Nyx is a girl who can heal any wounds except her own.
When a king captures and murders her mother, she is imprisoned; forced to heal men of war who deem her lower than dirt and forced to marry the king she loathes the most.
Saval is a servant boy w...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The Fool and His Star
•-||-•••-||-•
In the span of ten years, there's one thing Saval had learned about kids; they hold grudges the same way they hold their favourite cookies. Desperately hard.
You are unable to attend their birthday? They will sulk, cry, and annoy you until you drop to your knees and apologise profusely ten times. Did you break a pinky promise? No hope for you dear-decreed to suffer the endless torture of the deepest corner of hells, the silent treatment. You better bring knee pads, their favourites, a thesis long essay that you are wrong and atleast fifty gifts.
No one breaks the pinky promise. Absolutely. No. One.
So, when Saval returned to their small hut after that day, he made sure to bring some food from the palace.
That elevates the silent treatment to the kicked-puppy face and stilted conversations.
And really, he gets it.
He knows that Irion doesn't really deal well with being shouted at. He freezes. He flinches. Young as he is, he experienced the drunken wrath; throwing, screaming.
He knows why he wants to help so eagerly-he's been there, and he gets it.
"Being an adult isn't fun, y'know. I wanted you to fully experience your childhood." Saval murmurs. "I wanted to go to school when I was your age. I couldn't, though, 'cause... well."
"I'll continue school," says Irion, pouting. "But, on weekdays or in my free time, I'll still work. I want to earn."
Saval replies, softly. "Okay. But, if you get tired or if your grades lower, you stop." He purses his lips into a thin, stern line. "I want you to have fun. I don't want you to one day, look at everything and think of everything you haven't experienced and feel like an absolute waste of a being."
The dawn is quiet. Irion nods even though he doesn't understand.
-
Mom is a thief because she says she had no choice but to be. She teaches Saval how to pick locks and how to be silent like a feather. She tells him about the mythologies and constellations; Orion, Taurus and Leo.
She says that the stars are the eyes of the gods. Saval remembers the time he said out loud that he wanted to eat stars and hoped that the gods did not take offence.
She tells him to be creative, always be resourceful and teaches him how to sew and cook.
One day, she steals something she couldn't. So, she lost her hands for being a thief, her child for being a woman and hanged for being both. Her brother didn't even bother to come when they dig a hole and stuffed her corpse there.