Isaac takes off his shirt as I prepare the medical kit next to me. Michael returns from the bathroom with a small pail of warm water so that I can clean off some of the dried blood and ointment from Isaac's wounds. I unwrap the bandage and toss the soiled pieces into the trash can.
"Your wounds are healing nicely after only a week of treatment," I comment, wringing out the drenched washcloth.
"That's because the Young Lady is using such tender care on them," Isaac jokes as he chuckles to himself.
I tap the back of Isaac's head. "Hey, stop moving so much," I warn him. "You are going to open the wounds back up if you keep laughing."
Standing behind me, Michael stares deeply at Isaac's back. I notice him reaching out to touch Isaac's back from the corner of my eye, but I catch his hand before he gets too close. Michael looks down at me, and I tilt my head towards Isaac mouthing 'ask first'.
Michael retracts his hand then clears his throat. "Um, Isaac, this might be a weird question, but is it okay if I touch your back to feel the wounds?"
Isaac turns his head to Michael. "Sure, I don't mind. Just don't get in Lady Viola's way while she is cleaning them," Isaac responds, smiling at Michael.
Relieved, Michael reaches over me to touch Isaac's back. He carefully traces the old scars that line Isaac's skin. Then, Michael hovers over some of the healing wounds so as to not hurt Isaac. I can smell the scent of hatred and anger spewing out of Michael the longer he stares at the wounds.
"Do you mind if I help?" Michael asks standing in front of Isaac.
"What do you mean?" Isaac questions looking back at me to see if I understood.
"An angel's light magic can heal wounds and remove the scarring depending on the level of his or her magic," Michael explains. "I don't have all of my magic since I'm a fallen angel, but I still have enough to at least close your wounds. The scars will still be there, though."
Isaac takes a moment to think about it. Every once in a while, he would glance back at me then at Michael. "Will that be okay with you, Lady Viola?" Isaac asks, peeking around at me from his shoulder.
"The decision is up to you. It's your body, so you have the final say," I answer, setting the washcloth into the pail of water.
"Since you won't be able to remove the scars, you can go ahead and heal the wounds," Isaac says, staring up at Michael.
"Why do you want to keep your scars?" I wonder, standing up from the stool.
"These scars used to hold horrible memories, but now they hold great ones. These scars will always remind me of your generosity and of how grateful I am to have met you." Isaac's face beams with an innocent smile.
He turns something that should be a terrible reminder into a precious treasure. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from that...
Michael makes his way behind Isaac. He places his hand in the center of Isaac's back causing him to flinch a bit since Michael touches a few of the wounds. Michael closes his eyes as his other hand moves over his heart. A faint yellow glow radiates around his body that slowly transfers itself to Isaac. Not long after, the glow transfers over, and Isaac's wounds begin to shut close. The mesmerizing scene of the wounds practically morphing itself together captivates my eyes keeping them glued to Isaac's back. After another minute or two, all of the wounds on Isaac have sealed themselves closed leaving nothing but scars behind.
"How do you feel?" Michael asks as he removes his hand from Isaac.
Isaac stands up and twists his back stretching it this and that way seeing if there is any reaction. "It feels like the pain was never there," Isaac responds, still moving around.
"That's amazing!" I shout observing Isaac's back. "I have never seen light magic being used before, but I didn't think it would be that powerful."
"Well, angels are the only ones whose bodies are capable enough to use this kind of magic," Michael says, trying to stand up. He ends up tipping over and falling onto my bed.
"Are you okay?" I ask running over to him.
Michael lays one of his hands on his head using the other to prop himself up. "Yeah, I'm good. It's just my body's reaction to using the light magic."
"What is light magic's reaction?" I question as I sit next to Michael.
"Light magic is sourced from one's life force. In order to use it, you have to give up some of your life, but it gets returned to you after some rest. Since I'm a fallen angel, my light magic is weak, so it takes a lot of my life force to use it enough to heal someone."
"Are you saying that you were killing yourself just to heal my back?!" Isaac yells standing in front of Michael. "What kind of idiot gives up his life just to heal some wounds that could have healed over time?"
Michael looks up at Isaac and laughs. "Me, I guess."
"Why would you do something so reckless just for me?" Isaac continues to ask, grabbing Michael's shirt.
"The Young Lady obviously cares for you if she personally tends to your wounds every night. I'm nothing more than just another person taking up space for the sake of using a person in power to clear my name. Once the Young Lady clears my name, she will have no use for me. I will have to leave while you will be able to stay here. It's only logical to heal the Young Lady's permanent worker. Besides, I would have regained my lifeforce in a few days, a week at most. I don't mind."
Suddenly irritated, I slap Isaac's hands off of Michael's shirt then shove Michael onto my bed as I stand over him. "You look here, Michael. Regardless if you are a temporary or permanent worker, I care for all of my aides dearly. Don't sell yourself short just because you are temporary. You aren't using me. I'm mad because the Sky Council found you guilty even when they didn't have any evidence themselves. That's why I'm helping you. And who said that you will have to leave here after I clear your name? You obviously have the option to stay here and become a permanent worker. I'm not heartless, and you know that, so stop disregarding your life when it obviously has a purpose here in my family."
"Viola! Are you okay?!" Delic shouts as he bursts through the doors. "Your heart is rapidly beating, and your powers are spilling out."
I look at the floor to find a five foot circumference of ice around my feet with frost climbing up my legs as well as the bed. Delic tightly wraps me in my shawl, picks me up, and lays me on the bed pushing Michael off in the process. Xander rushes in with a tray of hot chocolate and hurriedly hands me the mug.
"You need to calm down, Master. Your body is freezing," Xander says as he rubs my shoulders. "You're losing control of your power."
Dumbfounded, Michael and Isaac stand at the edge of the bed watching the rapid scene unfold in front of them.
"What did you two do? Didn't I just tell you that she is fragile? That also includes her emotions," Xander yells glaring at the two guys.
Michael and Isaac are too shocked to say anything. Everything happened so quickly that they didn't even have time to react. They were too distracted by my outburst that they weren't aware of my powers leaking out.
"You two need to leave. Now!" Xander demands pointing at the door. "You two are obviously not prepared to serve Master appropriately."
I try to say something, but the exhaustion from the snow and ice rampaging and my internal system trying to regulate it takes control and washes over my body causing me to fall asleep. Delic rests my head on his shoulder as he feeds me more of the hot chocolate to put something warm inside me to aid in the regulating process.
"You two are on breakfast duty tomorrow," Xander declares as he stands up from my bed. "It seems that you aren't mentally prepared to guide the Young Lady. My brother and I will take over in the morning."
"We didn't do anything wrong," Michael states walking over to Xander.
"What you did wrong was get Master's emotions riled up. She must have a leveled mind or else her powers will try to break her before her weak spot can," Xander tells Michael pointing his finger at Michael's chest. "Maybe if you weren't so distracted with whatever stupid shit you were doing, you would have realized what was going on."
Delic lays me back down and tucks me into the bed. "An aide must be ready for anything that happens to his master," he says, clapping his hands together. "Regardless of what is happening, the master and her well-being should be at the forefront of an aide's mind. What you two did was forget your position in this house. Even if the Young Lady is getting mad at you, it is your job to calm her down because horrible consequences await those who don't act swiftly and accordingly."
"Delic is right," Isaac says, still standing beside the bed. "We weren't able to fulfill our jobs as Lady Viola's aides when she needed us. Even if we are distracted with other things, we must always be vigilant of what is going on around Lady Viola, but we failed to realize what was happening and potentially harmed her. This is our punishment for not doing our job well."
Michael glares over at Xander who is still staring daggers at him but doesn't say anything. He just clicks his tongue and storms out of the room. Isaac follows behind leaving Delic and Xander in the room.
"I know that you and Michael don't get along, but you should at least be more careful with the words you choose," Delic says, putting a hand on Xander's shoulder.
Xander glances over at me, who is sleeping peacefully on my bed. "Will her body be okay tomorrow?"
"She should be fine with some rest, but I don't know if she will wake up in the morning," Delic replies, looking over at me as well. "Try to wake her up before you get her bath ready. If she doesn't move and react, then leave her be. I will leave one of the mid-ranked wolves by her bed and two of my men at the door to guard her in case she wakes up while we are gone."
"Are we really going to just leave her at the house while we go to school tomorrow?"
"She would get mad at us if we skipped school just to watch over her. Don't you think so?" Delic asks, rubbing Xander's head. "We should go to bed. It's getting late."
Xander comes over to my bed and gently grasps my hand that lays on top of the blanket. He puts it up to his lips and lightly kisses it, setting it back down as he does. "Good night, Master."
"Oi! You little-" Delic wraps his arm around Xander's neck and drags him out of the room closing the door behind him.
—
"My Lady?" Alex asks as he gives my shoulder a little push.
Xander shakes me a little to see if I would react, but I don't move. "It looks like she still needs some time to recover from last night."
Alex stands back up and starts walking over to the door. "Was it really that bad?"
"Those two idiots worked up Master's emotions without realizing it," Xander replies following behind his brother. "It was bad enough."
"Is Lady Viola okay?" Isaac asks when the twins enter the kitchen.
"She is still sleeping, so we will head to school without her," Xander answers, jumping in and preparing breakfast.
"When do you think she will wake up?" Michael adds to the questioning.
"That will depend on the damage done to her body," Delic replies walking into the kitchen.
"What do you mean by damage?" Michael continues.
"A Winter Vessel is born with his body already modified to contain the ice and snow abilities unlike us magic users who have to adjust our bodies' functions in order to use our magic," Alex starts to explain.
"That being said, when the snow and ice rampage within the body, the body needs to fight in order to maintain order and suppress the elements within. Depending on how far the snow and ice rampaged, the damage control that the body needs to render can be as short as a nap or as long as a few days," Xander adds as he packs the lunches in a sack.
"The longest that the Young Lady has been asleep was two months which is when I first made contact with her," Delic continues to explain. "The next time it happened, she was asleep for two days. It all depends on how much her body suffered to restrain the snow and ice."
"So it's our fault that she won't wake up," Isaac says, dropping his head.
"It's not like she is dead. She will wake up soon," Alex says as he rubs Isaac's back. Remembering the wounds on Isaac's back, Alex jerks his hand away from Isaac. "Ah! Sorry! I forgot about your back. Is it healing okay?"
Isaac lifts his head and sees Alex's concerned expression. "It's fine. The wounds are healed already thanks to Michael's light magic," Isaac answers. He finishes tying the sack that contains Michael and his lunch and pushes it a bit in front of him. "That's actually how it started, getting Lady Viola angry."
"Can you explain what you mean by that?" Delic asks, carrying the breakfast to the small dining room since they aren't going to eat in my room while I sleep.
"Essentially, Michael told us that he exchanged a lot of his life force to heal my wounds. I got really mad and started yelling at Michael. Then, Michael went on a spiel about how I was more important since I'm permanent and he's temporary which ended up causing Lady Viola's outburst," Isaac explains.
"So in the end, it was still the stupid angel that caused everything," Xander assumes, glaring at Michael. "They always think that they are in the right with their high-and-mighty god complexes."
"Hey! I realized my mistake last night," Michael yells at Xander. "I never said that I was in the right in the first place, so stop making those baseless assumptions. You're no better than those old fools on the Sky Council, judging me without any evidence. How about you learn to rid yourself of your prejudice before you come at me?"
"My prejudice? What about your-"
"What's with all this screaming?" I yawn, waddling into the kitchen rubbing my eyes.
The five guys standing around the table turn to face me. The surprised look on their faces is a dead give away.
"You're awake!" Michael shouts from the other end of the table.
"Well no duh," I reply as I grasp the edges of my blanket that I drag behind me. "It's not like I'm going to die from something like that."
"You shouldn't be walking around," Delic advises as he picks me up and wraps me a bit with the blanket. "You need to be in bed recovering. Your body is still a bit cold."
Alex quickly runs into the kitchen then immediately runs out with a mug of hot chocolate. "Here, drink this, my Lady. You must keep your body warm to help with your recovery."
"Um, Lady Viola," Isaac announces from the seat next to Michael. "I'm very sorry for not paying more attention to you last night. If I had just realized what was happening to you, you wouldn't have gotten hurt. I'll work harder to become a more competent aide that you can trust by your side."
"You are already very capable, Isaac. You were just suddenly taken in by the situation. Everyone gets like that every once in a while," I reply with a warm smile. I look at the fallen angel next to him who appears to be shifting a bit from his spot. "Don't beat yourself up thinking that it's your fault, Michael. If you let something as small as that bother you, then everything is going to be a problem."
Michael grips the sides of the chair in front of him while slowly meeting my gaze. "I'm sorry, Lady Viola. I'll work harder next time I'm by your side," he mutters.
"That's good. Keep in mind that you aren't classified as temporary. You are classified as precious to me," I finish. I glance up at Delic who is still holding me. "Please...take me...back...." I fall asleep in Delic's arms from using up too much energy.
"You four go ahead and start eating breakfast," Delic says as he walks out from the small dining room. "I'll put the Young Lady back to bed. We'll leave for school after you're finished."