Blackie

It took a while - she didn't know how long since there was neither day nor night - until she could move normally. The improvement was much faster than building up muscles, but sufficient to make her impatient.

After she could move her limbs just fine, she discovered one big problem: there was no ground under her feet. When she moved her legs, it didn't propel her forward like it would on earth. She tried swimming motions, fluttering like a bird and everything that crossed her mind, but it didn't work.

With a pout, she crossed her arms and pondered what else there was to try. Now, that she had worked off the sleepiness, staying still was very boring. The space around also didn't change much. She had noticed some patterns in the colors already. There were some who only passed by, mostly grey, red, and green. They never stayed long, floating at the edges of her vision. Then there was blue. Blue was the main color in this space. Though it was also floating in several parts and not coloring everything, it was way more present than any of the other colors.

There were different nuances of the blue, too. Some icy, slight turquoise, and dark like the sea swam in the distance, while an indigo one moved vigorously near her. The last one interested her the most because it and another in paler blue had never left her vision. The pale blue was so still that she had only noticed it because the indigo one circled it regularly. Although she didn't know what they were, she had decided to call all of them 'gauze birds' for now, since they could fly and resembled transparent fabric. There were exceptions to this description though. Obviously, one was the pale blue that didn't move, and the other one...

She turned around to look at the darkness behind her with a complicated gaze. This one was even more mysterious than the others. She first discovered it when she turned around and nearly got a heart attack. It looked like an abyss right outside of her safe sphere. That was because barely a meter behind her, there was nothing but black, like someone painted a black canvas and laid it over this side of her sphere.

It had taken her a while to notice that the darkness, just like the other colors, could move. When it did so, the usual view of colorful gauze birds was revealed behind it. So, it was not that there was an abyss, but that she just couldn't look through this dark blob that was at least as big as her own sphere, if not several times bigger. Since then, she always kept a watch on this particular… thing. 'Gauze bird' didn't seem appropriate in its case since it was too big and nearly unmoving, so she just called it Blackie. The only thought behind this name was to let the simplicity and cuteness relieve some of her fear for it. Even though, it appeared ominous. The way it always pressed against her sphere like it wanted to break inside made her uneasy, even though the sphere didn't react to it in any way whatsoever.

She was just about to try another few ideas for moving, when she suddenly felt the touch of the wind again. This time, it was on her forehead, shifting a strand of her hair. It felt strangely warm. Her heart skipped a beat and she grabbed for her forehead so fast that she slapped herself when - like the last time - there was only air under her palm.

Luckily, there was nobody to see that embarrassing scene, Katherine thought, and sighed. Over the short pain of the slap, the fleeting feeling had vanished again. What a shame. She hoped she could catch it next time. If she wanted to do so, more than just trying to move, she should also ponder about how to catch the wind. At least she now knew one thing: the wind was more than just a one-time event.

.

Sitting next to her body on the bed, Nathaniel sighed as well and let the strand of hair he had brushed out of her face run through his fingers. It was nearly as dark as his gloves, shimmering like obsidian in the light of the lamp. He raised it to his face and inhaled.

Her scent of roses and fresh water was slowly changing to dust and soap, painfully reminding him of how long she was unconsciousness.

Gritting his teeth, he stood up and returned to his own seat, picking up the folder that laid on it before sitting down. It was one of the many reports they had stolen from the underground laboratory. There were hundreds more to go.

After only two minutes, Nathaniel laid it away and leaned back his head, one hand over his eyes. His Adam's apple moved up and down slowly, before his mouth opened to exhale. "What a damn mess."

Ever since the talk with the King, he just couldn't concentrate and Sam, the one person who he had always shared his troubles with, was out of the question this time. That was not because he didn't trust him anymore, but because Sam was deeply involved in the story, a major part of the puzzle. Everything Nathaniel knew about his life had been overturned. Now, he had a difficult decision to make, perhaps the most difficult of his life. And he had to do it by himself.

Even if he wanted to blame anyone for what happened, they had all just done the best they could - with exception of that madwoman maybe. It was frustrating to no end, because the one culprit who he had searched for all his life, the reason for his curse, the hate of his mother, and even the emergence of the organization and their evil deeds, was dead already before he was even born.

It was kind of fascinating how all these issues could be connected on this one point and how, at the same time, this knowledge didn't help to solve any of them. For Nathaniel, it was also a very bitter discovery. He had thought that if he found the reason for his curse, he might find a way to revert it. With this one person dead, however, any hope of that was lost.

Now, he wondered if he would never find a way to get rid of his magic completely, and if he would have to anxiously avoid all touch his whole life. Before this painful discovery, he didn't know that there had been a tiny part of him that still had hope. He longed for skin contact so much - especially with the one woman who was now his wife - that a desperate hope had grown in his subconsciousness. Now it had been dealt a hard blow. In all honesty, he wished any hope to be completely destroyed by this blow, or else he might go crazy from the pain the next time reality hit. However, he doubted something so innately human was easy to kill.

His fingers idly rubbed over his lips, remembering the nearest he had ever been to her. If not for this one kiss, he wondered if it would still hurt as much. If not for this kiss, he might have never known what it felt like to crave for a person with all his heart. Or at least, he would have stopped himself from acknowledging it. If only she didn't kiss him... and yet, he didn't want to miss this kiss for anything he had.

Slowly, the rims of his eyes turned red. Then he bend over forward, biting into the leather of his gloves to muffle the scream. His body shook back and forth. For a few minutes, only his labored breathing filled the room. It was unknown when his hand gripped Katherine's, but he held it tigthly. After a while, his hoarse voice sounded through the silence. "You need to wake up, Katherine. You can't - can't sleep anymore. Please, don't let me wait any longer. I can't. I need you by my side. Not only your body, but the real you. So, you have to wake up!"

It was the truth. This woman might be naive and willful, but without her, he couldn't think straight anymore. Every second thought was about her. She had to come back, or else his straying thoughts would bring danger to everyone around him. Like this, he was not in the state to confront the Queen, much less the Falumor empire helping her.

In her sphere in the colorful space, Katherine felt the windy touch once more.