Bird of a Flock (Bow 2)

Chapter 22

Ryraso woke up to birds singing. He shifted and looked up. He was back in the room he had claimed for himself. By the light in the room, it looked like it was about mid-afternoon as the sun was starting to go lower. His right arm was throbbing. Sitting up on his elbow, he looked at his arm. There was a new scar in the shape of the symbol of the Goddess. The symbol itself was thing lines but the skin around it was red. He touched it lightly and wince as pain sparked up his arm. 

"You were brought back to us with it," Pol'ar commented from the side. Ryraso jumped slightly, having not realised he was in the room. The head healer was sitting at the window. "The priest claimed it appeared magically but I suspect otherwise. A few of the priesthood can heal to a degree. It's not infected, just looks it at the moment."

"Feel's fresh but the wounds are not deep enough to scar," Ryraso acknowledged. The implication being that someone had carved it into his arm and healed it after. Whether it was the priests or the Goddess who had done the marking didn't really matter, however. The meaning behind it, did. "How come you are here?" he asked softly.

Pol'ar shrugged. "I am the Royal physician in your absence. When you wouldn't wake up after your trip the God's plane of existence, the brats were concerned. How do you feel?" he asked walking over and putting his hand on Ryraso forehead. "Any dizziness?"

"No," Ryraso commented after a moment. Apart from his arm being sore, he felt well-rested. His shoulders were loose and he felt like he had energy for once. "I feel surprisingly well."

"Don't be too surprised. The Goddess does seem to like you after all," Pol'ar chuckled. "I'd contact the Winglord if I were you. He was very concerned. He was also angry with Ton'enth for blocking you from the link." Pol'ar sat on the bed and looked over the symbol now scared onto Ryraso's arm with an almost sad expression on his face. "The Goddess has accepted you as theirs. No one will court you with that one your arm," he warned.

"As we have already discussed. I have no options but the Royals," Ryraso said calmly. Part of him felt like he should be angry and demand he wasn't a slave. A different part of him pointed out that to fight now would be cutting off his nose to spite his face, painful and ultimately useless. The Goddess, herself, had said that he loved them.  He shivered as he thought about what the Goddess had also shown him. The image of Nel'os courting another. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Part of him wondered if he had been a little naive to assume they hadn't had interest in others while he had been gone. They had a few when he had been living there but they had never lasted longer than a year.

He had been gone seven years and Nel'os was Nel'os. Could he even justify being hurt? Ryraso knew one of the bigger reservations nests had about taking a human was that humans struggled when new people came along. Ryraso hadn't even known the Royals had been courting him or wanted him for their nest. Even with hindsight that was Ryraso being utterly bling or possibly just ignoring what he didn't want to see. 

"You're cold," Pol'ar murmured, picking up an orange blanket from the foot of the bed and wrapping it around Ryraso's shoulders. 

"I..." Ryraso passed as he realised he was cold and the blanket felt nice, comforting, around his shoulders. He gave him the strength to face up to some truths. Nel'os at the very least was courting someone and the three of them had not told him. He needed information. "Are the Royals courting someone else at the moment?" he asked, looking up at Pol'ar's face to see his reaction to the question.