Shades of Grey

SALVO— JUNE 1844

I could not sleep that night. Every sound, every smell and every texture was magnified by at least a hundred in strength. I heard each movement of the patients in the rooms across the building. I heard every breath, every gasp, every moan of discomfort they made. I heard the footsteps all of the doctors moving about the halls, everything: which is why I was surprised when a certain pattern of footsteps stood out among the sea of undefinable sounds. I recognised the heels, the confident stride that was quickly approaching my room…

“Anesthia,” I identified just as she opened my door.

“Grey Echo,” she said grandly as she entered. “I’m glad to see that you are awake.”

I nodded, listening as she sat gently on the foot of my bed. I gripped my head as the sound of the rustling sheets echoed thunderously in my sensitive ears.

“Are you alright?” Anesthia asked as she noticed my discomfort.

“I’m fine,” I replied. “Just have a bit of a headache. Where is Forma?”

“She is in the city centre purchasing some food. I passed her on the way out and offered to pay for them myself but she wouldn’t hear of it,” Anesthia replied with a laugh.

There was then an awkward beat of silence and I could feel the queen eyeing my bandages.

“Is it true, what the doctors say?”

“I don’t know what the doctors say for I have yet to speak with one,” I replied. “What are they saying?”

“That you are blind,” she said flatly.

I swallowed. Hearing the word spoken by someone else was gut wrenching, even more so than realising the fact myself.

“Yes.”

The queen gave a long and studious sigh. I could hear the pity in her movements and I quickly changed the subject.

“When are you to return to Xanthar, Highness?”

“In a few days. I must stay and help in the relief effort. I feel it my political duty to assist the Kestaslian people after such a tragedy. Salvo’s king, Marcus, feels the same.”

“What is to happen to them?”

“Marcus and I have offered to collectively fund a reconstruction of Kestasla, which should commence within the next few days. Until the project is finished, the people will remain here.”

I took in a long breath and sat up slowly.

“How long am I to be kept here?” I asked. “I really must be getting on my way.”

I could hear Anesthia’s body shift. She sighed deeply; about to divulge something she knew I would not like.

“Grey I have concerns about you continuing to Hunt.”

“Don’t concern yourself with me, this is merely a minor hindrance,” I stated, gesturing to my bandaged face. “Others have managed their own blindness before me, I will manage as well.”

“Grey, you have saved my life twice now, nearly at the cost of your own which is why I cannot sit idly by while you venture off into the world, half the Hunter you once were!” Anesthia exclaimed. “It is too dangerous!”

“I appreciate your concerns, Majesty, but I can assure you, there is no need to worry about me,” I said, slowly lifting the covers off my bed and carefully placing my feet on the floor.

Anesthia quickly grasped my hand before I could stand up. I stopped.

“Please think about what I am saying,” she pleaded. “The path you are on could lead to your death!”

At that moment, I heard Forma gracefully float into the room with many rustling bags on her arms. I felt her cheerful mood instantly fade as she saw the tension between the queen and myself.

“Is everything alright here?” she asked carefully as she set down her bags.

The queen released her hold on my wrist and stood, taking a long, steadying breath.

“Yes,” she responded.

“Just fine,” I replied as I stood. Unaccustomed to standing without being able to see, I wobbled slightly on my injured feet. Forma rushed immediately to my side and helped me steady myself. “Let’s go, Forma, I want to explore more of Salvo than the hospital.”

“Grey please, I understand how your pride must feel but I must protest—”

“WHAT?!”

I turned around quickly, nearly knocking Forma to the floor. I took a wary step towards the bed, gripping the footboard for support as I tried to find my way towards the queen.

“It is not a question of pride! You think after all these months of being captured, chased, beaten and tortured that a little thing like blindness is going to stop me from avenging my family? No, My Lady, I have a vendetta to fulfill and I will not rest until I have done so, with or without my eyes.”

I could hear the queen struggle for words. I stepped backwards with a feeling of satisfaction that I had rendered Her Majesty Anesthia Riadas speechless. Forma gently gripped my arm and led me away from the dumbstruck queen.

Forma and I moved from the hospital to a nearby hotel and spent the next two months honing my ability to fight blind, working with several Salvian soldiers in the military training ring, with permission of King Marcus. I had been trained in school to fight without using my eyes or linking myself to Forma’s sight, but the idea of entering combat without having the ability to see had always perplexed me. I had never seen the need or practicality of such a skill: humans had eyes for a reason.

My opinion had shifted, however, now that my eyes had been taken from me. I found myself relying on my other senses, calling on the training sessions with Lord Daryn where he would blindfold one of the Tyros and then pit us against an un-blindfolded opponent…remembering his words…

“Listen to everything…inhale every smell…feel every texture…”

I had found it silly then, not hearing, smelling or feeling anything out of the ordinary. Now that I was blind, however, the power that would have gone to my eyes was diverted to my other senses. I retrained my brain to listen for the subtle movements of my opponent’s tensed body as he positioned himself for attack and for his breathing patterns as he moved stealthily around me in the multi-leveled Salvian training ring. I inhaled the scent of his clothes and the stale patches of air where I could not smell the fire from the torches that encircled the arena, allowing me to pinpoint his ever-changing location. My heightened sense of touch allowed me extra control over whatever weapon I worked with, giving me the ability to utilise anything from a doweling rod to my Flamesword with even a single fingertip. I literally became one with my weapon, using it as I would my own arm.

“Good!” Forma complimented from a viewing platform behind me as one of the Salvian soldiers recovered after a particularly long and unusually quick sparring match a few days after Forma had recovered from her latest wolf cycle. I heard the shuffling of dirt as the Salvian soldier crouched in an effort to catch his breath.

“Yes,” gasped the soldier. “Very good… Miss Echo.”

“Thank you, Michael,” I replied as I twirled my Flamesword around in my hands, feeling it dance across my fingertips and even daring to balance it on my knee before throwing it into the air and catching it strongly in my hand.

“Alright, now you’re just showing off,” Forma reproved with derision.

I laughed and resheathed my sword as I heard Michael struggle to get off the floor and shuffle towards the ring entrance.

“Where are you going, Michael?” I asked with a grin.

“I’ve got to…uh…tend to an important issue…with the king,” he stuttered as he stumbled clumsily out of the door, leaving Forma and me alone in the training ring.

“I think you frightened him with all of your cocky blind Samsonian bravada,” she remarked adroitly. I laughed.

“If you could feel what I’m feeling right now, you would be just as eager to showcase your skills,” I said as I found my way to the stairs that led to the upper level of the arena. Without wasting a minute, I leapt gracefully from step to step, counting them in my head, until I easily reached the top.

“Very nice,” she remarked in earnest next to me.

“Thank you,” I said with a grin as I sat on the top step. Forma sat next to me and I felt her place a damp cloth in my left hand. I swiftly removed the black and gold mask Forma had purchased at a local bazaar for me several days before (meant to cover my healing face) and quickly daubed my burns.

My hands had recuperated relatively quickly, leaving only minor scarring in my palms and along my wrist. The burns to my face had taken longer to heal. The swelling had gone down significantly, reducing the monstrousness of my appearance and the once hideously burnt flesh was now beginning to form thick scar tissue. The swelling in my right eye had receded and it now looked like a normal eye covered with a black film. There was no hope of my ever healing completely, but I no longer looked as grotesque as I had before.

“How are you feeling?” Forma inquired in a slow voice.

I inhaled slowly, analysing her words.

“You mean, ‘what’s it like to be blind?’”

“Er…uh, well, yes I suppose...”

I smiled at her honesty and tried to form an explanation.

“At this moment, I can hear the heartbeats of everyone in the castle. I can hear them speaking to one another. I can smell every flower along the castle corridors and every bit of food that comes out of the kitchen. I can feel every fibre and every minute dent in the dirt ground below us…it’s beautiful.”

Forma was silent for a moment.

“It sounds disorientating,” she concluded. I laughed.

“It was at first, but one acclimates quite quickly when you have no other choice,” I replied, standing. “Let’s go back to our room. Tomorrow, we leave for Vikka.”