Never Yours ✔️

Ch. 18

 Arysa woke at sunrise the next morning. She spent a few minutes writing in her journals, recording what happened the past week, then she got dressed and exited her rooms.

She wasn't surprised to find Ember and Coran outside her door. They greeted her kindly and when she started forward, Ember took up place following behind her. She didn't acknowledge him. She headed to the kitchens where she found Lucia working on breakfast for the royals and she joined her for a few hours, preparing meals for the king, Demian, Ashlyn, and the members of the royal court. Arysa convinced Ember to help out, and the three of them made quick work of the meals. When they'd finished, Lucia shooed Arysa out of the kitchens and made her sit down at the dining room table to eat. She picked at her food, but forced herself to eat it all. The whole time Ember stood quietly in the corner, watching with gentle eyes

Arysa headed down to Raida's main hospital after her meal, where she found Eklys and a few other physicians working on the recently returned soldiers.

"Lady Arysa," Eklys said in surprise when she'd entered. "What are you doing here?"

Arysa smiled. "I'm helping out in the hospitals, same as yesterday, remember?"

He stared at her closely, but nodded, a soft smile coming to his lips. "Of course, silly of me to forget." He waved her over and directed her on what to do.

For the next few hours Arysa tended to the soldiers. She recognized a few and talked to them of their families, to others she chatted about menial things, the weather, what things have been like in the city, how she hoped rains would be coming soon.

Lara came in around noon, hidden beneath her cloak. She didn't acknowledge Arysa and spent most of her time with the most critical patients. Arysa managed to slip away form Ember to get into one of the critical's room.

"Lord Dreadroot has assigned a guard to follow me around." She spoke quietly, keeping her head down as she worked beside Lara.

"I noticed." Lara replied. "I can't train you with him looking over your shoulder."

"I might be able to make up some excuse to keep him out of the Vella hospital." Arysa applied a salve to the soldier's wounds.

Lara finished sewing up his stab wound and handed the bandage to Arysa.

"Wait a few more hours and then come to the Vella hospital. I have a few more hospitals to visit before I get there."

Arysa nodded, watching as Lara sketched a quick rune over the soldier's wounds. Lara left as Arysa bandaged the soldier. When Arysa exited the room she found Ember waiting by the door. She ignored him and continued making her rounds.

After a few hours, as Lara instructed she made her way out and headed down to the Vella hospital. At the entrance she turned to Ember.

"You have to wait out here." She said. "We have patients in there at risk of infection. We need to minimize exposure."

Ember nodded reluctantly and Arysa entered. Lara was already there, checking on Verna. Arysa came to her side. Lara glanced around the hospital to assure Ember wasn't there before she spoke.

"Verna's burns are healed, but the scarring is extreme. There's a ritual that can help heal scarred skin, but it takes a bit of work."

"Just tell me what to do and I'll do it." Arysa replied.

"We need candles, lots of candles. Fire is our primary source of energy for healing. We also need a few ingredients for a paste. I'll gather a list and send Kaya out to get them. If you'll start boiling water out there and drop some aloe vera into it. We'll need that after we put the paste on."