After finishing wrapping bandages around her, Zeven pulled the blankets up to her chin. He sat down on the bed beside her feeling how the bed sunk around her assuring him she was still there. Looking at Brennan he leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees and hands hanging inward.
"Those weren't Ametade soldiers."
Brennen paused. "They were wearing their uniform."
"For show only. If they were Ametade soldiers, wouldn't they have recognized Chris?"
"She looked like a girl." He resumed cleaning up the rest of the medical supplies, "Even you admitted how different she looked."
"Chris looks like her mother. A Spitting image, even more so dressed like that, don't you think it would have at least given them pause." Zeven was still sitting on the bed beside Chris. He looked over at her softly, tucking away a stray strand of hair. "And what's more… did you notice which one of us is actually hurt? They had an archer who just sat there and waited."
"He was aiming for you."
"No he wasn't."
"What are you even suggesting zeven? I know that this has been incredibly stressful, but now of all times is the time to retain your sensibility." Brennan picked up the kit, and as he stood up from a crouching position he rested his hand on Zeven's shoulder. But Zeven was not to be comforted, he brushed the hand off.
"I recognized their faces. They were not Ametade soldiers. They were elite military men employed by my father."
Chris stirred in her sleep, her brows pinching together in pain as she tousled. Zeven turned to face her as he gently shushed her. Trying to still her movements and coerce her back to sleep. He leaned down pressing his forehead against hers.
Brennan could only watch on. The loss of Gunter was also hard for him, but he was nowhere as close to him as Zeven was. But it was not hard for him to understand Zeven's possessiveness towards Chris. He had always had the tendency, but the stress of Gunter's death was taking a far greater toll on him than he was admitting. It was like he believed that if he was away from her for even a moment she too would leave him.
He couldn't intrude on this private moment any longer, reaching inside his own pocket he produced the two letters he found on Gunter. Extending them to Zeven he waited until he had taken them from his hand.
"I found these on Gunter. I haven't looked at them, but I figure you might want to." And then he left to return the medical kit to its place.
Zeven looked at both letters Brennan had given him. Holding them tightly enough to leave fingernail impressions in the paper, he tried to calm down. But there was a sea of emotions all flooding into him, and he hadn't had the chance to sit down and process them.
It all seemed so unreal. There was no way Gunter could be dead. It wasn't possible, when death would come for Gunter it would return with only a stern lecture on appropriate timing. It couldn't take Gunter, couldn't even touch him.