Heir of Fire and Ice

Four days to go...

Yesterday had been peaceful, but after once again riding Tulikipi, Xenia had promised to test her on the revision notes. She was worried that in the past days she had forgotten some of the stuff she'd learnt, but was too nervous to go over it in her head. She paced the room, waiting for Xenia. She wasn't late, at least - Elentiya was early. She knew she could rely on Xenia to be on time, but it still chaffed at her. She knew Xenia wasn't like Riki (who she avoided thinking about), but she couldn't help remembering those hours when she had never known whether or not Riki would show up. 

She once again checked the clock from Melisande (It not only told the time, but was also a safe that she could store things in, and played a different extract from Stygian Suite to her on the hour, until at midnight, it would go back to the first. It had annoyed Xenia at first, but Elentiya had refused to silence it, and Xenia was used to it now.), and discovered that less than thirty seconds had passed. She really hoped that Xenia would be early. Only five minutes to go.

She picked up a book, read a sentence, then put it down again. She couldn't revise without Xenia, who had her revision notes. Please, please hurry up, Xenia. Gods - this was just so- the door opened and Xenia stepped in, probably from healing someone - she looked tired in the way you only ever looked if you had been healing someone. Immediately, Elentiya felt bad. She shouldn't have been so impatient, not when Xenia could have been saving someone's life. It was selfish of her.

Xenia only sat down, pulling out Elentiya's revision notes.

"Let's get started, shall we?"

...

Xenia had known that Elentiya wouldn't have forgotten anything - in fact, research had shown that if there was a gap between learning something and reviewing it, you remembered it better. Anyway, Elentiya would never forget anything like that. She remembered everything - it was annoying, really. And incredibly sad. As healers, they all knew what death was, had seen people waste away before. All knew what it was like when the magic had taken everything, but it still wasn't enough. They all mourned and remembered patients like that, despite the fact that remembering was painful. To have no choice but to remember, to remember everything, and still be able to love freely... She knew Elentiya was strong enough but not what it would take from her. 

...

Elentiya had relaxed in revision since she had got everything correct with Xenia, she had decided there was no need to work herself to death. Instead, she went into the slums, where they could not get to the Torre to be healed, and practised healing there. She supposed the slums could be dangerous, but so was she. She may have been a healer, but that didn't mean she didn't know how to fight. She would never hurt anyone like that, never burn or freeze them unless she had to, though. It felt wrong, when she had so much and they had so little. She refused to believe anyone was born evil or wrong, and if they were not, they could be helped. No one was beyond help. Except, perhaps, Maeve.