The next days I spend almost only with sleep and Nero I do not see in the time because I have always slept when he has looked after me.
I lie awake in bed and stare at the ceiling.
When suddenly there is a soft knock I startle, I look to the door and Nero comes in. "oh you're awake, in that case you must have recovered a bit by now." Nero comes to my bedside and muscles me a bit.
"It took you quite a while to get your strength back to some extent..." he's right...if I'm not mistaken it was about five days.
"Besides, your wounds don't seem to be healing well. Maybe I should have taken you to a healer sooner...but...I'd like to do that now, okay?" I nod hesitantly. "Well you can finish getting ready and then we'll go." He hands me another bundle of clothes and then leaves the room.
I put on the black pants and T-shirt along with the cape. Why a cape? I've never worn one before and somehow I like the long garment that reaches just above the ground and has a wide hood.
When I'm done, I slowly walk to the door. When I open it, I see Nero standing next to the door again with a cloak on, "Ready?" I nod. The strongly built young man walks ahead of me, first down the stairs and then out the large door into the open. We leave the castle grounds again through the passage in the city wall. We stand in front of the door in the corridor of the wall but before we go out he puts on his hood, "you should put yours on too, it might...not be so good if you are seen with me" "w-what?" he doesn't answer, anyway I do what he says and I put on my hood. Before he opens the door he looks at me thoughtfully and he pulls the hood a little deeper into my face and then walks out the door. "Please...stay close to me..." "?!" he hisses it outright, I listen to him. Still, I have an oppressive feeling. Why is he keeping such a low profile? Is it because he lives in the castle? While I'm thinking about it, I keep noticing glances from the others, their glances trigger an oppressive feeling in me, they look so full of hate. Fearfully, I close in on Nero. He turns his head to me and he looks at me. "Are you not feeling well?" "n-no...it's fine..." still I feel uncomfortable, the stares pierce me and my legs feel heavy too.
We turn into a side street and Nero leads me through a back door that seems to lead into a store.
"Hey! Esko!" I startle as Nero's deep voice calls out to someone. Where are we? We're standing in a blocked room with lots of herbs on shelves and hanging from the ceiling on strings. "Nero, don't always shout like that!" a blond man, also young and tall, comes through a wide open door. He's kind of handsome, his golden hair is wavy and his green eyes light up when he notices me. "Who did you pick up?" he comes closer to us and looks me straight in the face, sheepishly I look to the ground. "She was being chased by some guy a few days ago, she crashed into me while trying to escape." "hmm" "I took her to my place so she can rest, but she has wounds that don't heal very well...besides it took her quite a long time to recover a bit." "aha, well then sit her down." He goes to a table on which a soft and thin mattress lies. While I'm still busy looking at the room, Nero suddenly picks me up. Not again. He sits me down on the slightly higher table and he lets the clasp of my cloak open. "Take off your hood..." quickly I listen to Nero and I take off my hood "oh, she's young...how cute..." the stranger who seems to be a friend of Nero and a bright one looks at me delighted and friendly, while he stares like that I feel uncomfortable...I turn my gaze away from him. "She's shy, how cute." "Esko" "oh, of course sorry, she's your girlfriend after all" "tsk, just do your job and tend to her wounds." "okay, okay" he comes a little closer to me, somehow I get scared and I shake slightly. "Oh no she is afraid of me" Esko makes a pouty face "you really don't have to be afraid of me" he suddenly speaks softly and quietly. Still I feel uncomfortable and I look uncertainly at Nero. He notices my somewhat helpless look, he stands a little closer to me. "Hey...now don't act like you have to protect her from me" he scowls at him.
But still, I calm down a bit through Nero.
Esko stretches out his hand to me "please give me your hand" shakily I lift my left hand and put it on his. It is quite warm, and his hand is quite gentle and soft. He slowly takes my arm and examines the many scratches and cuts on it. "Hmm...you were right Nero...her wounds are barely healed...and also...her energy is weak..." he puts his hands around mine and I see green translucent magic leaking from his hands, the magic feels warming and it flows through me once. "There's something..." "what do you mean?" Nero's ears perk up and he looks at him demandingly "ah don't give me that evil look...but...there's some kind of block in her...that's why her wounds are healing so hard and she's pretty weak because of it" "where did she get that from?" Nero's voice sounds cool but still he seems to worry as he keeps looking over at me.
"Probably by a mage...she must have been injured with charged black magic at some point. Unfortunately, that's not so easy or even possible to heal...the most I can do is mitigate it a bit and take some of the pressure off her." "I see" hmm... "well, I'll give you something for her later" "good" Esko thoughtfully continues to treat my other arm, he uses a paste probably made from herbs. Every time he puts the cream on my wounds it burns a little. Nero is leaning against the wall next to me and he is watching Esko closely in what he is doing....
Esko notices after a while that I have a bandage around my waist, he wants my shirt up but Nero looks at him sharply. "Come down here Nero" he says teasingly. Gently Esko pulls up my shirt and he takes off the bandage, while he takes it off and his hand keeps touching my skin I get goosebumps but also a sharp pain goes from the place where I have the wound. "Oh..." Esko is a bit startled as he completely removes the bandage. "No wonder it took her so long to regain at least a little strength. You should have brought her here sooner, or at least taken more care of her." Esko looks at him sourly. Nero looks away a little ashamed, "well asking for help has never been your strong suit..." he turns back to me. He goes to a bowl hanging over a fireplace and scoops something out...umn, is that water? He comes back to us with the boiling water "sorry but I have to wash out the wound first..." with the boiling water? I have fear written all over my face. "Hey" Esko smiles at me and I lift my gaze a little. He dips a piece of absorbent cotton into the hot water, "umn" I get scared and I feel uncomfortable...this is going to hurt...now...I'm getting hot.
Carefully, he brings the water-soaked absorbent cotton to my wounds. Just the touch hurts terribly, the fact that it is soaked with hot water only makes it worse. I clench my teeth and a few tears form in my eyes. "I'm sorry kid but I can't really spare you this..." "...It's okay...thank you so much..." I bring out. "Oh she spoke, what a sweet voice" he looks delighted and he looks at me encouragingly "and hey you are doing well just hold on a little longer. Suddenly he takes my hand, uah, what is that now.
I'm getting hot all over.
Again he takes some absorbent cotton and dips it into the water, this time he goes to a deeper place of my wound before he cleans it, however, he asks me "where did you get that wound?" directly after he has finished speaking he continues to clean my injury. I can hardly stand it anymore, I've been holding back a snivelling scream the whole time. Out of reflex, I squeeze Esko's hand a little as he triggers another stinging and burning pain in my wound. When I have calmed down a bit I shakily say "...it was...a woman...she suddenly attacked me with a knife...she told me that such a street trash like me should just die...while I hadn't even...done anything to her..." "oh..." Esko looks to Nero. After a brief exchange of glances, however, he turns back to me
...
"And ready" after a beaten eternity he finally puts the cotton and water away, I look at the pile of used cotton, most of them are full of blood....
The healer still treats my wound with the anointed and then bandages it.
"So that's all I can do right now, oh and the things for her I wanted to give you..." he gets up and goes to a shelf, he takes out some things and wraps them in old paper.
As he comes back he says "oh well, Haruka if he doesn't treat you well then just come to me" he winks at me while Nero just looks at him like he's about to go off on him. How does he know my name? Did Nero tell him? "And here's something for her blockage, like I said it won't make the blockage go away but it will help her regain her strength and her wounds should heal better with it..." Esko goes to the door and opens it. I want to jump off the table...it's really high...but before I can Nero suddenly picks me up, I get a little scared but he puts me back down on the floor. Luckily. "Take care of her, Nero" Esko sounds surprisingly serious, I get goosebumps at his deep voice which is usually so soft.
Nero shows no emotion, Esko sighs "come back when you need new herbs, then I can also make sure you took good care of them." "Yes, yes" Nero waves off and then walks out the door. "?!" wait I hurriedly bow to the healer and then join Nero who is already waiting outside the door with his hood back on. When I come out to him and the door closes behind me, Nero drops my cloak on my head. Ouch did that have to be? I close the cloak and I also pull the hood a bit more into my face. "Good and now come..."