Chapter 53: Ch 43 p.1

Leah reaches out to pick Vivitha up, then hesitates. She turns back to Seffon with a firm look in her eyes, as though trying to mentally communicate “I must help her, but given our earlier argument I will wait for your permission, but by God if you do not give me permission right away…”

Seffon instructs the guards to take the horse to the stables and let it rest with the best of care, then nods at Leah. “The hospital.”

Relieved, Leah scoops Vivitha up – she’s a bit heavier than Jeno, but Leah can manage – and carries her through the halls to the hospital. A student and an injured militiaman are the only ones present when they arrive, but a swarm of aides follow them in a minute later and start setting things up. Leah has already taken a wet cloth and is cleaning the blood from Vivitha’s face.

“This is the archer?” Seffon half-asks, and Leah nods. “What would she be doing here? Did the group usually send her in advance?”

“How should I know,” Leah mutters. “But she was our one distance fighter. Every time I ever saw us fight she would hang back. It doesn’t make sense to send her in first.”

“I wasn’t sent…”

Both turn down to see Vivitha barely waking up, eyes closed but mouth open a crack. Leah offers her water to drink, and helps support her as she sips.

Sewheil sweeps in imperiously, dressed in work clothes, and the moment she is through the door all the bustle of confused activity falls into order. Her hand glows blue, and she lays it against Vivitha’s forehead. Most of Vivitha’s tension melts away the moment she does, and her eyes open slightly. Then open widely, taking in Sewheil’s obvious Gllythe appearance.

“Vivitha?” Leah gives her hand a squeeze.

Vivitha does not answer, eyes still locked on Sewheil, but as the doctor continues her ministrations with no further indications of strange magic powers, Vivitha relaxes and begins looking around the room, at other faces. Her eyes finally land on Seffon, standing by the door, discussing with a pair of very distraught guards.

“Is that him?” Vivitha asks Leah quietly, and she nods. “He looks taller than I remember.”

“You’re lying down, Vivi, that’s why.”

“Oh.” Vivitha settles back.

“Vivi, what are you doing here?”

Sewheil hands Leah a new wet cloth, this one smelling a bit of alcohol, and directs her to clean the head wound; the doctor starts removing layers of Vivitha’s armour, checking for injury as she goes. Vivitha leans back onto the cot and winces as the disinfectant runs down the cut.

“Valerin…is hit.”

“How do you mean?”

“The ships…are too deep to go upriver. But the soldiers are there. Every wall. They’re surrounded. Kain…”

“Sy souldnau bi talkeng,” Sewheil says firmly but softly. “Sy es exhaus’.”

Leah pulls the hair away from Vivitha’s face and finishes cleaning the wound. “Take it easy Vivi. You made it here, you’re safe for now. Take it easy.”

The cut cleaned, Sewheil takes the bottle of red liquid and pours a few drops over it; the cut closes itself rapidly, leaving a glowing scar. Leah suddenly remembers the healing potion from her memory, and wonders at the comparative quantities – the potion took a few sips to do any work, while this one requires only a few drops? Then again, it’s one thing to heal a life-threatening gash, and another to seal a shallow cut.

Vivitha falls asleep, and Sewheil directs most of the crowd out, so that she can examine the archer for any more injuries and begin the process of helping her recover. Seffon watches from the door, and beckons Leah to follow him out. “She must have ridden hard…the horse has apparently collapsed in the stall, and is not in good shape,” he says, leading her out into the hall.

“How long did you say it takes to get between the cities by horse?”

“Sixteen hours if you don’t stop. From her state, and the horse’s, I would say she either rode hard and got here in twelve, or had to dodge pursuit and took a twisting route. Maybe as many as twenty hours spent riding.”

“But why here?”

“Why indeed?” He looks back towards the hospital, the door now closed. “What did she tell you?”

Leah reports on the little that Vivitha said, and Seffon frowns at the uselessness. They settle on asking her for more tomorrow.

“It will be a lot to ask of you.” When Leah asks for clarification, Seffon reminds her that tonight she should dream about Jeno’s memories. He reminds her that she’s been taken off watch duty for the next day, and considering this new turn of events, he may remove her for more than a day. “When she wakes up…” They have reached the magic tower again.

“I’ll be there to look out for her. I’ll even spend the night in the hospital with her if it will keep tensions low.” Seffon raises an eyebrow at that. Leah shrugs it off. “I remember the reactions people had when I arrived, and if I can do anything to protect Vivitha from people’s ire and reassure locals that she is not a threat, I will do it.

“So then,” Leah finishes, sitting back on the stone table. Seffon looks a little confused. “Before all this, you said there was something you wanted to discuss with me? Something about where I ought to be assigned, to best protect the Hold.”

It takes Seffon a few seconds to get his mind focused. “I think things have changed since then. I was going to ask you to ride as a scout, but I think you’re right that you need to stay by Miss Vivitha for the first few days.”

Leah deflates a bit learning she’s not going to be doing something cool like scouting – and therefore not going to be with Beeswax – but then remembers the other important issue she wanted to bring up. She explains that she has been training a bit with Adan, despite the language barrier, and wants Seffon to explain to Adan about the memory swap.

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“I’ll be here a while yet, and even though I still agree that we should keep the existence of my other world secret, it would help me learn faster if people knew my memories were gone. I’m getting much better at fighting now that I’m being taught the moves, instead of just hoping that muscle memory carries me.”

Seffon agrees quickly to this much, and reminds Leah that Adan was one of the ones guarding her before she awoke; she will need to be given more information soon anyway. Everything else, he says, can be left until tomorrow, when they’ll know more about the situation in Valerin. For the time being, she is assigned guard duty in the hospital. Leah promises to bring the religious book over and Seffon momentarily seems animated again, resuming his habitual distracted mumbling which Leah has started to find rather endearing.

She fetches the book and delivers it to his library, and while she’s there takes back the book on Cheden’s history. That done, she goes back to the hospital; it is emptier than before, and besides Vivitha only the injured militiaman, the student, Sewheil, and one of her assistants are there.

Leah sets up beside Vivitha’s cot with the book, and begins reading up on Cheden’s religious practices.

The pantheon is very different, and seems to be built more on heroic figures than divine forces of nature. One section covers the Adev-Chedic Mythos, a very long collection of epic poetry that covers all canonical elements of Cheden’s mythic history. She muses about what the non-canonical parts are, and who decides which parts are which, but finds nothing more. Must be that ducal family…the one that memorised the whole damn thing. How did they choose which parts to keep and which to discard? Who gave them the authority? Must be a damn complicated political-religious governance in that corner of the country.

She does find one mention of a creation myth; not technically part of the Adev-Ched, as it long predates any of those events, but vital nonetheless. What most catches her eye are the mentions of the various peoples made at creation, and how humans aren’t among them. Well, if species rise and fall with such regularity in this world, it only stands to reason that humans can’t be so very old, and it would be awfully self-centered to assume they were the originals. I wonder what evolution looks like here, if things happen so quickly? I’m inclined to blame magic…didn’t the five say that’s what made the giant spiders?

Hey now, don’t distract yourself; you’re looking at religion, not science.

The story is convoluted, and features the antics of a part-animal demigod hero, who tells increasingly elaborate tales about the rocks and plants and streams, and does so with such emotion that these natural forces gain sentience and listen and take his words to heart. The forces of nature become convinced they are living creatures too, and work amongst themselves to create their own versions of intelligent life – Lubrin, Humans, Gllythe, and others. Each race rises and falls, some multiple times, as nature tries to live up to the stories told by the demigod.

Leah looks to see if there’s an elaboration of what sort of half-animal he is – what kind of animal? And what’s the other half? – but the book does not say, beyond mentioning that he runs sometimes on two and sometimes on four feet. When she finally comes across a picture of the myth she decides the base animal is probably a bear, but she can’t be sure.

A servant brings a tray of food for the patients and staff; everyone takes one of the bowls of broth and goes back to their work. Leah wakes Vivitha up just enough to take a few sips for strength.

“How long were you riding?” she asks in a whisper, but Vivitha can’t answer. “Are the others alright?” Vivitha gives a half-nod, but Leah can’t be sure that wasn’t just her nodding off to sleep.

Leah slumps back into the little wooden chair and tries to stay awake, at least until the others have left the hospital for the evening. Sewheil pats her shoulder and murmurs something about the guards, and Leah sees a vaguely familiar face at the door – more importantly, a face that isn’t looking on Vivitha with open distrust and bitterness.

Leah leans back on one of the spare cots and falls asleep.

*

The dream is not in first person. Strangely, this makes it feel like more of a dream, and Leah does not realise immediately that this must be the memory.

Three Valerid guards follow Jeno a few steps behind, and captain Eschen leads them. Jeno politely dismisses them at her door, and tells one that she will be taking lunch in the parlour. Two nod and depart, and Eschen takes up a station outside the door with the third. He is not wearing any Cheden dagger.

Jeno enters the room, and smiles politely at Samson, who sits at a desk going over books. Samson blushes, and puts aside the work to clear space for them to eat. They talk lightly and awkwardly, but Jeno’s responses get slower and slower. Finally Samson asks if something is on her mind, and Jeno complains of a headache. Samson leads her gently to a divan, and Leah watches as Jeno’s eyes go unfocused, her cheeks slack, her mouth hanging slightly open. Samson notices immediately and seems distressed.

Leah sees a glow of yellow light around Jeno’s hand, but Samson is turning to fetch a guard and does not notice it. She sees the light solidify into a dagger-like shape, and she steels herself for the next part.

Jeno stands up forcefully from the couch, and wraps an arm around Samson’s neck from behind, stabbing up and into the ribcage with the dagger. The yellow glow fades, and Samson splutters a bit then slumps out of her arms.

The whole event is over within ten seconds, barely a noise made by either person. Jeno returns to the couch and lays down as though sleeping, though still staring unblinking at the room. Almost a minute passes in silence, sunlight bouncing off the pale wood window frame and into the room, while Jeno sits semi-comatose on the divan. Eventually the guard returns with a tray of food, then drops it with a yell of horror. A second passes, Jeno flinches, and then she begins to scream as well.

Eschen and the other guard look in and take in the scene. Eschen immediately rushes to Jeno’s side; he’s talking, but she can’t understand him, or at least Leah can’t. He holds her arms firmly, and looks on the scene with horror and anger.

He gives orders to the other guards, sending one to inform Lord and Lady Valerid and the medics, and instructs the other to check for intruders into the room. He turns back to Jeno and runs a thumb along the back of her hand, murmuring. Again Leah cannot parse the sentences into words, but she can hear the sounds clearly.

“Atessaitovdhaole?”

Jeno shakes her head weakly, eyes riveted to the body. “Hevig’noi…hevigeddha…” She turns to Eschen, but still does not look at him.

Eschen’s eyes shine blue for a moment, then fade back to normal, one brown and the other clouded. Jeno’s face goes neutral, then a faint frown forms on her face, shallow lines between her eyebrows.

The scene stays this way for a long moment, and Leah wonders why she hasn’t woken up yet. Something itches at the back of her mind.

The medics arrive to examine the body, to see if there is a chance of saving him, but the boy has been dead for a few minutes already. Leah notices that Wellen is among the group to arrive, and that he seems more interested in the warrior-mage next to the only suspect, but he makes no movement towards them. The hedge-wizard’s dark complexion goes slightly grey as he catches sight of the body on the floor, and he looks back up to Eschen, and then Jeno, who still looks mainly confused.

Why hasn’t it ended yet? What else did Jeno want to show us?

“Show who?” A gentle, sly voice says.

Leah’s dream-face whips around to the source, and she sees Eschen – another one. The original is still beside Jeno, guarding or possibly arresting her, but a new one has entered the scene. He looks dishevelled and exhausted, with a bit of dust in his hair, yet there is a victorious gleam to his glare.

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