Help from the enemy

"I need your help." Arabella whispered through the door, blood dripping down her face, her sword broken in her scabbard.
"Why?" a voice like an unused hinge came from the other side.

"Because I have met someone worse than you, someone more dangerous. And I need your help, she's killed everyone I loved. All that would help me." At that last desperate sentence, Erilea opened the door, looking at the broken form of a girl too young to be at war by herself, her clothes torn and showing half of her mutilated skin, her feet bare and bloody, her bow and sword ruined. Then she looked at the girl's eyes, originally, she had beautiful cerulean eyes, now they had films of blood over them and surrounding her eyes were scratches still seeping with poison and blood, tears pouring down her mangled face.

"You're blind," Erilea said with pained wonder. Arabella stared away from towards the door, her face contorted with pain. Erilea reached down and grabbed the other girl's hand. "Come inside, Arabella." Completely trusting, or not caring what came of her fate, the young girl followed the immortal into the castle.

Whispers filled Arabella's ears as she was led through corridors and halls in the castle, her bare feet feeling the rub of carpet, a sensation she hadn't felt since she had entered the battle field two years ago. She was now sixteen.

"Where are we going?" she whispered, unsure if Erilea had heard. But she had.

"To my room, I have medical supplies squirreled away somewhere. I'll be able to stop some of the infections in the wounds, but I'll have call in some favours with doctors to be able to stop the poison from killing you-." Arabella felt herself lose the sense of gravity and everything became even more disorientating. She felt Erilea spin around, the carpet twisting, and she caught Arabella just as she hit the floor.

Erilea watched over the sleeping figure of who used to be her worst enemy, the one probably dreamt about killing her, to end the war, to go home. She smiled sadly as the sixteen-year-old girl turned over onto her side and gasped, her face excited.

Probably a childhood memory, Erilea thought to herself, not being able to remember her last birthday. She had been in the realm for longer than most humans had family names last. Arabella turned over again onto her stomach, face turned into the pillow.

"Shit," Erilea swore as she reopened her stitches as her face rubbed on the coarse pillow. She stuck out her hand and shook Arabella gently, rousing her from her drugged sleep. "Arabella, you must wake, you've reopened your stitches." Arabella shot up, wincing at the pain.

"Where am-," she broke off. "Oh, I'm here," she said tiredly. Erilea brought a pitcher of water up to Arabella's lips and looked her in the eye. Arabella took a sip and went pale. Erilea almost dropped the pitcher onto the table as she reached for a bucket. Arabella threw up in the bucket, retching until she had no more poison, food or anything else in her body.

"Yuck." She moaned as Erilea grabbed her hand and closed her fist over a cloth to clean her face. "Thanks." She waved the cloth towards Erilea in a gesture of thanks, then cleaned her mouth with it. Erilea took the cloth from her and threw it into another bucket across the room. It landed perfectly. Arabella went to open her mouth when the door to Erilea' room burst open and a young boy ran in, red-faced and panting.

"Lady Ashburn! Update on the-," he broke off when he saw who else was in the room. Arabella looked up at the sound of the voice and furrowed her brow. "on the war," he said in a small voice, "their hero is missing, after being sentenced to death by the new queen." Erilea frowned,

"What new queen?" she asked

"The one who was appointed after you killed the last one?" he said cautiously. Erilea scrunched up her nose.

"Any other news?" she asked, annoyed. He nodded.

"Yes, the city of Quella is under siege from some other force. It's not us." He said, confused on the matter. Erilea frowned but gestured for him to leave. He ran back out and she turned back to Arabella, who was staring, wincing in pain as she felt around for the nearest clean cloth and pressed it against her ripped stitches. She looked up and smiled, still in pain. Erilea walked over and pressed pain killer tablets into her hand. Arabella motioned her scarred face towards the sound of her voice.

"Go, I'll be fine." she said. Erilea thanked her and rushed out the door,  telling the messenger to get Arabella whatever she needed. 

Erilea opened the door quietly, unsure the state of the young girl inside her room. She smiled at the blonde-haired girl, who was trailing her hands along the walls of the room, tracing them, whispering to herself.

"Arabella?" she asked. Arabella shrieked and spun around, her hand going unconsciously to her hip, where her sword used to live.

"Erilea!" she whispered, her white eyes bright, pleased. "I missed your voice." Erilea smiled, to her that was the highest compliment.
"Thanks, but I need you to come with me." Arabella frowned and she hid her hands behind her back.

"Could you come here. I don't know where there are obstacles or not." She finished dejectedly. Erilea looked around sympathetically and walked over to the short girl. She took her hand and gripped it gently.

"I'm here. Let's go." She said softly, pulling Arabella's hand towards her. Arabella followed her and picked her way around the room reasonably well until they got to the door. She had to be pulled out of the way of that. She walked calmly through the hallways, ignoring the whispers of the staff who were cleaning the building. They walked to a huge window in the east side of the castle and Erilea opened it, hot wind and ash hit them both in the face.

"What's that?" Arabella whispered. Erilea took in a huge breath.

"That's the smell and the ash from the burning city of Quella. Your home city." She looked back at the other girl and raised her eyebrows at the small smile playing at Arabella's lips. "What could you be happy about right now?" Arabella arched one sharp eyebrow.

"Well, see it like this," she said, smiling at her joke, "the woman who just sentenced me to death three days ago and from whom I escaped from, just sent three hundred of her most expendable soldiers to ransack the city in incognito, just to scare people. And now she's going to send her 'heroes' to 'save' the people of Quella. Clever, if you think about that way." She stared vaguely out the window, her white eyes blinking out the ash. She smiled sadly. "I can still remember when we were inseparable. Sisters separated at birth, they said." She murmured. Erilea turned to her sharply.
"You and this new queen have history?" she asked slowly. Arabella turned to her. 

"We grew up together. Practically next door neighbours. We were like sisters, the people in the town would say. But she moved away and I didn't see her again until I was being marched up to the noose in the middle of her courtroom." Arabella smiled bitterly. "Her name is Leta but she goes by the name Serilla now days. Seems to think it makes her sound more authentically royal." Erilea scoffed at this and Arabella nodded. "Sounds stupid, right? Well, when we were little, I didn't think that as much." She scrunched up her nose and smiled, amused. "I was the one who came up with the name. I was Kassandra, she was Serilla. In our little worlds we came up with, we were sisters who ruled the world together. We were going to change the world." She finished sadly.