In the Land of Fae 2: Return to Ice ♔ (gxg)

5. nurse

Catori made her way down from the castle and to the school.

She was grateful that Caspian was willing to stay at the castle and take care of the kids all day, and she was also grateful that Nyx would offer to step in and babysit anytime Caspian was needed elsewhere. The fae found herself overwhelmed with gratefulness almost every day when she made her walk from the castle to the school. Usually, she would have flown the short distance, but she liked walking the streets and greeting everyone on her way.

As she was strolling through a street of cottages outside the school, someone came swooping down and landed right behind her. She did not need to turn around to know it was Abitha.

The earth fae skipped to come up beside the spirit fae. "Mornin', Tori." The earth fae bounced with energy. She leaned down to pick up a stray orange leaf on the ground and twirled it in her hands.

"Good morning, Abitha," Catori greeted her, watching the fae turn the orange leaf into a bright green leaf again. Her brown eyes that sat over the blue line across the bridge of her nose scanned over the fae whose brown curls almost hid her face. "Somethin' on your mind?"

Abitha sighed and gently tossed the leaf onto the ground as she walked with Catori towards the school. "Yea...well...Nyx told me the other day, before she left for her mum's wedding, that Alastair's been..." She pursed her mouth and inhaled, looking around as if she would find the words somewhere in the window of a cottage or a distant tree. "Not sleeping. Been real nervous, y'know."

Catori raised her brows and nodded slowly. "I have figured that much out on my own."

"It's not really like her, is it?" Abitha said more quietly as they passed an air fae who was using their powers to blow the stray autumn leaves off the street. "I mean—I'd always seen her as invincible. You'd think if she had a hard time with her nerves, it would have been back at camp. Why now?"

"Al busied herself at camp," Catori quickly answered. "She was either hunting or guarding the area or keeping watch in her tree cabin. I think in all those years in the forest, I hardly ever saw her sit down." She looked to Abitha's greenish hazel eyes that were filled with concern. "And now she busies herself during the day, whether she's helping the earth fae in the gardens, or dining with families. It's at night it all comes crashing down on her."

"Alastair has gotten the brunt of it all," Abitha commented, remembering the night of the battle.

"She won't let me in her head," Catori sighed as she ascended the stairs to the school, Abitha staying at the bottom of them. "After so many years of being around me, she's learned how to guard her thoughts from me." She reached the top of the steps and turned around, looking at the village around her and then down to Abitha. "But her pain is embedded in her eyes like a scar. That, she cannot hide from me nor anyone else."

♔

Nyx held a wicker basket covered with a white cloth as she entered the school. She walked through the stone hallway that was kept alit by windows in the ceiling and candles on the walls. She peered into the open classrooms as she walked by, slowing her steps to get a good look.

In one classroom she saw a large group of ice fae children, an array of white wings and white heads looking up at Lasta, who was in the front drawing a circle with a piece of chalk on a black slab of slate plastered on the wall.

"You want to imagine the circle in your head," the woman told the children as she traced the circle a few times. "You want to feel the sphere in your hand."

Nyx assumed she was teaching them how to produce certain shapes of ice. She continued on past that classroom and onto the next, where she saw a class of earth fae children. The Earthling triplets, who were older and taller than the rest, stuck out like sore thumbs in the back of the room.