234. Awake: Wiremu

The Healers woke Kelda after a week. At that point, she only had bandages on one leg, one arm, her chest and her eyes. Some of the regrown skin was smooth, like her nose, which was all new, but where the skin had been regrown over scared tissue, it was like wrinkled scars. This included her face, skull and neck, as well as most of the front of her body. The healers said the scars would fade with time but never go away.

Once the healers had told her about her healing, the scars and her sight, they left us. Liten was perched on her shoulder, snuggled close, trying to comfort her. Then she just cried. There were no tears, just heart-wrenching sobs. I couldn’t do anything except hold her. When she had cried herself out, she slept. I just stayed and held her. I really, really wanted to kill somebody, but Modrica had already killed them and sucked them dry of blood if Runa is to be believed.

The next day Kelda was just going through the motions mechanically. There was none of the life in her I had come to know. It is like she was in shock. I didn’t know what to do for her, so I stayed

with her to be there. I wanted to do something, say something, but it seemed like there was nothing I could do. Liten was a comfort to her.

She wanted time alone, so I went out to find a place to move her to. She would be able to move shortly, and the healers could come to her. If there is a fight, the beds at the Healer Society will be needed anyway.

I went back with dinner, something easy for her to swallow.

Tabitha joined us, “The Army arrived today, well, the forward scouts. The main body is still four days away. The Captain wasn’t convinced this was happening until I showed him the documents from the safe you brought back.”

“There was stuff there then?”

“Yeah. The Dragon Farters kept the orders from Krov’ and the spy's communication from here, including one from the Duke. Future blackmail, I think. There was info from some other jobs as well. It is being kept for the Military Intelligence team coming with the army.”

“Never trust a mercenary, ah?” I said with a wink.

“Damn right.”

We continued with the light banter, and it seemed to put Kelda at ease somewhat, although she never joined in.

I stayed the night with Kelda again. She had another crying session in the dark.

“You should have just let me die,” she whispered.

“Never going to happen,” I said.

“Why not? I am useless and disfigured. They won’t want me as a Duchess now.”

“You are not useless at all, and I would be pleased if they don’t want you as the duchess. You can come and live with me. Apparently, I own a farm near Duhovno.”

“Apparently? You don’t know?” she sat up.

I shrugged, “The King bought it for me. I have never been there.”

“The king…?” she hit me on the shoulder, “You swine. You are distracting me. Is that true?”

I nodded, “Yeah, but we will be raising chickens, not swine. Tāoke is partial to eggs. Actually, better make that emus or ostriches.”

“We better have a couple of swine. I like my bacon.”

“Deal.”

“Won’t you get sick of me now I am ugly?”

“First of all, you are not ugly. These are battle scars. You have seen every one of mine. Not even Regeneration takes the scars away. Secondly, I have a skill I can teach you to cover them up if you don’t want someone to know about them. Veneer is a short-term Skill, but you will never need to cover them up around me.”

She just held me for a while after that.

Eventually, she said, “You know most of my skills and classes are useless now.”

“We don’t know that. We still need to see the specialist in Waiouru. Even then, you can still see, so we need to test things.”

“Do you know what I see?” She held out a palm, and a small flame appeared. She was using her flame senses. “Every time I look through this or Liten, all I see is me and the ugly scars.”

“And all I see is my princess.”

She hit me on the arm again, “It is Duchess to you, you imp.”

There was some of that fire I was used to. “Yes, ma’am.”

We settled down again for the night after that.

In the morning, I started teaching her Veneer. That afternoon, Tabitha came in. When she saw what we were doing, she stopped, horrified.

“No, no! Don’t let him teach you, Veneer. He thinks the prime method of disguise is beards. If you let him teach you that, he will have you in a beard before the end of the day.”

“But they look good.” I moved my hand away from my face, and I was wearing my red goatee beard with a pencil moustache that I knew Tabitha hated. “See? You, too, could look like this.”

“Hmmm,” said Kelda noncommittally.

“You can see he has a thing for redheads,” Tabitha said.

“I didn’t know that,” Kelda said, and she turned her head toward me. More importantly, I saw Liten turn her head so one eye directly faced me. “Red beards are looking more attractive all the time.”

“Don’t worry, we will get the skill levelled to Apprentice in no time, and you too can look like this,” I said.

Tabitha shook her head, “You two deserve each other. I actually came to say the cottage is ready if you want to relocate. I have a couple of big, burly blokes out here to carry you. It is not far.”

“I am not big and burly,” said Ruku, “I am old and decrepit.”

“And I am not a bloke,” said Runa.

“I fit that description, though,” said Rodion.

Modrica just grunted.

“Look out. Make way, coming through,” said Astrid as she pushed past and into the room. Mayakku was on her heels. “After all, I am the one who says whether she can be moved or not.” She looked at Kelda, “Do you want to be relocated from this fine … ah …. Healer bed in a busy Healers Society hall to a small, quiet, sunny cottage? Actually, I can’t guarantee the quiet bit with this lot.”

“Speak for yourself, woman,” Runa said loudly.

Kelda nodded and Astrid’s question and Astrid proclaimed, “I hereby declare she can be moved! Let's do this!” Rodion dragged a stretcher into the room, and we set about moving her. It was fun, and Astrid made sure we didn’t do any damage.

The cottage was a bit bigger than what it sounds like. It was two-story and not far from the healer's hall. We had prepared a room on the ground floor for Kelda, with doors that open onto the sunny yard. The yard looked smallish with Težka and Cōmpēṟi lying in the sun and dogs running around. The cottage was too small for us all, but Tabitha, Ruku and Runa were staying in official residences elsewhere.

It was a typical wooden cottage, but Kelda took a sharp breath in surprise when she saw her room. I had lined the walls, floor and ceiling in granite, and the bed and key furniture were petrified.

“When?” she asked me.

I ignored the question and said, “It is so you don’t have to worry about holding back if you don’t want to.”

“That is our cue to get out of here,” Tabitha announced, and they all filed out, leaving us alone.

I saw Kelda’s cheeks go red in embarrassment. She was always so tightly controlled with her affinity that the only time she lost control was when she was in the throes of passion. “I’m not…”

“No, no, you need to be much better before we make love,” I said. “But sometimes I just need to let my anger out. Normally, I go hunting, and I don’t really know how you show your anger except by hitting me in the arm, but if you need to…” I shrugged.

“Thank you. I never let my affinity loose. It is just too …” she paused, “bad memories,” she finally concluded.

I just nodded.

Then she said in a quiet voice, “Do you really want to have sex with me looking like this?”

“I don’t just want to have sex with you. I want to make love to you, always. It doesn’t matter what you look like. It is you, that amazing woman inside there,” I tapped her forehead, “that I am in love with.”

“You are in love with me?”

“Was that not obvious?”

“You are an amazing man, Wiremu Hunter.”

I winked at her, “I know.”

She hit my arm again.

“Hey, I have another Skill I could teach you,” I said. “It could be a lot of fun.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, it is called Roleplay.”