* * * * *
“I’m telling you, she just wants to lie on the couch all day and sleep!” Becca paced the floor of their suite, her bare feet whispering on the thick carpet. “At first we thought it was normal—I mean, she’s like a cult survivor, getting out of that awful place after all the terrible things they did to her. So of course she needed rest. But it’s been weeks now and all she wants to do is rest. It’s not right.”
“It sounds most distressing, Rebecca. We know how much you have come to care for the Zetta female,” Truth said gravely. He and Far were sitting on the large, three person couch they shared and watching her with worried expressions on their faces as she paced.
“I do care. I know how debilitating guilt can be and they laid a crazy amount of it on Trin in that temple. But she doesn’t want to talk to anyone about it—not even Charlie or me.”
Becca sighed and reflected wryly that this was probably the most upset her men had seen her since they all bonded and settled down to live happily ever after. But she couldn’t help it. She felt for Trin as deeply as Charlie did. In fact, the two of them had been visiting their new friend every day for two weeks, trying to bring her out of the funk she seemed to have fallen into. But no matter what they did or said, Trin barely replied. Becca would have thought their friend had clinical depression but it seemed to go even deeper than that—she was nearly catatonic at times which worried Becca deeply.
“There’s got to be a way we can help her!” she went on, still pacing. “She won’t eat, she won’t take a bath, she doesn’t want to read or watch movies or do anything at all…she just wants to lie on that damn couch and sleep her life away.”
“And she won’t see Thrace?” Truth asked, frowning.
Becca shook her head. “She won’t have anything to do with him.”
“What about their bond? Can he reach her that way?” Far asked.
“Charlie said he told Stavros that she’s blocking him.” Becca sighed and shook her head. There must be something we can do or someone she can talk to. The Goddess wouldn’t have sent us to get her just to watch her waste away. Would she?”
“I do not believe she would, Rebecca,” Truth said gravely. “I agree—there must be a way to help. But how?”
“That’s what I’ve been asking myself for days now!” Becca wanted to stamp her foot in frustration. “I tell you, ever since that awful high priestess put that curse on her she’s not the same girl! I mean, I know I wasn’t the one having visions of her but Charlie described what she saw and—”
“Wait a minute.” Far held up a hand to stop her. “You say the priestess put a curse on her?”
“Well, yes—just as we were leaving the temple. Why?”
“What kind of a curse?” Far frowned. “Try to remember, Becca—this could be very important.”
“Remember? I don’t think I could ever forget. It was a blood curse. She cut her arm and bled into a bowl and said all these terrible things…it was awful.” Becca shivered, remembering the gruesome sight. At the time she’d thought the priestess was just being melodramatic but from the way Far was looking at her, she began to wonder if the curse was more than just theatrics.
The light twin was already tapping away at his hand-held device, searching no doubt, for something in his extensive research file.
“If I remember correctly a blood curse is very serious,” he said frowning. “Ah yes—here it is. The curse is said to feed on the cursed one’s soul until their will to live is completely gone and…”
“And what?” Becca could feel her heart beating in her throat.
Far looked up, his face stricken.
“And she dies. Becca, I’m so sorry. The blood curse is a death curse. And it’s always fatal.”
“No—no I don’t accept that.” Becca stopped pacing. “There must be some cure—someone she could see.”
“You could start by having Commander Sylvan look at her,” Truth rumbled. “Didn’t you say she’d refused medical help before?”
“Yes, and Charlie and I let her!” Becca groaned. “What idiots we are! We thought she needed time to heal but she’s not healing on her own.”
“Now we know why,” Far said quietly. “This curse is no laughing matter.”
“Call Charlie and go to your friend now, together,” Truth recommended.
“We’ll call Commander Sylvan and ask him to meet you at Trin’s suite,” Far added, finishing his brother’s thought. “If anyone can help her, he may be able to.”
“All right.” Becca was already reaching for the thin silver wire of the think-me. “I’m calling her. We’ve sat around for too long—we have to do something about this now.”
* * * * *
“You have to take care of yourself,” Becca said earnestly. “You need to see a doctor.”
“I don’t want to.” Trin closed her eyes, trying to block her new friends out. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone and let her go? Let her die as the priestess has foretold?
“We know about the curse,” Charlie said bluntly. “And we know what it’s doing to you.”
“Then you know why I don’t wish to see a doctor.” Trin sighed. “There’s no doctor here or anyplace in the universe who can help me.”
“We disagree,” Becca said.
“That is your right.” Trin closed her eyes. “Do what you want—I don’t care.”
“Well maybe you need to start caring!” Charlie’s voice sounded sharp. “Trin, I’ve tried waiting—looking for the girl I saw in my visions to come back. You’re a starship captain for heaven’s sake! You have a happy, cheerful, calm disposition—or you did before that priestess got hold of you. You need to find that part of yourself and let her out!”
“She’s gone.” Trin could barely make herself say the words. “If she ever existed.” The blood curse had eaten the person she used to be—eaten her and left nothing but a shell.
“She does exist,” Charlie insisted. “And she’s got to come back but it seems like Becca and I can’t help you find her. So we called someone who can.”
Just as she spoke, there was a knock at the door. Becca ran to get it and came back with a tall Kindred male with spiky blond hair and ice blue eyes.
“This is Commander Sylvan,” Charlie said, introducing him. “He’s the head of the Kindred Council but he’s also a doctor.”
“Hello, Trin.” The male bowed courteously and Trin barely inclined her head in return.
“We asked him to come and look at you,” Becca said softly. “I know you don’t want any doctors but Charlie and I have done all we can—we can’t just let you waste away with this awful curse.”
That was exactly what Trin wanted them to do—just let her die of the curse. But short of jumping off the couch and running away, she didn’t see how she could avoid the doctor they had brought.
Though it seemed strange to be examined by a male medical person, Trin submitted to his poking and prodding and tried to answer his questions. Such as…why didn’t she eat?
Well, because she wasn’t hungry.
Why had she not had her wounds seen to? Didn’t they hurt?
Yes, they hurt but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.
What about Thrace? Didn’t she want to see him?
No, she didn’t really want to see anyone. Mostly she was just tired and wanted to sleep.
At last, after asking all the same questions that Becca and Charlie had been asking her for days, Commander Sylvan stood back and frowned.
“Far has told me all he knows about this blood curse that was placed upon Trin back at her home temple. And what I’m seeing is certainly consistent with its symptoms.”
“So it’s a real thing?” Charlie sounded skeptical. “I know what you told me about it, Becca,” she went on, looking at her friend. “But I just don’t see how it can possibly work. The Goddess herself told me the deity they worship isn’t even real. How can she curse someone if she’s just a stone idol?”
“It was the priestess who laid the curse,” Becca reminded her.