Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
Dazar
My quiet despondence was interrupted by an insistent knock on the door. Only one person knew I’d fled to this modest inn.
“Avela?” I asked.
“Yes, Master Dazar, please hurry!”
I sighed, rose, and went to the door, opening it. Avela looked a mess, bedraggled and fatigued. Had she run here?
When I’d gathered my things and left the cottage, I hadn’t gone far. I hadn’t known what to do, where to go, at least not yet. So, I’d gotten a room at a pleasant inn called the Blue Goose, about a five-minute walk from the cottage. I’d told Avela where I’d be in case of emergencies. It seemed… there was an emergency.
“Mistress Tisera is hurt, she needs healing. You need to come quickly!” Avela said, breathless and clearly distraught.
I left without a second thought. When I looked back at Avela, she waved me away.
“I’ll follow in time, go!”
I ran.
I gathered my aura and pushed strength and vitality — red and orange — into my legs, heart, and lungs as I sprinted back to the cottage. Horror consumed me when I saw blood spots all the way down the lane and into the house. I followed them in shock, hoping — praying — Tisera was still alive.
I burst into her room, like I had yesterday, only this time she was not naked and proud, she groaned, sitting on her bed, trying — with little success — to remove her armor. Her right arm hung limp and she bled from a gash in her side. Her aura was all over the place — fluctuating and erratic — as her life energies floundered and surged in a wild dance of life and death.
“Let me help,” I said and rushed to her.
“Daz?” She seemed confused, her voice raw and weak. “Where…?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just lay back. I’ll get this armor off.”
She relaxed a little, falling back on her bed. Her eyelids fluttered shut as she let herself finally rest.
I removed the armor carefully. The breastplate had a significant dent in the front which looked like it wouldn’t be comfortable at all. And the metal of the back plate had been pushed into a deep gash on her side. It looked nasty. I couldn’t imagine what sort of weapon might have caused this, nor did I want to know. I cautiously removed the breastplate, managed to roll her onto her front, and got the backplate off without doing any more damage.
I summoned green for a quick assessment of her injuries: that nasty gash to her side, several wounds to her right arm, a bump on the head, and bruising where her armor had been dented in. Fever and delirium had set in as well. That would be easy to sooth away, once I’d dealt with the physical issues.
I focused my aura on that deep and messy cut low on the right side of her abdomen. First the hardest part: I summoned white, purity, to cleanse the wound before I healed it. White wasn’t so much a single color as it was all colors, which meant it took a lot to channel. Concentrating, I carefully cleaned the wound. Then, I brought forth green for health and recovery, and red for strength, and some orange to encourage the flesh to mend. Sweat dampened my brow by the time that was done.
With her worst injury mended, I could take a moment to recover and plan which wound I’d tend to next. My sense of Dizzy’s Phora had given me a pretty clear picture of the damage, but I removed the rest of her armor and clothes for a closer physical inspection.
Dizzy woke from her feverish mumblings as I sat her up to remove her shirt.
“Taking advantage of me, are you?” She didn’t know who she was talking to, her eyes lidded, gaze unfocused.
When she did manage to focus on me, she whispered, “Daz?” then swooned and went limp again.
I laid her down. I didn’t need to remove her leggings, her legs were uninjured, just fatigued. Yet, her upper half was naked to me so I’d be able to see the results of my healing.
As much as a part of me wished to see her unclothed, this was not what I’d had in mind. At least I handled the sight better this time than the last.
I grimaced at that remembrance as I moved my hands over her slowly, just above her skin, doing one final assessment of her condition.
Her right arm was my primary concern now. The bone was fractured, nerves pinched and crushed. A long cut marred her biceps muscle, and under that the skin was a livid purple. Her forearm and hand were nearly white, blood wasn’t flowing to them.
I set to healing it. This took deeper work, feeling the colors of the tissue itself and mending it slowly and carefully. I set the bone and knit together the muscles, nerves, and skin.
Once the arm was healed, I tended to the small bump on the back of her head and the bruising on her stomach.
After that, I laid a blanket of green and aqua Phora over Dizzy to help reduce the fever and let her rest.
I finished and sighed. I’d been kneeling next to the bed, so I slumped over, laying my head on the mattress and rested.
My exhaustion swelled. I’d worn myself out, not only from the healing, but from the extremity of emotion I’d felt when I’d thought her to be dying.
“How is she doing?” Avela asked tentatively from the doorway.
“She’d have lasted for some time still. She’s tough enough to withstand more than this, but… thank you for getting me. She’s resting now. And I… I’m going to rest too.”
Avela nodded with a smile.
I turned away and set my head down again on the soft mattress.
“Daz?”
I started awake.
It was dark outside. A lantern had been lit, flickering low, and a pitcher of water and a tray with food sat on the table next to Dizzy’s bed.
It took me a moment to realize who’d spoken my name. I looked up at Dizzy. She lay on her side on the bed. She hadn’t bothered covering up. Smiling down at me, she whispered, “Thank you. For… patching me up. I… don’t remember much.”
I met her gaze in the dim light. “I love you,” I said, and instantly realized I’d said those words. I froze.
I’d said it now.
She smiled and laughed. “I love you too.” She reached over and ruffled my hair. I took her meaning instantly. She loved me like a brother. Slightly more seriously she said. “You’re always there for me.”
I couldn’t go back on my words now. Leo had said I needed to tell her soon, because she was in a dangerous line of work and I’d not heeded him. But I’d just seen how dangerous her work could be. I couldn’t hold back any longer.
“No, Dizzy. I love you. Not like a sister, but… but like the fields love the rain, like trees love the sun, like…” These metaphors were nice, but she was a direct woman. I should be direct. “Like a husband loves his bride. Like a lover loves his beloved.”
Her eyes grew wide.
I pushed on. I couldn’t stop now. “I know we were raised like brother and sister, but we are not blood. I’m Dathi and you’re Aestrian. I know our paths have taken us apart more than they’ve brought us together, but… but that’s just it, Dizzy… Tisi… Tisera.” I sighed.
“I can’t lose you like I almost did today. I… I need you to know how I feel… even if that makes things awkward between us. I’d rather be awkward than live a lie.”
“Daz,” she whispered. I could tell by her colors she was stunned and confused, my revelation had thrown her. Her aura danced around her, wild and discordant.
She looked away, still not covering herself.
After a heavy sigh, she gave a bit of a laugh. “That… explains a lot. Like the look on your face when you came in on me dressing. Gods, you looked like you’d swallowed a squirrel.” She sobered. “Wow… ah… this is a lot.”
It was. I rose.
“If you need some time, I can leave and come back.” I got as far as the door before she called to me.
“Daz?”
I turned back, trying not to see… all of her. “Yes?”
“Is this why you… packed up your things and left?”
I nodded. “It was just… too hard to be around you. I tried to tell you and couldn’t. And I couldn’t live with my cowardice around someone so brave and strong.”
She nodded slowly. “I… I hope you’ll come back,” she said, but her tone sounded like she was questioning herself. Maybe that was a question for me. If so:
“I will. I always will.”
She nodded.
“Take as much time as you need,” I said softly. “You’re still recovering from your healing and… now you have this to think on. I’ll go get my things from where I’m staying and return.”
She nodded.
I left, walking taller than I had in some time. I’d finally done it. I’d told her I loved her. I still didn’t know how things would work out, but that didn’t matter so much as the need to have this out in the open.
Now everything was in her hands.
I hoped she felt the same way… or at least would come to, given time.
Yet, when I returned with my things later that night, she was gone, her bed empty.