Viviana swung her legs off of the stale, straw mattress and set her feet on the cold, wooden floor. The inn was austere, but the room served its purpose, and it was all she could afford. She rose cautiously, anticipating the bone-deep pain that was becoming all too familiar, and peeked around the window curtain to see the horizon beginning to glow with the breaking dawn.
It was time for her to leave.
Still too dark in the room to see clearly, she lit the bedside candle, illuminating the relaxed features of the young man reposed in the bed. She knew that neither the light nor her movements would wake him. His deep, healing sleep would last a few hours yet.
Viviana carried the candle to the small desk, furnished with quill pen, inkpot and paper. Under the glow of the candlelight, she wrote her note to the blind young man, smiling at the irony.
It's true that before she had taken him to bed that night, before she had taken him into herself, he had been blind. An affliction in childhood had stolen his sight, leaving him with little hope of a life other than begging in the street. But she also knew that when he opened his eyes in a few hours, he would blink in amazement at the light not seen in so many years.
He would also find her gone. She had bestowed the divine gift, and now her task was done.
Her note was simple: "Dearest Rello, The gods have restored your sight. Give thanks and forever cherish this gift." She knew it was likely that he hadn't learned to read before his blindness struck, but she had little doubt he would find someone to read it to him.
Viviana set the note on the nightstand and began dressing, wincing from the throbbing in her bones and grating in her joints. She was only twenty-six years old and all outward appearances would indicate that she was a healthy young woman. But inside she suffered the terrible toll that bestowing her gift took on her.
When it all began three years ago, she had felt no ill effects, and revelled in being chosen by the gods as a conduit for their gift of healing. And the sex ... well, that she enjoyed a great deal as well.
But in the past half a year, something had changed. Now, with each healing gift bestowed, she felt the sickness within herself deepen. Yet the gods continued to impel her on to the next chosen recipient of their gift, deaf to her prayers of respite and heedless of her own suffering.
Nevertheless, it was not her place to question the gods or their use of their chosen ones. Besides, even if it meant her death, she would still gladly give one more person the gift of healing. To suffer for the good of others is to live a worthy life, no matter how short. She believed that through to her core.
Viviana gazed one last time on the young man, recalling with warmth how aroused and grateful he had been to be taken to bed by a woman, in all likelihood his first.
Men liked to look. Deprived of sight, this young man had done his looking with his hands. The memory of his hungry palms and fingers exploring her body and the reverence in his touch would not soon be forgotten. She grinned, remembering how much attention he had given her ample breasts, caressing and squeezing them, tweaking and licking her hardened nipples, grasping the soft flesh firmly as he climaxed within her at the moment of her own orgasm. No question, young Rello was a boob man.
"'Tis a shame I cannot show you with your new eyes what you surveyed so well with your tender hands," she said aloud as she buttoned her dress over her cleavage. She took one of those tender hands to her lips for a kiss, then laid it back across his chest. "Farewell, sweet Rello."
Viviana took her leave of the sleeping man.
**********
Two weeks. A mere two weeks was all she was given to regain her strength. The gods demand much of those who carried their gifts.
The morning she left Rello still asleep in the inn, she had purchased passage with a caravan that took her several towns away. It would never do to have one of her beneficiaries find her afterwards, mistaking her gift for personal love. With lives restored, they were meant to move on, to build upon the new opportunity the gods had given them, not to fixate on the instrument of their healing.
Every day on the road and at every temple along the way, Viviana prayed, giving thanks for the honour and privilege of her role in healing others while at the same time humbly asking for healing for herself.
The gods had remained silent, and her body continued to ache and burn inside, as if filled with the toxins of the afflictions she saw removed from others in the moment she infused them with her blessed orgasm.
Now the gods had finally spoken, but it was not to respond to her pleas. Her dream the night before had been of a man, just past his thirtieth year. He was a man of status and means and she saw that he lay in his bed all night and through every day. But it was not sloth or privilege that kept him in his bed, but paraplegia. A fall from horseback six months ago had broken his back, and ensuing circumstances had broken his spirit. The gods had chosen their next child whom they wished to make whole, and were once again calling upon their healing instrument.
That morning Viviana raised her aching body with resolve and caught a coach to the neighbouring town.
**********
"Viviana!"
Responding to the summons, Viviana scurried into the spacious bedchamber. "Yes, my lord?"
"Did I ask for a cold drink?" the man in the bed demanded.
"No, my lord, you asked for your night tea. Hot tea, I assumed, as usual before you go to sleep."
"Then why do you bring me tea that it would be generous to call warm?"
Viviana remained silent, recognizing another irrational rebuke.
"Do you know how to boil water, girl?"
"I do, my lord."
"Then take this away and bring me a proper cup of tea!"
Viviana gathered the tray and left the room to prepare another cup of tea for her employer, practiced in her movements to conceal any signs of the pain that relentlessly shot through her limbs, not that the self-absorbed lord would notice anyone else's suffering.
After arriving in town three weeks ago, it had taken Viviana just one day to gain employment in the wealthy man's household. Few servants stayed long, abused by their employer's capriciousness and frequent reprimands. But Viviana knew the man's tyrannical manner was merely a symptom of the pain he felt in spirit after suffering the damage to his body. She knew he was simply a man in need of healing, and that's why the gods had brought her here. All that remained was for her to complete her seduction and deliver her healing gift.
Lord Elwin was his name. And he had lost more than the use of his legs. He had lost his fiancée in the bargain. Viviana learned this from the other servants and quickly deduced that it was the source of his deeper pain, and the reason for his lashing out. He must have truly loved her.
Returning with newly steeped tea at a scalding temperature, she set the tray by his bedside, then sat on the edge of the mattress. Lord Elwin looked up at her, startled by her presumptuousness.
