The Story begins....
Morna sleeps now after many days of sickness, her skin is feverish and she smells lightly of perspiration and lavender. Morna's cheek is aflame with her life's blood; the sickness is taking her. Donovan watches over her, pacing, crying. He knows she will be gone soon and there is nothing he can do to halt her departure. He moves over to the canopy bed and pulls the wispy curtain back revealing sweet, sick Morna. Donovan strokes her cheek lightly with his forefinger moving a silky strand of her raven hair aside.
Morna continues to sleep breathing in and out in raspy swallows, her body surges with the fever's heat and tiny droplets of moisture escape from her ivory skin. Donovan's sorrow washes over him in a bounding wave and grasps at her hand, " Morna I can't bear to see you as so, I know I have done all that is in my power to save you but still I feel like I have failed you somehow. I won't let it have you Morna, mark my words, I WON'T."
The slumbering maiden does not stir, she makes no conscious recognition of his words but somehow he is certain she has heard him. He catches a glimpse of himself in Morna's mirror, a small ruby encrusted item he had bought her on a business trip, dark circlets surround his eyes and his complexion has grown gray. He is as worn as Morna but perhaps for the worse because he has been conscious during his fight with the disease. He doesn't have the delicate coverlet of sleep to comfort him and he will remain thus so after she passes. Donovan fears his fight is over, he proved a formidable opponent at first but poor weak Monra soon succumbed to the parasite. She lies there now, soundless, her mind gliding over dream visions, her body devoid of life. Morna doesn't belong to him anymore, this is perhaps what troubles him most.
Donovan dips a cloth in the basin by her bedside and then places it upon her forehead. He will leave her now to sleep, his quest for her cure is not yet over. He orders Esther, her nurse to watch over her while he is out; she nodes her head solemnly and attends to his Morna. With a word of thanks and a flourish of his coat he is outside the room once more, the deep lush of the carpet and spiraling floral patterns on the walls of Morna's room have become his domain, his memory is erased of much else. A mixture of dead roses and stale cologne marks the hallway; he walks slowly down the passage on the verge of crying once more. His feet rustle softly over the linoleum and he wonders if she hears him now.
He finds himself at the end of the hallways and afraid once more. 'What if she dies while I'm away and I can never again hear the sweet echoes of her laughter? What if she calls for me with her last breath and I'm not there to consul her? I can't continue like this or I will surely find myself mad. I will find the cure tonight or be damned.' His leather-clad feet recognize the familiar texture of the staircase and once again his mind is driven back to reality. He bids his Morna a silent goodbye and he is out in the open night, searching once more for what can't be found.
The bitter chill of the night air finds him unaware and he draws his coat around him, he looks up at Morna's window and sees Esther there diligently wiping sweat from Morna's brow. He blows a kiss up to her window and starts his course.
