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The first thing Erio’s hazy mind registered was that his whole body hurt. He blinked and an excruciating pain exploded in his skull so terrible that he had to shut his eyes again. After a while the pain subsided and he let them open, there was only a faint throbbing left. It was annoying but at least he wasn’t feeling like he was going to pass out anymore and the blurry vision was going away too.
Now he could recognize his own room in Eastern Tower, but that didn’t explain why his body felt like lead, especially his arms. He tried to ignore the aches and raised his head to take a look at them. White bandages covered both of his arms from above his elbow to his wrists. He tried to move them but found that he could only lift his fingers lightly and his stomach twisted. He tried to clear his mind and remember what had happened, but his memories were too jumbled. He must have been out for some time, he could see from the window that it was about afternoon.
He was still mulling over his thoughts when the door opened and Hiante entered, carrying bandages and a cup of water. His body relaxed when he saw that Erio was awake and he quickly put the things he was carrying down on the bedside table.
Hiante helped Erio sit up then held the cup of water to his mouth. Erio greedily gulped it down; the water felt heavenly in his parched throat.
“How are you feeling?” Hiante asked,
“Like shit,” Erio answered. “What the hell happened to me?”
Suddenly he felt healing magic wash over him. The cool wind eased the aches in his body and made him feel much lighter. He didn’t realize that Astra had come in too. She stood behind Hiante, her wide eyes on him as she casted the spell. She looked more distressed than he’d ever seen her, her hair was mussed up with a few strands pulled out of the loose ponytail, her eyes were red and her mouth was locked in a frown. From this close he could see the unshed tears in her eyes. When the spell finished she rushed over and hugged him.
“I’m so glad… I thought… I’m sorry, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have asked you,” she mumbled into his shoulder then hiccupped. Erio looked to Hiante with what he hoped was his most confused expression.
“You were going to take Astra out but something happened and your magic went wrong. You almost lost your arms,” Hiante answered, catching on the silent question.
Oh.
The memories were coming back now. He had offered to take Astra to the flower field again. It was to be their last trip. Erio wasn’t strong enough to teleport with anyone else, he could barely manage it when she was still a child but Astra was growing girl and lately traveling with her had left him exhausted. The last time he had taken her was several months ago and he had almost fainted when they returned.
Astra most likely had caught on too as she stopped asking and talking about the field after that. But Erio could see that she missed it. Occasionally, he would catch her looking longingly into the gray snowy sky. He hated seeing her like that and he had wanted to bring her there one last time, to give her a chance to engrave the feeling of the warm bright sun in her mind, so she could officially say good bye.
Astra was reluctant at first. She knew travelling with her was taking a toll on him, but she soon gave up at the thought of seeing her favorite place again. Hiante had voiced his concern too but had stepped down when he saw how excited Astra was. Since King Edgar and Queen Lina had stopped coming to the tower regularly he thought they could stay longer, he would have enough time to rest before teleporting back too.
The moment he activated the magic, Erio had realized he wouldn’t be able to pull it off but it was too late. He pushed Astra out of the way before the backlash spell had hit him full force. He remembered a feeling like lightnings worse than anything Edgar had ever tried on him tearing through his body. His hands felt like they were on fire and being torn out of their sockets.
Thinking back to the stories his sister had told him, maybe he really was lucky to be alive. He shuddered at that thought.
Now that his memories had come back Erio felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulder. Though it didn’t explain why Astra was apologizing to him.
“It happened because of my own stupidity, I overestimated my magic,” he said to her. “Why would you need to apologize?”.
“I still agreed to come even though I knew you may not be able to do it,” she said, sniffling.
“How about you? Did it affect you?” Erio asked.
He gave her a once-over just to be sure. She looked physically fine at least.
“I’m completely fine, you should care about yourself rather than me. You are the one who were bleeding on the floor,” she answered with a huff.
“Demons are much tougher than humans. These kinds of wounds will heal in no time.”
To prove his words he tried to move his arms; when he first woke up he couldn’t move them at all but now he could lift them up a bit. It still felt like a thousand needles though and he couldn’t help groaning. Astra caught it and immediately glared at him.
Hiante chuckled. He had been silently watching their conversation from next to the bed. If he had expressions Erio imagined he probably would be smiling fondly.
“I’m glad you are feeling better, Erio. But you are still not fully recovered and those bandages need to be changed. Astra, please go and bring the soup I just made from the kitchen along with some more water. Erio will need to eat to get his health back.” Hiante said.
Astra nodded and left. Hiante stood up and approached the bed then gently peeled off the bandages and started cleaning the wounds with the wet towel. Erio shivered at the feeling of cool water touching his skin. The red gashes on his forearms looked deep and grotesque. He remembered the painful feeling and more than ever he was glad that his kind didn’t scar easily. He didn’t want to think about bearing those forever.
Hante was quiet as he worked on Erio’s arm but he had learned to read the swordman over the years, he could see the tenseness in those boney shoulders.
“You were right that this is your own fault. You knew that you can’t teleport with two people, last time it was bad enough and you still insisted on doing that. You were lucky you are still in one piece,” Hiante scolded. “Do you have any idea how scared I was? From where I stood all I could see was magic energy flashing, you pushed Astra away then the spell hit. You were screaming and then you fell to the floor bleeding.”
He stopped to put aside the old bandages then he grabbed the new clean rolls and got back to work. Erio opened his mouth to argue but before he had the chance Hiante continued.
“Astra was very distraught. It took a long time for her to stop crying, and even then she refused to leave your side. She stayed up last night to watch over you and wouldn’t go rest no matter how many times I asked her.”
Erio didn’t know it was possible to feel even worse than he already did. His chest felt heavy with guilt.
“I know it was my fault, you don’t have to lecture me,” he snapped. “I should have been more careful about my own limit. I didn’t mean for it to happen like that.”
Hiante sighed, which was a strange thing to see a skeleton do.
“I understand that you want to make Astra happy but don’t be so reckless again,” he said, his voice softer, then he squeezed Erio’s shoulder. “I’m glad that you are alright.”
He stood up just as Astra came back, a tray with hot soup and water in her hands. Erio’s stomach grumbled when he caught the wonderful smell. He had not realize how hungry he was.
“You had been out for a whole day, you must be hungry. Here, eat all of this,” Astra said, she set the bowl on the table then she scooped up some soup and blew on it. She held the spoonful of soup in front of him with a teasing smile.
“Open up!” she said cheerfully.
“What? No! No way you are spoon feeding me!” Erio exclaimed. If he could move he would have scooted away from her, but as he was he settled on a glare. “I can eat on my own!”
Unfortunately Astra was too used to his glare and her grin only grew wider.
“How can you eat on your own if you can’t even lift your hands enough to hold the spoon? Don’t be stubborn, there’s nothing embarrassing with being taken care of when you are injured. Also you said they will heal soon right, so it’s just for a while,” she said.
Hiante chuckled at their bickering then left him with Astra. Seeing that it had no effect on her he redirected his glare to the spoon. Erio could feel himself giving in, he really was very hungry and the soup was his favorite kind. In the end the hunger won, he let Astra feed him with a satisfying smile. He made sure to show his discomfort through grumbles and complains. He was glad though that she didn’t seem upset anymore. A smile fit her more than the frown she previously wore, as much as it irritated him right now.
Soon the bowl was emptied and Erio took a few gulps of water. With his hunger sated Erio felt much better. Astra casted another healing spell on him, his wounds were mostly gone and he could move his arms now though his movements were still limited.
“There is color in your face again, good. More color than before, anyway. Now be good and rest and you will be your lively grumpy self again soon,” she said when she was done.
She picked up the tray and started walking out but before she left he called out for her. She turned back to look at him curiously.
“I won’t be able to take you to the flower field anymore,” he said. “Sorry”
She stared at him then furrowed her eyebrows, like she was trying to find the right words.
“I love the field and I am grateful that you and Hiante tried so hard to make sure I can keep going there. Of course I’ll miss it very much but I have you two with me here. Even if I never come back there again I won’t be lonely.”
She stopped then continued with a sad look.
“When I saw you fell I was so scared, you know. I thought of the worst and even though I know you are a demon I thought what if… the thought of losing you was so horrible I couldn’t stop crying.”
Astra walked back to the bed and looked him straight in the eyes as she talked.
“I don’t want to ever think about you not being by my side. You are very important to me, Erio. You and Hiante. As long as you two are with me I can bear anything. So please promise me that you will be careful from now on.”
For a while Erio was speechless, he could only look into Astra’s unwavering eyes. Eventually he nodded.
“I will be careful from now on.”
Astra brightened up at his words, satisfied. She left after saying that she would bring back some books to help with his boredom. It didn’t take long for her to come back with a stack of books in her hands, together they read and talked about stories and stars. They were reading Astra’s favorite book – a story about a princess who guided her people through hardships and challenges to the promised land – when Erio turned to her and asked.
“Do you want to get out of here, Astra?”
“You mean out of the tower? Of course I do. I mean I have been here since as long as I can remember,” she answered. She gazed out the window to the stars in the sky.
“But I am here for a reason. I will to keep the stars in place so there can be peace, I promised King Edgar and Queen Lina that. It’s my duty, I can’t carelessly discard it. And even if I can get out it’s not like we can go outside of Sabine with that barrier.”
Erio stayed silent as he watched the stars. He remembered when he and Hiante had rowed out to check on them and discovered the barrier.
“When I get older and become stronger I’ll figure out a way to teleport us all out,” He said. Astra blinked at his words then smiled.
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Erio knew that day was far away; he almost died teleporting with just Astra. He silently promised that he would make sure it come as fast as possible. He would find a way to bring her out of this snowy island and bring her to a better place than the flower field, where she could feel the sun again and be free from this duty forced onto her. For now though he was content to stay by her side and help her.
That night they talked and laughed about an imagined faraway land beyond the stars where it was always sunny and free of snow until Erio was too tired to stay awake.