A Court of Pain and Sorrow

Brutes

Every day was a torture.

Half of the time she didn't even know who she was or where she was.

Time flew by and her memories were all over the place.

One day, she woke up in Kalta's bed with her head on June's lap while Maxa and Kalta slept on the floor next to them hugging each other.

Other day, she was crying in the toilet while Lysander kept her hair from filling with vomit.

Some time after, she woke up in the dining hall besides Lorcan, who looked at her with a smile on his face.

"This whole poison thing is killing you." Hugo said one day after training.

Apparently, she had volunteered to help him clean everything.
She, obviously, didn't remember it.

"It's not killing me... It just weakens me a little." She said, looking around finding they were the only ones in the training room. "We trained? Last thing I remember I was in bed..." She whispered.

"See! You don't even remember what you did five minutes ago!"

"It'll get better soon. Marylyn said I was doing very well and that in a month the effects of the venom won't be noticable and in another month, I'll be completely inmune." She tried to reason with the man in front of her.

"Anyway, shouldn't you be with Delilah? Having tea?"

"I have tea with Delilah on Sundays, Hugo. Today it's Friday."

The man looked at her wide eyed.

"Shit." Rhaella muttered.

"Go." Hugo said, shaking his head. "I'll finish here."

Rhaella nodded and started to run towards Delilah's chamber. She looked at her watch and saw the time.

Eleven o'clock.
She wasn't that late.

                                  ***

When Rhaella walked through the double doors and into the parlor in Delilah's chamber, she found Maxa, June and Kalta all sitting in silence.

"Where is Delilah?" Rhaella asked, sitting in between June and Kalta.

"She went to fight with the kitchen staff for not having tea ready." Maxa replied. "She'll be back any minute now."

"Where the fuck were you, Archeron?" June asked, turning to look at her.

"I thought it was Friday... I was helping Hugo tide things up."

Kalta laughed.
"This whole poison thing is the worst thing that had happened to me after my purge this year."

"What was your purge this year?" Maxa asked, tilting her head.

Kalta's smile was erased off her face, her eyes drifted somewhere they couldn't see, to her memories of that night.

"We had to steal from a house to some noble family... To the Brauns. My sister didn't make it..." She said.

"I had to kill a whole noble family in the middle of a ball in the Continent. Without mask. The Blackward's. I was tortured after that and after hours someone from the Guild got me out.
Everyone knew who I was so Dante sent me here and cleaned my name in the Continent, but it's not safe for me there yet." June said, looking down.

"Mine was...a bumpy ride." Maxa said, looking at the wall in front of her. "Lysander, Lorcan and me usually do the missions together but this time, Dante split us. I had to murder some criminal who was working for another Lord of Crime...
He was involved with the fae and they almost kill me with their magic.
I only got away because I played dead."