Chapter 20
Cassie
Everything hurt. If she missed the timing on the pain medication or skipped a dose, her whole throat burned.
Writing on the datapad was painful. Trying to speak and remembering she couldn’t was worse.
Eleri only knew a few of her most basic hand signs.
Days without having a conversation about anything other than her pain levels or ability to swallow started to leave her hollow and brittle.
No one other than the healers had come to visit her since the day she’d spoken to Rhea. She wanted to see ?rim, but every time she asked Eleri about it, the healer brushed her off. The curtain parted and Eleri came in with her second nutritional pack of the day.
“Hey, Cassie. How’s the pain this afternoon?”
Fine. She didn’t bother writing it out on the datapad.
“Ok. Let me know if anything is painful or if you need to use the lavatory. I’m here to help.”
I want to see ?rim. The hand signs were familiar enough to make Eleri flinch.
“Maybe tomorrow.”
Finally, to make sure Eleri couldn’t pretend to misunderstand, Cassie dragged her datapad onto her lap. X-P-L-N-Y. The letters just made Eleri frown. “Sorry, Cassie. Can you try that again? I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Cassie released a sharp puff of air between her lips and tried again. E-G-S-P-L-A-N-Y.
“Explainy? Oh. You want me to explain why?”
Exhausted, Cassie dropped her hands from the datapad and nodded.
“?rim did something bad to you.”
She shook her head. It was bad enough everyone was talking around her like she wasn’t there. She didn’t want people also speaking down to her like she was too stupid to understand. The explanation wasn’t going to make a difference. Eleri had her opinions. Cassie lifted the datapad again.
W-A-N-T-U-S-E-E-H-I-M. M-I-C-H-O-Y-S.
“Cassie…”
Her finger jabbed hard at the datapad, trying to reinforce how little she cared about Eleri’s opinion on this. Eleri wilted, hands dropping down to her sides.
“You’re right. It’s your choice. If you want to see him, I shouldn’t stop you. I’ll talk to him tomorrow. Today you still need to rest.”
Ok. Cassie was quiet, compliant as Eleri hooked up her nutrition pack and adjusted the dosing of pain medication. The promise of seeing ?rim the next day was all she had wanted anyway.