”

“Please show me.”

Halva pointed to a spot in the shadow of the cliff, she could see a thin path etched into the rock face. It did look treacherous, but she wouldn’t need to use the path she just needed to fly up there at night.

“Thank you.”

“You’re not going to try and climb that?”

“No, why would I? I can fly.”

Halva kept her face straight and stoic as she always did.

“Halva why do you dislike me?”

“I don’t trust you, you come in here, claiming to be able to cure my niece, share a bed with my brother who barely knows you and seems to trust you, you are a child, a needy child and I don’t trust you or your ‘daughter’ she looks older than you.”

Enid quirked an eyebrow at her. Halva didn’t hold back. Enid kind of liked her.

“I can’t make you trust me”

That was kind of a lie she could totally make her trust her, make her think Enid was the best thing since sliced bread if it were nighttime but Enid preferred not to use her powers to influence minds unless she had very tight deadline and it was life or death, neither of which described her current situation.

“I hope you will come to see that I have no ill intent and wish only to help earn my keep while I am here.”

“Is that why my brother is grinning like an idiot? Do you pay for your stay with sex?”

“If I did that would be my business. But no, he asked, I said yes, a woman doesn’t need a better reason then needing the touch of a man.”

Halva glared at her.

“Look Halva, you can be a bitter old maid if you want, there are more men than women here, so it has to be by choice. I am not you; I have had husbands and many children. I have had wives. I do this because I desire it not because I feel like I owe him or any man. If you desire company, then take it like a Norsewoman should. Or if you prefer, men are easy, spread your legs they will take the bait.”

Halva looked like she was going to slap Enid but was resisting.

“You are a slut.”

“And I enjoy every moment of it. So, are you jealous because I am comfortable with my desires, or because I’m fucking your brother and he is not fucking you? Or is it that I’ve been with your brother and not you?”

Enid waved her hand dismissively and began looking through the herbs again this time for what she needed to create a portal. Halva punched her in the back of the head. Which hurt Enid was not exactly invulnerable in the daylight. Enid dropped her tablet, it was fine, it wasn’t made like a cheap mortal device. She rubbed the back of her head and Halva lunged at her again. This time catching Enid square in the side of her face. Splitting her lip and causing her nose to bleed. Enid was smaller and weaker in the daylight, but she was a skilled combatant, which Halva was not. So, when Halva swung wild again Enid twisted her arm and used the momentum to slam her into the ground. She pined her with a knee in her spine. And twisted the arm a bit more. Any more pressure she would snap it like a twig.

“That hit a nerve I guess.”

Halva struggled Enid felt the woman’s shoulder starting to pull out of its socket.

“Don’t, you’ll dislocate your shoulder.”

Halva’s were starting to grow moist from the pain.

“You aren’t my enemy; I would love to be your friend. And if you struggle any more, you’re going to break your arm and dislocate your shoulder. So, stop moving.”

Halva stopped moving but Enid could feel her shaking involuntarily from the pain of the hold Enid had her in. Enid released her arm and Halva scrambled away and leaned on the wall in the corner holding her arm looking up at Enid.

“You look so small.”

Enid wiped the blood off her mouth and away from her nose with the hem of her dress, and picked up her tablet and began scanning the room again, passing it over Halva to see if she did any actual damage to the woman. She had strained her muscles and then she saw her wrist. She’d fractured it. Enid put the tablet away and kneeled beside her. The shadows in the corner meant that no sun reached them directly. Enid went to take Halva’s arm Halva snatched it away and made a squeak as the pain shot through her.

“It is fractured, let me heal it please.”

Halva looked frightened but offered it up. Enid took it and started to stroke the skin gently and she began chanting. Halva’s eyes lost the cloud of pain that had filled them, and Enid grimaced as she took on the pain, it was brief as her body healed itself. Halva watched Enid’s face intently as the wound on her cheek and lip rapidly vanished. Enid could feel Halva’s pulse quickening at her touch and the woman was staring at her chest, she started to gain an inkling at what was going on here. Enid released the woman’s arm. And picked up her tablet and began to scan the rest of her storehouse goods. Halva sat there rubbing her wrist and looking up at Enid. Enid started looking through the contents of the storehouse that the tablet had listed while she read, she broke the silence.

“You’re allowed to prefer women, you know.”

“How…”

“It doesn’t matter. I slept with your brother because he asked, I would have done the same with you had you asked. I’ve been with a woman before; I married her and spent a lifetime with her. If that is what you like it’s what you like, if it isn’t, it isn’t.”

“You were trying to provoke me.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because if I had not you would have been there, glaring at me for my entire time Hazel and I were here. Provoking you told me what your dislike stemmed from.”

Halva played with her dress. She would glance to Enid every so often as Enid went through the store house item by item one more time. She was beginning to think the search was fruitless. She would need to raid a church. Enid was fairly sure all the things she needed were used in their rites, they’re all referenced in Jesus’s birth in the bible. Not that there were three wisemen, just a creepy looking Mariana, an annoyed Enid and several dead soldiers. His birth hadn’t even been easy took Enid and Mariana to get him out. She waved away the memory and threw up her hands and put the tablet away. Enid’s look of disappointment was apparent on her face. Halva continued to watch her. Enid offered her hand. Halva took it and Enid helped her up.

“You did not find what you were looking for, is my niece doomed?”

“Oh, no I’ll fly up to the cave and get what I need. I was looking for something else to try and get home with, but I think I’ll be stuck until next raiding season, I think I need access to a Christian church. I will confirm with the priest once I’m done with your niece.”

“You will be here that long?”

“It would seem I have no other choice. My daughter cannot fly, the mountains are impassable on foot and your boats are on land because the water freezes it would appear we are stuck here together.”

“My brother would be upset if he knew I struck you.”

“You struck me? When? I don’t recall us fighting.”

Halva started to speak and motion towards the middle of the storeroom then she closed her mouth and smiled at Enid.

“I do not seek your brother’s hand in marriage or to attach myself to his power. I am simply taking comfort with him. My husband died many seasons ago and my wife before that. It has been a long time.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Did your village not outcast you for it?”

“No, they celebrated our wedding, my wife and I married our husband. A man can have more than one wife and they share a roof and a bed.”

Halva looked at Enid.

“So, you…oh, you… are brilliant.”

Enid sighed again.

“I am sorry I hurt you, I did not mean to, I should have shown better control.”

“It feels like it never happened, and my breath no longer catches in my chest.”

Enid pulled her tablet out and put it up to look at Halva.

“It is in your chest as well.”

“I am going to need a lot more bat shit.”

“Why do you need it?”

“There is something in it that can kill the fungus if you breathe it in, you will be coughing up guck for a few days but once the fungus is gone the other will go away too because it eats the fungus. Does Frida come with you to the cave?”

“Her and her mother often would make the climb to look over the sea.”

“Did she go inside? Does she go inside?”

“Yes, she does often, more so now that her mother is gone.”

“Then the source is not the long house. It is the cave, of course, where would something that eats the fungus live. Silly. I was taught better than that.”

Enid shook her head. She had jumped to a conclusion, something they told her never to do in medical school, test, prove, treat.

“I will go gather a supply from the cave as soon as I can. Does anyone else go up there?”

“I don’t think so.”

“You’ll be fine in a couple of days, your niece though, she has a much harder road ahead of her she is going to have to breathe it in and eat it and she is going to wish the fungus had killed her. She will be in pain, and probably very sick.”

“Is there no other way?”

“Not here, if I were home…she would be fine in a few days and would barely notice she had been sick, though she would still be coughing it up.”

“You are a shield maiden, a warrior, how do you know the ways of a wise woman?”

“My mother taught me them as a mortal child and I studied the ways of cunning later, after I became what I am.”

“Are you as talented at healing as you are at battle?”

“I wish I could heal as well as I killed, but I have been killing for a lot longer than I have been healing.”

“How did you?”

She held up her wrist.

“I transferred my lifeforce to you. I suffered as you suffered, but my body heals very fast. So, a broken bone to you is deadly, to me it is a few seconds of waiting for my body to fix itself.”

“Can you use your art to heal without hurting yourself?”

“No, there must always be balance. If I heal, then someone has to be hurt, it is best it is me. Nature hates a void. Something always has to come from something. I can control lightening, but I need a storm. Do you understand?”

Halva nodded.

“Can you tell me of the Christian God?”

Enid sighed.

“I can, why you care, is beyond me. What would you like to know?”

The pair walked out of the storehouse speaking as if they were old friends. Halva’s hand even graced Enid’s back gently.

*****

Enid stepped into the cave. Her vampiric vision could see with no problems. A horde of bats slept above her unaware of the predator in their midst. She slipped the tablet out of her pack and began to scan the cave she found the offending fungus the cave was covered in it. It seemed to feed off the bat leavings, and in turn the bacteria she sought fed off of it. She found several colonies of the bacteria and she began to collect it into sandwich bags she’d left in her pack from a time long forgotten. She gathered enough to treat Frida and Helva and she lept off the cliff and let herself fall until she was almost at the ground and she landed with a solid thud. She kept walking onwards as if it was all normal for her, the men who watched as she had lept into the air were still there and were speechless as she passed. One might think she was showing off, but she was just conserving blood she would need to heal the damage when she healed Frida. She walked past the last of the men which included Halvd. He turned and followed her inside.

“What does it feel like to fly?”

“Like walking.”

He looked disappointed, but it did compared to flying in a jet with afterburners.

“Did you get what you needed?”

“Yes.”

Enid stopped and spun to face him.

“She will suffer a great deal, but we cannot stop, if we do the fungus could figure out how to win the fight with the enemy, I’m sending to fight it. I will stay with her until it is done. You must not interfere.”

*****

Enid wiped Frida’s head with a cool cloth. She had been writhing in agony and screaming off and on for four days. She was quiet now and her body was resting. How many times she had begged Enid to stop in a raspy voice Enid could not count, but she was speaking. She was so delirious she did not realize she was capable. It had given Enid hope that the tablet had not steered her wrong. She wiped her forehead again. Enid was surprised when Frida’s green eyes opened again. She moved her lips to say something but then coughed up a glomp of mucus she coughed for several minutes they wracked her fail little body. Enid turned her head to the side to help her clear it from her mouth. Frida clutched her hand tightly; She had done so frequently through her ordeal. Killer cure, that is what this would have been called. It was unethical and experimental, but it was the girls only chance in this time and place. The second and third nights had been worse. Frida was sleeping more steadily today. The coughing fit had drawn Hazel and Halvd to the doorway. Enid gave them gentle look then went back to cooling Frida’s face.

“Surely it almost over.”

Enid shook her head.

“Tonight, will be the worst. She is seeing things and keeps calling me mother. The fever should break by tomorrow and she should be wakeful the day after.”

She heard a scuffle in the longhouse, and she motioned with her chin for Hazel who nodded and left the room. Halvd watched his daughter as she looked at Enid and spoke again.

“Mother, the snow was shining on the mountains today like a second sun.”

“It is my dear beautiful girl. Like your hair in the sun. Sleep child. I will be here when you wake.”

Enid held Frida’s hand and met her gaze using her metal control willed the word sleep to have deeper meaning. Frida closed her eyes and drifted off into her fever dream haunted sleep.

“She is speaking, it is nonsense, but it means it is working. It is her heart and lungs that we need to cleanse still. The heart will take the longest. The lungs are almost clear, she is already expelling it. Halvd it is working.”

He still looked pained.

“Must she suffer?”

“It is the only way to cure the heart, her body is trying to fight the fungus and the medicine at the same time. It is why her fever is so high. One more injection into her heart of the medicine and she will have enough in her to fight it. Then I give her the medicine to kill the weapon I used, and she will start to get better almost immediately.”

Hazel had a man with a shaved head by the scruff of the neck and was dragging him with her. She threw him to the ground.

“This simpering thing is speaking in gibberish Latin and is demanding entrance.”

She kicked him. Enid glanced at him and listened to his words.

“Our father who art…”

“Its not gibberish he’s praying to God.”

She spoke in Latin.

“Your prayers for the dying aren’t wanted here priest. She will live.”

He blinked at her and spoke.

“You understand the holy language of God?”

“Of course, I do I was born before your religion began. It was our language first.”

He crossed himself.

“Why do you torture the girl heathen?”

“Why do you care, you’re a slave here.”

“She has been kind to me.”

“I am not torturing her, I am curing her. You should worry about yourself, you’re useless to the king if you will not let him know you understand his language, he is likely to toss you out to feed the crows. Pray if you must but pray that my cure is quick so her suffering will be lessened. Or perhaps yourself for I see with my sight you are not long for this world.”

He crossed himself.

“What manner of creature are you?”

“I am God’s avenging angel. Or so I was told before he sent me to die. But right now, I’m this girl’s only hope.”

“You speak blasphemy.”

“No, this is blasphemy: God can go fuck himself. You may tell him in your prayers I said so. Now leave, the girl needs rest and I need you out of my sight.”

Enid looked at Halvd. Her patience had long worn out. Frida’s suffering had worn on her. As had the suffering of many children before her.

“May my daughter toss this back in its shack?”

“She may.”

“Hazel, make sure he understands he should stay in the slave shack.”

*****

It was mid-morning on the seventh day, Enid had sat beside Frida with no sleep, no food, and no water for the entire time. Easy to do as a vampire when sunlight never struck her. She had administered a drip of antibiotics and saline. Frida had eaten and drank water when she had lucid periods throughout, Enid had refused. The drip was done, and Frida’s fever had broken a few hours ago. Soon she would be sitting up and talking. For now, she was sleeping soundly, color had returned to her face. She had slept for the last twelve hours. Enid leaned back against the wall and watched her. She had never had to do this with any of her children and for that she was glad. It was nerve wracking, but the greatest torture was watching the girl suffer and knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it. It reminded her of many long nights in the Children’s hospital. She had tied the girl’s hair back with her red marriage ribbon. She had been pulling it out in her delerium. She heard motion behind her, and she glanced back it was Halvd.

“You never once left her side. Not to sleep, eat, or drink. You promised me she would never be alone in her ordeal and you kept your word. She looks better, her cheeks are rosy.”

“The fever broke in the night. She will be weak for a few days, but she will be alright. She should wake soon. Would you like to stay with her?”

He nodded. Enid stood up and he hugged her tightly as they passed each other she leaned her tired head against his chest. She wasn’t physically tired, but her mind was at its breaking point. Even she could only witness so much suffering before she needed to get away from it. She had watched the girl suffer more than should be expected of any mortal.

“I need sleep now.”

“You don’t want to be here when she wakes up?”

“No, I’ll give that honor to her father.”

Enid put her hand on his cheek and left the room. She collapsed on her bed and let her mind wander while she stared at the ceiling. She wished she had her quasi-mortality back it would be nice to sleep once again, to shut off.

*****

Frida began to stir, and she looked around herself as she sat up. Her small lips grew into a broad smile when she saw her father. She had been talking for five days already, though she didn’t realize it so when she spoke she surprised herself.

“Father- ”

Her hands went to her mouth. He smiled.

“I can talk.”

“I dreamt mother was with me wiping my head and holding my hand. She was always here. I don’t remember… Did I dream her dying?”

“No, it was Enid, she never left your side. Never slept until she was sure you were going to be alright.”

“Where is she?”

“She is sleeping. She was awake for seven days.”

“I was…it’s been that long?”

“Yes, I was worried, but Enid never lost hope, she would tell me: ‘This is going to get better.’ And it did.”

“I can talk!”

She hugged him and he hugged her tightly.

*****

Enid lay on her side facing the wall. Wishing for a sleep that never came. She had her phone out and was watching a video of Maria, Mitena, Allison and Eyre playing a game that a ten-year-old girl should not have been playing. The four were laughing and giggling. Just the balm her soul needed at this moment. She heard movement behind her and rolled over to see Hazel staring at her. Eyre’s laughter still playing from her phone.

“Are you alright mother?”

“I’ll be fine Hazel I just need to rest.”

“Are you sure? I haven’t seen that look in your eyes since Koran passed from that disease you couldn’t cure. That was the last time you played that video too.”

Enid pressed the sleep button and slipped the phone into her pack.

“Hearing my daughters, sister and girlfriend laugh makes me feel better.”

Hazel leaned forward and tugged her mother into a tight bearhug. Which meant Enid was engulfed by furs and platinum blonde hair. Enid slowly wrapped her arms around Hazel as far as she could but her daughter was a big girl and Enid was tiny so she didn’t quite make it.

“I wish I could have taken your place mom.”

Enid shrugged and wiped away a few stray tears.

“It was my place to be.”

“You give so much to others. I am sorry I…made fun of you for taking comfort with Halvd.”

Enid laughed in spite of her tears.

“Is my daughter giving me permission to sleep around?”

Hazel blushed and released her mother rubbing the freshly shaved side of her head.

“Uh…”

Enid poked Hazel’s nose like she would when she was a child.

“You are so easy to tease my little silver wolf.”

“Little?”

Enid laughed. Hazel laughed as well putting her arm over her mother’s shoulders.

“I love you mom.”