“Look! She’s waking up. Little one?” The worried face of Sarina gradually came into focus. “I’m here, my dear.” The frazzled noblewoman sat on the edge of the bed, gently stroking her hair. Taly tried to look beyond her, but there was a strange haze clouding her vision.
“We need to get her to drink some water.” Aiden walked into her line of sight. His face looked haggard and drawn in the dim light.
Carefully accepting the etched crystal glass that Aiden seemed to produce from nowhere, Sarina held it up to Taly’s lips as the healer moved to lift her into a sitting position. For Taly, everything felt muddled—from the wrenching pain in her neck as she shifted to the pull of skin on her back as Aiden held her up.
She took a tentative sip. The rim of the glass felt cool against her dry, cracked lips, and the heavenly liquid quickly soothed the dull ache that had settled at the back of her throat. Her hands curled around the cup as she started to gulp down the contents in earnest. She couldn’t remember ever being this thirsty.
Without warning, Taly jerked forward and promptly emptied the contents of her near-empty stomach onto the floor. Bile burned her throat, and tears sprang up as the pain erupted anew, clawing at her insides, wrapping around her body like a vice. The cup hit the carpet with a dull thud and rolled away.
“What’s happening?” Sarina snapped sharply at Aiden, holding back Taly’s hair as she continued to heave.
“Her stomach is probably a little sensitive right now. That’s all,” Aiden explained in a measured tone. He reached down to retrieve the discarded glass and then walked out of Taly’s view. He reappeared a moment later. “Here,” he said, handing her a fresh cup of water. “I know you’re thirsty but try to drink more slowly this time.”
With great care, Taly took a small sip, but it made no difference. She immediately expelled the water in the same manner. For the next few hours, Aiden and Sarina tried, again and again, to get her to eat or drink something, but she couldn’t manage to hold anything down. Her eyes and nose burned, and her muscles ached as her stomach continued to convulse long after it was empty. She could sense their growing confusion, but she couldn’t make her body obey her commands. Something inside her was on fire, poisoning her from the inside out.
Taly soon began to drift in and out of consciousness. Her dreams were vague and disjointed and left her gasping for air, but every time she came to, she could sense Sarina nearby, and some of the lingering fear would slip away. Skye was usually there too, and sometimes she would glimpse him and Ivain huddled over her worktable, whispering quietly.
It was dark outside the next time Taly managed to claw her way back to the waking world. She immediately felt… cold. It was as though the fire in her veins had been replaced with ice. The chill weighed her down, made her limbs feel tight and rigid. Violent shivers racked her body, but she didn’t have the energy to pull at the quilt that covered her body. She barely had the strength to crack open her eyes.
Sarina sat beside the bed in a plush wingback chair, looking faded and worn around the edges. Her usually immaculate hair was disheveled, and her eyes and nose were red.
“How much time do you think we have? Do you think that Skye and Ivain will be back before...” Sarina’s voice trailed off, and she brought her hands up to cover her face. “This can’t be happening,” she whimpered, a rough sob ripping from her throat. “We were supposed to have more time.”
Aiden sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I don’t understand any of this. I’ve checked for every infection I know to check for. It had to be that metal rod that fell through from the mortal realm. Human diseases evolve so quickly… It must be something that’s developed since the last time the Aion Gate opened. Something that we just don’t know how to treat.”
“Skye and Ivain will never forgive me if they’re not here when it happens,” Sarina mumbled, her eyes vacant. Reaching over, she pulled the blanket up higher, tucking it around Taly’s chin. “Maybe I made a mistake sending them to Litor to get more blood wood. They’re supposed to be back tonight, but… Will they make it in time? How much longer does she have?”
“While I think it might be wise to start preparing ourselves for the worst,” Aiden said distractedly, studying the various herbs and crystals scattered across the table, “I’m not giving up. Not yet. I have an idea. It’s crazy. Really crazy. And I’m going to need to go to the clinic in Ryme to get supplies.”
“You think she can still get better?” Sarina asked, cautious but hopeful.
Aiden slammed his hands down on the table. “As long as she keeps fighting, then anything’s possible. Right? There’s one more thing I can try. It’s a last resort measure, but if she’s already… well, what have we got to lose? If Ivain and Skye get back before I do, keep them close by. This will be easier with a shadow mage. I’m going to need a lot of aether.”
Sarina placed a hand on Taly’s brow, her fingers trailing down to cup the girl’s cheek. “Please don’t let my baby die, Aiden.”
Aiden hesitated, swallowing thickly. “I’ll do my best.” He gave Sarina a curt nod before sweeping a pile of empty vials into a small bag and hastily exiting the room.
The next time Taly awoke, birds were chirping all-too-merrily outside her window. Each happy warble was like a dagger, piercing and razor-sharp to her overly sensitive ears. The scent of herbs and something faintly aseptic tickled at the blistered skin of her nose. Groaning, she turned and buried her head in her pillow. Her very hard, lumpy pillow. She tried punching it, hoping that would make the traitorous sack of fluff fall back into line.
But it didn’t. In fact, the feeble blow sent a wave of pain reverberating up her arm and into her shoulders and neck. She writhed, trying to get away from the crest of blazing fire that had been ignited beneath her skin, but the blankets pinned her in place. They weighed her down, and the more she struggled, the more tangled she became.
Someone drew in a sharp breath, and a pair of hands reached out to still her. “Let’s not do that,” a soft voice murmured. “We don’t want your wounds reopening.”
“Skye?” Taly rasped. Her throat felt raw, and though she tried, she couldn’t seem to work any moisture back onto her tongue. When she cracked open her eyes, Skye’s face slowly came into focus. His clothes were wrinkled, and it looked as though he hadn’t shaved in several days, but he was smiling.
“Yeah, Tink,” he replied quietly, reaching out to push aside a stray lock of hair that had fallen across her eyes. “I’m here.”
Taly opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Her throat was on fire, and when her vocal cords rubbed together, it felt like sandpaper. Coughs racked her body, and she whimpered at the fresh surge of agony that accompanied the uncontrollable spasms.
Skye was at her side in a moment, looping an arm around her shoulders as he lifted her. Leaning her against his shoulder, he held a cup up to her lips. “Here.”
Taly pushed his hand away as best she could. The memory of the last time someone had offered her water—and the resulting pain—was still too fresh. “No, I don’t want that,” she managed to choke out between coughs.
Gently pulling her hands away, Skye held the rim of the cup against her bottom lip and tipped her head back. “The healing spells have kept you from getting too dehydrated, but Aiden said we needed to get you to drink water as soon as you woke up. You’ll feel better. I promise.”
The cool liquid easily slipped down her throat, extinguishing the burning pain, and though it made her stomach turn, she managed to keep it down. When nothing but a faint tickle remained, Taly pushed the cup away. “What happened?” she asked weakly. Her eyes scanned the room, confirming her worst fears. They had brought her back to the manor. A familiar sense of dread stirred in the back of her mind, but it felt far away, nothing but a vague, undefinable fear. “How did I get here?”
“Well, that’s a long story,” Skye muttered as he gently laid her back down. Setting the cup aside, he settled back into a chair beside the bed
. “Let’s see… I guess it all started when this little blonde brat decided she had a death wish and tried to hobble off on her own, half-dead and full of harpy venom.”
“Hey now, Em. Don’t skip the beginning of this story,” Taly grumbled when she saw him smirk, clearly amused by his own joke. “Personally, I really love the part about the idiot that brought the twit along that put me in the situation with the harpy.”
His smile slipped. “You got really sick, Tink,” he said, all traces of playful rebuke melting away. “When you were on the road, you could barely stand, your words were slurring together... you couldn’t even tell us your name. Aiden said it was the fever, but… Shards, that was some scary shit. You started panicking, and he had to use a sleeping charm just to keep you from reopening your wounds.”
“I remember the road, I think.” Taly’s head lolled to the side, and she stared at the crack in her curtains. Her mind felt dull, and she was momentarily distracted by the way the dust caught the light as it hung in the air. “Didn’t Aiden say it was just an allergic reaction to the harpy venom? Or was it an infection? It’s all a little fuzzy.”
“We’re still not sure,” Skye replied with a shrug. “My guess is both.”
Taly sighed as she twisted, trying to get comfortable. The pain in her back was becoming a problem.
“Hold on.” Rising from his place beside her, Skye retrieved a small, cloth-wrapped bundle from the worktable against the far wall. He lifted her, sliding it underneath the small of her back. The slightly elevated position and the delicious warmth radiating from the pack had her sighing in relief. “Fire crystals,” he said when she raised a brow in question.
“How long have I been out?” Taly mumbled. “A day?”
Skye grimaced. “Not quite.”
“Two days?” she asked, her eyes widening when he shook his head. “Longer?”
“Try eight.”
“What?!” Taly exclaimed shakily. “Eight days? How is that possible?”
Skye stuffed his hands in his pockets. “It took you almost a full day to wake up after Aiden removed the sleeping charm. And no matter what anyone did, your fever just kept getting worse. You were waking up less and less often, and half the time you didn’t even know we were there. We tried everything—Sarina even sent Ivain and me to Litor for blood wood. The medicine didn’t end up doing anything for you, but I wasn’t really expecting it to. I think the trip was mostly just to get Ivain out of the house. He wasn’t handling things very well.”
Sinking down on the bed beside her, Skye ran a hand along the stubble on his chin. “And then your temperature started to drop the night before last—just a few hours after we got back from Litor. You started shaking. Sarina was casting warming spells for a while, but Ivain and I eventually managed to rig something together to keep your temperature elevated. I think we may have bought every single fire crystal in Ryme in the process. I really thought…” Skye’s voice caught, and he stopped. Reaching for her hand, his thumb grazed the pulse point on her wrist, lingering there. The gentle touch felt strange and slightly ticklish, but Taly made no move to push him away.
He stared at their intertwined hands for a moment before continuing. “And then Aiden gave you some sort of draught—he wouldn’t say what it was. He just told Ivain and me to keep feeding him aether. Whatever he did, whatever he gave you—it worked. You stabilized a few hours later, and you’ve been doing really well the past two days. You probably still feel like shit, but Aiden says you’re on the mend.”
Now that the pain in her back was under control, the aching soreness in her arms and legs was starting to make itself known. She whimpered slightly when Skye reached underneath the blanket and rearranged a small lump situated next to her hip. She heard the clacking of crystals, and then a small burst of heat had her murmuring a soft “thank you” as the pain receded.
On his feet again, Skye began checking on other small bundles of crystals carefully arranged around her body. “How’s that?” he asked, tucking the blanket back around her. “Are you warm enough?”
“No. It’s freezing in here,” Taly replied, involuntary shivers running up and down her spine.
“Okay. Uh…” Skye clicked his tongue as he looked around the room. “One second.” Taly watched him disappear into her washroom. Still feeling listless and drowsy, her thoughts began to drift as her eyes traced the polished, leafy tendrils etched into the dark wooden surface of the door, and she jumped when Skye reappeared carrying two large bundles. He smiled at her as he arranged what looked like lumpy pillowcases across her stomach and feet. As the warmth of the fire crystals seeped into her, she curled her toes, sighing softly when some of the stinging numbness finally started to recede.
The pain faded to the background, chased away by the heat. “Hey Skye?” she asked, watching as he continued to fuss over her. “There’s something I’ve been wondering.”
“Hmmm? What’s that?” he asked. Retrieving two more quilts from the end of the bed, he spread them over her and smoothed out the wrinkles.
“Aiden,” she said with a yawn. “I had a question about Aiden.”
“What about him?” Skye asked, perching on the edge of the bed beside her.
“Did you…?” Taly paused. Like everything else, the memory felt fuzzy and indistinct. “Did you pick him up and sling him over your shoulder when you were running from the harpy, or did I dream that?”
Skye went still for a moment. It started as a stutter, a choked bark that grew in intensity until the laughter erupted from his throat. For the first time since she’d woken up, the tension in his shoulders melted away, and she couldn’t help but join in, albeit weakly. “He was moving too slow,” Skye insisted. “I really didn’t have any other choice.”
“Uh-huh,” Taly said tiredly, her eyes starting to droop as her giggles subsided. “I’m not sure I believe you. Are you sure that didn’t have anything to do with your little pissing match? Because I think you might have just won. Aiden will never live down being carried around like some damsel in distress.”
“Was there ever any question that I would win in the end?” Skye asked. Even if he still looked haggard and pale, he was starting to sound more like his old self again. When Taly didn’t say anything immediately, he reached over and gently flicked her on the nose. “That was your cue, Tink.”
Taly smiled and swatted his hand away as best she could. She didn’t miss the way his fingers trailed across her cheek, discreetly checking her temperature. “Of course not. No doubt whatsoever,” she replied with a sleepy chuckle. A flicker of silence and then, “That was the answer you wanted, right?”
Skye laughed again as he tucked the blanket tighter around her before gracelessly falling back into the chair beside the bed. Nothing else was said for a while, and eventually, Taly felt herself drifting off to sleep. She could still sense Skye nearby, and a small sigh passed her lips as she snuggled down further into the blanketed cocoon of warmth. For as long as she could remember, he had always been just across the hall, always within reach. She had forgotten just how much she liked having him nearby.
It felt as though she had just nodded off when the sound of hushed whispering invaded her dreams. Feeling warm and lazy, she turned her face towards the noise, blearily opening her eyes.
Aiden and Skye stood over by her worktable, their backs turned.
“When was the last time you slept?” Aiden asked in a low voice, setting down a fresh bag of supplies on the already cluttered tabletop.
“I’m fine,” Skye hedged. He ran a hand through his hair. “Really, I’m fine.”
“Your general health aside, you’re no good to anyone if you deplete your aether,” Aiden replied, frowning. “Get some rest. Take a shower. Eat something. She’s in the next room, not the next town. If anything happens, you’ll be the first to know.”
Skye suppressed a yawn. “I know. And, I will. Now that she’s woken up, I’ll go take a break. I promise. I’d just like to wait until she wakes up again and
you get a chance to examine her.”
“I’m here,” Taly mumbled, her eyes squinting in the morning light. Someone had opened her curtains. “I’m up.”
Both Aiden and Skye turned at the sound of her voice.
“Well,” Aiden said as he crossed the room. He looked far more put-together than what she could recall from her hazy fever dream. Dressed in pinstriped slacks and a green damask waistcoat, the only trace of the obvious stress the healer had endured over the past week was written in the already fading bruises beneath his eyes. “Welcome back. Dare I ask how you’re feeling this morning?” He held a hand up to her forehead and then waved a glowing earth crystal over her body, revealing emerald web-like threads that crisscrossed her skin. Apparently, the earth mage saw something encouraging in the patterns, and he soon backed away with a nod of approval.
“Like I really hate harpies.” Grimacing, Taly wriggled as the ever-present pain started to come back into focus. She could still feel the sting of the harpy’s claws where the long gash across her shoulders had healed. “I mean, really hate them. In fact, I’ve decided to dedicate the rest of my life to ensuring the extinction of their species. It’s a noble cause, and I don’t think anybody will miss them.”
Aiden barked out a short laugh. “I’ll take that as better.”
“Is she going to be okay now?” Skye asked nervously, coming to stand beside the healer. In comparison to Aiden’s immaculate appearance, Skye looked rumpled and worn. His clothing was creased and stained after what must have been a harried trip to Litor and back, and there were lines around his eyes that hadn’t been there before. Stooping down, he rearranged the pillow underneath her head, and Taly rewarded him with a grateful sigh as she found a small amount of relief from the almost-constant discomfort.
“Her temperature still isn’t where I’d like it to be, but yes, I believe so,” Aiden replied, walking back over to the table set against the wall. Taly’s collection of mortal tech had all been cleared away, and an assortment of herbs, vials, and medical supplies now covered the oaken surface. “As long as the restoration spells have a steady supply of aether and she continues to take the draught, then I think she’ll make a full recovery.”
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