Chapter Twenty-Two: A History Lesson
When Aria awoke the next morning, it was to the smell of freshly picked roses and the sound of a wooden tray hitting the surface of her desk with slightly more noise than altogether necessary. Groaning slightly, her now-conscious form felt a kink shoot up her spine and through her shoulders with a ferocity that nearly burned in its vehemence. "I made a mistake." She murmured, not daring to open her eyes to face the person that had woken her.
A soft, disapproving noise emanated from the area of her desk - halfway between a sigh and a small snort. "I should say so, my Lady." Came an equally disapproving answer from the Nymph that had left her in the same position the evening before.
That was all that was said for the moment, however, and Aria allowed her brain to fully wake to the comforting sounds of metal and wood set against each other, the luscious smell of strong tea emanating from across the room to greet her nostrils. She cautiously began to stretch her neck from side to side, the muscles angry that she had fallen asleep on a couch that - though wonderfully pillowed and supportive of the rest of her body - had not managed to adequately support her head or neck throughout her dreaming state.
After a few minutes of this, she braced herself for a clear view of Pristine's disapproval and opened her eyes to find her caretaker patiently waiting near the desk with a cup of tea that steamed with the promise of warm, brain de-fuzzing heaven, and a raised eyebrow that topped a bemused, damask-colored glare in her direction. "I seem to remember someone in this room promising that they would be able to get themselves up to a proper bed without assistance." The Nymph mused.
Aria grimaced, straightening her too-tight shoulders as much as she dared and running a sheepish hand through her tangled hair. Her fingers tangled in the braid that still was captured in a headband keeping the rest of her hair from her face, but the silken ribbon holding it there had loosened considerably overnight, and the braid was pushed out of place with another shove. "I'm sure that I could have." She protested, offering an equally sheepish smile to her companion. "I merely - never got the chance to try."
"Mm-hm." Pristine acquiesced mildly, stepping forward to hand the warmed wooden cup to her charge. "I believe I also remember warning you not to read so late into the night?" And though the inflection at the end of her sentence was raised in the intonation of a question, Aria knew a direct statement when she heard one.
Her hopeful smile dissolved into another grimacing frown as she agreed that the Nymph had, indeed, warned that very thing before she'd left for the evening. "It was just so interesting!" She defended, however, gesturing to the heavy book still in her lap. "The chapter on the Lone Islands alone!"
The proffered cup was taken out of reach once more as Pristine's eyes narrowed. "By the great Lion, please tell me that you did not see the sunrise, my Lady."
"No!" Aria confirmed quickly. "No, I - at least, I don't think that I did." She smiled once more. "I honestly wasn't paying attention."
Pristine's answer came in the form of a sigh - that was quite long-suffering for someone who had only known her less than a day - as she once more offered the cup of very much needed tea to her charge, but it seemed that she knew that any more argument over the subject was likely to prove fruitless. At least Aria had not overtaxed her injuries any further, which could arguably be considered a triumph for the Nymph.
Aria took the cup with a grateful thanks and inhaled the sweet aroma deeply - half intrigued and half making sure that it was not any more tonic, shivering slightly at the remembrance of last night's brew. Instead of the medicinal turmeric and rosemary, she smelled the rich tones of malty, black tea, with a slight hint of- "What's in this?" She asked of her companion, brow puzzling over the new scent.
"It's my own blend, my Lady." Pristine answered, a genuine smile washing over her rosy features. "I take Madame Luvris's very best tea leaves and add few rose petals to the mixture. I think it gives the most pleasant aftertaste."
Taking the Nymph at her word, Aria sipped at the piping hot brew and found that the small hint of rose within gave a beautiful lift to the otherwise very heavy and hearty black blend of leaves. And indeed, once she had swallowed, she was left with a bit of floral on her tongue that was extremely pleasant. "Well," She grinned. "I have said it once, and I will gladly say it again. You are an absolute genius, Pristine. It's delicious."
The Nymph flushed a deep rose with pleasure and thanked the girl before moving to pick up the now thoroughly dried-out cake from last evening as well. As she did so, Aria gagged from very nearly inhaling her next sip of tea. "Oh!" She cried. "Oh, please don't let Madame Luvris see that I didn't eat any." Aria could just imagine the dwarf's hurt feelings - and after she'd gone to all the trouble to remember that Aria would get some of the treat. "I don't want her to think that I didn't enjoy it! I only-"
"Completely forgot about it in favor of a good book?" Pristine smiled. At Aria's answering biting of her lower lip, the Nymph relented. "Don't worry. I'll be sure to tell her that you were thoroughly delighted."
Aria sighed her thanks into her cup as the dessert was taken away from her. As she slowly drank the rest of her morning brew, her mind absently listened to Pristine telling her that the rest of the castle was soon to wake as well, and that she had it on good authority that Brettaine would be arriving shortly to go over her handiwork from the night before. As the warmth of the tea washed through her, her eyes fell once more on the history tome in her lap.
A sudden vertigo overwhelmed her - an urge prodded at the back of her mind, causing her brow to furrow at the old leather. She was forgetting to do something; she was almost sure of it. "Pristine?" She queried, interrupting the Nymph's train of plans for the morning. Absently, her injured hand found her pendant and began rolling it between her fingers. "Did I forget to do something important last night?"
Pristine paused, her eyes growing slightly concerned. "Other than going up to bed, you mean?" She took a step towards Aria's sofa, her hand beginning to reach out towards the girl's head to check for a sign of fever.
The girl shook her head, smiling slightly. "No, I remember that I didn't do that. But, was there something else I forgot?" Her smile slid away again, and she turned the tome over carefully, her fingers keeping it open to the last page she'd been able to keep her eyes open for. "Or - did I need to do something this morning? Wake up earlier, perhaps?"
The Nymph shook her head. "I don't believe so, my Lady." She confirmed. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm not sure." Aria answered, shaking her head again. "I just have this feeling that I'm forgetting something very important. I wasn't supposed to - to go anywhere this morning?" Her eyes searched the Nymph's for a surety that she didn't quite feel.
Pristine shook her head. "I'm afraid you won't be going anywhere of significance on that ankle of yours, my Lady." She ordered. "You must feel that you ought to accompany Kings Peter and Edmund when they leave, but you're under strict orders to remain behind and heal yourself, remember?"
Aria nodded absently, focusing back on her tea instead of the book. "Of course." She murmured. "That must be it." And although the answer didn't quite feel like the right one, her vertigo lifted with the next sip of her tea and she felt better, nonetheless. Deciding to attribute the feeling to a fuzzy head in need of jostling awake, she dropped her pendant and plucked the no-longer-useful ribbon from her mussed hair and draped it between the pages of the history tome, deeming it a useful bookmark and closing the cover over it.
She reached to set the book on the stool vacated by her dessert plate and drained the dregs of her cup before moving her attentions to her injured limbs. The pleasant tingling sensations of the healer's poultices had stopped sometime during the late-night hours, but the feeling had not yet been replaced with any pain or burning as had been the case yesterday. She moved her wrist about carefully within her sling, feeling her skin pull strangely from under the bandages, but did not incite any twinge beyond that.
Feeling braver, she wiggled the rest of her arm, gingerly bending her elbow as much as the thick poultice and gauze would allow. Again, there was thankfully no pain, but the movement did alert her to a slight itch that she attributed to the stitches. Knowing that, were she to dwell on the sensation, that the itch would only get worse and she would be forced to do something about it herself, she stopped moving her arm and shifted her focus to her injured ankle instead.
Having found that stretching the limb was beyond its overtaxed abilities the previous evening, she chanced attempting to gently point her toes this morning. Doing so set off a slight twinge of protest up the outer ligaments, but it was gone as soon as she relaxed her foot. Her brow furrowed in a glare at the inconvenient limb, and she slowly flexed her toes instead of pointing them, and found that this was much less of a problem. She then slowly began to rotate her ankle until she felt another twinge, but as it was only a slight one, she chose to ignore it.
Deeming the injury to be sufficiently no-longer-taxed, she decided that it was time to get up and began to remove her foot from its pillow.
"Oh, no, you don't." Came an abrupt halt from her attending Nymph, with a hastily added 'My Lady' after a sharp pause. "You'll wait right there for Brettaine to take a look over her handiwork, or I'll see to it that you'll be drinking two cups of tonic this morning."
The reminder of the foul-tasting brew was enough to freeze the girl in place, her nose wrinkling with utter distaste. Then she balked, suddenly realizing that if Pristine was threatening her with a double dose of the medicine, that she likely was going to be forced to drink one. So, when the Nymph came back to her side and held out her nimble fingers for Aria's empty mug, the girl very sheepishly handed it to her.
Giving off an amused chuckle, Pristine moved back to the desk. "Don't worry yet, my Lady. Your morning brew is still all I have for you right now. Your tonic will wait until Brettaine arrives."
"Small mercies." Aria mumbled, sinking deeper into her pillows once more and trying not to feel like an invalid. When Pristine approached her again, she offered not another steaming mug of tea, but rather a small plate piled high with berries and a glazed bun that smelled sweet and warm. Enticed and almost ready to forgive being forced to stay immobile, she offered the Nymph a smile of thanks and accepted her breakfast.
Apparently nearly satisfied that her ward was sufficiently cowed into staying in place without supervision, Pristine moved towards the iron staircase, sending Aria one more rose-colored look of 'stay put' before flitting up the steps to Aria's bedroom. As the last of the handkerchief hem of her skirts disappeared from view, Aria lifted her foot straight up of the pillow and rotated it in the air for good measure, the slight twinge it gave off completely worth it before she settled it down again.
Allowing herself a small chuckle at her defiance, she settled her new plate into her injured fingers and reached once more for the history tome. If she was going to be stuck on this couch, she was going be entertained. Using her ribbon to open the cover to the correct page, she settled it back into her lap and had just found her last-read spot when Pristine's footsteps began their descent.
She snagged the now-empty stool and placed it behind Aria, settling herself with a whisper of skirts and gently pulling the girl's long hair out from behind her back. "Where are we in history this morning, my Lady?" She asked, her fingers gently untangling the remnants of Aria's braid.
"The early four-hundreds." Aria said, confirming this by flipping to the previous page and seeing the beginning of the chapter, the swirling text entitling it: 'The Four Hundreds'. Apparently, she had not gotten very far into this chapter before her eyelids had given up in the early hours of the morning.
Pristine gave a small sound of approval, followed by an "Ah, brave King Olvin." Then there came a giggle. "Brave and romantic."
"The King of Narnia?" Aria asked. Taking her eyes away from the page, she tried to turn her head to look at the Nymph, only to be thwarted by Pristine's fingers keeping her head still.
"No, he was the King of Archenland." Pristine corrected, plucking up the golden brush she'd retrieved from upstairs and beginning to gently stroke Aria's wayward hair back into submission. "Early in his reign, there was a great two-headed giant who was threatening the countryside. Specifically, a stretch of land belonging to one of his great lords. He would steal whole herds of sheep for his meals, step on houses as if they were mere nutshells in his path, even his footprints dug so deep into the ground that it created terrible sinkholes all over the land."
Here, the Nymph paused, and Aria chanced looking back at her. Under a raised brow, rose-colored eyes pointedly indicated her untouched breakfast. Aria hastily plucked up the glazed bun, taking a large bite before Pristine continued.
"Now, the lord that ruled over these lands was named Locke, and he tried, at first, to leave the giant alone. A few flocks of sheep here and there could be paid for and replaced, peasant homes could be easily rebuilt with the help of his soldiers, and his people could go around the great footprints with only a bit more trouble than usual. But, eventually, his complacency got the better of his people.
"The giant, who had given himself the name of Pire, began not just to eat livestock and crush the occasional hut, but started to develop a taste for humans. And for this, Lord Locke could no longer stand idly by. He sent soldiers to kill the brute, but most never returned, and those who did spoke of a beast over five hundred feet tall, whose viciousness was without equal. But still, Locke endeavored to stop the giant. Contingent after contingent he sent after it, until he had no army left.
"Desperate, he sent out a plea, that anyone who rid his lands of the mighty creature would not only have all the riches his lands could still provide, but his daughter's hand in marriage as well." Pristine paused again, having finished with the brush, and set it to the side. As her fingers returned to Aria's locks, beginning to twist a few strands into a braid once more, Aria felt a question bubble to her lips.
"How did the King not know about a giant before that?" She asked after swallowing the last of her bread. "Shouldn't he have sent help sooner?"
"Well, you see, King Olvin was the sort who would have done everything he could to help the situation, but Lord Locke, afraid that his failure to protect his lands might be seen as a weakness and lower his status at court, had gone to great pains to keep the secret of the giant from the rest of the country. It was not until he had no recourse left, that he sent the word out across the kingdom.
"As soon as Fair King Olvin heard about the situation, he set off for the countryside, bringing his own contingent of soldiers with him. They stopped at Lord Locke's manor, for Olvin wished to have as much information about his new foe as possible, and were greeted not by the Lord himself, but by his daughter, Lady Liln. It's widely said that as soon as Olvin saw her, he was so awed by her beauty that he fell to his knees before her, pledging her his service until his dying breath."
Here, Pristine paused again, finished with the smaller braid and now gathering the rest of Aria's hair and loosely twisting it around the first. When she continued her voice was in a far more hushed and conspiratorial tone. "I'm of the firm belief that Lord Locke arranged the meeting himself, as he would have been certain that, without Liln as a buffer, he would have been in quite a bit of trouble for not asking for help for his people sooner." And Aria found herself nodding, believing that the Nymph was likely very right.
"Now, the problem Olvin soon faced, however, was that when Lord Locke had sent out his request for help, he failed to mention the sheer size of the giant they would be dealing with. King Olvin's single contingent, no matter how brave the soldiers or great their battle prowess, could not hope to bring down a giant of that size alone. But nothing was said to him by any of the Lord's men, and it's unknown of the Lady Liln even knew to warn him, so after meeting with his hoped future bride, Olvin immediately set off with his men to slay the giant.
"They scoured the countryside, finding trails of footprints and destroyed villages in the great creature's wake - but no sign of Pire the Giant himself. It was not until very late one night, while the soldiers were asleep in their camp, that Pire made himself known to them. The first footstep they could feel woke the horses, sending them into a frenzy. The second woke the soldiers themselves, and the third even woke the heaviest sleepers among them. The fourth step, I'm afraid to say, destroyed a third of the camp before they could truly move from their beds.
"King Olvin, now witnessing just how outmatched they were, ordered his remaining troops to run, and attempted to do so himself. Unfortunately, his coloring was so fair, and his long hair shone so brightly in the moonlight, that he was easy for the giant to spot, and to follow. It was now that his bravery was truly tested, as he ran to lead the creature away from his troops, dodging hands that were five times the size of him, and boots that could squash him without even a crunch.
"Of course, no human can hope to outrun a giant forever, and soon Pire caught Olvin within his grasp. As soon as the great hand clasped him, Olvin believed himself done for. Either he would be crushed within the beast's grasp, or one of its two heads would eat him whole. All that was left to decide, of course, was which head would have the honor."
Aria smiled, unable to contain a slight 'aha!'. "I see where this is going. So, the brave, romantic King Olvin was also quite the wise strategist?"
Pristine chuckled behind her, finishing the last twist of the larger braid and tying it off with a long white ribbon. "Just so, my Lady. He had those two heads arguing over which one would eat him until the sun came up." Seemingly finished, the Nymph stood from the stool and began to move away.
Aria's brow furrowed. "Then what happened?" She asked. "Did more soldiers arrive? Did the heads start fighting each other and forget about him?"
Pristine paused, turning back to the girl with her own confused expression. "Pire turned to stone, my Lady." She explained, shaking her head at the seemingly obviousness of the outcome. "Everyone knows that giants who hold wickedness in their hearts turn to stone when touched by the sun's rays."
Aria balked slightly at this. She had not known that fact, but was suddenly impressed that it was something to be aware of. It definitely seemed something of a useful bit of information if one were ever to be threatened by a wicked giant. She said as much aloud to her companion, causing Pristine to smile at her. "Yes," She agreed, nodding. "And now, Mount Pire is the tallest peak in all of Archenland, forever a testament to keeping one's head in the face of adversity."
Aria was about to ask her more; how a five-hundred-foot giant could avoid sunlight before meeting Olvin her chief question. However, her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a timid knock from the door below.
Pristine moved to the stone steps. "I expect that will be Brettaine." She mused, starting down them to let in the newcomer. As she did so, Aria closed the history book over her discarded ribbon once more, settling it spine-down between her hip and the back of couch so that it wouldn't block the low stool in case the apprentice healer needed it. Pristine would have simply moved the tome out of her way, but Brettaine was definitely the type to allow such a thing to remain an inconvenience.
A little over half an hour later, in which Pristine had hidden disapproving looks and audibly held her tongue twice for the sake of peace, the wound on Aria's forearm had been checked for infection, tinctures had again been applied to the worst of the area, and the bandaged had been replaced. And all without the drama of another fainting spell, as the capable healer had learned quickly not to allow her patient a single glance at the process.
The truly terrible news of the morning was that Aria was, indeed, prescribed the horrid tonic to help stave off any inflammation.
Resigning herself to her fate, she did not even attempt to argue as her morning cup was once again offered to her, this time giving off not the creamy aroma of rose-laced tea, but the truly horrid medicinal smell of the turmeric blend. Once it was in her hand, and Brettaine had moved to check her ankle, Pristine removed herself, flitting back up the stairs to Aria's bedroom in order to choose her clothes for the day ahead.
Giving thanks to small mercies that the liquid in her mug was no longer hot enough to scald her, Aria took a deep breath. Steeling herself, she pressed the lip of the cup to her lips and did her best to gulp the tonic down in as few swallows as possible. When she was finished, shuddering with revulsion and trying very hard not to gag, she focused her attention on the apprentice healer, willing her brain to overlook the torturous ordeal.
Brettaine was just finished with tightening the wrapping around her ankle, nimble hands careful not to jostle the poultice still pressed to the tooth marks. Once the ends of the bandage were tied once more, she gently rotated Aria's foot to get a feel for how sound the joint fared this morning. Again, Aria felt a small twinge up the outer edge, but thankfully nothing akin to the pain of yesterday.
"How does that fare, my Lady?" The Faun asked, and Aria could not help her grin at the absence of nervous stuttering for the first time since she'd entered the library.
"Pretty well, I think." Aria answered. "It feels a bit tight if it stretches too far, but not too bad."
Brettaine nodded and placed Aria's foot back on the pillow before getting to her hooves. "W-well, my Lady," She started. "Now that you've rested, I b-believe we should t-try to test your weight."
Unable to contain her glee, Aria sat up so sharply that the nervous healer gave off a squeak of fright. Taking several steps back from her patient, the high points of her ankles smacked into one of the smaller window seats, forcing her to sit down sharply, and her large brown eyes widened impossibly in nervous surprise.
Forgetting her excitement entirely, Aria was off the couch and at the Fawn's side in the space of one breath, asking "Are you all right?" and offering her good hand to help Brettaine. With shaking fingers, the Fawn took Aria's hand, but made no move to rise. Instead, at her small attempt of a nod, the girl added, "I didn't mean to startle you. Please forgive me."
As if on cue, there was a resigned sigh from the top of the bedroom stairs. "I leave this room for five minutes - at the most," She began, and the heads of both of the guilty parties swiveled to meet a glare that was both perturbed and resigned. "And return to find - this."
Aria bit the inside of her cheek, eyes dropping from Pristine's figure on the stairs, to Brettaine's still startled face for a moment. Then, looking back up at the Nymph, she smiled and offered, "Let's be honest - this isn't nearly as bad as it could have been."
From the Fawn next to her, there was a short breath that might almost be mistaken for a laugh. From Pristine, a long moment while she tried to contain a straight and disapproving face. The moment ended, however, when her disapproval broke into her own smile, and she began to descend the remainder of the roundabout once more.
In her arms, she carried a luxurious swath of flowing white fabric shot through with pinpricks of faint blue. As Aria helped Brettaine to stand upright once more, Pristine laid the gown gently on one of the armchairs and approached the pair.
Working together, it thankfully did not take long before Aria was dressed and ready for the day ahead. The sumptuous georgette fabric fell lightly around her, the underskirt hemmed with thick royal blue ribbon, and the parted edges of the outer skirt trimmed with hundreds of small pearls. The neckline of her bodice, which today laced up the back neatly, was also trimmed with blue ribbon and pearls. The sleeves, plain white and soft, were slimly tapered, but had slid over her thick bandages easily enough, and set into the bodice at the shoulders under a gentle royal blue cap sleeve lightly detailed with even more pearls.
As Brettaine checked that Aria's sleeve wasn't pulling at the edge of her bandage, Aria watched as Pristine added a girdle made from a long rope of pearls, buckled at her hips with a brooch of aquamarine set in gold, and was entranced at the sheer abundance of gemstones.
"That's-" She began, using her good hand to pluck at her overskirt, amazed that it didn't weigh a hundred pounds. "This is quite a lot of pearls, Pristine." Suddenly, she carefully smoothed the overskirt back down, making absolutely certain that her nails didn't snag on a single one, and, holding her hand at a safe distance from the precious stones, she breathed anxiously, "This gown must have cost a fortune!"
Instead of sharing in her charge's sudden anxiety, Pristine merely laughed. "Oh, no, my Lady." She disagreed. "Please don't fear. Pearls are no great rarity in this part of Narnia."
Aria's brow furrowed, "They aren't?"
The Nymph shook her head, gesturing behind Aria towards the wall. "Cair Paravel sits next to the sea, and our closest neighbors happen to be an undersea kingdom, home to hundreds of mermaids who love nothing more than searching for pearls and trading them for trinkets that can only be found on land." At this, she straightened the thin belt at Aria's hips before continuing. "I believe that these were traded for a bouquet of glass-blown flowers for one of the mermen's sweethearts."
A vivid picture of such a scene grew in Aria's mind, and she felt her lips pulling back into a smile at the thought of it. "That sounds incredibly sweet." She murmured, her fingers gently coming back into contact with the pearls sewn into her gown as her mind's eye watched a young merman, face filled with hope, rushing through the waves to deliver his prize.
Her own smile growing soft, Pristine stepped around Aria to tighten the ribbon at the end of her earlier braid, the long tails of which mingled with her skirts rather prettily. As she did so, Brettaine gently prodded Aria's inner elbow to gauge the security of her bandages there as well, and Aria noticed her nervous expression furrow into a slight frown.
"Is something wrong?" She asked, suddenly very much concerned about unhealed wounds and delicate white fabric. She felt Pristine pause in her ministrations and poke her head around to watch the healer, who swallowed nervously.
"N-no, M-my Lady." She stammered, her eyes flitting to the Nymph and back, again very uncomfortable with such scrutiny. "I-I - you - th-that is, the sleeves a-are..." But here she stopped, swallowing thickly as her throat closed on itself.
The Fawn quickly withdrew her hands from Aria's arm, fingers twisting together as she worked her jaw. Her eyes fell to the floor in an effort to escape Pristine's gaze, but it seemed not to help. Seeking to comfort her, Aria tried to guess herself. "Do you think the sleeves are too tight?" She offered, and smiled as Brettaine managed a small nod. "Should we change-"
But Pristine, who, it seemed, has reached her limit of patience this morning, was not having it. "By the Lion!" She exasperated. "We've only just finished. Might you not have mentioned that a bit sooner?" And, with a scowl that might have wilted every rose within the room, the Nymph began to move towards the stairs again.
No sooner had she reached the bannister, than Brettaine was able to find her voice. "I-I don't ..." She started, and Pristine paused as Aria gave an encouraging smile. "I b-believe th-that the b-bandage here m-might become t-too t-tight while w-wearing the sling, M-my Lady."
Pristine sighed and nodded, placing one foot on the bottom stair, but Brettaine continued. "H-however, if M-my Lady could p-promise to be careful, I-I b-believe that you m-might be able to go w-without the sling. A-at least for the m-morning."
And Aria could not have contained her grin if her very life had depended on it.
"Really?" She exclaimed. "I don't have to wear it?"
"I-" Brettaine started, but was once again interrupted by Pristine.
"Now you've done it." Came the stern and inevitable disapproval. "She'll never be convinced to put the sling back on now."
Trying, and utterly failing, to calm her excitement, Aria attempted to reassure her caretaker. "I promise that I will follow all of Brettaine's recommendations today." She offered. "If she tells me later that I should put my sling back on, then, of course, I will."
"And I promise that she will be available for just such an inspection." Came a new voice into the discussion, and all three girls turned to find Susan gliding up the last of Aria's stairs. She looked absolutely lovely in a loose-sleeved gown of green and grey, her glossy hair spilling about her shoulders, and her smile told Aria that she was about to put her foot down on the matter. "I would suggest right before lunch might be a good time?"
Both Nymph and Faun dipped curtsies to their eldest queen, one as graceful as a flower swaying in the wind, and the other rather jumpy, although she managed not to knock anything over. "Th-that w-would b-be - uh - b-be f-fine, Your M-Majesty." Brettaine just managed to utter.
"That's settled, then." Susan pronounced, clapping her hands together lightly and moving further into the room. As she moved, Brettaine scooped up her medical satchel and bolted for the stairs, bobbing another nervously quick curtsy as she skirted around Susan, and disappeared without another word. "Now, do you need a little while longer, or do you feel up to starting downstairs? I believe they've nearly finished packing."
Aria's smile slipped. "So soon?" She asked, once more feeling a sharp sting of remorse that she had been deemed 'too injured' to go on the newest adventure. It put quite the damper on her no-sling triumph.
Susan laid a gentle, comforting hand on Aria's shoulder, her expression growing sympathetic. "I believe that they wished to get away before the day grew too hot." She then squeezed her new friend's shoulder and lowered her voice conspiratorially. "Don't worry. We'll have plenty of fun here to keep us busy. I promise, we'll puzzle out every one of those passageways, you'll see."
Aria smiled over her shoulder, appreciating her friend's comfort. "I know." She conceded, reaching up to place her good hand over Susan's. "And I won't mope around, I promise."
"You won't have time to." Susan promised. "Now, let's go before Ed decides that we're taking too long and leaves without saying goodbye."
Aria nodded her agreement, and quickly thanked Pristine, who merely waved her away with a smile and another flowing curtsy. Before she allowed Susan to draw her away, however, she snagged the history book from the arm of the couch where she had left it.
She may not have known exactly what the day had in store for her, but she was fairly certain that she wouldn't be climbing the stairs back up to her library any time soon. She tucked it securely under her injured arm as she and Susan began to descend the stairs.