Pure (COMPLETED)

Chapter 10: The Brother

Maigred found herself staring at Finten's retreating back, feeling helplessly furious. Again. This time, however, she didn't have a bottle of expensive alcohol to hurl out the back door.

She grabbed Finten's dirty dishes and scooped up the the pile of gifts that she had brought out of the kitchen. She had set the gifts on the work table that morning after getting another vision from the earth sister last night.

She was getting very irritated with the earth sister. Finten clearly didn't want to have anything to do with helping the town fight off the wyrm, and Maigred clearly didn't want to have anything to do with Finten, so why did she keep sending those dammed visions encouraging Maigred to propose to the lily-livered man?

Maigred put the dirty dishes on the back table to be washed, then put the set of clothes and bundle of food back in the pantry, hoping she wouldn't be pulling them out for another dammed proposal.

After that, preparations for the dinner rush took her mind off her irritation and she didn't think of Finten again until the end of the day when she brought dinner up to her brother. She put her hand into her pocket for the key and her fingers brushed the stone, that for some reason she was still carrying around with her.

Maigred frowned and all her anger came rushing back. She stood there, her hand in her pocket, wondering if it was even worth trying again to talk Cathal into eating, today. She certainly wasn't in the proper frame of mind for it.

There was a light tap on Cathal's door.

Her anger vanished. She quickly dug the key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.

"I'm coming in, Cathal," she said quietly.

There was no reply, but she slowly pushed his door open anyway, the candle on the tray she was carrying cast its light into the tiny, dark room. Her brother was standing next to the door, with his back to her, one shoulder leaning against the wall.

"Cathal?"

"Is everything okay?" He mumbled.

"Of course everything is okay. Will you eat for me now?"

He hunched his shoulders.

"Please, Cathal?"

"Tell me why you're angry and- and I'll try to eat. Just...don't look at me." His voice was hoarse from dehydration.

"Deal." Maigred said before she could think about what holding up her end of the bargain entailed.

He gave a nod and lowered himself to sit on the floor.

Maigred took the candle off the tray, knelt down and placed the tray on the floor, then slid it towards her brother. She sat down and leaned back against Cathal's broad back. "Not looking." She reassured, setting the candle down beside her.

She heard the tray scrape across the wooden floor. Then she heard her brother take a swallow of the water she had brought up for him. It was followed by another swallow and then more gulps in quicker succession. The back of his head bumped the top of hers as he finished the cup off. He poured himself another cup from the jug on the tray and drank some more before setting the cup down and picking up the bowl.

The spoon stirred through the stew, scraping along the bottom of the bowl. "Why are you angry?" Cathal asked in his quiet baritone voice.

"I'm angry at you, silly." Maigred breathed a laughed. "Do you know how much trouble you could have gotten in?"

Cathal's body went still and Maigred wondered if she had pushed him too far.

"Maigred, please tell me what's wrong."