The door was pushed open and in walked Zenon with an uncharacteristic frown on his face as he observed me. I held back a sigh, here we go again. "I guess I proved your point, huh?" I asked with as much sneer as I could muster with a pounding head, though it was slowly going down.
His frown deepened for a moment before his face smoothenend. I probably would have missed it if I had blinked. "What happened to you?" He asked in a puzzled tone. Like I was merely a curiosity.
I gritted my teeth, and looked at Baltha, but he remained quite and raised a brow with a small smile like he was waiting for what I would do, and I sighed. It was easier to talk to Baltha, he'd actually been half decent to me. Something about Zenon pushed all my buttons in the wrong way making me want to push back. I don't even know why I'm fighting him so much. I looked at his once more blank face and realized that was probably why. It's hard to trust someone who looks like they don't care about anything. "Isn't it obvious? Someone made me run when I clearly told them I don't." An expression passed his face, too fast for me to decipher before his brow pulled into a frown, but he remained quiet and retreated to a corner of the room.
The door crashed open and in walked Rowund with that same manic step minus the smile this time. "Now, young lady, what is this I hear about you fainting?"
I groaned. The impact of the door on the wall reverberating in my skull. I absently massaged my brow, focusing on his face. He stopped at my bedside muttering something to himself with his right hand, hovering, palmdown over, first my head, then slowly going down my body, his frown deepening as he went. "What is wrong with you?" He asked with a perplexed frown.
"Jeez y'all are sweet talkers," I said. He kept giving me that confded frown and I sighed. "If you had given me the time to answer, before whatever that thing you just did, I would have simply told you. I'm sick, okay? Bad heart, probably going to drop dead any day now. Everybody happy?"
He watched my face for a moment. "How do you know you have a bad heart?" He asked.
"Dude, I've been sick my entire life. My dad said it started from birth."
He frowned. "Your dad?"
I sighed. "My father."
His expression froze for a moment. "No, that is impossible," he muttered under his breath. I eyed the odd man in his chaotic mix of clothing, but he wasn't paying attention to me anymore. "Get Rossi here, now," he said, turning to Zenon who slowly unpeeled himself from the wall and left the room without a word.
Rowund raised his hand over my body once again, and I pushed up into a sitting position. "Okay, enough of that. Can you atleast tell me what you're doing?"
"Trying to assess your magic," he said with an absently look of concentration.
"My ma- you have got to be kidding me. Dude, I just told you I've been sick my entire life but you think I have magic?"
He finally looked at me with a frown. "I do not understand half of what you say. Where exactly did you learn to talk like that?"
I smirked. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But back to the magic, are you saying I have magic?"
"You should, but something is seriously wrong."
I rolled my eyes. "I could have told you that. Weak heart, over here."
He shook his head. "I do not mean physically."
I paused, my throat suddenly dry and my hands palpitating a little. I might pretend to be fine with dying all I want, but I don't know if I would truly be at peace with it. I used to have such big dreams of seeing the world, does this mean I'll die faster than I thought I would? "What do you mean?" I asked, voice drenched in apprehension.
He shook his head again. "Wait for Rossi. I am not sure exactly what I am getting. Soul and spirit energy and balance is more Esperian magic than Morrioa."
I slumped back to the bed, twisting the blanket round my finger, my mind coming up with a thousand and one scenarios of horrible ways I could die in the short time it took Zenon to return with Rossi.
The petite girl walked in her steps light and footfalls silent. Her dark hair swished behind her as she walked towards the bed with a calm expression that still managed to look fierce even in her tiny body. I might be bigger, but everything about her screamed predator and my instincts were to run as far from her as possible. "Assess her balance," Rowund says pointing towards me like there could ever be a misinterpretation. I was the only other she.
"I'm going to touch your hand," Rossi said, taking my hand without waiting for me to indicate whether it was okay or not. She shut her eyes for a short while, then dropped my hand like it was scalding and shuffled back a few steps.
"What is it?" Rowund asked, stepping closer.
"It's too chaotic in there," she said, cleaning her hands on the cloth of her pants like I might have left some kind of residue on her.
"And why is that?" He asked, running his finger over a ring I hadn't noticed on his finger.
"I don't know," she said, shoulders slightly drooping. "I couldn't see beyond all that negative pull."
"Jeez, I didn't think I was that negative. I rarely even complain about people outside my mind," I muttered under my breath. I looked up to see her giving me an incredulous look, like I was the biggest idiot she had ever seen.
Baltha chuckled. "I believe she's talking about the antithesis of the originating source of our magic."
I flushed, avoiding meeting anyone's eyes. "Right. I haven't gotten to that part of the book yet."
Zenon finally stepped closer, his focus on Rossi. "What do you mean you could not see. Is this not supposed to be your area of specialty? Esperians are the authority on energy and balance are they not?" He said, his tone bordering on rude. I guess asshole behavior isn't reserved for just me.
Rossi's eyes flashed and I saw her jaw clench. "I know you're not too much of Dingwing's ass to forget that I'm only half." She turned to Rowund. "I'm sorry, you would need to get a full Esperian for this. Preferably someone with considerably a lot of innate potential. Maybe a priestess. There's something messed up going on inside her."
My grip tightened on the blanket. And to think I was close to feeling sorry for her for the way Zenon spoke to her.
"Hmm" Rowund said, his hand going over that ring again making me wonder what it was.
"Can I go back now? I was sharpening my knives," she said, her twitching hand the only sign of her impatience. Rowund nodded with an absent look, like he was already somewhere else. She glided out like she had come in, and Rowund followed shortly after not even looking in my direction like he had forgotten I was there. I relaxed on the bed with a sigh, missing home and my quiet spot by the stream. I guess my days of walking the forest and cataloging the plants I knew were now over.
"Are you okay?" Baltha's deep voice rumbled, startling me a little. I had forgotten he was there, having put all my focus on the blank faced man on the other side of the room. For someone so big, he could be awfully quiet.
"I guess so. Gotta roll with the punches huh," I said with a tight smile.
"Uhm..." He said, looking partly sheepish and confused.
I winced. "Sorry, habit. I'll be fine. Something being wrong with me isn't exactly something new, so nothing surprising there."
He nodded. "Rest then, and I'll see you later," he said, patting my hand before leaving.
"What does it feel like?" Zenon asked from his post by the wall.
"What does what feel like?" I asked, picking at imaginary lint on the blanket.
"Your heart," he said, the full focus of his piercing gaze on me making me fidget.
"Why? So you can find another way to push it?"
He sighed. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Would you have cared?" I responded with a raised brow.
His frown pulled at that curious scar on his brows. "Do not talk like you know anything about me," he said.
I firmed myself, then held his gaze. "And whose fault is that?"
His frown deepened and he regarded me for a moment more, then left. I slumped into the bed suddenly tired, these people are exhausting. I need to get a map and go find my father, but where would I even begin to look? My eyes began drooping, and I thought, lemme rest for a while, tomorrow, I'd definitely do something tomorrow.
