Denial of the Whisper

Chapter Thirty-Nine.

Chapter Thirty-Nine.

I'd gone to the bathroom to get some clean towels as well as a water bowl, but when I headed back, he hadn't moved at all.
"Can't you just... sit down? Maybe... on an armchair or your bed?", I asked and carried everything over to him.

I saw how his hands gripped the windowsill harder, the knuckles turning white, as he looked up into the sky, frowning. I followed his gaze, and saw the shimmer of his shield.

"Is there always that shield or is it just because...", I wasn't able to finish my sentence, when he looked over his shoulder at me, his expression incredibly tired.

Putting the water bowl onto the floor, I crossed the distance, but he only gripped the windowsill harder.

He took a deep breath, and his wings straightened, and now I saw their colour. Dark black with a blue shimmer, glinting in the moonlight. Just as I had thought about touching them out of curiosity, they had vanished.

Nyshard took another deep breath, and this time it was shakier.

I slowly stepped closer and silently said "Come, sit down."

Through half-lidded eyes, he looked at me, then, he slowly just leaned against the wall next to his window front and watched me, as I lit every light I found and closed the open windows.

But in the proper light, his injuries only looked worse.

"Nyshard sit down, please.", I almost begged, and he held eye contact a moment longer before he gave up and sunk down, his back against the wall

I kneeled down next to him and pulled the water bowl with the towels towards me, then I took a moment to look at his wounds more closely "I could just heal the-... ", I reached out to him, but his hand caught my wrist mid-air.

"Don't."

"But I can, you know I can."

"And who would stop you of you lose control?", he said tiredly, and I was taken aback.

Sighing, he added "Don't waste it on me."

"It wouldn't be a waste", my shock and anger mixed, as I freed my hand from him and shook my head.

Silently, and trying desperately to sort my racing thoughts, I started to clean his wound with a wet cloth, starting with the most severe one, a deep gash across his chest. I carefully cleaned at, and when I grabbed a balm that would help his healing, I said "This might burn"

"Mhm", was his only reaction.

Gently, I applied some of the balm and kept a look at him out of the corners of my eyes.

"Let me heal them.", I said again, but he "Just take care of them as good as you can. I will heal on my own."

"Caaln said, that you normally wouldn't have gotten injured."
"Don't listen to Caaln.", he murmured, tiredly.

Concerned he might lose consciousness, I looked up, but he was still awake. "Why did you put a shield around me? And since when? I hadn't realized..."

His eyes darted to me. "Protection.", was all he said, and a tear slid down my cheek, before I had even realized it.

"And the one around the castle? Or Ilyria?"

"Just an extra protection in addition to our other defences.", he answered.

"Because of the Circle?", I asked.

"Adriyele", he said "don't ask."

But I simply wasn't able to not ask.