A knock ca earlier than she expected, and she realized then how morning had arrived. Well, she had not slept. With a nightmare such as that, sleep refused to grant her solace, and she was more than terrified of closing an eyelid to return to him.
The words terrified her more than their aning. No matter how much she tried to decipher what the red-eyed man ant, the more frightening it was to discover the content of what they said.
So she only remained seated by the window until the sky softened from ink to grey, and grey to the palest wash of silver against frost. When the door finally opened, Lucrezia did not startle this ti.
Three servants entered first, one being the brown-skinned girl, whose eyes widened slightly when they t hers. "Milady!" She called, and then turned sharply to the others. "Go fetch the healer imdiately,"
When they left, the brown-skinned girl fetched her gown, hurrying towards the window. "Milady, you shouldn’t be up in your condition,"
Condition? She thought. She had only fainted. With a tired composure, "I’m fine," She lied.
Only the gods knew how ntally drained she felt. Her head felt like exploding and her hands... they never stopped trembling.
"You shouldn’t be sitting there, Milady. The glass holds the night’s frost, and mortals—you’ll fall ill if you remain by the window," she anded quickly. Worry softened her voice when her voice faltered.
Lucrezia caught the correction with a small intake of air. Mortals. The word slipped out too easily. It was far from being cruel, not even intentionally, but truth rarely needed effort.
Had it not been that she was used to being treated indifferently since childbirth, its weight would’ve taken a toll on her sanity. However, it did not, and she dared not take any fault. Being dissimilar was initially her.
A faint, tired smile touched her lips, though it did not reach her eyes when she opened her mouth to speak. "I doubt the frost is my greatest danger here," She said quietly. Her mind traveled back to the earlier nightmare, and a cold shiver went down her spine. " I am well,"
The girl blinked. She clearly didn’t expect that, so she cleared her throat, hoping to clear any misunderstanding. Taking a small step forward, "That’s not what I ant, Milady," She started. "You may be a guest, but this place does not soften itself for... guests, especially not ones who are not made of the sa... things,"
There it was again. It was far from insult or hostility, but a clear branding fact. They were gods, and she, an absolute mortal.
Lucrezia allowed the words to settle without any reaction. "I am not as fragile as you assu,"
The maid studied her trembling hands. Before a word left her lips, four servants entered, parting to allow a fifth figure to step inside. The air shifted when that presence filled the chamber. It was subtle, like the faint stillness that descends before rain, but it was enough to make the fine hairs along Lucrezia’s arms rise.
The figure entered without haste. He was not imposing in height, nor loud in his presence, yet sothing about him shifted the atmosphere. His robes were pale, threaded faintly with silver that caught the light. His skin held an unnatural clarity, untouched by fatigue or age, and his eyes, when they landed on hers, were a soft, muted gold, like sunlight filtered through smoke.
Unlike the people she’d seen, he was the very first person draped in a full-covered clothing, and lacked sigils etched over his body. But that didn’t make him appear less than a god.
He simply inclined his head, not sothing she considered respect, but just enough to announce his presence. "Milady,"
Lucrezia felt drained to return the gesture. She smiled faintly, a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, and rose to her feet. Understanding her position, she walked towards the huge bed without request.
The mont she lay on it, he extended his hand. "May I?"
She nodded.
For the next few minutes, the chamber remained steeped in a silence. He didn’t rush as two fingers settled lightly against the inside of her wrist.
His touch was neither hurried nor overly cautious, but it was steady and attentive enough that she could feel him listening to sothing far beneath the skin.
Lucrezia stared at the canopy above her bed, at the intricate carvings woven into its fra. Her pulse betrayed her instantly, and she willed it to calm.
The quieter she remained, the quicker it neared freedom. Although he didn’t speak, his presence was intimidating enough that she could hear her own pulse roar in her ears.
The healer’s gaze did not leave her face. "Have you experienced dizziness?"
Lucrezia hesitated a fraction too long. Dizziness? The only ti she did was the day after her abduction. But of course, she couldn’t tell him that.
"No," She lied. She wished this could end quickly. Even though she’d consud her tonic, Lucrezia couldn’t help being unsettled by the faint noises that were crawling from the depths of her mind.
"Hmm," A faint hum left him in response. His hand shifted to her throat, two fingers resting lightly against the hollow beneath her jaw. Lucrezia resisted the instinct to pull away. Anastasia would not flinch. Anastasia would endure scrutiny like armor, so she stood still. Her body felt weak anyway.
"You’re simply overwheld. Your body attempted to compensate for pressure it was never ant to withstand," he said professionally without any doubt. Then his gaze lifted to her face like a scholar observing an anomaly. "Perhaps you have experienced tremors before?" he asked.
She hesitated for half a breath. "Occasionally."
He nodded. "Heat?"
Her fingers curled slightly against the bedding, and she nodded.
"Disorientation? Auditory distortions?"
Her silence was answer enough.
The healer straightened, withdrawing his hand. He did not reach for instrunts, nor did he ask the maids for the vials she observed was brought inside a suitcase. Instead, he regarded her as if adjusting an internal scale and said, "You’re rely under strain and your body adapts poorly,"
She swallowed, whatever it took for her to make them leave imdiately. The buzz still lingered in her mind, and it was creeping in slowly yet carefully enough. It was only a matter of ti before it overlapped with everything surrounding her.
"You will be given a draught, although not to cure but stabilize. It will dull the extres at least. Nothing more, until I have fully diagnosed the cause of your... predicant," he said, turning slightly toward the nearest maid.
It indirectly ant nothing to fix her, but to keep her functional. Whatever it may be, she thought. The maid nodded quickly and moved to comply.
The healer’s attention returned to Lucrezia one final ti. "You should avoid prolonged exposure to divine assemblies for the next cycle," he said. "Crowds amplify pressure, and you’re in its beginning stage,"
Was there to be more occasional assembly? She thought that the only sentence that had aning among the other things that were said. However, Lucrezia barely had the ti to ponder much when he inclined his head again and stepped back, already withdrawing from the mont.
The servants moved quickly after that, the room filling once more with soft footsteps and murmured coordination. A blanket was drawn over her legs. The frost-laced air was shut out when the curtains were pulled closed, yet the cold lingered.
When the healer departed, the pressure in the room eased, but the space he left behind felt oddly hollow. Lucrezia felt it in the absence of his touch, but not anywhere near her mind. It was chaos on its own.
The brown-skinned maid approached the bedside again, quieter now. "Shall we prepare you for the day or let you..."
"Do not let my bedriddenness stop you. I am well enough," Anything to get her away from this place, and her mind elsewhere. The noise inside her head kept intensifying with every minute that passed by. Sleeping was the last thing she wanted right now.
Lucrezia allowed them to lead her. They helped her change, and fix her hair properly, starting the day like a typical lady that she was. Breakfast was to be served downstairs, and Lucrezia didn’t know why that tensed her more than it ought to be.
Hoping to distract herself from the disarray in her mind, "Is my husband well?"
There was an indefinite pause that followed her question, which Lucrezia felt in the shift in the air. The look on their faces made her tense abruptly. Was sothing wrong? Did sothing... did sothing happen?
"We’ll be a few steps away if you need anything else, Milady," The brown-skinned girl said, and without waiting for any dismissal, they bowed, leaving without ceremony, and her question dangling unanswered in the air.
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