Against the Blade: A Hunter's Tale

Chapter 12

"I swear I'll never understand magic," Victoria huffed, flopping down under the shade of a Zaro tree in the little oasis they'd found.

"It took four weeks for you to fully heal, and you can whip my wounds back into shape in less than a day? How does any of that make sense?"

Rowan sat on the other side of the tree, leaning against the thick, scratching trunk as he said, "Magic has its limits. Even at my best, two weeks is the barest minimum that a break should be given to be declared fully healed, and that would be if I was treating someone else. I was already exhausted by the life crystal when my leg was broken, so I was still recovering from that. I didn't...did not...have the energy to heal myself for several days. Even then, I could only manage short bouts. My leg was broken in two places and each break needed my undivided attention. Two breaks, two week minimum...you see how it can add up. Count yourself lucky. If I had broken my back, you would have been better off leaving me to the vultures. Besides, you are different."

She pushed her fingers through her choppy hair, trying to keep the sweat-slicked strands off her forehead as she said, "Obviously that didn't need to be stated. Just look at how we spent our time in Eleria. You laid up with a broken leg, and me enjoying the company of that cute little servant girl that kept bringing you your meals in bed. What was her name again?"

"Oh for bloody fuck's sake, seriously? That is what you remember? You are right shameless, you know that?"

"Yep, so people tell me. No, seriously, what was her name? I was drunk half the time--"

"Mari," he sighed, head dropping back against the tree, "her name was Mari. Really Victoria, you know I didn't mean that statement to be referring to your sexual habits. I mean that you are very different in your healing and I have yet to figure out how or why."

"Dunno," she said, shrugging more on instinct than for him to see her, since he wasn't looking anyway, and she picked up a small piece of sandstone to throw out into the crystalline pool before them.

"I've always been a quick healer. I just assumed that was a part of being a Hunter. I never really stopped to think all too much about it."

"Of course you did not," he sighed, and she glanced over at him as he picked up his own rock to throw into the water, the ripples gliding across each other and breaking up their reflections.

Their conflict had settled, for the most part, during his recovery in Eleria, but there was still something he wasn't talking to her about. She was fully, honestly aware of how he felt about her ways with other women. Enough fights had been had, enough vitriol spewed, and she was pretty sure they'd at least reached a stalemate. He wasn't happy, she wasn't budging. It was just how it would be. Nothing was agreed upon, but at least they didn't argue about it while he was recovering. If he was still bothered by it, he was doing a good job keeping quiet while still projecting to her that he was most certainly not happy. But she felt like something else was nagging at him, and she couldn't tell if it had to do with her or if it was something entirely different. She wasn't that good of a person, but at least she was a willing ear if it was something she wanted to hear.

This felt like that kind of a something, "Hey."

He turned, looking at her with an unreadable expression, and that was her first clue that something was amiss; she could always read him, "What's bothering you now?"

She didn't know if she came off as abrasive, but she couldn't think of any other way to put it, "Nothing. Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm not as dumb as you seem to think I am. What's bothering you?"