Sky Riders

Healing

"Let me see her!" Artemis argued with the healer. After a very long night of no sleep, and no amount of busying could have kept her mind off Anna, Artemis had finally worked up the courage to go to the small hospital. Tom hadn't come with her, as he had felt too guilty that it was he who had alerted them that Valentine was there. Hester hadn't come with her as she felt too awkward in emotional situations, and didn't trust herself to not make things worse for anyone, so Hester has made herself scarce recently. So Artemis was alone in the small hospital at Shan Guo.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but family only!" The healer kept using that argument,'no matter how many times they went back and forth like this.

"We are family! We are like sisters!" Artemis was just beginning to feel worried. Again. What if there was a different reason they weren't letting her in? What if Anna was already dead and they didn't want her to see? Artemis didn't know what she would do if Anna was dead.

She felt tears begin to sting her eyes. No, she wouldn't think that. There wasn't any real proof that Anna was dead, right? The healer must have seen the look an Artemis's face, because she finally relented.

"Alright," she said with a sigh. "You May go in, but ten minutes only! No more!"

"Thank you..." Artemis sighed.

The healer stepped aside from the door she was blocking and opened it, letting Artemis through.

The sight that awaited her was not a pretty one. Anna lay silently on a white-sheeted bed, still except for the shallow rise and fall of her chest. The only sound in the room was the soft whirring of a machine and Artemis's soft cry, a mixture of desperation and hope.

Anna groaned and opened her eyes. "No, I don't need anything- Art!"

"Anna, Anna I'm sorry, if I-"

"No, don't blame yourself. I hate it when people blame themselves for something that they could have never prevented. It wasn't your fault."

"But if only-" Artemis protested.

"No, don't blame yourself. The only person who's fault it is is Valentine, and he's dead now, or so I hear from the healers."

"Um, yeah... I killed him. Now that the fact sinks in I feel kind of guilty, I mean, he had a daughter... and Hester seemed to want to kill him pretty badly..." Artemis looked away, disgusted with herself for mutilating his lifeless corpse so much.

"Well, I'm sure a lot of people wanted to kill him."

"Well, he... he stabbed you and I just wasn't thinking so I killed him. I kept stabbing even after he was dead. I couldn't think... I couldn't think what I would do without you."

"Don't worry about me, I don't know what to say when people worry about me. But hey! Hester and I can form the 'Scarred By Valentine' club! Maybe we'll make you an honorary member."

"Anna, that's not a good thing! How bad of a scar will it leave?"

"Oh, the doctor says it won't be too big," Anna lifted up her hospital shirt to reveal several layers of bandages. "The knife wasn't too big, and it was apparently in my small intestine, so it really won't be that bad," she said, giving Artemis a direct quote from the doctors that had examined her yesterday and earlier this morning. Seeing Artemis's shocked face, Anna quickly added, "and it was SHALLOW! It wasn't a deep stab wound! I'm fine! Really!"

Artemis really didn't know what to say. It was remarkable how calm Anna was when she had just gotten stabbed yesterday! How could she be that calm?

"Anna, the fact that you keep saying the words 'stab wound' is not helping! At all!"

The healer had come back, and told Artemis, "ten minutes is up! Out! Out!" The old woman turned to Anna and said, "Miss Fang, you need to rest!" Off of Anna's quiet protests, the healer added, "you are under my care and I will see to it that you heal as quickly as possible! Now out!"

The small woman was surprisingly fierce, and Artemis really didn't want to know what the old healer would do to her if she didn't leave. Reluctantly, she turned to the door. "Bye, Anna. I'll come back tomorrow. I promise." There was more she wanted to say, more she wanted to tell Anna.

"Bye, Art. Hold on," Artemis paused. "Did you know, while we are fighting, you still had some frosting on your nose? It was great."

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Artemis sat on the edge of her bed at the house. She had done everything she could to stay busy. She had liked her claymore, cleaning it with the care an antique collector would show with a collection of vases. She had reorganized her bookshelf multiple times, first alphabetically by title, then alphabetically by author, then by color where it stayed, making her bookshelf look like a rainbow. She had drawn, half-hearted attempts at the landscape of Shan Guo, the countless stars of the night sky, giant traction cities churning the mud of the once-green earth.

She had been too worried about Anna to do anything else other than worry. Now that she knew Anna would be fine, she was much less worried.

A knock at her door startled Artemis from her thoughts.

"Oh, uh, come in!"

"Miss Calida?" It was Tom at the door. "Um, I was wondering... if- how is Miss Fang? Is she bad?" He leaned against the door frame, one foot in the room and one foot out, as if deciding to still go through with his plan or to retreat outside to the safety of the marketplace.

Artemis was not expecting that question. It caught her off guard, and Artemis paused before she spoke, choosing her words carefully.

"She's... she's good. The healers said it wasn't that bad, um... " Artemis didn't know what else to say as her voice trailed off. Tom had migrated from the doorway to a small chair that sat in the corner of Artemis's room. A few beats of awkward silence ensued. It was the kind of silence that everyone was aware of, the kind that was not only heard, but felt, too. It settled around them like a blanket, until Tom finally spoke.

"I'm sorry. About... about her getting hurt. If I hadn't come to get you... she probably wouldn't have gotten hurt. I'm sorry."

This time, Artemis knew exactly what to say, but mostly because Anna had already said it for her. "Don't blame yourself for something you couldn't have prevented, Tom. If you hadn't gotten us, so many more people could have gotten hurt, or worse. It wasn't your fault. Nothing good can come of blaming yourself, Tom."

Alright, next chapter will be pretty long! I was writing it and I intend to have MEDUSA all in one chapter, but I realized it was waaaay too long to have in one part! Please vote and comment if you liked it, and I will see you next week!