Solivagency - Empires SMP

XLIV

A/N: Hahaha sorry for the wait but I may or may not have made an album teehee (link in my announcements if ur interested)

Gem made a long-suffering sigh as she looked at them. "The cuffs can come off now."

Before Xornoth even reacted she was loosening them, sliding the strap out of the buckle and lightly moving their hand out of the way. They blinked at her in surprise. "What?"

"Well, what did I just say?" She shrugged, tearing the restraint off the bed with abnormal efficiency. Then she had circled to the other side and started removing the one on that side as well.

"I heard, but why?" They asked, slowly pushing themselves up and flexing their wrists, wincing at how sore they were. There weren't any injuries on them, but there was a very obvious red mark where it had been and it would definitely take a day or two before it disappeared.

She made a face. "Joey may or may not have complained. A lot."

Oh. That would make sense. They'd tried to persuade him multiple times that it was fine, they understood if people were nervous, but he kept insisting that it was unfair and had one of his mock sulks before kissing them on the forehead and promising that he would try and convince Gem to take them off. They'd never thought that he would actually succeed.

"But." She wheeled around and looked at them head on. They shifted back, startled by the intensity of her gaze. "You must stay inside of this room. That means no sneaking out to see Joey or Scott or anyone else-"

"See Scott?" Xornoth straightened up. "Is he awake? Is he okay?"

"Yes and yes. But you aren't allowed to see him." She reiterated, turning to her satchel of potions and producing one the colour of smoked willow. "Now drink this."

They peered at it carefully, observing the way it bubbled. They didn't want to drink something unknown to them, but- well, Gen shoved it into their mouth as soon as they took longer than a few seconds and they gagged, coughing a little as it slid down their throat. It wasn't the kind of taste they had been expecting at all - they'd thought of burnt leaves and bitter herbs, and it instead tasted like boiling hot garlic salt. Were all the potions she made this unpleasant?

"There you go. That wasn’t too hard, was it?” She raised her eyebrows in a borderline condescending manner that made them want to squirm. They could, theoretically, just drink potions, but they all taste disgusting and they were half convinced she was giving them the worst ones on purpose.

"...No?" They shifted uncomfortably, bringing their arms up to their chest and unconsciously rubbing their sore wrists. "What was it for?"

"Your leg."

That would make sense. They supposed?

"Okay." Xornoth couldn't feel much in their leg, other than it hurt like absolute hell, but they experimentally patted it anyway. Which they probably shouldn't have done because it hurt worse, and then she was giving them the exasperated 'loosing the will to live' look.

"Don't do that, for goodness sake." Gem rolled her eyes, then brought out another potion, this one milky white and glistening grey. "It was broken from an extremely powerful force and without the amount of potions I technically shouldn't be giving you, you wouldn't be able to walk for another three years."

"Oh." They braced themself for something even grosser, but instead, she started slowly removing the cast off of their leg. They stared at her a little, then realised that she was intending to pour the potion directly onto their leg instead of force-feeding them it.

She peeled it back, slowly easing it off their leg. It looked awful, the knee a mottled purplish red. "This will hurt, so on the count of three you're going to hold on to something and do your very best to not yell, okay?"