Lustral || Complete

IX

     "This is absurd, I can clean myself," Liri griped as Sasha washed her cheek with a warm cloth.

     "Sit still. The side of your face is swollen and turning a yellowish-green—not your colors," Ardon said with a smirk.

     "It was barely a scratch, and it doesn't hurt, so it can't be as bad as you're insisting."

     Sasha picked up a round mirror, Ardon grabbed it from him before Liri could. "You don't want to see it, just trust me to tell you the truth. It needs Doc's magical touch."

     "There are other people here who have been living in Hades for who knows how long. So get them settled, and then I'll let Sasha poke at me."

     "They are already taken care of, and you know it since I had to carry you here to get treated because you wouldn't stop fussing over them."

     "Stubborn," Sasha grumbled before grabbing the mirror from Ardon and holding it in front of her face.

     Liri sucked in a sharp breath as she jerked back from her reflection. "It's oozing pus."

     Ardon laughed. "I told you to trust me, but no."

     She turned her head this way and that before whining, "I'm hideous."

     "The left side of your face is, yeah, but the right is still beautiful."

     "I don't care about that; I just don't want to be known as pus-face for the next two hundred years. Am I going to heal?" Her eyes pleaded with Sasha's spectacled ones.

     "It's a simple infection. I can get rid of it in a few minutes, but you need to hold still," the Doctor said, in a calm tone as he waved a metal gadget back and forth in front of her.

     "Yes, please, get rid of it." She leaned forward and tilted her head.

     The UV light clicked on. Liri felt her skin tingle and slightly itch as Sasha worked his magic, moving the tube in slow circles over her swollen cheek.

     "I'm surprised you didn't offer Doc new lab equipment for prettying you back up."

     Her eyes snapped to Ardon. "Syd's new ship will have a state of the art infirmary." 

     "I like the sound of that," the captain said, from her seat across the room. A bright smile lit up her coco-kissed skin.

     "Me too." Sasha made a throaty chuckle. "I'm finished, Lady Delaney."

     "Thank you. What is the status of the other ships that left with shifters onboard, Syd?" She asked, lightly running her fingers over her cheek while looking in the mirror.

     "I instructed them to rendezvous near the Dubrovn system's outskirts and wait for further instructions. I don't know how many made it out safely, but I'd guess over a hundred."

     "And what about our new passengers? Are they doing alright?"

     Syd nodded. "They have all been given food and a place to sleep."

     "How are the baby and toddler that I brought aboard faring?"

     Sasha finished disinfecting his equipment and started vigorously scrubbing his arms under the faucet's stream of water. "The toddler is in the care of a female of her kind, but the baby, Nalla, isn't faring well."

     "Nalla?"

     Sasha nodded.

     "What's wrong with, Nalla?"