Triss watched the light of the candle dance across the ceiling as she lay awake in bed. Her eyelids were heavy, and her body ached, but she wasn't ready to give in to sleep. That's where the nightmares would be. She wanted a sleeping draught to make them go away, but the healers wouldn't let her have anymore. They said she needed to ease off the potions before she became dependent; that she needed to face the problem now because it would be worse later.

Seeing a pitcher of water on her bedside table, Triss sat up and poured herself a glass. The water was lukewarm, so she placed a hand over the top of the goblet and said an incantation. A shiver ran down her spine as she drank the icy drink and a few drops slipped down her chin and soaked into the bandage wrapped around her chest. Triss touched the damp spots gently. There were a few runes painted onto her bandages, making the fabric soothingly cold. They were a few days old now and she needed to change them, but she didn't want to see. The poultices and enchanted items had taken away all her pain, but they couldn't heal her completely. Triss didn't want to see herself until they could.

With the pitcher empty, Triss didn't have anything else to keep her awake. She lay back down and fingered her enchanted amulet absentmindedly. One of the healers had given it to her when she'd arrived in Aretuza to be treated. They said they would speak to the Rectoress about making it more potent when she visited, but Tissaia never did. Triss hadn't left the ward since she'd arrived, but the other mages had told her that Tissaia's transfer had been delayed. When she did manage to return, Tissaia kept to herself and stayed in her chambers leaving Triss without any visitors. Triss had overheard the healers speculating that the Rectoress might have been traumatized. She'd lost a lot of her former students at the battle, and perhaps she couldn't bear to face the ones that were left. Triss didn't believe them. She couldn't picture Tissaia in the way they had described; it just wasn't right.

But those weren't the only whispers. There were other rumours too, rumours about her friend. But whenever Triss asked, the healers would hush her and change the conversation. When Triss had pressed them, the mages had scolded her for saying Yennefer's name. They were afraid to talk about her openly, and no one would tell Triss why. It worried her. She wondered what trouble Yennefer had gotten herself into and hoped that it wasn't anything serious; Triss wasn't ready to lose her too. Triss wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeves and threw off the bedsheets, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Hunched over, she held her head in her hands and cried.

After a few minutes, Triss got up and washed her tear-stained face in a basin. When she caught herself in the mirror, she quickly looked away and changed into a dress that hugged her neck. The ward was quiet. The healers had retired for the night and the other patients were asleep. If Triss wanted help, she would have to wake someone, but the healers wouldn't give her what she needed. Tissaia might. She could make her a draught if she asked, and if she refused, at least the Rectoress might be able to set her mind at rest. Triss didn't have anyone else to talk to. They were either dead or missing. She needed Tissaia and she didn't want to wait any longer.

Triss opened the door to the ward and hesitated. She pressed a hand against her chest, took a deep breath and then stepped out into the corridor. She listened for the sound of footsteps as she walked to Tissaia's chambers, changing direction whenever she heard someone coming her way.

Triss knocked on the door to Tissaia's quarters and flinched when it moved inwards. Her brow wrinkled, she stared for a moment at the door and then pushed down on the handle which didn't move. Tissaia had locked her door but not shut it properly. Most of the doors in Aretuza were old and stiff and you had to forcefully push or pull them into place. Tissaia knew that, and she always did. Triss remembered that she hated having the door even slightly ajar because it would creak and scrape against the stone floor whenever someone walked past. She'd often told Triss off as a student for not checking, and now she hadn't. The Rectoress was precise and thorough with everything she did, she never left anything out of place. Not even a door.

"Tissaia," Triss called quietly.

There was no answer. Triss pushed the door open a stuck her head around it, peering into the room. Tissaia's office was full of bookcases and glass cabinets housing objects and books from across the continent. Triss knew that some of them predated the conjunction, making them older than the Rectoress herself, though no one was quite sure of her age, just that her lifespan dated centuries. In front of the window, through which Triss could see the stars, was a large wooden desk laden with well-organized possessions.

Triss hadn't seen Tissaia's office in years, not since she'd been assigned to Temeria, but it all looked the same. There was only one thing out of place. Tissaia's office was well lit, but empty; Triss couldn't sense another presence nearby. That was another thing that she never did. It was dangerous to leave sources of chaos unattended in a place of magic, especially when those using it hadn't all ascended.

"Tissaia," Triss called again, taking two steps into the office and hesitating.

The Rectoress was too particular about things for anything out of place to not be alarming and peculiar, but Triss didn't know what to do. She wasn't sure she wanted to see Tissaia as anything less than perfect. Triss thought that it might be best to leave and pretend she had never seen anything. She could always try making a sleeping draught herself, the greenhouse would surely be empty this late at night.

Taking one last look around the office, Triss turned around and started towards the door. But then, she stopped and looked over her shoulder. She held her breath and listened. Someone was mumbling in the room next door. Triss ran a hand through her hair, twirling a lock around her finger. Then she screwed up her eyes and sighed, turning on her heels and moving across the office to the other door. When Triss opened it, she gasped.

"Yennefer!"

Triss bounded forwards and approached the fourposter bed in the middle of the Rectoress' circular chambers. Yennefer's head was sticking out from under the blue and grey covers and she was tossing and turning in her sleep, mumbling indistinctly. She didn't react when Triss sat on the edge of the bed and bent over her, lips parted, or when she gently shook Yennefer's shoulders. There was a bandage wrapped around her eyes and it was painted with runes that Triss mostly didn't recognize. Yennefer's skin was slightly red and shiny in the candlelight, and Triss saw a jar of cream on the bedside table next to the silver candlestick holder, Yennefer's star pendant hooked around its base. The smell of lilac and gooseberries was faint amidst the earthy mix of herbs from the poultice on her skin.

"Yennefer…" Triss sighed.

Hesitantly, Triss touched Yennefer's face; it seemed as though she had a fever. As she checked Yennefer's temperature Triss saw a flicker of light dance up her neck and across her cheek. Then, it moved under her fingers on Yennefer's forehead and Triss drew back her hand, surprised. It felt like chaos. Then, she realized something. Yennefer was alive and right there, but Triss couldn't sense her presence even while magic danced across her face. It was possible for a mage to mask the aura that they gave off, but Yennefer was unconscious and Triss couldn't see any enchanted items on her person that could be covering her.

And why was she hidden? What was Yennefer doing in Tissaia's bedchambers? She was sick; she needed to be in the ward with the healers, but instead, she was being treated here in secret presumably by the Rectoress. Triss guessed that was why she had been keeping to herself, and she remembered the way the other mages had talked about Yennefer in the ward. She had done something to scare them, but what?

Triss dropped a hand to the covers, placing it where she thought Yennefer's hand would be. For a moment, she felt something hard against her fingers and then a static shock. Triss drew back her hand and rubbed her fingers. Eyes wide, she got up off the bed and pulled down the bedcovers to Yennefer's knees. She was wearing a black silk nightgown and there was something wrapped around both her wrists. Triss brought her hands to her mouth when she confirmed what it was. Dimeritium. That's why she couldn't feel her. There was a thin band of dimeritium shackled around Yennefer's slender wrists, resting on a thick roll of bandages so that it wasn't touching her skin. Surely that can't have been Tissaia. Why would she do that?

Triss went back to the bed and lifted one of Yennefer's hands, looking at the dimeritium to see how she could open it. There was a small keyhole in the back and Triss looked around the bedroom to see if she can see a set of keys hanging anywhere, but she couldn't. Triss put Yennefer's hand down and walked over to the vanity beside the door, sitting down and searching through the doors. Halfway through the second draw, Triss heard someone moving across the adjacent room towards her. She got up and pressed herself against the vanity. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she felt the other person channelling chaos.

The figure moved swiftly into the room, stopping in front of the doorway and looking around. Triss caught their eye and held very still, biting her tongue as Tissaia stared at her, magic pounding at her fingertips. Her face softened a little and her shoulders dropped as she lowered her hand. She looked over her shoulder at the bed, where Yennefer was still thrashing about, and stepped forwards, fixing Triss with a look that made her feel like a guilty apprentice again.

"Triss, what did you do?" Tissaia asked. "Tell me."

"I- nothing, I-"

"Did you use any magic on her?"

"No, I haven't."

Tissaia bowed her head for a moment and then looked up.

"Go and lock the doors then come straight back in here. Don't say anything until I address you."

"I-"

"Now, Triss."

Triss nodded and stepped around Tissaia. She closed the door to Tissaia's quarters and double-checked that it was shut and locked before going back into the bedroom and closing the door behind her. Tissaia was hovering over Yennefer, moving her eyes up and down her body and touching her face. Then she reached for the tub of cream and started rubbing it over Yennefer's arm, holding her wrist tightly with one hand to hold her still. When Tissaia had finished her arms Yennefer had already begun to calm down. Her head only occasionally slipped from Tissaia's hands as she treated it, and when Tissaia had finished applying the cream to Yennefer's body, she was completely still and silent.

Tissaia got up from the bed and wiped her hands on a piece of cloth airing by the window. Then she pulled the covers over Yennefer and walked away towards the bookcase opposite the bed. She took a few heavy tomes off the middle shelf and set them down on a table. Tissaia pulled a set of keys from a concealed pocket in her dress and pushed one into the empty shelf. Triss heard something click, and Tissaia pulled off a small wooden panel and took a glass vial from the hidden compartment before putting the bookcase back together. Tissaia set the vial on the bedside table with the cream and looked at Triss, who was standing at the foot of the bed. She walked up to her, hand clasped in front of her, and watched her with a stern expression. Triss shifted her weight to her back foot and tried to keep her hands still.

"What are you doing here, Triss?" Tissaia asked.

"I was looking for you."

"So, you decided to invite yourself into my quarters?"

"You- you left your door open. I came in because I was worried, Tissaia, I-."

"Does anyone else know Yennefer is here?" she interrupted. "Did you see anyone else in here? Have you told anyone?"

Triss shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Your quarters were empty when I arrived, but I just got here."

"What did you come here for?"

"For a sleeping draught, and to talk."

"Why didn't you ask one of the healers?"

"I did, they said I can't have anymore."

Tissaia watched her silently for a moment and then turned around. She stepped towards the window and curled her hand around the top of an armchair next to the bookcase. It was facing the foot of the bed and there was a blanket folded over one of its arms.

"You should leave, Triss," Tissaia said after a moment, looking around. "Forget everything you've seen. You came to ask me for a sleeping draught, and I refused you, then you left. You didn't see anything. Yennefer is dead, Triss, do you understand?"

"No, I don't," Triss replied. "What's going on, Tissaia?"

"That's not your concern, Triss. If you want to help Yennefer, then do as I said. Forget everything."

"That's not fair," Triss snapped. She took a step forward and stood over the Rectoress. "I'm not leaving until you explain what I've seen. Yennefer is unconscious in your chambers, in your bed, shackled like- like a prisoner. What have you done to her?!"

Something in Tissaia gave out. She dropped her eyes from Triss' face and drew her arms to her body, curling her fingers around her neck and holding her waist. When she looked up, her eyes glistened. Triss barely recognized her. The Rectoress had never been less than perfect. Tissaia swallowed and, her voice breaking slightly, answered her:

"What I had to."

This section of the story ended up being longer than I expected, so the story will be 6 rather than 5 chapters long :) Also, next week will be an emotional train wreck so prepare yourselves.

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