A Needy Healing

Shishak walked down the hall. He had no idea how to proceed with the woman he left sedated on his bed. He shook his head trying to clear his head. Why he thought marriage needed to be the next step with her, he didn't know. All he knew was he needed something to anchor her so she would stay. Keep her close and hope she could answer his unspoken questions.

"Long night, Shishak?" Tril asked.

"Oh. Hi, everyone," Shishak replied.

The three people he called friends were standing in his front room. Tril was a tall, lanky, brown headed tattoo artist. He started following Shishak around several years ago because of the peculiar tattoo on his left shoulder. Shishak had been unable to tell Tril what it meant, but now he could. Thanks to the woman in his bedroom. Naj stood on Tril's right. He had a darker toned skin, well built. Shishak had given him a hand up when he needed it most. He hung around after that. The third was Arei. She had fair skin, long blonde hair, and sky blue eyes. She had been a servant in the home of an abusive rich man.

"A needy healing," Shishak explained, combing his fingers through his messy hair.

"Tril said you found a girl to marry," Naj said.

"Yeah."

"About time, village boy. You've been digging through the city trash cans for too long."

"Is she here?" Arei asked.

"She is," Shishak replied.

"Where is she?" Naj asked.

"I left her…."

A loud crash came from the kitchen and Arei ran. She found a short red haired woman, in tight black clothes, kneeling on the floor and several glass plate shards on the floor next to her. Her left shoulder was exposed, revealing a tattoo similar to the one on Shishak's left shoulder. The only thing that differed were the flowers. She shook as she wept. Shishak, Tril, and Naj entered the room when Arei touched the woman's shoulder. The woman stopped crying and started to stand.

"No, don't move," Arei said, trying to keep her down. "Are you alright?"

She smacked Arei's hand away, revealing a Red Poppy on the back of her right hand. She stood to grab the broom. Arei shifted as if to stop her, but Shishak grabbed Arei's arm.

"Leave her be, Arei. She's angry. Her glove would not be off otherwise."

"Glove?" Arei asked.

"Melior Vitae often wears a glove to cover the Red Poppy on her hand," Shishak clarified.

"It's just a tattoo, isn't it?" Tril asked.

"No, it's a curse."

"Like it matters," Melior Vitae growled. "You are set on tormenting me."

"Heal you, Melior Vitae."

"Then let me please you."

"No."

"Fine. Then perhaps your guests would…"

"Absolutely not!"

She glared at Shishak. "You do not own me!"

Shishak opened his mouth, but Naj spoke first. "Melior Vitae, how old are you?"

She looked away and swept up the broken glass. "Not yet seventeen."

"How long have you been with Shishak?"

"Too long." The broken glass was thrown away then she attacked the next cupboard.

Shishak's fingertips brushed her exposed shoulder and she spun around. "Stop trying to revive her. She's dead!" Then she ran from the room.

"Melior Vitae, stop!" Shishak turned to follow, but Tril stopped him.

"Give her time to cool down," he said. "Is she the one you mentioned to me?"

"Yes, Tril. Marrying her may be the only way I can heal her."

"But is she someone you want to spend the rest of your life with?" Naj asked.

"If I can heal her soul, the rest will be easy."

Tril nodded.

Shishak, Tril, Naj, and Arei entered the sitting room late afternoon. Melior Vitae was meticulously dusting the shelves. The glove Shishak had mentioned was on her right hand. Naj studied the glove with moderate curiosity. It was black like her clothes. But on the back of each of the fingers was a spring. Why did her glove have springs? Was it strictly a design? Or did the springs have a function?

"Would you like to join us, Melior Vitae?" Tril asked.

Wordlessly, she set the duster down and sat in one of the big arm chairs. She pulled her knees to her chin and wrapped her arms around her legs. Tril sat in a chair behind her, but she paid little attention save to stare at Shishak. She was only vaguely aware of the touch of needles and fingers as an Iris was added to her village tattoo. It wasn't until Tril spread something cold over her shoulder that she turned and saw the needles and ink.

"What have you done?" she asked.

"Added Shishak's flower. Guess that means you're his now."

Melior Vitae scoffed. "Means nothing. City men don't have flowers."

"Melior Vitae," Naj said. "Shishak isn't from the city."

Her expression changed several times before she turned and stared at the far wall. It wasn't possible. He was nothing like the men of her village.

"Which flower?" she asked.

"The Iris," Shishak replied.

"The shaman line," she said more to herself. Her eyes widened a little as she continued to stare away.

Naj laughed. "Shaman? Girl, Shishak isn't a shaman. He's just a normal guy who can extend a much needed hand."

"Plagued by dreams; by tasks that seem impossible," she continued as if she hadn't heard him. Yet the strength comes not through the Iris, but through the delicate Cherry Blossom." Then Melior Vitae stood and left the room.

Shishak stared at her as she left. He knew that Melior Vitae had never seen his tattoo, but she talked about it as if she understood who and what he was supposed to be. She knew more about his family than he did. He had been abandoned as a child and cursed a few years ago to hear wounded souls scream. And even though Melior Vitae was not yet seventeen, she exuded a wisdom close to that of older women.

Tril was thinking about the different flowers he had seen on Shishak's and Melior Vitae's shoulders. Shishak had the Iris and Cherry Blossom. Melior Vitae had a Bluebell and Violet. If the Iris was a symbol for the shaman line, the Cherry Blossom a symbol for strength then what meaning did the Bluebell and Violet have? Before they had entered the sitting room, Tril had added the Bluebell flower between the Iris and Cherry Blossom on Shishak's shoulder.

"Shishak," Arei said. "Has Melior Vitae eaten at all today?"

"Most likely no," he replied. "She only eats when called from her cleaning."

"Then why don't you feed her?"

"I…"

Arei had already stood and was heading for the door. "You just going to sit there, or do you want to eat too?"

Tril, Naj, and Shishak followed her to the kitchen. Melior Vitae was already there, staring at several ingredients as if not sure what to do with them. Arei touched her arm and she moved. Melior Vitae mixed the ingredients in a pan then stopped. She would need a fire to finish it. Arei moved the pan and set it on one of the black circles on the counter-top, then turned one of the nobs on the wall.

"I can finish it, Melior Vitae. You can sit down."

She shook her head then opened one of the lower cupboards she hadn't cleaned yet.

"Melior Vitae, sit down," Shishak said.

Melior Vitae hesitated a moment before she closed the cupboard door and sat where she knelt on the floor.

"I meant in a chair."

She remained on the floor. The itching was getting worse. Her soul was crying as the pain increased, yet her body remained relatively still. She pulled off her glove and placed it against her cheek.

"Melior Vitae don't." Shishak pulled her hand away.

Arei turned from the pan she was stirring so the food wouldn't burn.

"My curse doesn't affect me as it does others, Shishak." Her right hand turned as if to reach for his face, but he resisted her movements.

"Why are you doing this?"

"You know why."

Shishak pressed his hand against her tattooed shoulder before he slid it down her spine. His friends knew that touch well because he had done it with each of them at least once. Shishak moved closer to her and whispered in her ear.

"What do you need?"

"You're love."

'An apothecary.'

"Why an apothecary?"

"Are you deaf?" she asked, trying to pull away from him.

Shishak kept his hold and ran his hand down her spine again. "Melior Vitae?"

"She's burning the food."

"Arei, you're burning the food," he said.

"But it's still raw," she protested.

"Please, just…"

"Okay." Arei moved the pan off the burner.

Melior Vitae's cursed hand slipped from Shishak's grip and she put her glove back on. Shishak let her stand and she added a few more ingredients to the pan before setting it back on the burner.

"It needs to be light brown." Then she left the kitchen.

"Don't you want to eat?" Arei called.

"Food won't satisfy my need."