ONE POINT FIVE (1.5 in the Amnesia Archives)

Chapter 32

Prin's POV

"No, don't put that in there!" I exclaimed and dropped the bowl I was holding, rushing over to Ka and shaking my head with a laugh. "It's too hot, you'll make an omelette."

The child seemed to find some amusement out of my panic, which I was somewhat grateful for. At least she wasn't stressing out as much as I was. With Sarphi at the inn, it was a little tricky for me to run the bakery by myself. I had asked Ka to help, since she seemed pretty enthusiastic about it, or more enthusiastic about not having to hold garden tools for her father. It was still chaos, even with the two of us.

"Sorry," she said with a shake of her head. "Can I add it now?"

I looked at the mixture before nodding my head. "Yeah, it's cooled down a little bit." I returned to my bowl, working quickly to recover the rhythm I'd had before. "Sorry for panicking." It was the third time I had apologised for that in the past hour.

"It's fine, I'm learning." I didn't know who told her to say that, but it didn't sound like something Ka would say. "Why isn't Sar here anyways? I thought that you two were really good friends?"

I chuckled at the return of her childish voice. "We are. Sarphi's just busy with Cade and Niko right now." I didn't know if I should actually tell her what was going on. I didn't really want Queenie to know, since she was already putting so much pressure on the bakery after the mishap with the cake. Sarphi believed that the village took the cake well, but I thought that everyone was somewhat suspicious of us and our intentions. Sarphi didn't really fit in, which was no fault of hers and it was rather endearing, but I felt like this was a place you had to blend into the walls. "I'll tell you what they're doing once we've got all these delivered."

"Can I hold the basket when we deliver them, please?" Ka looked up at me, causing some batter to drip down the side of the bowl.

"Absolutely, as long as you make sure nothing falls out or gets squished." I smiled at her, reaching out for a cloth to wipe up the excess batter which had dripped down the side. "All set for the oven?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No!" It had been a small test to see what she would do, and I was happy she saw the humorous side of things. "I've got to mix and then put them in a tray."

"You are learning," I replied, exaggerating the 'are'. I took a deep breath and looked out of the window, wondering if Aknon had woken up yet.

It took us a bit longer than usual to finish everything. I gave Ka the basket and we walked hand-in-hand through the streets of the wandering village. I didn't want to admit the fact that I was hiding behind Ka quite a bit as we arrived at people's houses. At least three people asked where Sarphi was, and I had to plaster on a smile and say she wasn't feeling so good, so the bakery was in Ka and I's capable hands.

That was until we got to one of the biggest houses here. Most of the houses were pretty standard, all the same shape and height and everything. It felt like they'd been duplicated, but not this one. This one was probably three times the size of a regular house, and it was painted light blue, which made me wonder where they got the paint, as it was rather pretty.

"About time," Queenie said as she opened the door with a sickly-sweet smile, which only widened as she saw Ka. "No dirt in it this time?"

I felt like smoke would come out from my nostrils. "Nope, nobody dropped their cake in dirt and tried to claim a refund this time." I added my own sickly-sweet smile. "We had lots of fun making what you wanted, five hours of fun." Though that wasn't the truth about this morning, I had worked late last night trying to prepare the dough for the specific bread she was after.

"Good." She leaned out of the door, glancing around the street. "And where's the other one?"

"Onyx is with Sarphi," Ka informed, which caused me to grin a little.

"And Sarphi isn't feeling well," I added, handing her goods to her. She didn't seem too grateful for them, but there was quite a lot, so she struggled to carry the three bags.

"Hm, who knows? Maybe it'll be just you two running the bakery from now on." She took the bags inside whilst she spoke, clearly wanting to continue the conversation. "I hope she's not sick for long."

I picked up that double-meaning almost immediately and hoped that Ka hadn't.

"I hope you get sick soon," Ka said innocently, giving a small wave and beginning to walk away, basket in hand.

"That's not nice!" I called after her with a sigh and a shake of my head. "I have no ill-wishes for you, anyway. Thank you for your order, and I hope all is well." I nodded once more before rushing after Ka. "You don't tell people that, it's rude. It doesn't matter how much you want it." I mumbled the last bit.

"But then I'd be lying," she pointed out smartly. "Besides, she was mean first. It's only fair that she can take what she gives out." She huffed. "Who do we have to go to next?"

I thought for a moment before looking inside the basket. "We've got to go to Niko and Cade," I replied hesitantly. I knew I would have to tell her sooner or later. "Sarphi's with them, because there's someone else there."

Ka stopped walking for a moment. "Someone?" she questioned, excitement clearly growing. "Do I get to meet them? Who is it? Is it one of her siblings? I wish I had met them before. What are they doing?"

I gave a nervous laugh and crouched down a little so that she didn't need to look up at me and I was on her level. "Sweetie, Sarphi isn't the one who isn't well," I began explaining. "It is her brother, but he's really sick right now." I didn't really have much more information other than that, but I wasn't sure if I should explain to her about him being injured as well.

"Sick?" she repeated. Her shoulders slumped and a frown came to her face. "Is it catchy?"

I gave a soft laugh and shook my head, expression turning serious again. "No, it's not catchy. You know when your father tells you to wash your hands if you get a cut or something? Well, Aknon didn't do that. He's gotten quite ill from it." I hoped that her father told her that anyway. I didn't want to scare her really, but I felt like it was the best way to explain the situation.

"Oh, then he should know to wash his hands next time." She looked even more curious, which wasn't what I was after. "Does he have worms living inside him?"

I shook my head and stood. "He doesn't have anything living inside of him." I didn't want that imagery to get any more vivid in my mind. I'd heard tales of bugs and worms and monsters living inside of people, and it was one of the things which freaked me out the most. "There's no need to worry about catching anything."

She nodded and we continued walking, her hand holding mine tightly as we arrived at the inn. I knocked and let ourselves in, figuring that nothing drastic would've happened since I was last here. I had told them to tell me if anything changed, and I hadn't heard anything.

Which was why I felt concern and frustration rush through me as I heard a voice I hadn't heard in weeks. I knew that it was Aknon's almost immediately, even though it was weak and raspy.

I let go of Ka's hand as we entered the building, letting her take a seat in the main area as I rushed to the bedroom, I had seen them in last.

Sarphi was now lying in the bed next to Aknon, on his 'good' side, leaning her head on his shoulder. She'd clearly been crying from the tear tracks which ran down her cheeks and the snot which lingered under her nose.

Aknon had some more colour on his face, and he was sitting up, as opposed to him lying flat on his back like he was when I had first seen him. His arms lay limply by his sides and his head rested against the top of Sarphi's.

"He's awake?" I hissed, entering the room. "I mean, you're awake!" I tried to sound somewhat cheerful since Aknon's eyes had turned to me. I quickly walked over and walked around both Niko and Cade, who were standing at his bedside. They seemed to be having a very serious conversation.

Another thing which caught my attention was that Onyx wasn't in the room anymore. I only noticed that when I heard Ka call for him from her chair.

"What's going on? What happened? Where's Onyx?" I looked around, before bending down and putting a hand to Aknon's forehead, frowning as I felt the burning heat. "Explain everything."