Bound by Glass

43| For Those Who Need It

The next few days were a blur. I slept, I ate, I slept some more. But most of all, I talked. I talked with Allie and Mauna when they came to change my bandages, I talked with Haco who would joke about going for a run, and I talked with Mot who somehow got the idea that I should be the one to become the next hacker of the group. Jinx never came—she had woven her way into the servant's ranks at Jadefire Mansion while I was gone. I hoped she would be able to become a handmaiden of a lady—maybe even Kyara's. I would have to find a way to recommend Jinx to her. As much as I enjoyed talking to the rest, there was one person who I would keep looking for every time I heard a knock on the door: Vace.

Every spare moment he had, he would come to my room, just sitting in the bed across from me or next to me. Sometimes we would talk. Most of the time we just needed some company.

"Why do you keep coming over here?" I asked, shoving the contents of the goo they called food in my mouth. I had found out I liked the plain one most—the vegetable one smelled like compost, and the meat one made my tongue feel weird. I never enjoyed meat a lot anyways. If I diluted the slimy substance with some water, it tasted a lot better. Adding sweetener made the taste a bit more bearable—but it was way too expensive for daily use. I had to suck it up—quite literally.

As you could see, I had a lot of time on my hands. What I would do for a kalla pancake right now, you wouldn't want to know.

Vace was sitting on the bed opposite mine, with his back leaned against the wall. His face was partially hidden by shadows, but I could make out that he had his eyes closed, and he seemed to be completely relaxed. The first few times he had come over, he sat awkwardly on the side of the bed, like he had to jump up any minute, but he gradually warmed up to me. I could see that he wasn't sleeping well—the shadows under his eyes seemed to get darker by the day. Every time I had offered him to take a nap (or ordered him to) he refused. 'I don't want to close my eyes. I will see the flames, burning every person I hold dear,' He had muttered eventually. I didn't ask him to sleep anymore after that.

"I mean, I know you have better things to do than sit with my cranky healing self," I continued when he didn't answer from across the room. I arched my back, testing out my ribs. They almost didn't hurt anymore. Allie had assured me that I could go back to business tomorrow—as in, re-learning how to dance on heels. What a week in bed could do to a person. Vace had forced me to stay in bed for another extra three days, after I had tried to stand up on day two. I had almost fallen, but luckily he had caught me before I smacked face-first on the floor. He said resting for a few more days was for my own good.

Yeah, maybe for my body, but I'm bored out of my mind. I was not the kind of person to sit in bed and do nothing all day. Especially when books were hard to come by. All I could do was sleep and eat. And talk.

"I don't mind," Vace said, "And you are not that bad. You should see Aliyena on some of her bad days."

"I can believe that. How did she actually end up with you guys?" I asked, scraping the last out of my metal bowl. I figured I needed all the energy I could get to regain my strength. I swallowed the last contents, setting the empty bowl beside me on the floor. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, dangling them over the side. My bare feet scraped across the chilly floor, which made my toes curl automatically. I folded them back onto the bed, slipping them under my still-warm covers.

"She was sent here by train from the Eastern Globes, overseas. She was supposed to find a man, and marry him to strengthen her Family. She refused, and soon she was found out to have an affair with Olyvia Rosengarde," he said, as-a-matter-of factly. "Her father was enraged. Aliyena luckily escaped her father's wrath, but he didn't escape hers. She soon joined us after that." He said it in a way like he was telling me how to fix a broken fuse.