59 She Was Not Harmed
Ember continued to cry, letting out sobs with her eyes closed tightly.
Leeora and Cornelia looked at each other, not knowing what to draw out of this situation. They wanted to ask Ember, but judging the situation, she was in no condition to talk. They would have to wait for her to calm down.
“I-I wonder what happened.” Cornelia fiddled with her hands. “The King wouldn’t have…he wouldn’t…”
Even Leeora was at a loss as well. “Sire did not forget to open the door before he left to let us know we could enter. He shouldn’t have ill intentions towards this child…”
The question was what Draven did and why. It was totally unexpected behaviour from their king. It would have been easier for them to imagine Draven killing this human than seeing him turn her into such a situation.
However, they could not make heads or tails of what occurred inside this house. Not just her dress, but all the bandages on her body were torn apart, and the poor girl was sobbing as if something terrifying happened.
Leeora caressed her head, not knowing what other words to say to console her. The two women simply let her cry. Once the crying subsided, Leeora used her powers to carry her towards her bed, still wrapped around her bedsheets.
“Ember, will you look at me?”
With a tear-stained face and reddened eyes, Ember looked at the elf and felt like crying once more. She missed Gaia, she missed her small home inside that cave, she missed being in that dead forest and haunted mountain. At least there, she didn’t have to face something like this.
Why did Gaia have to die? Why did the forest burn and why did she end up here? She regretted every bit of it.
Finally seeing her react, Leeora felt relieved and asked, “How do you feel? Do you want anything? Water? Food? Do you want to get dressed?”
Ember remained silent. She didn’t know what to answer. She didn’t even have the energy to answer. She only stared at Leeora with her reddened eyes.
The older woman wiped her tears that were on the verge of falling. “I am sorry, Ember, that you have to go through it…”
Though she didn’t know what exactly happened, she knew that this girl should have been deeply terrified. Remembering how lovely Ember smiled back when she braided her hair, Leeora felt a painful stab in her chest, as if she had let the girl down.
Cornelia approached, bringing a cup of water with her. “Drink. It will make you feel better.”
Leeora took the cup of water and helped Ember have a few sips. By this point, Ember had calmed down, only sniffling every once in a while.
“Should we start by treating her wounds?” Cornelia suggested, feeling awkward with the silence. Seeing Leeora nod, the witch took a clean set of bandages and herbal paste from the shelves.
Leeora thanked her before turning back to Ember. “Let us treat your wounds first. Can we put away this bed sheet? Will that be alright?”
Ember did not react at all, but since she didn’t refuse, Leeora took it as her agreement.
With the help of Cornelia, Leeora bandaged her wounds and made her wear a new dress. Ember was silently staring at the floor, and after exchanging glances with Cornelia, Leeora thought it should be a good time to ask questions.
“Ember, will you tell us what happened?”
However, the voice that followed wasn’t from the human girl, but from the witch awkwardly standing near the bed.
“You are asking her? Isn’t she mute?” Cornelia asked in surprise. “Do you mean… she can talk?”
Leeora nodded, “She can.” and talked to Ember, “What happened.”
Ember didn’t reply. The two women understood she won’t talk now.
“Fine!” Do you want to rest Ember?” Leeora asked.
Ember simply lay on her bed, not saying a single word.
Leaving her alone to rest, Leeora and Cornelia left. The moment the door of her home closed, Ember closed her eyes as once again tears rolled down them. ‘Gaia, I miss you. Why did you leave me?’
As she was exhausted from crying and drifted to the sleep
——-
Leeora and Cornelia returned to Leeora’s house in silence, knowing Ember would have preferred to be left on her own. Both were anxious, not knowing what to think about this situation. Leeora, in particular, was close to the King, yet even she could not understand why Draven treated Ember like this.
After a long uncomfortable silence, Cornelia, who had been quietly sitting in a daze, decided to speak up. “That child…will she be alright?”
Sitting opposite the witch, Leeora tensed, her hands tightly gripping the head of her staff.
“I would like to believe so,” she responded, and once more, silence descended between the two women.
The witch closed her eyes as if she were trying to make sense of her tangled thoughts. “When the council questioned why His Majesty let a human stay here in Ronan, I believed it was because he had taken a particular interest in Ember in a positive light. After all, he even tasked you, an esteemed leader of a clan, to take care of her. And earlier, when he asked for a way to prove she’s not human, I was further convinced of this. I thought he was determined to keep her near him. But after seeing this, I feel like I was wrong. I do not know what to think anymore.”
Leeora sighed. “Did you know? Today, for the first time, Ember talked to me. She even braided her own hair, and she let out a shy smile when I praised her. I was comforted that she was finally opening up. I thought everything would be fine from now on but….now this happened, and I am afraid she will go back to how she was before—suspicious of people and unable to let her guard down.”
“…what do you think happened?” Cornelia could not help but ask. “Perhaps she angered him and was thus punished?”
“The only thing I know is that Ember’s not harmed.”
While they were bandaging her and dressing her up, the elf and the witch took that chance to observe Ember’s body. There was no sign of her being physically harmed, and in fact, aside from the shredded clothes, nothing was amiss with her.