Page 32 of Shadow's Chosen

When he returned, he found Elise still sitting at the chair, her suit, now covering her shoulders, still unclasped at the back. He made a sound, so she knew he was behind her, and she looked around, caught eyes with him, then looked away.

"I um...think I got most of them." She waved the bottled salve in her hand. "Only..."

He waited for her to continue, and when she glanced back around, he saw her skin deepen to a reddish hue.

"Are you sick?" he asked, assuming the redness of her skin meant perhaps a fever.

The hue of red deepened, and she looked away. "No, I'm not..." She sighed. "I think...there's one left." She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "But I can't reach it." She lifted a hand around her side, and his eyes fell to where she tried to touch. He could see a mark across her middle to lower back, along the spine. "Think it happened in the fight when I was thrown against the wall and my suit caught."

Nezka dropped the extra scraps for the fire on the ground and slowly approached. He dragged the extra chair over and sat down behind her. Neither of them moved for a brief moment until Nezka put out his hand for the salve. "I'll be gentle, I promise."

Elise, though still looking tense, nodded. She placed the bottle of salve in his hand and straightened out. Nezka waited as she carefully dropped her suit once more from her shoulders till her back was bare and he could better see the wound.

It wasn't deep, thankfully. Just a bad scrape if anything. Nezka picked up the canteen off the ground and poured a small lap of water down her skin.

Elise jerked, inhaling sharply. "Cold," she muttered when he froze. He continued on till the dry blood was gone, leaving only small cuts of open skin. Setting the canteen down, he took the salve, a clear jelly-like substance, and rubbed some between his fingers before reaching down and touching the small of her back.

Elise jerked once more and hissed through her teeth. "Also cold," she said. Nezka hesitated then continued to rub the ointment against her skin. Beyond the rough scrape of her wound, she was as soft and smooth as he imagined. His mind started to drift again (odd, as it usually wasn't this hard to keep his thoughts clear and focused), and he decidedly forced his fantasies back, keeping the touch impersonal, professional. Elise shifted a little but began to relax, probably in convincing herself he wasn't going to slice her in half. He worked the ointment gently into her skin, making sure it was thoroughly covered.

"So, are you going to finally tell me what happened?" Elise asked after a turn of silence.

"What happened to what?" Nezka answered.

She turned her head slightly to look back at him and pointed to the side of her face. He took it to mean she was asking about his own.

"Ah, that." Nezka shrugged. "A bad step on my part."

"A bad step?"

"In dodging the tentacled beast, I found myself in direct line with one of the fire bombs. The fire got close enough to sear me as well as a part of my armor which forced me to discard it and take another. Clothing from one of the fallen Red Blades was the closest I could find."

Elise looked at his face curiously. "It just seems...shouldn't that have killed you? A wound like that, besides probably hurting like hell, would be too exposed to infection. And losing all that skin..."

Nezka huffed as he continued to dip into the salve and touch at Elise's back. "My skin is not prone to infection, and the wound will likely heal itself completely in a week or so."

Elise twisted around, forcing him to stop tending to her wound. "Wait, seriously? You're saying it will grow back?"

"That is what I am saying."

"Your skin can just regenerate?" she asked, slightly dumbfounded.

Nezka smiled. "Yes. Though the new skin tends to take on a different shade."

Elise's eyes widened. Her skin, once red in coloring, went pale. "Are you saying..." she said as her eyes flitted down what parts of him that were bare, mainly his hands, neck and face. "Are you saying that those aren't tattoos or markings on your skin? That they are...?"

Nezka looked at his hands where parts of the knuckles and fingers were white as bones. Small slashes that ran up his wrists and, if he took off his clothes, could be seen all the way up his arms and across his shoulders. "Yes," he said. "I may regenerate, but the scarring leaves the new skin altered."

She said something in what he assumed was her own language, but its tone sounded like a curse. "That's..." She turned back and shook her head. "I don't even know what to say." She sat quiet for a moment then turned slightly once more to study him. "Impressive."

Nezka's smile widened. "I think so too."

She shuddered, looking away from him, and Nezka froze as little bumps formed along her skin. Too tempted by his curiosity, he brushed a finger over them, and she shivered once more.

"Is it good now?" she asked.

Nezka pulled away and capped the salve. "Yes."

Elise shrugged her suit over her shoulders and clasped the back till it covered her body. Nezka stood and she gazed up at him.

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