1. Oria
The sound of purring interrupted my wonderful dream of Henry Cavill. He was just about to throw me on the bed, to have his way with me. Unfortunately, my stupid cat, Loki, decided his breakfast was more important than my sexy dream come true.
I groaned when he kneaded my boob, like I was his personal slave. I glared at him, wondering if he would survive the two-hundred-foot drop from my window. He rubbed up against my face, jumped off my bed, and sauntered to my door, looking back at me expectantly before leaving.
"Stupid cat," I muttered, throwing my arm over my eyes.
The morning sun was bright in my room, pulling a groan from me. I was not ready to start my day.
Meow!
A loud rebuke from Loki came from outside my door like he was telling me to hurry up.
"Ok, ok, ok," I said, rolling out of bed, walking down the stairs to the kitchen.
Grabbing his food out of the fridge, I scooped his food onto a glass dish before setting it on the floor. The main floor was cold as the last bits of winter held onto the days. I grabbed a few logs to throw into the fireplace, and lit them up before heading to the bathroom to bathe.
Bathing in the winter wasn't my favorite as it was too cold to truly enjoy it when the water grew cold too fast. I hurried through my bath, skipped washing my hair because I did not have the energy for that today. I got ready quickly, putting on a long dress that was comfortable enough to get my chores done. Mother liked to see me in dresses instead of the modern clothing of pants and shirts. She said it was barbaric for women to dress like men.
Once dressed, I headed downstairs to cook myself breakfast seeing a note I had missed from mother that she would be back later. It was her not-so-subtle way of reminding me not to leave the tower by giving me a list of extra chores to do before she got back.
It had been almost two hundred years since we had to flee our home to protect me. I was grateful to Mother and all she had done to keep me hidden. She often reminded me that once people found out what I could do, there would be wars for me, or so her mother had told her. Who wouldn't want the power of never-ending youth and the ability to be brought back from the brink of death?
That's what I could do.
I could help you cheat death.
The hard part of staying hidden was while my power could help you live a long fulfilling life, it had robbed me of my own life. Most days I loved my power, but other days I wished I could be stripped of it and be granted freedom. I was a prisoner to my power, and I didn't know how much longer I could take this. The loneliness that came with having to be hidden was a burden I didn't know I would have to live with. This tower and the magical barrier around me was the only thing keeping me safe.
Taking a deep breath, I shoved all my negative thoughts away. If I continued down this path, I knew my entire day would be ruined. In a few weeks it would be my birthday… my two hundredth birthday.
Was that considered a milestone? Surely being two centuries old would allow me some kind of party? Maybe a tiny celebration?
There was my plan for the evening, convincing Mother to let me explore the local village or somewhere different to help ease the emptiness I was feeling. I knew why I was here, but that didn't ease the need to escape and explore, even if it was only for a day.
I was working myself up even more as I thought about my birthday. I wasn"t certain what she would say, but I had to try, for my sanity. Breakfast was simple, as I scrambled some eggs and fried some bacon.
After I cleaned up the kitchen, I worked on tidying the tower. We had two floors dedicated to living quarters and the main floor had the kitchen, a dining room and a big room with sofas. I didn't understand the purpose of the sofas, no one ever sat down on them, but mother always said, "Where do you think our guests are going to sit?".
The thing was, we never had guests.
Once I finished the two floors, I headed down the tower to gather the moon water we made on the grounds. It was about midday when I braved the cold to grab the jugs of water, replacing them with new jugs to infuse them with the moonlight. It was a delicate process that had to be rotated every week. I dug out the earth stones we had laid to rest last week, replacing them with new stones to charge, as well as grabbing and laying out new moonstones to charge with the moon. I checked our garden of fruits and vegetables before taking the long walk back up the stairs.
"Where the hell have you been?"
I jumped at the voice, noticing Mother at the top of the stairs.
"I had to tend to the garden. Check on all the stones and water," I said, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice.
"They are picking up an order soon, I need you to prepare the shipment." She glared at me. "We cannot have another shipment of missing items. This time they won"t be so lenient and how else would we pay for all of this?"
Lately, Mother had been on edge, chastising me like I was a child even though we had been doing this for over a hundred years. I had been doing this since the beginning and she had been reaping the benefits all along. She would disappear every so often to God knows where; I was never privy to her whereabouts.
"I will triple check; I do it every time," I said, keeping my other thoughts to myself because I needed her in a good mood when I asked her about going out for my birthday.
"You better, or else I won"t be so lenient either," she threatened, before walking away. "Dinner is at six, don't be late again," she yelled.
I growled, feeling annoyed that she didn't believe me when I said all the items were there. Someone was taking our product and blaming us for the shortage. If she wasn't so lazy she would be checking my work, but Goddess forbid she actually worked a day in her life.
I took a deep breath.
My arms shook from the weight of the things I was carrying as I made it to the workshop. I put down the box, immediately sorting through everything and put aside what we needed for the order. I grabbed boxes and the order form. This time we would need to almost double the order to make up for the loss from the last order.
I knew I hadn't forgotten anything from the last order, I was meticulous in my packing, keeping track of what went in and out of this tower. Next time I saw Tay, I would need to ask him if there was a possibility that someone could be stealing from us. If anyone could give me information, it was him. He was the one who usually picked up the orders and handled the distribution.
Grabbing my iPod from the table, I hooked up some headphones and shuffled through the hundred song playlist that I had heard a thousand times now. Tay had given it to me about ten years ago, but I treasured this tiny machine like it was my god. I had no idea who any of these singers were, but Avril Lavigne and Mandy Moore got me through some dark times.
Shoop by Salt-N-Pepa, played immediately as I moved my hips, getting ready to infuse the moon water with my power.
"You're packed and you're stacked, ‘specially in the back Brother, wanna thank your mother for a butt like that. Can I get some fries with that shake-shake boobie?" I sang, grabbing two big bowls with the other ingredients.
I poured the jugs of water into the big bowls that sat side by side. Once the water was all poured in, I added some herbs and florals with some mint and a moonstone.
Stirring the ingredients with my hands, I put one hand in each bowl, feeling the moonstone heighten my power. It danced under my skin, in delicate swirls as I let it build.
"Flos nitor et rutilans tua virtus luceat," I whispered, feeling the power glow within and outside of me.
I had never seen what I looked like when my power flowed out of me, but ethereal, transcendent and otherworldly were some of the words Tay used to describe me. All I could see was a golden light, so I imagine that"s what glowed around me.
The water warmed with my power as I pushed more of it into the water reciting the incantation again, to ignite another layer of power. My body grew hot, clammy and if I went too far, I could ruin this batch. Once my power reached a certain level, I would evaporate the water or the power would implode. It was a delicate balance that had taken me at least fifty years to master.
Once I felt the power in the water level off, I eased off my effort slowly receding the tendrils of magic. When my light shone no more, I pulled my hand out of the water. My body sagged from exertion. Lately, I had been feeling more exhausted as I made more batches with my power.
Anxiety spiked through me at what would happen if I stopped being able to make vials of my power. The unknown made me nervous, but I longed for a moment of normalcy. My body shook with exhaustion, and I cursed at myself for not eating before I began the session. Looking at the time, I noticed it was almost four.
My brows furrowed as I tried to remember what time I had started. What usually took me about thirty minutes almost took me two hours? That couldn"t be right, but that would explain why I was so exhausted. I had never done anything this long with so much power. The water in the bowls looked no different than usual, but I wondered if these would be very powerful or if I had ruined this batch.
I didn't know what I should do, but I couldn't let this batch go to waste or we wouldn"t make our quota. Throwing a small prayer up to the goddess, I strained the first bowl, then the second one. I filtered the water two more times before pouring them into small vials suitable to hold the concoction. After forty vials were filled, I capped them with a cork setting them aside to let them soak in the moonlight one more time.
My eyes grew heavy with sleep as I finished the rest of the tasks I needed to do. By six o'clock, I was dead on my feet. I was wishing for a nap before dinner, but knew I had to head up now before the wrath of Mother made dinner even more uncomfortable.
Trudging up the steps, each one taking all my will to complete, I made it to the main floor to see the kitchen empty. The smell of food was absent from the air as I looked around the open space. I pursed my lips, my irritation was at an all-time high. She couldn't even be bothered to cook us dinner while I did all the work around here.
Meow.
Loki walked through my legs, rubbing himself against me like he wanted to comfort me, while I debated if I even wanted to eat. Even though I was exhausted, I grabbed a Pop Tart. I poured Loki his food and made my way to my room, ready to pass out and get ready for another day.