"It's all rather... unsightly." Arthur muttered as he took a step back from his current patient to overlook the damage.
The girl was unconscious, and she looked as though she'd gone through some sort of meat grinder on the way back to Salem's fortress. Her face had been burned badly, and the burns had only managed to crack open. Her eye was where most of the damage was centered, and that wasn't even considering the damage that had been done to her extremities.
Regardless of it all, the two children that she'd been with had done well enough to get her there on time. If they had been much slower, Arthur was sure that he would have had much more to deal with.
But still, this was an assignment unlike any of the ones that he'd ever faced before. Nothing in his many years of experience could ever match up to the predicament before him.
No, Cinder Fall was perhaps the most unique patient that he would ever treat. And with that fact, came the need for only the most precise and delicate care.
"I am not here to hear your comments, Arthur." A voice said behind him. Salem, he recognized easily enough without ever even needing to turn and face the woman. Her presence was anything but a balm, but having Salem there for the time being was somewhat comforting, in a way. "She will be able to be saved?"
Arthur blinked and took a half-step away from the operating table where Cinder Fall lay, ready for treatment but otherwise unconscious. Soon he was going to have to turn back to her and continue his work, but for now, he needed to make a plan to deal with the injuries at hand.
"You say that as though you doubt my abilities," Arthur murmured as he lifted up a scalpel and a roll of gauze which he weighted in his hands. "I will do everything in my power to ensure that the girl lives."
"Good." Salem answered, turning her hand and looking down at her fingers with the long sharp nails. More like claws, perfect for inflicting damage, whether lacerating or gouging. "I trust that you are well aware of what will happen if we lose her, Doctor Watts."
"Of course." Arthur muttered, grimacing as he glanced back over his shoulder to Cinder. "As of now, we can only assume that whoever was last in her thoughts was the little girl. Although, I doubt that it will matter." It was too cocky to say, but Arthur needed it in that moment. Confidence in his abilities was going to be what made this work.
"Yes." Salem repeated, taking a too-smooth step forward so that she could get a look at Cinder for herself. "And if that were to happen, I'm sure that you are able to connect the dots?"
"Of course." Arthur said as he finally took the first step towards the resting Cinder Fall. Almost as soon as she'd landed on his table he'd been sure to dose her with a heavy anesthetic to ensure that there would be no risk of her waking in the middle of treatment. While knowing how much pain and what she was feeling would be useful, Arthur couldn't justify letting her be cognizant through the treatment.
It was simply too risky.
"How soon should she be able to work again?"
Arthur bit back the thousands of comments that flooded immediately to the forefront of his mind that told him what he should say to Salem. He was sure that if she were any other being, he would have gone ahead and just bit them out as he would have in any other situation. But regardless of that, years of experience had taught Arthur plenty.
First and foremost, he wasn't to go off with his normal sort of rudeness when it comes to Salem. If he frustrated her too badly, the he was sure that he would have been struck down long ago.
"I cannot say, unfortunately." Arthur answered, doing little to hide his grimace as he looked down at his patient. "Injuries of this sort and so widespread on the body aren't something that I've had the chance to spend much time treating in the past. And with such an unprecedented situation- Well, I'm sure you understand, your grace."
It couldn't have been any more true, and Arthur was well aware that there was likely much more sarcasm rolling off of his tongue than he needed. With any luck, Salem wouldn't go ahead and confront him about it.
"I would expect as much," Salem said as she lifted a gentle hand to brush some of Cinder's hair away from her face. "Silver Eyed Warriors are rare enough..." She paused. "Ones that have clashed with maidens are even more rare."
"Silver Eyed Warriors are too plentiful for my liking, regardless." Arthur muttered as he looked back down at Cinder. The last time that he'd seen her it had been for a fast exchange of information and goods. Now, she lay on his table looking smaller and much more frail than he remembered. Even when she'd been younger, Arthur couldn't remember a single time that she'd looked this poor.
He forced himself away from the situation in the emotional sense, if only because he knew how bad things could be if he let himself attach too much mentally. It was rare that he found himself with one of his teammates on his table, and even then, it was usually Tyrian.
Cinder being there was a first.
It wasn't that he cared for her, he just didn't need to deal with any sort of distraction beyond the one that was lingering behind him in the form of Salem.
There was a certain sort of silence that settled in the room, interrupted only be the occasional beep of a machine to inform them that Cinder's heart was still beating, even if it was weak. It was almost easy enough for Arthur to settle into the atmosphere mentally.
Cinder Fall was just any other patient. Salem was any other supervisor.
And for a little while, Arthur was able to work. He was careful to focus his work on the girl's face first. The skin was too badly charred to be able to be saved without significant scarring, and that wasn't even to speak for her eye.
He had to steel himself for the task that would surely come ahead. Nothing quite prepared a man from removing such an organ, regardless of their experience.
Salem shifted in close to him, raising a hand up and letting it settle on Arthur's shoulder. He didn't know why, but it was enough to make his entire body go rigid under the contact. He figured that she knew what this was all about, and that she thought that she'd be able to help him relax.
Arthur sighed heavily and set his tools down before looking back at the queen of grimm where she stood. She was staring him down, and she looked more than ready to speak.
But it also seemed that she was waiting for him to say something to her first.
"Yes?"
"It's a serious injury, Watts." Salem spoke as calmly as she could. "Will you be able to save it?"
Arthur paused, and he looked down at the unconscious girl once more as he tried to figure out what he was supposed to do and say. There was no good way for him to go about this.
"I cannot promise anything, your grace." It was exactly what he didn't want to have to say, but there was no easy way to do that. "It may be well beyond my abilities."
"I am entrusting you with her, Doctor." She spoke now with venom dripping from her tongue. There was a brief flitting of something akin to fondness within Watts' chest over the comment, but he couldn't let it show. Instead, he schooled his expression as he would have on any day in Atlas.
"I am well aware, your grace." Arthur answered again. "I will do my best."
"And if you cannot save her eye?"
That was one of the many questions that Arthur didn't want to think about the answer to. There were multitudinous reasons for it, ranging from what the act of removing an eye was like (even for him and with everything that he had done over his many years, Arthur couldn't think of it as anything other than unpleasant) to the thought that to lose the eye would mean a failure on his part.
And Arthur was not a fan of failure, even when the girl was only on his operating table because of a failure of her own. All of this, purely because he hadn't been able to beat a little girl in conflict.
Pathetic, really.
"If I cannot save the eye-" Arthur began, weighing every word against his life, if only because he didn't want to know what would happen following a misstep in a situation like this one. "-Then it will be up to the girl to find a way to adapt to not having it."
He hummed, and he had to fight off the urge to say something about the girl's on vanity. Nothing sufficient came to mind, though. "I would much prefer that she stay as good as she has been."
Arthur fought back a snort in response. He glanced down at Cinder and frowned. "I'm sure that our informant will miss his one of his prize students."
"Watts." Salem snarled his name out, and Arthur couldn't help the slight smile that split his face. "You are aware that he is but a pawn."
"I would consider him more important than a mere pawn." Arthur said with a slight sigh. He tried to think hard on the game of chess to find the perfect analogy for how the man fit in. "Tyrian, this girl's henchmen. They are proper pawns. Lionheart? He's more akin to a bishop we have taken control over."
"You seem comfortable in that statement." Salem commented, taking a seat in the room at Arthur's side and watching as he went about the unpleasant act of cutting away some of her dead and charred skin so that he could properly disinfect and clear the area. "Where would you consider yourself, if that is the game you refer to?"
Arthur almost paused, thinking hard for the correct answer for Salem, but finding himself unable to find the proper one. Nothing that he could say would ever feel truly sufficient.
"Well," Arthur commented with a slight frown. "A knight I suppose."
"Unpredictable then?"
"I only name myself as such because you already have your rook."
"You're referring to Hazel?" Salem asked, leaning in towards him, just slightly. Intimidating and unwavering.
"Of course." Arthur replied as he began to dab some blood away from Cinder's face. "Who else would I be referring to?"
"A good question, I suppose." Salem replied. She was watching his work carefully, and Arthur couldn't shake the feeling that she was probably trying to find a way to help with the operation herself. It normally wouldn't have bothered Arthur.
For the second time that day, he took the moment to remind himself that Salem was like any other supervisor.
To allow himself to be able to forget any of that was potentially dangerous.
"You are considering what to do if the eye is lost?" Arthur guessed, not because he thought that Salem would have a proper answer for him, but more because he needed to do something to try and find out what was going through the woman's head as she stood there beside him.
"Among other things." Salem replied, and Arthur couldn't help but think that she sounded a little bit sad when she said it. He had no doubt in his mind that she was considering the implications of what had landed dear Cinder there in the first place. If it wasn't for the fact that Cinder had somehow managed to obtain the power of the Fall Maiden for herself, Arthur was sure that she would have been left to perish. It wouldn't have been the first time that such a thing had happened on his watch.
But Cinder had that power, and so there was absolutely no room for failure.
Despite that, Arthur was sure that wasn't what Salem was thinking about so hard as she sat there beside him. She was thinking about the maiden's power, of course, but he was sure that there had to be more to it. Mostly, he was sure that he even knew the exact thing that was going through Salem's mind.
It was all about the fact that Cinder had been felled by a child with silver eyes.
If Arthur thought back to the first time that sort of issue had been brought to the table for them to deal with, he could all too easily recall the orders. Salem had been more than harsh and insistent in handing them down. Arthur had been offered the assignment but hadn't been able to take it for himself.
That wasn't to say that he didn't have a hand in treating Hazel's wounds once the man had returned from that particular assignment. He'd seen charred and ruined skin like Cinder now wore before, but with Hazel it had been different.
Despite all of his strength, Hazel didn't have magic swimming through his veins to weaken him so fatally against the divine light of the Silver Eyed Warrior's power.
And by comparison, Hazel seemed to have only taken a glancing blow.
Arthur glanced over at Salem out of the corner of his eye. She had taken Cinder's hand in her own at some point, and was carefully running a thumb over the back of the girl's hand in a weak attempt to comfort her. Cinder wouldn't be able to feel it.
Because of that, Arthur couldn't help that nagging knowledge that he was working for someone that had once been human, perhaps very long ago. It was something that he'd considered many times before, but rarely did the thought come so quickly to the forefront of his mind.
"You know she can't feel it." Arthur said, keeping his voice quiet. "Not that she'll be able to feel much of the other one after this in all likelihood."
"I'm sure she'll regain its use." Salem commented, her eyes narrowing dangerously. Arthur couldn't help but wonder for the moment what she was thinking. Perhaps she had something monstrous in her own bag of tricks that she could use to aid in Cinder's recovery.
Arthur had certainly spent plenty of time considering such things. Grafts between the inhuman and the human that could aid in recovery. Everything that he'd worked with and experimented on had turned out to be all but purely scientific, with actual success as a rarity. Of course, Salem would have more control over such materials.
But despite that, Arthur had his doubts.
"I'll do my best to ensure it, your grace." Arthur said with a low sigh. "I wish this was more akin to what Hazel came back with."
"We both do, Arthur." The woman answered him. "Those injuries made more sense."
"They were less severe." Arthur grumbled in his typical deadpan. "I will say that."
"I suppose you are correct." Salem replied with a quiet hum as she watched Arthur watch a little longer, her red eyes glued to his hands as he worked. Arthur took the chance to go ahead and wipe some off the blood off of his hands before going back to to work.
Arthur leaned in slightly, reaching for a needle and threads so that he could hopefully suture a wound shut and get it to be less of a severe concern as he worked. "Should I expect that you're going to choose someone to go after this girl?" Arthur asked, not bothering to glance over at Salem as he tied a careful knot in the string that he was using. "Seeing as she has silver eyes."
Salem smiled slightly, and she looked a little bit terrifying in her own way. There was a certain sort of beauty to it, but Arthur didn't allow himself to immerse himself in that thought too much. He knew better than to let himself focus on it too much. Besides, he told himself. While beauty was something to be admired and prized, it should not be treated as the end all and be all of anything.
Salem had her beauty, in her own way. But she wasn't wrapped up in her own vanity. It was part of what made her so strong.
"I have been considering it." Salem commented, her voice silky smooth as ever. "Do you think that Hazel would take the task?"
Arthur picked his head up and thought back to the last time that he'd had to patch Hazel up because of a Silver Eyed Warrior. While the man was certainly more than capable of handling the situation, Arthur wasn't so sure that he was going to go ahead and gladly take such an assignment. Especially if the target that he would be pursuing would turn out to be a child.
Somehow, even having killed as many people and in as many ways as Hazel had, the man still managed to cling to his own code of sorts. Arthur did find some admiration in him towards the man for it, but that was mostly because most would have sold out their beliefs much easier upon coming into contact with Salem. Arthur had seen it a few times in the past.
"I expect that Hazel may not be up for the task." Arthur said as he finally slid his needle into Cinder's skin. "You know how he is, with his limits."
"And Tyrian?"
That was a question that Arthur strongly disliked having asked of him, if only because he knew better than most how Tyrian was. While the man was hunting for the Spring Maiden, it was all too likely that he was going to botch that mission. Of all of his teammates that he was used to stitching back together, Arthur had experienced Tyrian on his table more times than he ever would have wanted to.
"If you think that insect would be able to handle the job." Arthur commented, doing his best to bite back any of his frustrations. It was all for his own sake. "Though I may ask-"
"Why I haven't brought you into consideration?" Salem asked, cutting him off before he could get a chance to finish. Arthur knew that he grimaced, but because he wasn't looking back at Salem, it meant that he was going to be able to shield himself for a little while. It was for the best that he had that layer of protection that his work presented to him. The absolute last thing that he needed was for Salem to get in so close to him and work her way under his skin like she normally would.
Arthur tugged at the thread, and watched as one of Cinder's many wounds began to close shut. He was sure that he was going to have to perform a graft of some sort at some point, but that was going to be an issue for later. For now, he needed to be sure to clear any lacerations away from him before they could get out of hand.
The good thing about it all was that the blood had clotted for the most part. It meant that he had a little bit less of a cleanup job to do, and just a little bit less to worry about. Once he was satisfied, Arthur allowed himself to speak again. "I won't lie and say that it hasn't been on my mind. "
Salem hummed quietly, and this was the point in the evening where Arthur suspected that he two of them were going to have to start the normal verbal spars that came from him working for Salem. It wasn't an issue of their partnership, but was just a matter of the fact that the two of them liked to cut rather clear lines about what was expected between the two of them. Salem was to lead, and he was to follow and obey orders.
One of the things that they were clear on was that when things were wrong, he was available to provide counsel to her and act as a strategic aide. It was one of the things that Arthur did truly like about his role under Salem. He felt that he was able to be kept in a higher place of importance over his teammates.
Arthur didn't think for a second that he was the favorite by any means, but the ability to step into a position of power was something that he greatly appreciated.
A quick glance over at the woman out of the corner of his eye told Arthur that she was interested in whatever he was thinking. Arthur sighed as he leaned back in towards his work and did his best to ignore. If she was going to ask him questions, then he would answer. For now, he had a patient to treat.
"Tell me, Arthur." Salem began, her voice as cool and as deadly as always. "For what reasons do you suspect I wouldn't consider you for the task of going after the silver eyed girl?"
"My charming personality." Arthur replied, and he almost wanted to slap himself for the retort, but didn't let it show. If there was anything that he could be sure of, it was the all too strong possibility that Salem was used to his quips at this point in their professional relationship. "Although, I hope that it has to do with my skills being better used elsewhere."
Salem hummed. "I was planning to see to it that you fill in Cinder's place meeting with our informant in Mistral."
"Lionheart?" Arthur muttered. "That fool?"
"Should I not trust you with this assignment?"
That was one of the questions that Arthur definitely didn't want to have to answer, but he supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised by the fact that it had been brought up. Despite that, Arthur kept his expression schooled as he was supposed to before deciding on something that he could say to Salem.
"You know that you can place your faith in me." Arthur said, trying hard not to make it sound like he was scoffing or brushing what she'd said off. "I am always glad to be able to act in your service."
There was a clicking sound just outside the door, and Arthur couldn't do anything to help the slight cringe that raced its way through his body at the sound of it. He took a breath and sighed quietly before setting himself back to work. It wasn't worth it to focus on such things, regardless of what was lingering so closeby.
"I believe that I can trust in you, Arthur." Salem said as she rose to her feet and looked back down at their patient one last time. "When you finish your work, you may use one of my seers to contact me and inform me of Cinder's status."
That was a rare privilege to be afforded, Arthur knew. He looked back down at Cinder and thought hard for a long moment. This was something that he could manage. It was just a matter of continuing his work and being sure to contact Salem later on when it became necessary.
"Of course, your grace." Arthur finally said with a quiet sigh. "I'll be sure to stay in touch." A question flit its way to the forefront of his mind, and so Arthur decided not to let this one go unanswered. "Though I may ask why you are making your departure?"
Salem went to the doorway and paused, looking back at him over her shoulder. "Hazel has returned from his last mission."
"Understood." Arthur murmured. "I'll be sure to contact you when I know what the outcome of this will be."
Salem smiled at him, and that was all that she needed to do before exiting his space and leaving Arthur alone once more. Arthur decided quickly that it was for the best for him to do everything that he could to focus. Ignore the clicking sounds of the grimm outside of his operating room, and do everything to aid in Cinder's recovery.
It was a grueling procedure that took him hours to complete. By the time he was done, Arthur was able to take a moment and write down a memo to ensure that all of the damage was well documented. A part of him hoped that he would be able to use this as a chance to do some medical research on a subject that was next to impossible to study.
A part of him had serious doubts that Salem would ever do something to allow him to do such a thing. But for now, he would have to try.
Arthur carted Cinder off to a room where she could rest and recover in private, and was sure to leave the seer that Salem had entrusted him to stand guard.
Soon enough, news of her condition was brought to his attention, and Arthur was able to relax for a while.
In the end, he didn't wholly disappoint the goddess. Cinder was alive, although she wasn't in the best state possible. The important thing was that she would be able to recover, and would eventually be able to battle for Salem again.
In the end, that was all that Arthur could really hope for.