Chapter 111: 110. Enflamed

It was Wednesday afternoon when I finally got bored enough to venture out of the bedroom.

Kelly and Keira had me up and moving about by Tuesday evening, but the furthest I'd gone was our ensuite bathroom. Not that there was anything wrong with my legs, or at least, nothing new wrong with them, but I was still feeling weak and fragile after nearly dying on Monday.

After two days in bed I finally got up and got dressed. I had my fuzzy slippers on, a pair of dark leggings, and an oversized comfy tunic top. I carefully made my way down the stairs and into the kitchen, where I put on the coffee machine.

Kelly was back at university today but Keira took the day off. Despite my protests the twins wanted at least one of them here with me incase of trouble. She was currently in the living-room, she had her laptop with her and a movie playing on the TV.

I thought it was silly, I was more or less fully healed by now. I still had the scars though, and they bothered me more than I liked to admit. At least the one I could see bothered me, I didn't really think about the one on my back.

I wasn't sure why it bugged me so much. Maybe it was a vanity thing. My boobs were no longer 'perfect'. Or maybe it was a stark reminder of just how close I'd been to death.

Except the scars on my leg didn't bother me and I'd been just as close to dying when I got them. After five and a half years they still looked fresh. I knew the scar on my chest would fade much faster.

Of course the difference was I got the scars on my leg while trying to save my father. I'd willingly put myself into a dangerous situation. They were more like badges of courage or something. The scar on my boob didn't have an heroic story behind it. I was minding my own business doing work I enjoyed for the two women I loved, and somebody came along and tried to murder me for reasons unknown.

"Well look who's finally up and about."

Keira's words interrupted my train of thought, as she joined me in the kitchen while I was waiting for the coffee machine to finish.

I smiled, "Yeah I finally got bored laying around in bed. I think that was a sign that I'm fully healed."

Her expression became serious as she asked, "You're feeling ok? No weakness, no trouble breathing or anything?"

"I'm fine," I replied. "Apart from the scars, everything's healed up ok."

"Good," Keira stated. She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug as she whispered, "I haven't been that scared since granddad got his hands on Kelly. We thought we were going to lose you, Tegan."

I hugged her back, and we wound up just standing there holding each other for a minute or two. When we eventually let go of each other, I realized she was blinking back some tears.

"Thanks Keira," I said softly as I gave her a warm smile. "I'm sorry I gave you and Kelly such a scare."

When the coffee machine was ready we both fixed up mugs for ourselves, then I joined her in the living-room. She'd turned off the TV already, and the two of us sat together on the sofa.

She had a sip of her coffee then asked, "Are you going to send word to Maeve about what happened?"

I sighed, "I'll have to tell her eventually. I'm not going to make a special trip over there though. The king would be a fool not to suspect I'm secretly visiting my parents now and then. If he knows anything about the assassination attempt he'll probably be expecting us to want to contact my mother immediately, so he'll have people watching or scrying for me."

Keira frowned, "You don't think he's involved in it though?"

"I don't think he's behind it," I replied as I shook my head. "But that doesn't mean he isn't aware of it. Even if he's not, even if Prince Odhran did it all on his own, the prince might also have people monitoring to see if we rush to contact my mother."

She nodded slowly as she thought that over. The two of us continued sipping our coffee in silence for a little while.

Eventually I said "It's only about a month till the next scheduled courier visit. I'll explain everything in my regular letter."

Since the three of us started living in exile, mom set up a regular correspondence exchange. Eight times a year she'd send her courier over to us with letters and sometimes gifts, then we'd send him back with letters for my parents. To keep the schedule simple, the courier came a day or two before each of the four big festivals, and a day or two before the equinoxes and solstices. So we'd see him roughly every six or seven weeks.

"Maeve won't be happy when she hears about it," Keira pointed out.

I shrugged, "No, but whether she hears now or next month won't make any difference. She's not going to be happy regardless, and there's nothing she can really do about it."

"What about Elise and Sue?" she asked. "Actually what about this weekend? Are we still going to have Elise over?"

I shrugged, "I can't think of any reason to cancel? And I'm not going to tell either of them anything about the attack."

Keira smirked and teased, "You know Elise will demand answers if she sees the scar."

I felt my cheeks colouring as I replied "Well she's not going to see it!"

"I don't know cutie," she said as she continued grinning at me. "We all know how you get after your third hard lemonade."

My cheeks were bright red now as I grumped, "That's inappropriate. She's my cousin!"

After a moment I added with a smirk, "But if Elise does happen to see it, I'll just tell her it was an accident after our last archery practice? I was cleaning my bow and it went off."

I timed it just right, and Keira nearly choked on her coffee. She coughed and giggled and gave me a friendly little smack on the arm as she chided me, "You shouldn't joke about that Tegan!"

I grinned, "Anyways, last time I spoke with Elise she said she might be bringing a friend this time. So she'll probably be focused on them."

Keira just smiled and shook her head as I finished my coffee.

As I went into the kitchen to pour myself another, I called back to the living-room "Did Kelly say when she was coming home? Would you two like me to cook something for dinner tonight?"

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Keira joined me in the kitchen after a half minute. She started fixing herself a second cup as well, and replied "I just asked. Kelly says she'll be home by four o'clock, and she said she'll pick up a pizza on the way. She says you're not allowed to cook yet, you're still convalescing."

I rolled my eyes, but I didn't complain.

The two of us returned to the living-room and sat together on the sofa again. We both got comfy, and for a few minutes we just sat and cuddled quietly as we enjoyed our coffee.

We'd both nearly finished when I sighed, "I guess tomorrow morning I'll head back to the workshop and see about cleaning things up."

Keira was quiet for a few more moments, then suggested "Maybe you should just leave it? Kelly and I can go over and deal with it on Saturday."

"I appreciate the offer Keira, but it's ok. I can handle it."

She seemed unconvinced, then after a few moments she said "Kelly will take tomorrow off and help. We don't want you to have to face that on your own, Tegan."

"Thanks Keira," I replied quietly. "And tell Kelly thanks too. I hate seeing you both having to keep missing days here and there because of me though."

"It's fine," she shrugged. "We're so close to the end, it's not like we're missing lectures and important foundational stuff. It's more practical hands-on stuff now, and that's a lot less structured and rigid? I mean worst-case scenario but both Kelly and I could drag it out another few months if we had to. Like if we had to take time to deal with the prince or something like that? We're just sort of putting in the hours and ticking the final checkboxes before the whole thing's finished."

I sighed, "I know. I'd still like to see you both graduate on time, just so it's finally done and out of the way."

• • • • •

Thursday morning I was up early and made the three of us bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then Keira set out alone for the city, while Kelly remained at home with me despite my protests.

We sat together at the table a little while longer and enjoyed another cup of coffee, then we both went upstairs and got dressed.

"You're sure you won't let me take care of this babe?" she asked as we left the house.

I shrugged "It's fine Kelly. I can handle it. I appreciate the offer, and I appreciate you insisting on taking the day off to stay and help. But I'm ok, and I can handle it."

The walk from the house to the workshop only took a half minute. As we got to the front door, Kelly looked a little stressed.

She warned me, "We didn't clean anything at all after it happened. We were too freaked out and upset? We teleported you straight home, we were focused on looking after you, we didn't really think about cleaning."

She sounded guilty as she added, "Then we kind of forgot all about it, until you told Keira you were going to come and deal with it."

"It's ok Kelly. You don't have to keep apologizing."

She nodded slowly but she still looked worried.

There wasn't any evidence of trouble on the outside of the building. Nothing to indicate anything happened a couple days ago. I reached up and took hold of the door, turned the knob then swung it open.

Inside was a whole different story. It absolutely looked like someone did a murder here. I was actually a little shocked at amount of dried blood on the floor.

The shirt and bra I'd been wearing on Monday were crumpled up in a blood-soaked ball on the floor a meter from where I'd been laying. And the arrow was laying on the floor next to them. It was intact, which surprised me. And it was as big as I remembered it. The shaft looked to be almost half an inch thick, and the broad-head point was a large vicious-looking thing with swept-back barbs on either side.

I stood there in the doorway and stared for a few moments, then finally asked "How'd you get the arrow out in one piece?"

Kelly replied softly, "I teleported it out of you. I was afraid it would hurt you too much to snap it and pull it out."

"Good thinking. It probably would have been too much."

I stood there staring for another minute or so, then we finally got to work. We got the mop and bucket out of the storage room at the back, and I took a moment to put away all my drawings so they'd be hidden out of sight.

As we cleaned we found the cardboard courier envelope, it was completely coated in blood but I insisted on opening it anyways. Inside was a single sheet of parchment. It was stained, but still legible.

There was a royal seal at the bottom, but rather than the king's name it was signed by Prince Odhran. The note was written in fae of course. There was just one line, which read "This is the price of refusing a royal marriage."

I sighed "I guess I must have hurt his feelings when I refused to marry him."

"And he wanted us all to know who was behind it," Kelly said with a scowl.

I pointed out, "I'm sure he knows there's nothing any of us can do about it. It's not like we can just go after the king's son. The most we can do is get mother to formally complain to the king."

Kelly was still scowling as she said "We're going to do just that. Send this letter back to Maeve as proof. It might not do anything in the long run, but we can't just let that prick get away with it."

It took us the rest of the morning to finish the clean-up. There was still a stain outlined in the floor that we couldn't get out. Kelly fretted about it, she suggested getting a contractor in to replace the floorboards. I wasn't that worried about it though.

I figured I'd get back to work next week, and if it did start to bother me I'd just get a throw-rug and put that overtop.

When we'd done as much as we could do, I said "C'mon. Let's go home, I'll make us something for lunch."

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