Daughter of Tide and Illusion

Chapter 36

Chapter 36

In the few weeks that followed their arrival back in Ayveri, Lyv fell back into a comfortable routine. She went back to work as the official palace healer. The male who had taken over while she was gone had been called back to the university to his teaching position. They only met in passing when he was clearing his things from the infirmary, but seemingly did a lot of good and wished her well.

It was in the infirmary Lyv felt more like herself with every passing day. Of course, she had plenty of help restocking the shelves, which included Elys, Eamon, Gideon, and Jai. She absolutely loved ordering the four of them around, making sure they did everything the way she'd do it herself. That, of course, earned her several eyerolls and lots of grumbling, but it only had her grinning.

As for Gideon and Thia, they had...made slight progress, much to Lyv's delight. Their relationship settled back into their playful annoyance that only turned into real fights a handful of times.

And when they all weren't at the palace, they were either going through the streets of Ayveri or at the Branvon Estate with the dragons. Both Roshan and Erly were more than happy to be back, especially when they had the comforts of the dragon quarters again.

Training was another thing they settled back into. Having not properly fought with her dagger since they were in Escarral, Lyv asked for both Jai and Gideon's assistance. Of course, they went easy on her at first, even after what happened just a few weeks before. But once she got in a few good nicks to their skin or just used flickers of her magic, they learned she wasn't playing around. Then there were plenty of deeper cuts, black and blue bruises, and even a few broken bones, but Lyv was able to heal them within seconds.

After any of these training sessions, both males pretty much refused to work with her during the rest of the day, instead turning to the two little boys who had been on the sidelines. It was then Jai and Gideon would work with both Elys and Eamon and Lyv joined Thia and sometimes even Laurel to sit along the wall of the courtyard to watch.

And as for Elys...well, Lyv might have promised to work with him on figuring out all of his abilities, but she was enjoying watching him just be a kid and not have to worry about it. She didn't want to give him an even heavier responsibility than he already had. That was probably the reason she found him with Michel sometimes, since the Seer of Ikreus's abilities and the Waiter susurrate's were so very similar. However, even Michel made the comment to Lyv one afternoon once she'd come to get Elys that his power was far greater than his ever was or would have been.

"And it's strange," Michel said to her as they walked down the open corridor with Elys running up ahead to catch up with where Eamon was. "I have never heard of a Seer being as young as he is. Usually, those powers don't manifest until they are twenty at the least."

"Well, he was two," Lyv sighed.

"He's only going to keep growing into his power, Lyv," he warned. "It's best to help him learn to control it now while he's young. I could help him more, if you'd like. I'll be gone to Waiter for about three weeks, but I'd be more than happy to teach him."

"Just the basics at first, all right?" Lyv sighed, knowing he was right. Jai had said the same thing to her the night before, even mentioned Michel helping out.

"Just the basics...until he demands me to teach him more, which we all know he will."

Keeping to their promise to one another, Lyv and Jai...well, they spent more time together than they ever had, with just the two of them or with Elys when he wasn't off playing with Eamon or with Michel. During this time, they began the journey once more to getting to know one another again. Lyv loved their conversations, especially since their comfort with each other grew with every one of them. At first, they would just sit close to each other, sharing glances and smile. Then they found themselves moving closer – holding hands when they were walking through the city with Elys running ahead, lying together in the grassy fields they'd landed in when taking Roshan out to fly around for hours, and Lyv curled into his side when they were sitting on the sofa in either her or Jai's rooms. And with every moment they spent together, their bond grew stronger. Neither one of them made a move to make it whole, though.