A Jaded Life

Chapter 1312

“Mom, Jess over there asked me if I might be able to help her with something, but I don’t think I can. Could you hear her out?” Luna asked me during our evening meal. We had both worked, nodding toward one of the other tables, where a young woman, maybe in her early twenties, sat alone, looking objectively miserable.

“What problem does she need help with?” I asked in return, curious why someone would approach Luna instead of me with a problem.

“Maybe it would be best if she could explain,” Luna avoided the question and waved the woman over instead of answering me.

“So, my daughter said you needed help with something?” I took the initiative after Jess sat down, still looking withdrawn and somewhat scared.

“Yes,” she quietly admitted, not looking me in the eye. For a moment, I was tempted to press, but I quickly reconsidered. It would likely do nothing but cause her to retreat deeper into her shell, making the entire interaction pointless. So, instead, I waited for her to speak, to explain, to give me anything I could work with.

In the meantime, I subtly stretched out my magic, trying to sense if there was anything wrong with her body. My guess was that her problem was mental in nature, but I couldn’t be certain.

The result of my subtle investigation was a little troubling, making me wonder what I should do next. As it turned out, the young woman was pregnant. However, given that the pregnancy was quite recent, as in, it was unlikely to have been detected without magical means, I wondered if it was the reason why she had approached me in the first place. Regardless, she had been impregnated about a week or two ago, so at least it hadn’t happened during the longest, and craziest, night.

“I can’t sleep,” she quietly admitted after another second. “I tried, but…” She paused, tears welling in her eyes. “I tried, but I just can’t,” she choked down a sob, her distress obvious.

“Would you prefer to talk somewhere else?” I asked, curious whether she would prefer privacy or stay in a public place where others could see our interaction, even if most were too far away to hear her.

“Yes, please,” she nodded, a little too quickly to have thought the idea through.

“Mom, why don’t you take her to Lady Hecate’s shrine?” Luna asked, making me realise that she, or maybe one of the locals, had set up a shrine to Hecate at some point. Maybe even before the whole mess with the Blessed City had boiled over, Luna had introduced a number of people to Lady Hecate’s path during our lessons in the last winter.

“No!” Jess immediately rejected that idea, the panicked sound of her voice giving me another clue to the source of her distress. “No, please,” she babbled a little, making me immediately nod in acceptance. No, a divine shrine, while normally an excellent place for any distressing and personal conversation, wouldn’t work here.

“We can just walk for a bit, and if we come across a space in which you feel comfortable, we can talk there,” I suggested, before quickly finishing my meal in a few bites.

“Okay,” Jess nodded, still not comfortable or ready to talk, but it seemed to be progress.

Together, we walked out of the communal mess hall and into the night. Above, a few stars were twinkling merrily, but I could see Jess’ breath mist in the freezing evening air as we trudged through the snow.

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After a moment of consideration, I wove a ward of Air and Fire around us, internally grinning at the similarity to the wards I would use to avoid being tracked by my scent. One was used to keep out any particles that would betray my presence; the other was used to prevent heat loss by trapping the warm air in with us. Not completely, I wouldn’t want us to suffocate, but it was quite useful. Then, once the warm air wouldn’t just drift away from us, a bit of Fire Magic raised the temperature from freezing cold to comfortably warm.

Additionally, I began smoothing and hardening the snow before us, creating a solid path for us to walk on, even after we left the well-trod area between the houses. I even created a small globe of light using a combination of Lightning, Crystal and Fire Magic, making it so my companion wouldn’t be bothered by the dark. The things one did to make others comfortable.

Eventually, after walking for ten minutes through the darkness, staying on the edge between forest and hillside as we moved farther from the lit houses behind us, Jess began to slow, looking out into the dark with a touch of uncertainty.

“Could you turn off the light?” she quietly asked. “I think we can talk here,” she gestured towards a small rocky area. The ruins of a nearby bench indicated that one might have a good view if one came here during the day, but now, in the middle of the night, even my eyes weren’t capable of seeing that far into the distance. At least not without the Oculus or a similar tool to help.

“Certainly, but why don’t we get a bit more comfortable first?” I suggested, waving my hand to create a pair of simple chairs. Not my best work, but I wasn’t sure how well she would do with my usual upholstery of packed snow.

“Take a seat, then we can talk,” I added, sitting down on my own chair, while she did the same. Then, I let the night fizzle out, leaving us in the dark and snowy forest. It had to be a strange experience for her, sitting in a space that should be freezing cold, but feeling warm despite everything. For a moment, I considered pushing her to talk, but after considering, I decided against it. She needed to find her own words, and prodding her wouldn’t necessarily help.

“I’ve tried, you know?” she asked, making me frown for a moment.

“What did you try?” I quietly asked, trying to spark a conversation. For a moment, I tried to remember the techniques different therapists and psychiatrists had used on me in the past, but I just didn’t have the experience and knowledge. I could use the words and phrases they used, but I simply didn’t know what the answers might indicate or if those questions were even the right fit for Jess here. Probably not, given that she was a much different person in a fundamentally different situation than mine had been.

“To sleep,” her reply was quiet, little more than a whisper, “I tried, but whenever I close my eyes, I see…” her voice cracked again, the memories breaking her resolve to speak. I considered reaching out, taking her hand or even trying to infuse her with a bit of magical courage, but I wasn’t sure if it would help. Given that Jess had been under magical compulsion until recently, I decided against anything that might make her feel like I was pressuring her and waited instead.

She was sobbing now, her words barely coherent, but I was fairly certain that I had managed to piece together the gist of them. Apparently, she had watched a guy named Paul, likely a partner or boyfriend or something like that, get dragged off by Lorgar’s buddies in the Blessed City, and Paul had ended up tied to those stakes of Lorgar. Those he had used to enlighten people by burning them with divine light until they were thoroughly roasted. All while he had been preaching to his captive audience. It made me wonder if Lorgar was aware that the wards placed around the Blessed City had enforced obedience or if he had been so blinded by his faith that he believed people would willingly watch the torture and execution of their loved ones in the name of his deity? I’d probably never know, but the answer wasn’t important right now.

Important was that I had a traumatised woman who had watched her partner get dragged away to be murdered and who also happened to be pregnant, hopefully with said partner’s child.

What I was supposed to do about any of that, I had no real idea, but I felt compelled to help her. Maybe that was guilt talking, since I was partly responsible for the situation she was in, or maybe it was something else.

Regardless of the reason, I felt that I should help her, but I wasn’t sure how to accomplish that. Talking might work, or I could offer her some Mind Magic to blunt the memories, hopefully allowing her to sleep. She needed to heal, as difficult as that was, and the child she was carrying would need their mother to be healthy. Oh, and the prospective mother needed to be told about the child she was carrying, adding yet another layer of responsibility, hardship and potential trauma atop the mess she was already in.

What fun.