Hourglass

Finding little else to do with her time (while dodging her sister’s claims of needing her), Annaliese found herself in the Medical Quarter of the Undercity. With the on-call Medic away on duty, she found herself pouring over the multitude of books that stacked his shelves. Fingers passing over the spines of different books, and a smile came to her lips at the sight of her trinket box. She had almost forgotten. Flipping open the little dagger shaped clasp, she opened the wooden lid and peered at the contents inside.

Two large crystals sat, glowing a soft pink. The swirling essences of collected souls glimmered inside of the two, a source of her power, fuel for her spells. The crystals, like her trinket box, were special creations she treasured, one for their necessity, the other for its ingenuity. She was slowly discovering ways to combine shards. Perhaps there would be a day when they would not fill her bags, where she would not have to hear the whispers of the souls she had stolen rattle in her head day by day. These crystals were silent, and she treasured them for it.

A tumbling sound caught her attention, and the rolling sound of something delicate. Expecting to find the Medic’s kitten, Snow, toying with one of her gems, she instead found the pet rolling a golden hourglass around the stone floor.

…which seemed to have rolled out of a now toppled over medical kit.

Quickly, Annaliese strode over to the small mess, and swept the kitten away from the prized hourglass. Snow made her disappointment quite known with a paw and gnaw of Anna’s fingers as she was bat away.

“Now, you…” Anna sighed, chuckling softly as the kitten wrapped itself around her hand now, gnawing on her arm playfully. “You little troublemaker.” Snow’s sea-blue eyes darted to the Forsaken, and she purred instead, giving the ghostly arm a lick instead, as if apologizing for the mess.

“I can’t believe he forgot it,” Anna murmured in thought, a bit amused as she looked down at the spilled box. There was little that had actually rolled out of the box, most of the supplies seemed secured in the never-ending expanses of the kit. Picking up a few vials and a roll of bandages, she stared at the glimmering hourglass now.

“I’m sure he’ll come back for it soon,” she added. Snow had left the room however, seeking other adventures. Tucking the vials into the box, she held the hourglass between her fingers, watching the sand fall slowly, all too slowly. It was a beautiful creation, gifted to the Medic by the Bronze Dragonflight for his efforts. Arcane magic flowed through it’s golden frame, the glass itself carved from the finest crystal. The glowing beads of sand inside flowed down into the bottom, as if they were suspended in water, drifting down lazily.

Like liquid, the feeling crept into her fingers again, a warmth suffusing them as her hands again grew pigment and color. Her grip on the hourglass tightened as she could feel the blood within her body again start to flow. She gasped as breath began to fill her lungs, taste filled her mouth, the hourglass beginning to give her borrowed life, stolen time. Steadily, her heart began to pump.

Thump. Thump. Thumpthumpthumpthump….

Annaliese whimpered, and hastily turned the hourglass back over, reversing the temporary magic. The sharp pain of death took her back over as breath was stolen again, her eyes flaring back to their unearthly glow. She stood, staring at the trinket, grasped tightly in her hands, panting, as if she were out of breath, where there was none. The sands of the hourglass seemed to lessen in their glow now, its magic dispensed for the day. Tucking the hourglass tightly back into the medical kit, she slammed the box shut, and put it upon the Medic’s desk, her mind humming with times now lost to her. She understood why the Medic did not use it now, and why he had sealed it away deep inside the Kit.

It took more away from life than it could ever give.

Her stomach ached now, with the need to drain life from…something. Leaving Snow with a random gem, Annaliese hurried away from the Medical Quarter to satisfy her pang of pain.