Enclosed

It feels strange to know you are going to die. After years of being immortal, it just felt strange. I had not noticed the change when the World tree fell, we are still a strong race, still living for decades if not millennia even though our lifespan now has an ending.
So no need for feeling strange about that.
But this was different. Now I was certain. It was only a matter of time. And a short time at that. No more decades, no more millennia. I had become a ticking time-bomb. It was just a matter on when I would become immune to my mother’s enchantments…

For almost an hour now, I had sat with closed eyes on the edge of the Temple’s Moonwell. Pretending to be meditating, I had heard people come and go, shuffling passed me softly, trying not to disturb the devout Priestess. Every once in a while I did utter a soft prayer, just so I would not feel guilty towards my Goddess.

My mother had just attended to me. I let her work my old wound grudgingly, holding my arms raised, my hands clasped behind my head. I had frowned at her when she forcefully tightened my bandage, leaving me slightly breathless. She had shown no remorse at all, just showed the same frown I was wearing all through the procedure. I had sighed again and gazed upwards, impatiently waiting until she would be done.
So I had not felt anything but annoyance when she suddenly stopped her movements and softly gripped my chin, to move my face towards hers. She was still frowning, tilting her had a little and seemingly worried about something.
Again I sighed.

‘What is it now, mother?’

I was not the person for being impatient, but this procedure was just long and tedious, and done so many times now. I had little patience for the little motherly worries Laurna seemed to have again and again.

‘You don’t feel the change Eavya?’ she asked, with her slightly hoarse voice.

‘The change?’ A slight feeling of foreboding had crept over me then, this did not sound like small insignificant worries. Slowly I had brought my hands down, upon the scar that had formed there, feeling it through the bandages. I had taken a deep breath, turning my energy inwards and feeling the tiny little shard of bone lodged there, between two ribs, so perilously close to my heart. The tiny but deadly sliver held tight in place by my mother’s carefully enchanted spell, strengthened by Elune’s Prayer.
I still had nightmares about that Orc… Thundering towards me, no way to stop his momentum any more, cracking my ribs…

I had felt the change though, the difference. Only slightly, but yet so significant.
For one moment I had hoped futilely that my mother just had made a mistake, that she had not put enough energy into her Prayer, making the enchantment seem weakened somehow. I had returned my gaze to hers, questioning her actions. Surely it was dangerous leaving it weakened like this, easier to break, dissolve, freeing the shard… Killing me…

My mother had sighed and I could see how her shoulders dropped wearily, defeated. It looked like the way I felt, when I was sure I had lost a patient. A cold vice had gripped my heart as she spoke her thoughts.

‘It seems that the enchantment is weakening, my love… Your body is getting resistant to the spell… There is nothing I can do anymore to empower it further. The next time I will perform this, it will be even weaker, slowly but steadily. I am not sure when I will be entirely incapable of placing the spell upon your wound… but it can’t be long anymore.’

I had blinked at her, unable to think for a moment and then whispered;

‘How long? The change only seems ever so slight.’

My mother had slowly shrugged, looking at me devastated.

‘I cannot be sure, Eavya love. Years? Perhaps a few decades?’

Years…

An hour had passed… An hour, since my mother left… since I had written the note that would end my term as High Priestess. The news my mother had left me rendered me entirely incapable as one of the leaders for the Order.
Who would want a leader that could drop dead without a warning… No… I was not fit anymore, not fit at all.
It feels quite strange, knowing you are going to die… Soon.