Manuel and the two Naiads stepped back into the city of Seville, Spain, surrounded by the old familiar Spanish buildings he’d always known, the carriage there waiting for them. The streets were still wet with the rain from earlier, though now the sun had come out in its fullness. Here, the streets of Seville didn’t know the dangers in Caorfi, or the chaos happening on the other side. Everything continued as normal, people walking around completely oblivious.
Manuel's arm burned with pain from his cut. The left side of his white shirt was red with blood from his shoulder. But all he could think about everything that happened within a few hours.
Kailu’s father had heard stories of his mother. It was becoming apparent that his mother was a very significant figure, perhaps even with his father, but what did this have to do with their deaths? How did it happen, and what did it have to do with Francis Stretton? What did he want from them?
Manuel sighed in frustration. It looked like he was going to get the answers he was looking for on Caorfi. But he felt at the moment he was going in circles. He had nothing to do with Caorfi, or Ecencia, or anything. All he wanted was answers.
“Manuel, I’m talking to you! What should we do from here?” Yunara was saying.
Manuel hadn’t noticed she was talking. “¿Que? What were you saying?”
“Where should we go? We need a place to stay for the time being. I think we should stay at an inn to help your injury heal.”
He had almost forgotten about his shoulder. His mind was too focused on his own problems. But he realized she was right. He didn’t know where Lorenn was going to instruct them to go next to reach the next Chosen person, but they would need rest before going anywhere.
So Yunara and Kailu climbed in the carriage and Manuel drove the horse to the closest inn. He paid for two rooms. One for Kailu and Yunara and the other for himself, to respect their privacy as women. They decided that they would consult Lorenn on their next steps in the morning.
The inn was above a bar. The owner of the inn showed them where the stairs were that led to the rooms, and they went up.
It was only evening, but Manuel was already tired. His mind was a confused mess of thoughts, and his shoulder was really starting to burn. “I’m going to bed now,” Manuel said. “Goodnight.”
Yunara said, “Are you going to wrap that?” she asked, pointing to his wound.
“I’ll do it myself, I’m fine,” he said bitterly. He opened the door and moved to pass through, but wasn’t looking where he was going. His shoulder bumped against the frame of the door, and pain erupted in his shoulder, a curse word leaving his lips. It felt like a new knife was wedging itself in his arm.
“Still planning on wrapping it yourself?” Kailu said sarcastically.
“Fine,” he growled through the pain. He went into his room and sat on his bed, Yunara pulling up a chair next to him.
“Take off your shirt,” she told him.
Manuel unbuttoned his shirt and gingerly started removing the well-stained material from his chest. Kailu came in and sucked through her teeth. “Doesn’t look too good to me.”
Manuel hadn’t seen the cut with his shirt off. Around the cut the skin was red and slightly swollen skin that was warm to the touch.
“I agree,” Yunara said as she looked closer at the cut. She placed her hand on his shoulder where it wasn’t affected, a smooth and soft touch, Manuel noted. “It looks infected.”
“Infected?” Manuel asked, jerking his shoulder back.
“Will you be still? I know how to treat wounds. The swords the Dark Ones wielded were filthy. It doesn’t surprise me a cut left you with an infection. Kailu, will you get me a bucket of water and some alcohol from the bar? And when you come back, go into the town right quick to buy some garlic or onions. And honey, if you can find it.”
“Good idea,” she responded. She went off to do what she was asked.
“Garlic? What’s that for?”
“To put on the wound. Its an old Naiad remedy my mother taught me a long time ago.”
Yunara replaced her soft touch on his shoulder, the tenseness in Manuel’s muscles leaving as soon as she did so. He suddenly realized how close she was to him in that moment, her hand on his bicep as she examined his injury. His mind went to when she was fighting earlier. She was amazing. He wondered where she could have possibly learned to fight like that. And she was an incredible quick thinker.
Kailu came back with the water and with a bottle of alcohol. “I’ll go get the garlic and honey now. I’ll be back soon.” With that, Manuel and Yunara were left alone in the room together.
Yunara left for a moment and came back with a long piece of ripped fabric.
“Why don’t you just use my shirt?” he asked. There was no other use for the bloody thing now, anyway.
Yunara shook her head. “It’s too dirty. It’ll only make the infection worse.” She ripped off a small piece, wetted it with the alcohol, and wiped her hands with it. Then she took a bigger piece off and wet it in the bucket of water. “Don’t move,” she warned. Then she started gently wiping at the cut.
“Ah!” Manuel grunted.
“I told you to be still!”
“It hurts!”
Yunara sighed. “That’s nothing. Just wait until I use the alcohol.”
“Don’t be so rough with it,” Manuel said briskly.
“I’m being as careful as I can, just don’t move.”
Yunara moved gingerly across his shoulder with her makeshift rag. But she worked with a look of displeasure. He remembered when he was helping her with Spanish. She smiled a lot more then. But she didn’t smile around him anymore. She was leaning in close to him as she worked, but she was stiff, like she didn’t want to be in his presence.
If he was being honest, he knew the way he was treating Yunara had changed since when he first met her laying there on a bloody haystack in his horse’s stables. He didn’t know why. She did nothing to deserve it. But for whatever reason ever since the letter from Fernando showed up, he couldn’t help the feeling of not sadness or despair, but anger. And even moreso when they left. He felt like the letter woke up a lot of dormant emotions that he didn’t think he had to feel anymore. He didn’t understand it, but all he felt when he thought about his parents and their secret life, about the man that took their lives, Lord Stretton, was an anger that was hard for him to contain. Leaving Fernando’s masia had left Manuel with a lot of feelings he didn’t understand.
Yunara wet the rag with the alcohol as she shook her head. “If you thought the water hurt... now, don’t move this time.”
As soon as she touched his skin with the fabric, a searing pain flared up that left him cursing like a sailor. “Stop, just leave it alone,” he said, pulling away from her.
“You act like a child!”
“I’m not a child. It burns. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
“If you think I’m doing such a bad job, clean it yourself.” she threw the cloth on his lap and started for the door.
“Wait, where are you going?” he got up and reached for her arm to stop her.
At his touch, she jerked away. “Unhand me.”
Manuel moved his hand away, some part of him wishing he didn’t. “Where are you going?”
“You obviously don’t want my help, I don’t see what I’m doing here.”
“So you’re just going to leave me here?”
“What, would you like me to stay here and coddle you?”
At this point Manuel was getting mad. She had such impatience with him! Who did she think she was? “Maybe you should. It would teach you how a proper maid is supposed to act.”
That last phrase froze air between them for a moment. “What did you just say to me?” Yunara asked incredulously.
Manuel spoke off of his anger and couldn’t stop. All of his frustrations poured into his words in that moment and blinded him, and he was going to let it. Because what he was really feeling in this moment, alone, with her, he wasn’t willing to face. “I said it's about time you knew your place as a servant. I don’t know what kind of castle is run in Ecencia that they let someone with your kind of attitude work there, but here in Spain it’s unacceptable. It’s unheard of for a servant to completely ignore a Lord the way you’ve ignored me, constantly eyeing me with a chilly stare. I hope you remember I’m here to help you. Is this how a maid shows gratitude to her Lord in Ecencia?”
Manuel was fueled only by the heat of his emotions. He only realized the gravity of what had he said when he was met by Yunara’s icy silence. She didn’t respond right away, and it tortured him every moment that passed with not a sound in the room.
“I honestly don’t know what it is that has changed your attitude towards me,” she spoke with ice. “but ever since we went to Fernando’s masia, you’ve barely even spoken to me or acknowledged my existence. Something has changed in your manner towards me, not the other way around, Lord Suarez.”
Something pierced Manuel in the chest to hear her use his title instead of his name for the first time since he’d known her. Suddenly the pain in his shoulder seemed numb in comparison.
“I am not your maid,” she continued. “thank goodness I never got to be. And as such, I don’t give a damn to tell you whatever I like, Lord Suarez. Your comments are uncalled for and above all, selfish. And I don’t tolerate them, because despite my being a maid, I have too much self respect to believe you can treat me this way, or anyone for that matter. You can treat your own damn shoulder.”
With that Yunara left the room and slammed the door.
Manuel went back to his bed and kicked over the bucket of water. He looked at the bag of seeing powder that sat next to his bed, right next to his father’s second book. He was tired of putting it on every morning. But he couldn’t stop using it now. He couldn’t let Yunara know.
Why was this happening to him? He pushed a hand through the curls of his hair in frustration. The truth was he stopped needing the seeing powder since he left Fernando’s masia. He could see her without it. The truth infuriated him, but yet he couldn’t let it go. He had fallen in love with that Naiad.
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Aaaaaaaagh! I loved writing this chapter so much, it's really sad. This chapter is a little on the longer side, but I think it does its job. I also love switching to Manuel’s POV.
So what do you think about Manny? Hiding from her the fact that he doesn't need the seeing powder! What do you think will come out of this?
Be sure to comment, rate, and subscribe while you're at it :)