Elemental Thief Part I : Child of Calamity

Pain

Darya was tired of sitting still, or laying still, though every movement burned and ached, depending what part of the body was complaining at what moment. She had been asleep for nearly a day, and then informed strictly by several people, including her sister, that she was to stay still.

So she had stayed still, though her visitors, or guards, had grown sparse then non-existent after another couple days, when Val said the Council was sitting and they would be indisposed through most of the daylight hours. She even sat through the first day.

If you didn't count the pacing around her room, she rested.

She was starving, but couldn't eat, the pain from her bruised jaw making it far too difficult to do that. Her body was tired, but she couldn't sleep anymore. And the air felt thick and stuffy, even with the windows open, as if there was something stopping the fresh sea breeze from getting all the way up to her room.

Still, she attempted to be good, though the discomfort at her confinement became paramount to the dull throb of her aching body.

The next morning, she had shifted herself out of bed, washed, redressed her own wounds, then dressed herself. Darya knew that, already, she was pushing her luck, as there were servants and healers hovering outside of her room that would insist that those things were not for her to do, not in her condition.

But none of them appeared as she got ready, and she continued to push, needing the rebellion as surely as she needed fresh air. Something told her she needed to leave the room, though she didn't know if it was the general pull that she sometimes got before she discovered something important, or merely because she was restless. Darya had never bothered trying to refine or look into those pulls.

Sighing, she forced herself to strap on her swords and stepped to the window, because she was on the ground floor and that meant her large patio window, which opened onto a balcony, also opened up as a door to outside that no one was watching.

Observing the rising sun as she stepped out onto the manicured garden lawn and calculating she had a couple hours before someone came to try to get her to eat, she walked toward the ocean, winding through ornamental pathways and around bushes and statues.

She skimmed around the sounds of other people talking and moving, until she found her way to the low stone wall that overlooked the sheer cliffs on the back side of the palace, closing her eyes and leaning into the sea breeze that was still cool, this early in the morning.

"I really hope you're not thinking of jumping. Though it looks like you already tried." There was a low, lilting voice beside her, drawing her to open her eyes and turn to look at the tall man now standing beside her. His sea-blue eyes were amused, and his dark red hair tousled in the wind, his grin half hidden by a few days' growth of a beard. "Forgive me. I saw you walking this way, and I wasn't sure."

He had a bastard sword on his back, crossed from right shoulder to left hip, and was wearing armour, looking like he had been sweating, training perhaps, already today.

She offered him a careful smile as she tried to resist the charm in his sparkling eyes, waiting for the inevitable chauvinism. "Not jumping, just... needed a little fresh air."

"Cansal, of Invenmers." He offered her a sketched bow, grinning at her. "We're a bit too far south for fresh air. Humidity like this makes me miss the mountains."

"Darya, of Morningside." She murmured, sizing this man up, the future Duke of one of the more powerful Peer families, cousin to the Crown Princess, and son of the man who was so neutral he had refused attend his own brother's funeral so soon after the attack on Val.

"Ah. Lady Darya." Cansal grinned to her, as if he knew her name already and was looking for an excuse to acknowledge it. "I heard what happened in the Prison; are you sure you should be out here?"