Page 89 of Their Chosen

“What?” Arryn asked as his concern spiked.

“Nothing. It's just that I didn't realize how bad it was.”

“Yeah. It's not pretty,” he told me honestly, and I felt his discomfort at the thought of my pain.

“I'm okay, Arryn. I'm alive and will eventually heal,” I reassured him.

“I should be the one consoling you. And yet you're worried about my discomfort,” he said, his voice on the verge of cracking, full of emotion.

“There was nothing you could have done. It's my fault.” If I had listened to their warnings about the Queen's instability, then maybe I could have avoided this. But how was I to know that she would have whipped me. I never, in a million years, would have guessed that form of punishment.

And yet, I would do it again if it was to protect that innocent servant. She didn't deserve this any more than I had.

“Are you ready to continue, dear?” Jude asked me.

With conviction at that thought, I nodded, still holding Arryn's magic in my palm. “Yes.”

“Now that the magic knows what damage is there, send it out slowly to the worst spots. It should instinctively do that. It's important that you don't send the magic out too quickly because you can cause more damage. It won't heal correctly and will need to be reopened and healed again. Please don't make me have to do that to you,” he pleaded with me, the magnitude of this kind of magic weighing on me.

“I'll be careful,” I told him, asking the magic again to go out to my wounds on my shoulders, the spots I remembered as being the worst. I let it go slowly, like releasing a single grain of sand in an hourglass, one at a time until I felt something starting to happen.

Instinctively, I clamped down on the remaining magic and allowed what I had released to work. “Good. Just like that, dear,” Jude encouraged me.

Once the feeling of knitting tissue had stopped, I began the process again. I clamped down again, waiting for the magic to work slowly, but when this pass of magic stopped tingling, I was exhausted, the magic slipping from my fingers.

“That's good. Just let it go, Rhowyn. That's enough for now. You did good,” Jude told me as I pulled back into myself.

“Why am I so tired?” I asked as my eyes found Arryn's.

He placed a hand on my head, smoothing the hair from my face. “Like Jude said, magic is like a muscle, and you just lifted the equivalent of a horse.” He laughed. “Much more than we expected for your first time ever using magic,” he told me, pride passing through our bond, and I smiled before yawning.

“How does it look?” I asked them.

“It's not as deep as it was, but it will still take more repetitions of this process before you're back to new,” Arryn said. “Do you think you can sit up? Eating will be good for healing and for replenishing your magic.”

I nodded. “I can try.”

“Let me help?” he asked me. When my affirmation passed through the bond, he slipped a hand under me to my armpit and lifted me slowly, giving me time to protest.

I groaned as the movement pulled on my wounds, but I was finally able to get to a sitting position. Being able to change positions was a relief in itself as my bare feet rested on the floor.

It was then that I realized I was still wearing the gown from last night. “Do you think I can change before I eat?” I asked them as I wondered what I could wear that wouldn't aggravate my wounds.

“Of course,” Baer said, jumping at the chance to be helpful.

“I'll go get her some food,” Lennox chimed in, leaving us.

“Wait, Your Highness,” Jude said to Lennox, who paused in the doorway. “Accompany me back to offices?” he asked.

“Sure. It's on my way to the kitchens,” he agreed and waited for the old man to catch up to him.

Jude turned back to me. “Keep working on healing yourself. It's good exercise for your magic as well as the obvious pain relief. I'll come back in the morning to check in on you.”

“Thank you, Jude. I don't know what I'd do without you,” I told him, my gratitude for everything he had done for me since I had arrived poured into my words.

“Of course, dear. Although, I think you'd find a way to come out on top, even without my help,” he said with all confidence in me.

I smiled as he left with Lennox. Baer came back with a small bundle in his arms.

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