My Wish at the End of the World

In The Dark

CW Mentions of fire, death

"How are you feeling?" Rainfall asks, walking in. She sits down on the foot of the bed and looks me up and down. His long orange hair is tied up in a bun, a few strands escaping. I'm mostly healed, enough that I can move around un-aided now, even though moving still hurts. "Alex here."

"Better," I say. "John says it'll only be a few more days before I'm able to move without much discomfort."  It will be a while, if ever, before I move comfortably again.

"So we're going to have to tell John about the hut soon?" Alex asks, scrunching up his face, something I'd recognized as fairly individual to him.

"Unless you can find another place to stay in that time, yes," I say. I take a deep breath, something I enjoy doing after a month or so of not being able to without pain and coughing. "We might need his help anyways.  Besides, I think he's just being careful because he's especially at risk if there is a fire."

"That's true," Alex says and sighs.  "I don't like having to tell him though."

"You all didn't give me too much of a choice if I remember correctly," I say.  I intend it as a wry, lighthearted remark, but he seems to take it personally.

"So we tell the truth?" I ask and Alex pauses.

"Ultimately, it's up to you," he says. "We only have enough money to guarantee housing for about a week now. So, if we don't tell him, whatever happens will have to happen in under a week." I turn slightly away from him. I can't tell if he meant to imply continuing the hunt or not, but that's what I think about anyway. After all, why would he be doing all this?

He stays silent for a while. I return to my reading. Despite my general reluctance to commit to anything, I've kept researching for it nonstop. Honestly, I think I want to continue the hunt for the shards, but it is too strange to think about clearly, and I always get wracked with guilt.

"Do you need anything? New bandages, tea, water?" he asks after a few minutes. "We have a job starting in about an hour, so if you need anything, now's the time."

"If you could refill my water that would be great," I say, taking a swig and finishing one of the flasks. He nods and stands up.

He refills my water flasks, handing them back to me without a word, and I resume reading. I've already read most of the useful books, since I've had nearly all day for multiple weeks to myself reading, but I'm still hoping to find useful information. I don't have much hope for finding anything useful in this book. It's speculation about the former civilization's artistry, and if my brief experience within the castle is to be trusted it is thoroughly incorrect.

John comes in a while later, and I greet him with a nod as he sits down and starts inspecting my burns. Over the past few days he'd become a bit more impersonal.  He probably wants to know how I was burned, and as the wounds have healed it's been on both our minds.  He hasn't asked me since the first day, but Rainfall told me he had asked her.

"How are you feeling?" he asks, breaking the silence.

"Better," I say. "I think I'll be mostly healed soon." He nods.

"There will be some scarring, mainly on your face and arms," he says. "But you should have more or less normal movement, with little to no pain. Your scars should become less visible over the next few months, but they might start to hurt more after about a year. Any questions?"

We talk for a while about caring for the scars.  It takes a few hours for him to go over different lotions for the scars, massages and stretches, and bandages for compression.  At the end, he makes sure I remember everything, then sighs.