Restraint

"Shishak, are you just going to let her go?" Naj asked.

"I don't know what she needs yet."

"Maybe she'll talk to me," Arei said. "Will you finish cooking the food?"

"Sure," Shishak replied.

It wasn't long before Arei's scream came down the hall. Shishak, Naj and Tril ran down the hall to Melior Vitae's room.

Melior Vitae was bleeding, her soul screaming, yet a small content smile spread across her lips. Shishak checked to see where the blood was coming from. It was her vaginal opening, but from the scream of her soul, he knew it was self-inflicted.

"Melior Vitae," he said, taking her face in his hands. "I need you to tell me what you need."

"An apothecary."

"What from them?"

"A salve for pain."

"Naj, can you get an anodyne from the apothecary?"

"Right away, Shishak."

Tril had pulled Arei against his chest and let her cry. He watched Shishak with questioning eyes.

Shishak ran his hand several times down Melior Vitae's back. Her bloody left hand moved to his cheek. "The food is burning."

Tril took Arei and left the room.

"Why have you done this?" he asked softly.

"It itches and burns."

"We need to slow the bleeding."

"The salve will do that."

"No, it won't! The salve…" His rebuttle was stopped by a kiss.

"I've bled like this before, Shishak. It's nothing new."

"Noth…Melior Vitae, you have hurt yourself and for what?"

"Because you wouldn't love me."

'You're breaking through too fast.'

"We need to find a way to break your body's addiction to be constantly loved. But I don't know how to do that save not loving you."

"Am I still so undesirable to you?" she cried.

"You are desirable," he said, tucking a small strand of hair behind her ear. "But your soul needs to be healed and it cannot be healed until this addiction to constant intercourse is broken."

"You should have left me with John." Melior Vitae pushed him away, more blood escaping her body. Then she lay partway on her stomach.

Shishak covered the tattoo on her shoulder and lightly stroked her spine until Naj returned.

Naj left the salve on the bed then left to join Tril and Arei in the kitchen. Shishak reached for the salve, thinking Melior Vitae asleep, but she picked it up and rolled away from him. A large glob was removed from the container and inserted into her vaginal opening. Within a few minutes the bleeding stopped. Then she closed her eyes in sleep.

Shishak stayed a little while longer before he set the salve on the dresser, close to the bed. He returned to the kitchen and his friends. They were silent when he entered the room.

"How is she?" Naj asked after a moment.

"She's sleeping now," he said, wiping her blood from his cheek. "The bleeding has stopped as well."

"How can you want her, Shishak?" Tril asked. "She's more difficult than the last one."

"I want to heal her, just as I have been able to heal the three of you. Her wounds are deeply buried, so reaching her is difficult."

"Even if someone were that hurt," Arei said, "they'd have to be crazy to keep hurting themselves."

"Perhaps the pain is needed to slow the healing."

"That makes no sense, Shishak. How is making yourself bleed going to help heal you?"

"What would you do to protect your soul, Arei? Would you allow someone else try to heal you at the pace they felt best, knowing it may be more damaging than helpful? Or would you do what you could to keep the healing of benefit to you?"

"Is that what Melior Vitae is trying to do?" Tril asked. "Is she trying to slow your healing because it's too fast for her?"

"It's the only thing I can think of," he sighed.

"Makes sense," Naj said.

Their discussion moved to daily life before his friends retired for the night.

Shishak joined Melior Vitae in their room. The bed was still bloody from earlier, so he found a spare blanket and lay on the floor.

When he woke the next morning, Melior Vitae lay next to him wearing one of his longer shirts. Her right hand remained gloved, but he could see the poppy stem as it wound up her arm towards her shoulder. Shishak could feel her soul now that the wall had crumbled further. But wounds he hadn't been aware of at first were starting to appear. Every part of her soul cried out for death. It seemed hopeless to try and heal the wounds that had now been uncovered. He ran his fingers through her short red hair. It was beautiful, but her soul wept.

"My hair," she whimpered.

"It's beautiful, Melior Vitae."

"It's gone! It's all gone." She buried her face in her arms.

"How long was it?" he asked, gently.

"As long as I am tall."

"If you liked it, why did you cut it?"

"It wasn't me," she cried. "Scar and Snipper took it my first day in the city."

"Who are Scar and Snipper?"

"Scar is a whore, like me. Snipper is a hair dresser."

"You're not a whore anymore, Melior Vitae. You are my wife."

Melior Vitae cried and he pulled her a little closer to himself.

Some of the pain her soul was fading. He could feel death's presence as his arm brushed against hers, but it did not call to him as her right hand did. Shishak didn't stroke her spine this time, he just let her cry; let her release the stress that seemed to be the beginning of being able to heal her wounded soul. After half an hour, she body relaxed and he could hear her soul sigh in relief.

Melior Vitae inhaled deeply then moved to get up.

"Perhaps you should stay in bed today," Shishak said.

"I can't, Shishak. There is cleaning that needs to be done."

"It can wait today."

"No, it can't."

Melior Vitae got up and a little blood started trickling down her leg. She picked up the salve, formed a little ball and inserted it into her vagina before she went into the bathroom. She wasn't in there long and came back out in her black entertaining outfit. He needed to buy her new clothes.

She went into the kitchen and worked on the cupboards. Tril came in a little later and started making breakfast. He soon became aware of Melior Vitae's watchful gaze.

"Have you never seen a man cook?" he asked.

"I've never seen a cooking machine like this one," she replied.

"How long have you been in the city?"

"I don't recall."

"About seven months," Shishak said, joining them. He had heard of Death Goddess coming into town. He had to venture a guess that John hadn't had Melior Vitae in his employ long before he made her a whore.

"Seven months and you've never seen a stove?"

"Seen one. Didn't know what it was or how it worked because food was always brought in from elsewhere."

"Yet you know something about cooking."

She shrugged her shoulders and went back to cleaning the last cupboard. She was almost done when Tril had breakfast ready. Naj and Arei came in. Arei looked like she hadn't slept at all.

"Arei, are you okay?" Tril asked.

"Yeah, I just had a bad dream." She sat and Melior Vitae stood.

"Melior Vitae, what's wrong?" Shishak asked.

Her soul was screaming at her, but she looked confused.

"Melior Vitae?" Shishak placed a hand on her shoulder and she moved it to her spine and he let his hand run down her back.

Her muscles relaxed a little but she remained standing. Her screams were a little more coherent now as her head bowed slightly. Vitae pulled off her glove and left the room.

"Was it something I said?" Arei asked.

"I don't know," Shishak replied, confused about the command he heard from her soul. 'Kill it! Kill it before it hurts her!'

Arei stood to follow.

"Arei," Shishak said, getting her attention. "Give her a moment."

"Alright." She sat again and Naj filled plates with food.

Melior Vitae returned several minutes later, sat next to Shishak, and ate as if nothing had happened. Then she washed the dishes and put them away.

"Melior Vitae," Arei said. "I'm sorry if I have upset you."

"You have no reason to be sorry, Arei." She put the last dish away and left again.

Her soul had been crying when she returned to the kitchen, her soul's pain had increased again. What had she done to cause her soul to go from screaming commands to increased pain? Had she wounded herself again?

"Shishak," Naj said. "We should go out and do something; Melior Vitae, too."

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea yet."

"Why not?"

"Her body is still addicted to entertaining men; something I hope she'll overcome soon."

"How long has she been away from it?" Tril asked.

"Not yet a week."

"Then I'm impressed she hadn't tried to approach Naj or I."

"Some restraint has been put in place, but I don't know if it's one she's made or one I've created as I've started healing her."

"So test it out in public. See how she does around more people."

"I don't know."

"At least see how she does outside," Arei said. "She's been indoors too long."

"Maybe we could go out for a hike and a picnic."

"That's more like it," Naj said. "I'll go ask her."

Arei started gathering picnic stuff while Tril and Shishak planned a trail. Naj had been gone for quite a while before Shishak decided to check on him. Their bedroom door was open a little. Pushing it open, he found Naj lying face down on the floor and Melior Vitae asleep on the bed.