Truths, Lies and Bilgesnipes [Complete]

Chapter 4

'Your highness, don't be afraid to rest your bodyweight on me,' Caunas said. He had been tasked with Loki's follow up care after Loki had been discharged. Supposedly, he was one of the most promising healers under Eir's tutelage, but he didn't look like much. Caunas was a short and skinny man, who dressed in clothes too wide for him, which only made him seem slighter. Loki hesitated to lean too heavily on him.

Yet as they moved away from Loki's bed and toward the round table on the other end of the room, each step was more difficult than the previous. Loki ended up digging his hands into the heavy fabric of Caunas's overcoat.

'Why does everything have to feel so stiff?' Loki mumbled.

The braces, which had been replaced with more compact, semi-rigid ones the previous night contributed, but the stiffness was mostly in his legs. The resulting feeling was vile. It was as everything under his skin wasn't entirely his own — dead wood trapped within living flesh. The sole exception was the ache that rolled through his lower thigh every time Loki moved his right leg. Originating somewhere deep within, as if from the bone itself, that ache was vivid and alive.

Having received no response from Caunas, Loki gritted his teeth and ventured a few steps further until Caunas backed himself into the table. Loki's textbooks had been stacked on there; they went flying.

'Pardon me, your highness,' Caunas said. He peered sharply at Loki, perhaps remembering anew his purpose in Loki's bedchamber, then pried the sleeves of his overcoat out of Loki's hands. He hurriedly stacked the books back into place. 'How does it feel today?'

Much the same. Loki felt himself sway a little; he wasn't entirely sure of his footing. 'Better than yesterday. Definitely.'

'Good. Now back to the bed, your highness.' Caunas frowned. 'If you are feeling up to it, of course, your highness.'

Loki wasn't sure he had ever heard 'your highness' be used by any single person so liberally before; it verged on a verbal tic. He wasn't sure either if he was feeling up to the shuffling journey back to his bed. But he wasn't about to admit that. Slowly, and with Caunas now trailing behind him rather than pulling him along, Loki worked his way back. He had to thank the Norns that Caunas was behind him and couldn't see how badly he grit his teeth.

'Good, good, your highness,' Caunas said quickly while Loki, verging on woozy now, awkwardly clambered back onto his bed. 'Uh, what else was there? The...'

'It's fine. It's all getting better, just takes time, doesn't it?' Loki cut in. He furrowed his brows as he wrestled with what he ought to say next. 'Speaking of time. You were explaining before, it takes three weeks for the cultures to mature. But what happens if you leave them for an extra week?'

As Loki expected, Caunas' face lit up. The healer was probably brilliant in his own manner, but he wasn't destined for a career in patient care. He was neither particularly good at it nor at all interested. He was dedicated to understanding the evolution of viruses. Or some particular strand of viruses anyway. Loki didn't understand so much as a quarter of what Caunas said to him, but Loki liked that Caunas was passionate about his laboratory work. If Loki kept asking Caunas questions, Caunas remained too distracted to ask Loki any. He had forgotten even to take a measure of Loki's temperature this morning.

In the end, Loki overplayed his hand. Caunas blabbered on far too long before he finally decided to dash back to his laboratory — Loki's head had begun to throb at all the long words that held no meaning for him. Loki massaged the sides of his head, then buried himself under his three layers of blankets once more. Unfortunately, Loki didn't get to enjoy the warmth and serenity of his bed for long. Asta strode in with a tray of food.