Of Love and Valor

72: Prescribed Fate

To my dying day, I will never regret that I was bandaging Thariyae's face during the executions, keeping my back to the slaughter and my body in Thariyae's line of vision. Listening to it was bad enough. More than once, my stomach heaved, but there was nothing in it to come up. Even now, with the executions long finished and the bodies hauled away to be burned outside the city, I feel as though I may never be hungry again.

Once it was over and Thariyae's bandaging was done and we felt it was safe to move, we found Krethzirae, and I've been more or less fussing over her since then while Thariyae sits nearby, obeying Ansohnya Avizhaisken's orders to rest. The master healer took one look at me, shortly after she found us with Krethzirae, and told me I should be sitting down, too, but I begged her to let me stay busy.

"Stay busy with your friends, if you must," she relented. "You know this one well, too?"

"The three of us live together."

"Oh excellent." She said nothing else, just walked speedily away with a look in her eye like she was planning something. I just shrugged it off and went back to cleaning and re-bandaging the gashes in Krethzirae's leg.

Now, as the sun sinks low in the sky, Krethzirae seems to be getting mildly irritated with my inability to stop moving, my constant checking on and caring for her and Thariyae.

"You really don't have to be doing all this," Krethzirae tells me for what must be the hundredth time as I check her bandages again.

"You took care of me when I was ill. The least I can do is return the favor," I reply mildly. Just let me stay busy. I don't want to think.

"I'm glad to hear that," Ansohnya Avizhaisken interrupts as she approaches us with Kazmiohn Ruokharismet in tow.

"So this is where you've been hiding, Azerai," Kazmiohn Ruokharismet greets me. "I couldn't believe it when Ansohnya Avizhaisken told me. I had to come see for myself."

"You think I would lie to you, Kazmiohn?"

"Never, Ansohnya. Healing just seems so...out of character, for Azerai. That's all."

"She's actually acquitted herself most admirably as my assistant today."

"And Thariyae, Krethzirae, you both seem to be doing well, in spite of your injuries."

"We have had exceptional quality of care today," Krethzirae tells him.

"Always full of surprises, aren't you, Azerai?"

"I thought that was one of my finer qualities, Kazmiohn," I answer, tongue in cheek.

"As long as you don't get any daft ideas about becoming a healer full-time. You are aware, are you not, what your strategies have accomplished for us today?"

"Yes, Kazmiohn, but please let's not speak of that. I don't want—"

"You will have the chance to discuss that with the Yrivvior himself day after tomorrow, I believe. In the meantime, Ansohnya Avizhaisken has requested that, instead of returning you to normal duty, I place you on special assignment so you can tend to your roommates."

"Azerai is more than capable of keeping their wounds clean and changing their bandages, and that's all the care they'll need other than bedrest," Ansohnya Avizhaisken explains. I suspect it's not the first time she's going over this with him. "And if she's taking care of them, my staff and I can devote more of our time and resources to the more critically injured in our forces, from this battle zone and the other two."

"You make a strong argument. Krethzirae, Thariyae. Are you comfortable with this arrangement?"

"Absolutely," Thariyae agrees immediately.