The Princess's Guard

♤5♤

"Uh... is the war over?" asked Clement jokingly, peeking through the door of his room.
"Hey... I'm not mad, come on in." Said Edna smiling slightly. "Sit over here if you want to hear the story for one more time." She pointed at the empty chair by the table.
"H-huh?" Asked Clement, in a clearly confused tone. "How are you so damn calm? You were so mad that you were almost going to kill me when I asked you!"
Edna chuckled. "That was years ago, Clement. I'm a different woman now." She sat up straight. "Plus, you weren't the nicest about it now, were you?" She took a deep sigh. "This isn't a stort easy for me to tell, but I feel like I would be keeping it from you if I didn't tell it after you saw my old books."

"No, it's alright!" I exclaimed. "It's fine if you feel uncomfortable!"

"I do, but everyone 'round here somewhat knows it anyway, so you were going to hear about it eventually. I'd rather you hear it from me."

"I understand." I said calmly. "In that case, I would be very happy to listen to it from you." I sat up and got ready to listen.

"Alright." She took a deep breath. "So to start things, I have been a healer for only about twenty years now, which might be surprising considering I'm almost sixty years old..." She looked down to her hands nervously. "I used to be a warrior knight, just like you and Clement. I graduated at the top of my school, and was elected by the king himself to work at the palace." She looked back up at me and Clement. "I don't think you're old enough to remember it, but the kingdom went into war to try to invade the neighboring nation, Hortus. The war was lost terribly, and so many of our soldiers died." Her voice was slightly shaking. "I was almost one of those soldiers. I was shot on my arm and leg, and one of the arrows had landed on my artery."

"Was there nobody to help you?" I asked.

"No. But it wasn't their fault. I was well into my thirties and I had wandered alone to observe the area for our next attack. I was reckless and stubborn so I refused to have a team tag along with me.  Maybe I was clinging onto my youth, or maybe I just wanted to prove myself... I don't know..." She sighed. "And do you know what the worst part is? They tried to follow me, but they got attacked at that moment, so they had to protect themselves. So I ran off... in the Northern Hortus winter, chilled to the bone. I thought I was covering all grounds when I got ambushed by two snipers at the same time. I was able to minimize the damage to my arm by moving it, but the other arrow hit the artery in my leg."

"How did you get ou- I'm sorry." I wanted to let her tell the story however she wanted to, but I was getting curious.

"I'll get to that now. My leg was completely unusable, So I dragged myself to the closest point to our base that I could, using my already-damaged arm. I was freezing cold and terrified, and after some time, I just laid down and decided to accept the fact that I was going to die, not heroically, but because of my own recklessness and insecurities. Just because I was violently chasing my youth when it was slowly fading away." She locked eyes with me. "After a few minutes of laying there, eyes half-blacked out, one of the healers from our squad found me, and carried me to the base. He was a big guy, so neither my weight nor the cold seemed to affect him that much. They saved my leg, but my arm was too damaged to be kept, since I had dragged my whole body using it when it was already damaged. The artery hadn't bled out as much as it would have because of the cold."

"So your arm..." My voice was fading.

"It had to be amputated, since there was no way of saving it. The arrow was way too strong, and I had put too much strain on it." She took her long-sleeved shirt off to reveal her tank top and her prosthetic arm. "I can take it off here now, since I've told you already." She turned some sort of button and her prosthetic came off, revealing what was left of her damaged arm. "After that, I was taken back to the palace, and the operation took place. I could barely be placed on the bed, and they had to spray some form of anesthesia to my face because I was struggling to get out of there." She put her shirt back on, leaving one of the sleeves flailing around, hollow. "Eventually I was informed that I would be no longer able to fight, because my leg wad badly damaged aswell and could only be used for walking and short-term running.... So that left me with one option... being a healer."

"You must be stronger than I've thought if you've become one of the best healers in the palace like that."

"I was. As you know, healing requires passing some of your strength and life energy to a person, kind of like training your muscles with somebody on a receiving end. My issue was just with moving around using techniques, so the job of healing was perfect for me. But..."

"Did something else happen?" I asked.

"Yes." She answered. "What happened was I hated it. I hated every minute of learning how to do it best, and hunching over books for hours at a time, only practicing on injured animals. I was filled to the brim with regret and self-hating rage. The image of myself in my head was completely torn apart, and I was left with a shell of my former self. I almost yearned for war, for fighting."

"....So the writings on the books wew from that time?" I asked curiously.

"Precisely." She replied. "I got so angry that I would try to destroy the books. I would rip up pages in some of them, and I would scribble in the other ones." Her eyes sparkled a bit, as if she was going to talk about something nice. "It all changed when I met Martha. She used to be one of the best healers around and she offered to teach me when she saw me drowning in my own pain. She was about a decade older than me, and she acted as a mentor to me. She was so kind and patient and she beared through all my anger and my pain to make me the best healer possible. She became so very dear to me." She took a pause and gazed at me and Clement. She took a deep swallow. "She spent years tutoring me, and she's the only reason i got as good as I am now. But... she caught a mysterious sickness while on a healing trip, and it ate her away. Everyone advised her to stop her healing, but she never did. She put her life on the line for everyone else and eventually... she lost it." her eyes got slightly teary.

"...And about a year and a half later, she moved in here with me. She had been living in Lady Martha's quarters in a spare room, but she got replaced because people around her thought having someone to be around would help her grieve better. I was only seventeen when she moved here though, so I wasn't the nicest when I approached her about everything."  Clement added.

"I'm so sorry about everything that... happened." I said quietly.

"It's alright. Lady Martha taught me a lot, so I was able to move on after she died, even if it took lots of time..." Edna said reassuringly. "Also... sorry if I kept you waiting. You have night duty today, don't you? You should probably sleep now if you don't want the princess killed." She added lightheartedly.

"It's okay, I'm happy that I got to learn more about you. And you're right." I replied to her as I was getting up off my chair. "I should go to sleep now. I'll probably see you both next morning so... good night for now." 

I walked to my room and got into my bed after exchanging good nights with Clement and Edna. I drifted away into sleep thinking about everything Edna had told me, preparing to wake up for my night duty...