Page 9 of Awariye

Ulbrecht thanked the old doctor and saw him out while the rest of the party waited quietly for the king to return.

The men were silent a long moment, anticipating that Ingeborg would offer input.

She crossed her arms and nodded at my worn-out body. "I will prepare concoctions if you can get them down him without causing him to choke, Igor. Those of us trained in alchemical processes can create medicines that are mixed with our etheric bodies. When consumed by another, the preparer's life force can help nourish them. I can teach you, Wren."

"I'll do it," Wren said immediately. "I can stay in bed with him too, Igor. You don't have to feel like you need to."

"I don't mind," Igor said softly, and I wondered at the kind way he was looking at me, with not just concern but also gentleness.

"I'd caution you on that, Wren," said Ingeborg. "Anyone who sleeps next to him right now will likely have their life force drained, though someone with the spiritual training one can get from Diana Monastery might be able to prevent it. It depends on how conscious he is on the subtle planes. Considering the state his physical body is in, it might be too much for him to control himself to the point that he wouldn't drain any life force nearby in an effort to revive and live. I’d think about that carefully, Igor."

She glanced up at me again, the look in her eyes accessing me, gauging my comprehension. With all my might I tried to shake my head to tell her no, I didn't want to drain anyone, least of all my precious Wren, or Igor, who was so kind without hardly knowing me. Her eyes lit up and she smiled, so maybe she understood.

"Awariye can have my life force," Wren asserted, his tan cheeks flushed in worry. "He helped save me during my crisis several years ago when my spirit left my body and the instructors had to go find me in the Otherworld. He sang poems and hymns through the night to lead me home. This is the least I can do; I owe him so much."

"No," Ulbrecht said.

Wren whipped around. "That's not your decision to make—"

"Nein, pleaseSchatz," pleaded the king, his tone filled with fear. "What if he hurts you? He's not awake enough to keep himself from doing it."

"Uli," Wren argued, "Awariye is my friend."

"I can stay with him," Igor cut in before those two could get to bickering at my bedside when I needed peace and quiet to rest.

Ulbrecht seized on that chance. "Igor is strong—he is my strongest fighter, Wren."

That got Igor to stop looking at me and snap up to behold his king. Igor's posture totally changed, from curved around me in concern to puffing up with pride at such an acknowledgment.

I tried to take his tenderness from earlier and reframe it for self-preservation. Igor wasn't concerned about my health because he cared about me. He just wanted to serve Ulbrecht...right?

But then Igor gazed down at me again, and his countenance once more changed. He held me carefully, and my heart clenched because I could swear it looked like he held me as if I mattered to him.

"Your life force isn't lost when you give it to him, if Awariye is awake and healthy enough to be able to cycle it back to you," added Ingeborg. "If he handles this correctly and doesn't turn vampiric, it will feel like you slept in the cold without enough blankets, the way your body revs up to keep you warm and burns more energy than usual in the process."

"Das ist kein Problem," said Igor, reassuring her that it would be fine.

"You can do that, Igor," said Ulbrecht. "It shouldn't even slow your recovery with your shoulder, though I'll ask the doctor when he expects you to be fully healed."

Igor nodded.

Wren brushed the hair out of my face and cupped his palm along my cheek. It made me smile, though I couldn't feel a thing from up in the air above them.

"Now it's time to pull him back down, assuming he still wants to come," said Ingeborg, humor in her tone.

Then Wren gasped, his brown eyes locked right on me. "Awariye! I can see him!"

Ulbrecht and Igor looked in my direction in confusion while Ingeborg smiled with pride at her student and Wren giggled with delight.

"You've been watching this whole thing, haven't you?” said Wren. “Did you understand what the doctor said?"

Again, I tried with all my might, this time to nod, and it must have worked because both Wren and his mentor smiled.

"Igor will stay with you," said Wren.

"And don't vampirize him," Ingeborg warned. "You'll feel a huge source of life energy nearby, but just let it flow over you and mix with yours. That alone will heal quite a bit and strengthen your life force enough for it to take things from there. Don't—I repeat—don'tpull on that energy. Just let it come."

I nodded again, then Igor looked up at me, curiosity in his eyes, but he clearly couldn't see me there.

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