She could see a faint pattern of red lines across the blackness before her and knew that there was light shining beyond her closed eyes. She lay on her back upon a soft mattress of some kind, hearing the noises of a town�s activities filtered through the walls of a room as she drifted up from sleep. Whistles and shouts from passers-by, a lurching trolley being pulled along by two braying donkeys, incomprehensible snatches of conversation, all muted before reaching her own ears. Wherever this was, it seemed to be safer than where she had come from. Though� she tightened her eyes in frustration now, unable to remember exactly where she had come from, only that it was worse than being here. Her stomach clenched, suddenly, as she realized what that meant. Frustration. Frustration! She was feeling frustration! She was feeling an emotion! She could sense her emotions again!
She sprang upright in bed, opening her eyes quickly, and a massive wave of nausea took her in mid-movement, cramping her abdomen and causing her to collapse into the bed once again. Her head spinning now, she looked up at the rotating image of the wooden, well-built ceiling of her room. The memories of her encounter with the Esper, the entire proceedings of the previous night, the large eye uncannily focusing on her in the darkness... all of it suddenly returned to her in full force and she cried out painfully at the recollection, pulling her knees up to her chest in an attempt to ease her pains.
She rolled over to her side and vomited noisily onto the floor, squeezing her eyes shut as wave after wave of nausea rolled through her, threatening to overwhelm her. Waiting it out, she slowly opened her eyes again, letting them become accustomed to their own motion once more as the room came into sharp focus... and then, she almost sat bolt upright in bed again in terror, if her stomach would have allowed her, as she felt a scream catch within her constricting throat and her heart hammering away within her chest.
Across the small bedroom that she now occupied, there sat a man upon a small wooden stool. He was staring at her with small, narrowed eyes, hidden behind bushy brows of blackest hair, and his massive frame of bulky muscle weighed heavily upon the stool, splaying the legs till she was sure it would break. He simply sat there, looking at her, statue-like in posture, and unblinking. Was he the one that brought her to this place?
Pushing herself to a sitting position very slowly now, she swung her legs off the edge of the bed but lost her balance at the last moment and began to fall straight towards the floor. Instead of the collision she was expecting, she found herself safely in the arms of the man who was, just an instant ago, on the other side of the room. She gasped slightly at the sight of him standing there just above her, his arms supporting the weight of her body easily. She marveled at the speed with which the large man could move and allowed him to place her back in bed, sitting upright with the pillows propped behind her aginst the head of the bed.
�Please, little girl, you have only just gotten over the shock. Rest yourself, and regain your energy, before you try to fly,� he said, smiling warmly down at her and then turned back to retrieve his stool and pull it towards the bed. �The effects of the slave crown will be upon you for some time.�
He pointed to a table across the room upon which sat the horrid object, an evil omen of grotesque proportions. The gleaming metal, studded with black-hearted jewelry in every corner, emitted such intense malevolence that the pallid girl had to hold her hand across her mouth to quell the scream that threatened to emerge yet again. She looked away from it, shutting her eyes tightly and, after a few moments, opened them again, gratified to see that the large, kind man had set the malicious garland into a drawer beneath the table, away from her view.
She looked across at him, opened her mouth to speak, and found that her voice was hoarse, and unintelligible. She had not spoken in so long that it was almost totally gone. Looking down at her bony, undernourished body, she also realized that she had not eaten in quite a long time. Her stomach grumbled noisily, almost in reflex at the mere thought, and a split second later, the scent of warm broth reached her nostrils as the kind old man who had saved her carried over a tray of food for her to eat.
�Eat. Enjoy your food now, young one... your troubles are past. It will take a while before you can even begin to understand what you went through or even remember much of anything. Here and now, though, you are safe.�
She felt the honesty with which he spoke and an intense relief flooded her. She hadn�t even realized how uptight she had been, since waking up. She began to eat her food, slowly at first, not wanting to reproduce her earlier nausea. The broth was the most delicious thing she could ever remember eating and the bread was soft, warm and just as tasty. She sat there having her meal, pondering on what it was that had happened in the cave, wondering what the Esper had meant with its words. How could she know what she was to do from here? She couldn�t even remember her own name. Her name. Her�
She looked up at the man before her, and she saw him step back in recoil from the intensity of her gaze.
�My name,� she said, �is Terra.�
�Amazing!� he proclaimed. �I have never seen such a rapid recovery of memory before. Some, unfortunately, don�t ever recall a thing even for years after having worn a slave crown.�
A loud series of knocking suddenly broke the silence of the cabin, emanating from the front door and a husky voice shouted after it.
�You in there! Open up this door right now! We have the mayor�s permission to search these premises for property of the Empire.�
Terra jumped off the bed in alarm, spilling the warm soup down the blanket that lay across her legs, not caring that it had been done. She grabbed the man�s arm, pleading evident in her eyes, and not knowing what to do. The large man grasped her small hands in his own, and looked down at her with certainty in his eyes, reassuring her and steeling her own nerves at the same time.
�They have come for you, little girl. Now you must leave this place. I will keep you safe from these men, and I will send someone to meet you. For now, go into the mountains behind my cabin, stay in the caves, and wait. Do you understand?�
Terra nodded her head with a surety she did not feel, and pulled her hands free of his strong, yet gentle, grasp.
�Show me where to go,� was all she said.
�Follow me,� he replied, and led her to a corner of the bedroom in which she stood now. He placed his hand upon a seemingly normal area of wall, and pressed in firmly. A small square, wooden panel depressed into the wall, and slid to the left, and the distant sound of gears turning greeted her an instant before another, larger wall panel at the rear of the room slid open, revealing a shadowy access way through the back of the cabin. She could feel a cold draft through the doorway, and knew that this led to the outside.
�Go along as fast as you can; there are no divisions along the way. Someone will be along to meet you, I promise. Be safe, little girl.� He raised his hands to her cheeks, and held her face in a warm embrace. She raised her own hands over his, and smiled up at him, knowing that she would be safe now, and making the decision there, standing in the doorway in his embrace, that she would never return to the life she was forced to live before, even if it meant her death.
�Thank you,� she said, �for everything.�
Another series of loud knocking erupted from the front door.
�Do not defy us! We will use force if necessary! Open the door and you will be allowed to go free!�
The man looked back at her now, urgency painted upon his brow.
�Go! You will be safe.�
�Please�� she suddenly begged, �please, tell me your name.�
He smiled at her, a smile that she would never forget.
�My name,� he told her, �is Arvis.�
She nodded at him, and then turned towards the passageway, already running away from the thundering knocking that had begun yet again. As she ran, she wondered to herself if she would ever live to see Arvis and his beautiful smile again.
