The Forgotten Light

48. Fairlight

"Fairlight. Can you hear me? I'm begging you, give me some sign that you can hear me."

Although she didn't want it, Kendra's pleading tone made her open her eyes and look at her in confusion.

"What's going on?" she muttered, covering her eyes with her hand. It was very bright all around, the light from the stones was blinding her like never before.

"Hey, sunshine." Kendra sighed in relief. "It's all right, you're safe."

Fairlight raised herself on her elbows. She felt terribly sleepy. "What am I doing in the hospital?"

"You've had quite a sticky day. Another one."

She furrowed her eyebrows, not recalling anything. "What happened?"

The doctor took a deep breath. "The Prince claims that Cressida cast a strong charm on you. It wasn't hard to guess what kind - you were supposed to feel terror every step of the way, growing stronger every moment. Eventually you had a heart attack."

"A heart attack?" she repeated slowly. She moved her hand to her chest, suddenly remembering the acute pain and the dagger stuck there. "I thought he stabbed me in the heart..."

Kendra shook her head. "That's what you thought. Your mind had to explain to itself somehow the sudden pain and the emotions you felt, so you saw all sorts of things." She looked her deeply in the eyes. "I had to drug you with sedatives, otherwise your heart wouldn't have been able to take it. Every time I get you out of trouble, I get the feeling that I won't succeed again next time, Fairlight. This time I barely managed to save you, so I beg you to stay out of trouble."

Fairlight's memory of the living shadows returned and she lifted her stiffened hand to eye level.

Kendra crossed her arms over her chest and looked at her reproachfully. "I hope you had a good reason for this, because you have literally smashed your hand on the wall."

***

She spent the night in a hospital bed, too drugged to care about anything. For the first time in a long time, she truly rested. She had no tormenting dreams, felt no stress, no pressure, no fear.

However, when she woke up in the morning, her first thought was, "Aryanele..."

What was happening to the girl when she wasn't next to her? How was she holding up?

Fairlight jumped off the bed with the intention of bursting into the dungeon. Necessarily, she should take something for her to drink and eat, Aryanele was probably squirming with hunger. Maybe since Cressida was gone, Invicta would let her out of the dark cell and get her back to work.

She left the room and immediately came upon a gloomy Kendra in the presence of an Invicta Being, sitting in the doctor's office. Both measured her with an enquiring look.

"She looks pretty well to me. There is no need to keep her here," spoke up a huge white-haired man in black armor.

Kendra didn't even try to argue with him, because she knew it was pointless. She sent Fairlight a look saying that she's tried to do her best.

"The King is starting to get impatient. After not being able to do anything yesterday, you have a backlog that needs to be caught up on as soon as possible," the Invicta continued.

Fairlight knew what it meant.

She was going to get a decent drubbing that day.