Q-Tip(KOTLC) {Completed}

17

Janessa woke up with dried tear tracks on her cheeks and Physic bent over her, applying the gross white goop to her wounds.

"Is that larvagorn pus? I didn't notice before." Janessa commented sadly.

"Yeah, it is." Physic said sympathetically. "Are you okay?"

Janessa looked down. "I always knew he was going to die. I gave him elixirs to keep him alive longer and make it less painful for him, but I didn't know how to cure him. I was prepared. But that doesn't mean it didn't hurt." Janessa hiccuped before blinking away her tears. "Can I get out of bed today? I'm going to go crazy if I just sit here all day."

"Yes. Once I finish with this and set up a brace for your shoulder, you'll be free to walk around as you please. Oh, and once you drink all your elixirs. You might also want a bath." Physic said, wiping a stray tear from Janessa's face.

Janessa nodded weakly, noticing the much less acute pain in her shoulder and lack of pain on the claw marks other than tenderness as if she had a bruise. 

Janessa winced a little as Physic used a sponge to clean her for the first time in days then re-wrapped her shoulder in a much stronger casing than before, though the bone had finished re-forming and there was a thin layer of skin and scar tissue over it. 

Janessa swallowed all thirty of her elixirs in one gulp each, trying not to notice the taste of any of them.

Finally, she was finished and Physic had helped her change into a light pink halter tunic and dark grey leggings with a matching belt. Janessa noticed sadly that she had three dark red indents on her arm, each half an inch wide at its largest and looking almost a centimetre deep with some parts still scabbed over.

Physic helped her up and Janessa wobbled on her legs before regaining her strength, allowing her to walk slowly towards the door. Janessa noticed her reflection in her full-length mirror and inhaled sharply. In addition to the scars on her arm, she had a long, deep scab on her right cheek that went from next to her ear to just underneath the corner of her lip. There were also four more from the ogre's other claw on her right side and hip, but those were hidden by her clothes. Her hair, once long ringlets she usually kept in a braid, was missing chunks at the bottom so it was very uneven.

She didn't mention anything to Physic and they continued walking out the door into the common room. When she entered, she saw Sophie, Della, Biana, Dex, Mr Forkle, and an amber-haired, turquoise eyed woman. Dex was holding an imp with orange dreadlocks.

"Conjurors can pull at the threads in small ways, snapping them back and forth." The amber-haired woman snapped her fingers and a plate of custard bursts appeared in her hands.

Janessa's mouth salivated. "Mind if I have one?"

Everyone turned to her and their jaws dropped at her appearance.

"Your hair..." Biana mumbled.

"I know. It looks really bad." Janessa forced her facial expression into a smile, before turning to the unfamiliar woman again. "I haven't met you yet. I'm Janessa, Sophie's twin sister."

"JJ, this is my mom, Edaline." Sophie said sympathetically, remembering the events of the previous night.

"Sophie told me all about you just last night. She mad you sound really wonderful." Janessa said, shaking the woman's hand with a wince. "Ah, forgot I have cuts on my arm."

Edaline's eyebrows furrowed in concern. "What happened? If you don't mind me asking."

"I was supposed to be riling up the prisoners as a distraction in Exile with Keefe, Squall, and Blur, and then the alarm sounded, so I jumped backwards into the claws of an ogre who ate my shoulder." Janessa explained quietly.

"Oh, you poor thing!" Edaline exclaimed. "Here, take two." She gestured to the custard bursts.

Janessa happily took two and savoured each bite of the delicious pastries. "Mmm. These are delicious. I've tried making them before, but never gotten the recipe quite right."

"I'd happily lend you my recipe." Edaline offered.

"Really?! That would be amazing!" 

"Of course!"

Mr Forkle cleared his throat. "Back to the reason we're here?"

"Right, the cache." Edaline snapped her fingers and the plate disappeared once more, before explaining to Sophie how she would hide the cache in the void and attach a thread between her mind and the cache so Sophie could reach the cache on her own.

When Sophie pulled out the cache, the imp snatched it and flew to the top of the waterfall in the centre of the room, chewing on it with a loud scrape.

Edaline conjured the cache back into Sophie's palm and the imp's cage appeared in his path, trapping him inside.

"Perhaps we should send that creature home before it does any real damage." Mr Forkle clutched his chest.

Biana cooed "Aww, we can't send him away. He looks so sad. Can't he stay here?"

"You don't think he's gross and stinky?" Dex asked, surprised.

"I grew up with two older brothers and Keefe. I'm an expert on gross and stinky." Biana reminded him.

Biana and Dex left to make a new elixir to turn him blue and Della turned to follow them to make sure they don't get into any trouble.

Janessa sat down, tired, after Physic left to return to the Last Cities, and watched as Edaline connected the cache to Sophie's mind and taught her how to move it. As the two of them were hugging goodbye, Janessa looked away, eyes burning with longing for her own mother to hug her like that.

"It was really nice meeting you, Janessa." Edaline said with a warm smile.

Janessa's eyes brightened. "You too, Edaline."

Janessa then went to Biana's room to see her giggling at the imp, named "Iggy", while Dex worked on an elixir.

"Hey, Biana?"

"Yeah, Janessa?" Biana asked hesitantly, glancing at the scars.

"Would you mind cutting my hair? You know, fixing it? I trust you more with my hair than Sophie and I can't really use my arms to do it myself." 

Biana squealed, forgetting her awkwardness. "Of course! Let me go get some scissors."

Biana disappeared for a few moments then reappeared with scissors in her hand. Janessa didn't know where she'd gotten the scissors from, but didn't have enough energy to care.

Janessa closed her eyes, listening to the snipping sound of Biana cutting her hair.

When it was finally done, Della and Biana beamed at her and Dex's jaw dropped for a moment before he looked away to hide his blush.