Lea's Liberation

City of Stone and Spirits

City of Stone and Spirits

Lea was slow to come around to full consciousness again. Her fever had risen high thanks to the engine's heat and was less cooperative in coming back down again. She was plied constantly with medicine and was kept on the deck of the ship, just below the bow so that the wind wasn't constantly hitting her, but she was still getting fresh, cool air. She was tucked under Emilien's jacket at night, but otherwise, they let her be cold with the hope that the chill would help to break the fever.

It was miserable. Lea was only partially aware of things as she floated in and out of consciousness. The cold and discomfort were her only constants. Even if she was lost in the darkness, unable to recognize who was helping care for her, she was aware of her pains.

It was Addie's soft, amused voice, barely concealing her worry, that finally managed to pull her out of the haze.

"Hey, how long are you going to make me worry, huh? You awake yet?"

Lea grimaced when the words were punctuated with Addie poking her in the forehead. Her eyes squinted open, glaring up at her.

"I'm up already," she croaked, her voice rough from misuse.

A wide, relieved smile stretched out over her unfamiliar face – she still looked like she could have been Emilien's sister – as she wiped away the sweat from Lea's forehead. She had on a pair of gloves to protect her from touching Lea's bare skin. The cool of the leather and the cold of the wet cloth was not a welcome sensation.

"What happened?" Lea asked, her eyes moving around. She only had a few memories of being in the dark hole, then being dragged out into the freezing cold.

Addie continued cleaning her off, then offered her more of the powdered medicine dissolved into a ladle of water, as she described the last few days to Lea. Nothing much had really happened. Addie and Emilien took turns driving the ship and they were already in the shadow of the barrier mountains, searching for the tunnel entrance to Petrus Landebert. Addie had been through here once already, checking to make sure they could get across from this side, but the entrance itself was tiny and the path that once led to it now overgrown and hidden.

"Emile's driving?" Lea asked, looking towards the cockpit. There was a glare on the window protecting the wheel and she couldn't see through it.

"Yup. Don't worry. I've been doing most of the work taking care of you." Addie looked pointedly down at her mostly nude body. They hadn't returned her dress so she could stay as cold as possible leaving her only in her underthings.

Lea grimaced, tightening Emilien's coat around herself. "This is so humiliating... Thank you."

"Sure. No problem. Not that you had much choice. I think you terrified poor Emile. He shudders every time he looks at you."

Lea frowned, pushing herself up into a sitting position. "What? Why? What did I do?"

"Oh, you know that thing you do where, when you're feeling attacked and you take without thinking and sometimes send people into seizures they never wake up from? That thing?"

Lea flinched, trying to disappear into the coat. "I didn't..."

"You did."

"I gave it back though, right?"

"Almost immediately."

Lea hesitated, biting her lip. "How did he take it?" She whispered.

"Better than I did."

Lea groaned, head dropping into her hands.

When paladins were found as adults, they had to prove themselves in combat by fighting a known paladin. For Lea's trial, she had chosen Addie and Addie had very nearly defeated her. It hadn't been the first time Lea's reflexive need to protect herself had forced her to steal from someone, but it had been the first time she had ever stolen that from someone.