A Feather Stolen
Backlash
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The scolding for her little stunt wasn't too bad.
Anoel was careful. He was suspicious, but she managed to tiptoe around that. Or, at least, she thinks she did.
It was hard slipping anything by him.
But still, it was just one piece of information. She still had it, too. Technically.
It was on her scroll.
So it still counted.
"Niro should really keep his mouth shut sometimes," Ano grumbled, kicking the floor a little as she shuffled up to her room.
The chorus of the downstairs bar quieted as she made her way down the hall, slipping by the occasional courier to weave her way toward her door.
Niro knew about it. He always knew.
Anoel made it to her door with a huff of air leaving her mouth, grasping its handle as her gaze turned back toward the distant stairs.
At least he didn't care enough to tell his dad.
She had that to bank on.
With a twist of the handle, Anoel pushed her way into her quarters. Letting the door shut behind her as she adjusted her hat.
Weird… her body was catching lingering signs of something warm in the room.
Her gaze traced over her bed before drifting to her desk, where she left her lamp on. But her two legs stopped working, freezing in place as she saw two slim hands fiddling around with one of her daggers in the chair there.
The bright cerulean eyes she remembered from last time glanced over after a moment, widening just a fraction before quickly putting the dagger down.
Anoel was glad she was at least gentle with it. While it lasted.
"Hey," Ano greeted.
Oh good, her legs were working again.
Anoel made her way over with a couple quiet steps, keeping a set of soft eyes on the girl invading her chair before stopping just in front of the desk.
It'd been three days since Ano gave her that folded piece of paper.
"Did you get in trouble?" Lylac seemed to be very blunt for someone her age.
However old she was…
She sat up straight in the chair as she looked at Ano expectantly.
A look Ano returned with a small smile and a hand on her hip, "Just a little bit. But I think he knows anyway. He's just not saying anything."
Must not have been very important.
"Oh. That's good…" she murmured. "I-I didn't want to get you in trouble."
Funny. That's exactly what Ano was doing too when she gave her that piece of paper.
"That's sweet of you. But I knew what I was doing when I did it," Anoel replied, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her desk. With a quick prop of her head against her palms, she gave the girl across from her a cheeky smile. "You didn't get in trouble either, did you?"
"N-no…" Ly replied, but her left hand slowly grasped at her forearm as she said that.
She was lying.
"I'm sorry about that, then. I didn't mean to keep you," Anoel muttered quietly in return. Her smile dropped. "Does it hurt?"
"A little…" her reluctant reply was met with cerulean eyes looking to the floor as her hand squeezed her forearm a little tighter. "I-it's fine though."
"No… it's not…" Anoel said, her gaze staying soft before pushing away from the desk.
She walked across her room to pass the corner of her bed, stepping into the small bathroom she had to flick on the light inside.
After a few seconds, she came back out with a medkit.
"Can I see it?"
It took a moment, but Ly eventually nodded.
She slowly peeled back the sleeve of her unwashed white coat, revealing a poorly stitched gash in her forearm.
It looked bad. And it definitely hurt more than just a little.
"Come here," Anoel spoke softly, holding out her hand for Lylac to take. She hesitated at first, but when she took it, Ano led her back to the bed. "Sit here and… try to get comfortable. I know that's going to be hard."
Lylac took a deep breath before sitting down and keeping her arm still. Her hands shook slightly and her gaze filled with a little worry as she looked toward Ano and bit her bottom lip.
That little bite and tiny glance brought a softer voice out of Anoel. But one that had to warn her, too.
"I need to remove the stitches, if you'll let me." The clasps of the medkit snapped open soon after, the casement rested down next to Ly's leg.
She nodded, giving her consent. But the worry in her only seemed to grow as her eyes flicked between Ano's hands and the wound on her arm.
This wasn't going to work. It was going to hurt too much.
"Here." Anoel softly gripped Ly's arm in the areas above and below her wound, squeezing with a faint amount of pressure before closing her eyes and focusing.
Heat simmered through her fingertips and against Lylac's skin, warming the two points around the gash.
Hopefully that distracted her a bit.
"Keep your hand on the same spot mine is. It'll make the heat last longer," Anoel said, glancing down to the hand she had closer to her elbow.
Ly's hand shakily did as she was told, and Ano started focusing on cutting and removing the stitches already in place.
It was bad, but it wasn't as bad as it first looked.
"It hasn't been cleaned properly. So… just brace yourself," Ano whispered, getting the last stitch out to let the wound reopen.
She took an antiseptic out of the kit and a white towel, placing the soft cloth beneath the wounded arm on the bed as she took a deep breath.
Ly was already softly whimpering. She was gritting her teeth in preparation for the sting of the alcohol in the liquid, and that was only stalling Anoel even more.
She didn't want to do it. The urgency was there, but Anoel stopped herself. Her fingers shook slightly in apprehension as she held the opened bottle over Ly's arm, eyes falling into a worried, thoughtful gaze.
There had to be another way. A way to distract her even more.
She couldn't numb the area first, so a distraction was all she could do.
But… how?
Unless… there was a way to numb it?
Anoel quickly recapped the bottle and grabbed the white towel, dropping them into the kit before taking a small breath.
"W-Why did you stop?" Ly asked worriedly, her eyes dashing to Ano in a small moment of panic. "Just do it."
"I can't. I don't like how much it'll hurt you. But I think I can numb it first," Ano responded. She draped the kit's handle over her arm as she gently rested her fingers beneath Ly's wounded one.
She kept that one up, making sure its movements were small and minimal at best. Her other hand reached out and asked for Ly's other hand.
"Cold water in the bathroom should work. And it'd help a bit with the cleaning."
"O-Okay…" Ly sighed, taking her hand and standing slowly, keeping her eyes focused on maintaining her outstretched arm.
Anoel kept her hands warmly in place, helping keep those arms out in front of the girl as she walked backward. She knew her room. She'd traveled from her bed to the bathroom more than enough times to have memorized the path.
So she kept her eyes on Ly's as the two girls made it through the doorway at Ano's back, the light still on from when she looked for the medkit.
With a little guidance, Anoel sat Ly down on the edge of the bathtub. Ano sat down next to her, finally letting her hand slip out of Ly's own to reach down and set the medkit on the floor.
She opened it again like last time, taking out the same supplies as the hand she used to keep Ly's wounded arm up stayed in place.
"Okay… Hopefully this'll numb it enough," Anoel spoke quietly. She turned on the bath's faucet to let out a soft stream of cold water, waiting a few moments to let its temperature drop.
When it did, she took Ly's hand again as gently as she could.
"It'll still sting, but it'll feel numb just as quickly. I'll pour on the alcohol from there."
Ano waited again. Just waiting for that vocal consent from Lylac.
She didn't want to do it without it.
"That's… fine…" her voice sounded less nervous. A lot less. And she looked like she was feeling safer now too.
The bathroom was a good choice then. She knew the pain she'd feel wouldn't be as sharp and intense in here.
That's all Ano wanted.
The info-broker gave a tiny nod as she dropped a focused gaze to Ly's arm. With the smallest of ushers, she lowered it just enough to get it next to the stream of water.
Cautious eyes glanced back to Ly's for a second for one final confirmation, and she got it when Ly gave her a single nod.
Please don't make it hurt…
Anoel dipped Ly's wound into the cold stream and prepared to wince in case Ly let out any kind of noise from the pain. Aside from goosebumps rapidly forming on Ly's arm, though, nothing slipped out of her mouth.
She guessed that was a good thing.
Ano got the antiseptic back into her hand as she ushered the girl's slim arm back out of the stream of water, preparing herself by holding her breath and tipping the bottle.
Small trickles of watery blood sunk into the drain as the alcoholic liquid joined it, coating the open wound only as much as Anoel thought was needed before she quickly stopped.
With a hesitant glance, she peered up at Ly's face. She was still grimacing and gritting her teeth, but it wasn't as bad as it could've been.
Ano was happy about that.
"Just a little longer. I'll dry it then stitch it back up."
Ly turned to her and responded with a non-verbal nod, still gritting her teeth as she put on a brave face.
It was… kind of cute the way she was trying so hard.
Anoel turned off the faucet and took the towel up into her grasp, setting the alcohol down. With a few careful dabs and swipes, she cleaned the wound out just enough to dry it.
Stitching it closed again only took a few minutes. Anoel's done it enough times to know what she was doing.
She… needed to know how to do it. She learned how. Just to save somebody else she cared about.
"I can cover it too, if you'd like. That way it won't be brushing against your clothing."
"If you want… I don't want to use up your stuff…" she replied, eyes still fixed on her arm as she spoke.
"I can get more," Ano replied softly.
Ly didn't have a lot, did she…
Anoel withdrew a white pad just large enough for the wound. It'd work nicely for bandaging it up. And, Ano wanted it to be discreet too.
She didn't want it to be noticed.
Peeling away the bandage covering, Anoel sealed the pad into place and made sure it wouldn't jostle around. Thankfully, it was pretty tightly on there with the adhesive it used.
Now, for the hard part.
"Ly…" Ano spoke quietly. Her gaze was low. She wanted to keep it low. But she forced herself to trace it up Ly's arm to search out Ly's own gaze as she asked her. "Where else… are you hurt…?"
Lylac's eyes locked with Anoel's, quickly alternating between the two dark blue irises staring into cerulean before her gaze inadvertently fell to the floor.
She quickly shook her head as her gaze drifted away. "No, y-you've already done enough…"
"No… I haven't," Anoel breathed out quietly, keeping the towel in her hand. "You're hurt. You're not wasting any of my resources. I hardly use them anyway. So please, one wound isn't enough if you have others just like it somewhere else."
Ly withdrew her arm hastily. "I-I need to go."
Her words were spoken as she attempted to stand, still averting her gaze.
She would've gone, too. But Anoel's small hand caught Ly's before it could get too far away, holding it with a grip just tight enough to stop her.
But… it was light enough to escape, if she still wanted to.
"I don't want to keep you like I did last time, so you can go. But, why were you here to begin with?" Anoel asked, voice almost mute.
Ly stopped. Even though she could've left right then and there. She stopped.
But she didn't glance back.
One of her hands dipped into her pocket, the same pocket Anoel remembered she used to store the folded piece of paper the last time she saw her.
And that's what she pulled out. The same bit of paper she walked away with last time.
"To give this back…"
Her voice was louder than a whisper, but could barely be considered a murmur. She finally turned around too, and Ano met the glance with a soft gaze of her own.
Ly's hand reached out as she held the paper toward Ano, blue eyes meeting hers again.
"If I take that," Ano spoke softly in return, running her gaze down Ly's dirty sleeve to the worn paper, "will you come back?"
Ly hesitated, shrugged, then nodded.
She didn't know...
Anoel swallowed dryly as she took the note from Ly's shaking fingers, glancing up to meet Ly's eyes again before she turned away.
And then she left.
Ano sat there staring at the bathroom door for a few long minutes, afraid that peering into the main room would just confirm that Ly was already gone.
She knew she was… she could feel it.
Delicate fingers played with the folded parchment in her grasp, turning it as she slowly lowered her gaze to it.
She came back to return this. The same reason brought her here.
She needed a reason to be here. Anoel didn't know how to make more of them to get her to come back.
Her fingers turned the paper again, but stopped. The faint traces of writing just inside one of the folds caught her eyes, something she almost missed.
Ano carefully unfolded it, opening the paper up fully to see how much was written.
It was just two words.
'help me'
Two months went by, and Ly still didn't come back.