The Unknown Alchemist

Chapter 13 - Broken Things

It was late at night when Hayden gently rapped on the door and popped his head into the bedroom. Roedin lay awake in bed, his wing splayed out to the side held together by a brace. He looked up as Hayden walked into the room and took up a chair beside the bed.

Roedin spoke right away. "Avery, the human girl I was with, is she alright?"

Hayden hesitated. "She's fighting. She was stung by the Mnoptera, and you know how that usually ends. We're doing our best. Petra is trying everything she can, and Sari refuses to leave her side."

Hayden let that sink in but his brother gave nothing away. Roedin was a master of secrets, both other's and his own.

They sat in silence, reflecting.

"How long?" Roedin asked.

"Almost ten months," Hayden answered.

"Ten—ten months? Are you sure?"

Hayden let his brother process this, hoping Roedin would explain how so much time had passed with no word or hint that he was alive. But instead Roedin stared at the wall in shock.

"Roe, I'm sorry," Hayden blurted, their old childhood nickname slipping out. "I'm so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"

Roedin furrowed his brow as though trying to remember where he was and how he got there. "Forgive you? Why? What has happened? What are you sorry for?"       

"For leaving you behind. For thinking you were dead." For giving up hope.

Roedin thought for a moment. "It's a logical conclusion. You shouldn't have wasted time looking for me. You needed to worry about the security of the territory and controlling the faunid armies. There were more important matters for you to take care of."

A mixture of guilt and relief flooded through Hayden. He sat back in the chair with a light chuckle. Always practical and never emotional, that was Roedin.        

"Your wing. How did this happen?" Hayden asked.

"That Odonata caught me off guard," Roedin answered matter-of-factly. "There were too many of them. It was foolish of me to take them all at once. But the flank was failing and we needed to give the foot soldiers time."

Hayden sat up. "You're saying you got these injuries the day of the battle? The day you disappeared, ten months ago? Why hasn't it healed at all? Why is it still this bad?"

"You can't blame Avery! I did at first. I thought she was poisoning me, but it wasn't her fault, it was the Cabin. She was doing everything she could but she's not a vet or a surgeon or even a human shaman, and she had no books on Myotes anatomy. She figured out how to set the leg but had to guess on the wings. She had never seen them before."

"Easy Roe, I'm not blaming. I'm just trying to understand where you've been this whole time. Why couldn't Sari sense you? Why couldn't we track you?"

Roedin's head fell back on the pillow. "This is what it must have felt like for her. To have so many questions yourself, and no answers, even though you should."

Hayden frowned. He didn't understand what his brother was talking about. 

"She's so smart. She had it figured out before I even knew what was happening. It was her quick thinking that got us out there."

None of the words made sense but Hayden could feel it wasn't the time to sort it all out. Roedin was starting to process and he needed to let it out unhindered. Outside of a status report, Hayden had never heard his brother string so many words together.