Elemental Thief Part I : Child of Calamity

A Father's Lessons

Darya had slept through the rest of the day after the fight with the two thugs, and then that night and through a good chunk of the following morning, waking up groggy and aching, exhausted beyond measure, and starving.

She stumbled through cleaning herself and getting dressed, listening to the ominous silence of the surrounding apartments, knowing that whatever was going on, and whatever day it happened to be, her sister and Tisaso were out. There were no movements from the staff of their rooms, meaning they must also have finished and moved on to whatever else they do during the day when they don't expect to be needed.

Darya was alone, and she was thankful after the vicious lecture she had gotten from Valencia and then Tisaso before oblivion had finally caught up with her.

Darya sighed as she argued silently with the memories of those lectures/ it was not as if she looked for trouble, she had been good, resting and avoiding any stress, but she didn't understand what people expected her to do, lay down and let a little girl be murdered? Val had a small compliment of her guard in the palace and they followed the older Rakier, especially with Darya being injured all the time. Darya had grown up being forgotten like that, but now her sister and Tisaso thought she was possibly a target.

Or just really good at finding trouble.

Despite the sense of their arguments on that last bit, she was hungry, and was going to have to wander to find someone or something.

Darya walked out of her room, using the main door, frowning when she didn't see a sign of her sister's guards or any servants hanging around. For a moment, she panicked, wondering what had happened while she was sleeping. But then she realized that if something had gone wrong, her sister wouldn't have left her behind. Even with their rocky relationship, she knew Val wouldn't abandon her.

More likely, they weren't expecting her to be awake for a while.

Darya looked back at her room, sighing as her stomach rumbled painfully. If she didn't eat, she was in for a long, painful several hours until they came back. And without knowing how to call someone for help in the palace she was a guest in, she had to either find someone to help or find a way to help herself.

And luckily, she had previously found the way to the kitchens, so she started through the servants door and down the back stairwell, gripping the hand railing to prop herself up, and telling herself that she could always fall asleep at a table after getting something to eat.

It was torturously slow as she made her way to the kitchens as the smells of food began wafting over to her, causing her hunger to burn deeper into her stomach, her body wavering just slightly, as if to remind her she had lost a lot of blood and hadn't eaten in over a day since.

Each step was a growing agony in her side, which itched and burned from the new stitching, and her ribs, which ached with each breath she took it.

Darya was soaked in a cold sweat by the time she reached the eating room that the servants used, and judging by the look of fear and surprise on the two cook's faces when she walked through the door, she probably looked about as bad as she felt.

"Lady!" They jumped up, moving to her side and guiding her to sit at the table. "You're injured!"

"It's alright. I've been injured for a while. I just woke up from a healer's sleeping tonic." She said hoarsely, giving them a piteous look. "I know it's not normal meal hours, but I haven't eaten in a day, and I am starving."

The woman shook her head, pouring out a glass of water and pressing it into Darya's hand. "Say no more. We'll put you something together quick. I would offer to have it sent to your room, but I don't think you should stand up for a bit. You need to stay here."