Heirs of the Gods

Ch 37: A Queen's sacrifice

As autumn forged ahead, the days grew shorter and colder. Scarlet and crimson leaves were shed, scarves were pulled out, and the fireplaces were almost always lit, piled high with white birch logs. Gerrathea settled into its usual hectic quiet, and with it, Ella's days fell into a routine.

Despite the chilly gloom of the early hours, Ella spent her mornings in the candle-lit training room, sparring and practising what was now gruelling lessons on martial arts. It was reminiscent of her days learning how to spar. The hours-long lessons were grounding, and Ella found comfort in the one thing that was familiar to her in this new normal.

By the time the sun was up, Ella could usually be found in the infirmary wing. Grayson was still very much in that comatose state, albeit healthier; he'd gained weight again and his bruising was all gone, his broken bones had almost healed as well. Although he wasn't conscious, Ella had kept her promise. She visited him every day, spending a good amount of time simply speaking with him.

They were one-sided conversations, and it was perhaps a little sad, but Ella realized that despite living with Grayson all her life, this was the most she'd spoken to him. Really spoken, not just the trivial conversation of siblings who weren't actually close. She sat by him and told him of her day, she told him of what she was learning, of her friends and her visits to town, and her new life in Gerrathea. He surely couldn't actually hear her, which is perhaps why Ella felt so comfortable confiding in him.

Monologuing, really. Sometimes, she even imagined some of the things he might answer. Ella wondered if maybe she'd finally gone completely batty.

Ella also made a point to visit Sullimona. The grouchy old healer grumbled about her presence so early in the morning, but Ella believed she secretly didn't hate it too much. And so, she spent a couple of days of her week holed up in the bright, herbal scented infirmary, prodding and poking about, asking Sullimona questions about whatever she was brewing at the time. Sullimona, for her part, had decided to make good use of Ella.

"Might as well do something useful if you're going to potter around here", she'd grumble, and set Ella up to chop ingredients, fetch herbs or write the labels for the potions. Ella decidedly liked her mornings with Sullimona, her mint and lemon teas, and all the knowledge the elderly fae had. Despite how much Sullimona fussed, she seemed to have warmed up to Ella as well. Every time Ella left, the elder fae would make her take a handful of homemade honey and lavender candies, she'd send Ella on her way with a pinch or pat to the cheek and a grumbled warning to take care of herself.

The rest of her days were usually spent under a heap of work. Files, stacks of dusty books, piles of yellow parchment, ink on her hands and candles burned to a wick. Despite the amount of work it was, she found purpose in it, it kept her busy and her mind full, too engaged to overthink.

The table in Ella's sitting room could always be found littered with stacks of parchment, wax stamps and mountains of letters. And more often than not, Aedion sat on the other end, ensconced in his work, scrawling away on his own files or planning out drafts Ella would write and annotate. Despite how much he vexed her sometimes, Ella would inwardly admit that these afternoons were made better by his snarky quips and comments. This had become their day-to-day.

Weekly, Ella carved out a day to visit Briar. They exchanged letters multiple times a week, and when Ella had a day off, she'd visit Cereas and spend her day with Briar, enjoying the warmer climate and the lush green as they lazed around and spent hours in the fields. Gidden joined in on these evenings sometimes, but more often than not, he was away on border duty.

With the days, the chaos of the previous weeks had subsided. They'd been able to relocate the bordering villages into safer locations and managed the land's security, with this, the workload had evened out considerably, the meetings had lessened and the castle was back to its usual quiet, no longer packed with courtiers.