Legends of Amacia Heart of Darkness
Chapter 48: Phantom Pain

Far off in the Black Fortress, Selina felt the effects of Hanna’s wounds through their fused telepathic link. She lay on her cushions wrapped in the leather-restraining cocoon shivering as if a fever gripped her. Pain showed on her face as she slept fitfully. Sweat beaded on her head as she moaned softly, her face twisting in pain. Myra, Tasha, Jennifer, Lola, Sakura, Hitomi, and Trinity gathered around her as Myra held Selina’s hand and Tasha dabbed her brow with a cool, damp washcloth. “What’s wrong with her?” Lola asked.

Myra shook her head, saying, “I don’t know. She looks and acts like she’s ill. But it’s something I’ve never seen before and I don’t know how to deal with it.”

Tasha shook her head, saying, “This is something the Emperor has done to her. I’m sure of it. She’ll come out of it. She has to.”

“Maybe it has something to do with her connection to Hanna?” Sakura suggested as she sat at Selina’s head, stroking her hair softly. “Didn’t she say she had some kind of telepathy with her?”

“Yeah,” Jennifer answered. “She does have this mysterious connection to Hanna that existed before her mutation. But can she really feel Hanna’s pain?”

Just then, Selina moaned and stirred, slowly waking. “She’s waking up,” Hitomi announced.

Selina growled with a yawn and blinked her eyes as she felt the coolness of the rag on her forehead. Every nerve and fiber of her being felt the pains of Hanna’s wounds, but not to the point that the pain was unbearable, though it was intense. “Uhhh...I feel terrible,” she commented miserably. “I feel like I’m slowly dying.”

“What’s going on, sister?” Myra asked. “You have been asleep for almost a day. A strange fever seems to have taken you. I’ve never seen anything like it. Sakura suggested it may be linked to your connection with Hanna.”

Selina looked up at Myra and Tasha as she thought for a moment. Even thinking hurt her. “I’m not sure,” Selina replied as her head throbbed painfully with the rest of her body. A surge of fiery pain raced through her chest, causing Selina to clench her chest with her hands. “Ugh, my chest feels like it has been burned to a cinder.” At that point, it became clear to her what was going on: she was feeling and experiencing Hanna’s wounds like she did on the surface when Hannibal was being treated for the grenade fragments in his back.

“Sisters,” Selina moaned, almost wheezing. “Sakura is right. Most of what I’m feeling is phantom pain caused by my link with Hanna. I’m feeling everything she is. She’s in terrible torment because of her wounds. This burning sensation I feel on my chest is in the same place she was struck by Hades’ fireball. The fever is the infection that is ravaging her body.”

Selina’s eyes glazed slightly and she winced as a surge of pain raced through her chest again, causing her to clutch her chest. Once the surge subsided, she said, “There’s nothing physically wrong with me save the electrocution and beating I received from the Emperor and his guards. The pain I’m experiencing is pain of the mind, and it’s just as real and potent as physical pain. It hurts just as much and can be just as dangerous. Somehow, we’re sharing the injuries and fever. It’ll not subside from me until it subsides from Hanna. There’s nothing else that can be done except pray for her quick recovery.”

Tasha reached out sympathetically with the damp cloth to cool her brow, saying, “This is deep. I never knew that people could share such things like that. It’s truly a marvel.”

Selina grasped her hand as she reached out with the cloth and looked her dead in the eye, saying, “Yes. It can be a marvel, and in some cases, like now, it’s a curse. Every fiber of my being is on fire with this pain and fever plaguing Hanna. However, be of good cheer, sisters. I survived it before with the help of the Lord. He’ll make it possible for me to do it again. You can be sure of one thing, though. When this fever and pain lifts, you can be sure it won’t be long before she comes for us. That’s a promise. Ugh. Gosh it hurts like hell though.”

Myra couldn’t help but smile at her courage in the face of such obvious pain. “Is there anything we can do for you?” she asked Selina.

Selina sighed painfully, saying slowly, “Something to eat and drink would help. Something light, like soup maybe, and something to take the edge off this pain a bit too. This thing has kind of sapped my appetite.”

“I know precisely what you need,” Myra stated. “Lola, Trinity...go and fetch a bowl of the caromine soup and some of Kida’s special tea for Selina. With any good fortune, it’ll help to take the bite off the pain she’s feeling.” Lola and Trinity immediately went, procuring the requested items in a matter of minutes, returning with them and giving them to Selina.

Selina sat up with the assistance of Tasha and Myra and took the soup and tea. She slowly ate the soup and drank the tea. As she drank the tea, she commented, “The soup’s good, and the tea is strangely refreshing.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Myra said, pleased by Selina’s comments. “The soup and tea work well together. We have given the soup and tea to the other sisters when they come back here ravaged by the Emperor or his minions. The tea, in particular, is very helpful in getting you to relax and to help deaden the pain. Both the tea and caromine soup are recipes given to us by Nemesis for just such times like this.”

Selina continued to eat her soup and drink her tea. Within a few minutes, she had finished both and the combination of tea and soup had caused her to relax to the point that she was in a dazed, drowsy state. “My goodness that was excellent. I’m actually feeling pretty good right now,” Selina declared dreamily as she looked around at the women around her. “You know something; I don’t know how to say this, but I feel kind of weird, almost like I’m intoxicated.” She gazed intently at Myra as her mind slowly slipped deeper into the calming, intoxicating effects of the tea. “You know something else?” she added. “I have never told you how beautiful you girls are. You’re very beautiful for humans. That goes for the rest of you. You’re all beautiful humans.”

Myra blushed and said, “You shame us, sister. You’re the beautiful one. Many look at you as a goddess because of your beauty.”

Selina smiled in an almost drunken stupor, saying, “No, no, no. There’s no shame in what I say. It’s the truth. I see more than just your outer appearance. I see the spirit that is upon you too. It comes out in the eyes. Trust me when I say that you are all beautiful. I meant not to shame you, sisters.” She paused for a moment as the tea upset her equilibrium and she became dizzy. “Whoa!” she cried, “I don’t know what was in that tea, but I haven’t felt like this since Kaitia. What did you do, slip something in my drink?”

Myra and Tasha reached out and caught Selina as she was about to fall over. “No, sister,” Myra replied as they gently laid Selina down on her cushions and pillows. “The tea is designed to do just what you’re experiencing. It is supposed to get you to relax. Apparently, it’s worked on you much quicker than us because of the fact that you aren’t human, but from another planet. Apparently, your metabolism is much quicker than ours is. Usually, it takes a couple of hours for the tea to get the drinker to the state you’re in. But don’t worry. It’ll help you to sleep peacefully and hopefully without pain.”

Selina looked up into Myra’s face as Tasha pulled the blanket up to Selina’s chest. She had a look of someone who was about to fall dead asleep. “I used to drink on Kaitia to feel like this,” Selina murmured. “That’s before we were rescued.” She suddenly yawned loudly.

“Don’t fight it, sister,” Myra instructed, “Let the sleep come. Let the tea do its work.”

Selina reached out clumsily to Myra, who took her hand. “Thank you, sisters,” Selina purred dreamily. No sooner than she spoke, sleep overtook her.

Myra looked on her with strange wonder and kissed her hand before laying it at her side. “Sweet dreams, sister. Sweet dreams,” she whispered to Selina.