A message and the barrier

“It is okay. Breathe, Naomi. Breathe. I am right here with you,” Nezetta cooed, leaping from the wooden rocking chair she had been sitting on for the last three hours, to hold Naomi’s shaking body.

However, as soon as her fingers made contact with the exposed skin of Naomi’s shoulders, she flinched away from her touch.

The sudden, unexpected movement pierced through Nezetta like a sharp lance going through a knight at a tourney. She retracted her hand, letting it fall to her sides as she tentatively sat and maintained a substantial distance on the straw-stuffed bed Naomi lay upon.

“What happened to me? Where are we? How are you awake? And why am I dressed like this?” Naomi threw the barrage of questions at Nezetta as she frantically observed the strange room she had just found herself in. She had been stripped of her previous garments and was now clothed in a loose, cream-colored, lightly embroidered sleeveless silk dress that felt like a soft caress against her hot and balmy skin.

The