War Of Men

Emilee

Emilee's personal and love life drama took a step back when Arcane was stabbed. When the guards suggested the Eseterrians stuck to themselves for a while, she didn't argue. Surely Lavia and Ela would understand.

Her days were dedicated to Arcane and her new Eseterrian friends. She longed to describe them as sisters, but was scared that would make them uncomfortable. To her surprise, she found she cared about them all like sisters, even Arcane, who'd always been rather strenuous. She swore that henceforth, she'd be more understanding.

Kaya had begun practicing baking for the pilgrimage. She'd bring up bread she'd made with her friend Eztli and Emilee would cut squares off it for Arcane to dip in soup. Each day, her patient would eat a few more, which thrilled Emilee. She found a certain joy in nursing Arcane and began to wonder what her life would have been if she'd neither been an Eseterrian nor taken in by Lili Sato. Perhaps she would have trained in medicine. Emilee could imagine herself being very happy with that.

Every now and again she'd check on Medea too, though Medea was more capable of taking care of herself. The Voire had pulled the curtains closed so that her room's brightness rather resembled a cave. She'd done this many times before.

Despite Sabrina's good health, Emilee also found herself taking extra care of the Rindea. Her flashbacks grew more frequent and she regularly started apologising about Arcane. Hjalmar often helped her take care of this.

'You saved Arcane. You have nothing to feel bad about.'

'I kept Arcane alive. I didn't save her. If anything, I damned her.'

As Arcane recovered her strength, the remaining damage became clear. To heal her kidney, Sabrina's magic had required assistance from Arcane's body. While her kidney was now right as rain, her spine had suffered. Doctors would try and trigger some feeling in her legs, but to no avail. The girl had been paralysed from waist down.

The news set in for the others before it did for the victim. Sabrina and Kaya were the first to understand. Kaya used baking to process the shock. Sabrina took the news out on herself, blaming herself further.

'I was a nurse before all this. I should be fixing the mess I made, but I'm running away, like I always do.'

Kaya soon started inviting Sabrina along and the baking proved therapeutic, although it couldn't fix all of the Rindea's inner turmoil. Unfortunately, it was difficult to tell whether this really indicated an improvement because it was possible that she had just learnt to hide it more.

Emilee was hit by it next. When realisation struck, none of her Eseterrian sisters were around. As much as Emilee didn't want to be a nuisance, she couldn't bare the thought of being alone, so she went to the Rewns' lodgings. To her disappointment, Flynn was there, rather than Lavia.

'She'll be back in a few minutes, I believe.'

Emilee took a seat on a rather stiff sofa. Something she'd learnt in her time spent with Lavia was that unlike other families, their furniture was all new and regularly replaced. Most courtiers prided themselves on owning a great deal of priceless heirlooms or settled on palace furniture.

'How is Ela?' Emilee shyly asked.

'Well, I believe. She's taking a lot of the wedding arrangements into her own hands. She hopes that even though you'd prefer some great romance for her you'll give her away.'

Emilee's eyes widened. 'Me?' she stammered. 'She wants... Me?'

'Trust me, she and I may not be in love, but I believe that may be our advantage. Rather than staring into each other's eyes, we talk and somehow you always slip into the conversation. There's no-one she loves more.' His boredom was met by from unbridled joy from Emilee. For a moment, she even forgot about Arcane.