A Crown Of Blades(ARTK, Book 3)

Chapter 74-75

  Jono 10th,3330 A.G

When Giselle stumbled over her own feet, she finally understood just how tired she were. She hadn't been sleeping well lately for a variety of reasons- and not just the leg( though the eighteen hours she'd worked on it yesterday weren't helping). Often times she'd found her eyes blinking shut, then snapped them right back open- in a way that anyone who walked in would think she'd gone mad.

Perhaps she had. There weren't another logical explanation for why she felt so attached to this project, what with the others waiting for her attention.

And so she stood up straight, knocked on the sickroom door- then let herself in when he did not answer it. Then There he were, getting what must have been his first decent rest since it happened. Giselle knew she should look away, leave and come back in the morning.... but she could not.

She found herself staring at the smallest details of his face, a scar on the right side of his nose no larger than her fingertip, a single long hair in between his eyebrows it looked like he'd consistently missed- a raised brown spot underneath his left ear. For a brief moment, she even forgot why she were here.

Then he shifted in his sleep, moving the thin bedfur over him- and she were reminded. It were hard for one's eyes not to be drawn to it, no matter how they tried to tear their eyes away. It weren't something any individual saw often, so to be right in-

"If you're going to stare at me while I sleep you could at least ask." Eudo mumbled,unable to form full sentences while his brain woke.

"I suppose I could." Giselle shrugged. "I... did not mean to stare. I... had thought Ysmen might be here too but.... I suppose this can be done without her."

Giselle held the leg up for him to see, which had him sitting up a bit faster. She did not mention how she'd enlisted a blacksmith to help with the buckles that would keep it on; as it were almost implied. She did not mention that she'd wanted to tear her hair out when trying to carve the first design; that she gave in and did it.

Instead she strode the three paces necessary to reach his bed, in front of him by the time he'd scooted to the edge and swung his good leg( and what were left of the other) over the side.

She knelt, looking up for permission to touch him- which he immediately nodded a yes to.

That she believed she needed permission for that.... It were difficult to keep his eyes dry and very clear that her past profession had not been kind to her.

The moment her hands touched the stump, he flinched. Not for any reason other than how cold they were, but it had her looking back up to reassess her permission nevertheless. Once she were satisfied that she still had it, she moved to slide part of his remaining leg (check in editing which one it was, you literally forgot dumbass) into the wooden one's hollow.

"This... strap goes around back right... here... and buckles into this one..." Giselle yawned so loud Eudo could not just dismiss it, nor would she have if it'd come from someone else.

"When was the last time you got some sleep?" Eudo slouched, concern in both his expressions and tone. "If your sanity is the cost of this thing I don't-"

"My sanity is perfectly fine." She interrupted. "I needed.. something to focus on. Something that weren't a wooden hairbrush or a damned comb."

He opened his mouth again, but the look she gave him said not to push it- so he didn't. Instead, he would be grateful that her mind had chosen to focus on him.

"Now.... This is not a final product." She said as she stood."It is only to see if I have the shape right. But I do... want it to be absolutely perfect if you're going to be stuck with it the rest of your life."