Chapter 2 - Part IX

With that, Anita withdrew a short, plain, yet ceremonial looking dagger from a sheath nestled in one of the many tight folds of her sleeves. Before Onion could take record of what was transpiring in front of her, the silent woman snatched Onion's wrist and with a quick flick of the Nü's arm, forced her palm open.

In empathy, Gregor reached out to the surprised woman, almost as if to touch and comfort Onion, though his hand never made it to its destination. "Relax," he uttered trying to put her at ease, "it will hurt a little. " Gregor's voice faded away into mere background noise in the whirl of violence Anita wrought on Onion. With a swift slice, the raven haired, blindfolded woman lacerated Onion's palm with the dagger before collecting the quickly pooling blood sprouting from the cut. For her efforts, the silent woman won a small vial, beaming with a ruby red sheen.

Finished, Anita turned to Cedric and produced another vial, drawn from the pale man. Belatedly, Cedric yelped in surprise, but the deed had already been done by the time he truly felt the sting.

From his cloth utility belt, Davin revealed two more vials, already swirling with a dark red life force. He tossed one of them to his partner and she exchanged one of her vials with the blindfolded man. Each took into their left hand a vial of blood from Cedric or Onion, and into their right hand they collected a vial from the unknown source. Tightly holding each vial in each hand, the two approached the hearth and held their hands close to the flame.

Each began to utter a string of fluid words that sounded nothing like Eirdren, and twice as foreign.

Suddenly, the two plunged their hands into the heart of the flames and with only the sheer strength of their palms, crushed the vials. The shards of glass tore open their bare skin and blood seeped through their fingers and sizzled as it fell upon the glowing coals; a mixing of three bloods, forever erased by the searing heat.

The mingled blood boiled before it ever hit the flame, and Onion became increasingly aware of her own blood, pumping life through her being, as it too began to boil under her skin in her toes. A few feet away, Cedric panicked and his hands pawed at his body. Soon, he was grabbing at his face, frantically trying to feel the bubbles surface on his skin. Mercifully, he quickly collapsed, but Gregor, who had strategically placed himself between Onion and the Archne chef, rushed to support his companion and gently bring him to the floor.

Simultaneously, Davin too lost consciousness and collapsed into the arms of Vaughn, who had been waiting behind the blindfolded pair. He dragged the raven haired man away from the fire and set him on the ground as well.

As her boiling blood steamed from her toes, shooting up to her stomach through the veins in her legs, Onion could feel her consciousness fading in and out. For an instant, she lost sense of herself. Instead of the rag clad Nü standing by what remained of the tunnel, she was suddenly by the fire, blindfolded but not blind. Her eyes, dried out and cracked, scars long since healed but not lost around her cheekbone bore a silent tribute to the sacrifice that made her who she was today. The lifetime of suffering compressed into a half dozen years made as much an impact on the body as it must have the soul.