Chapter 22

Sun found herself back at the frozen lake. It hadn't been her intention to come here, but lost in thought, she had wound up here anyway.

Since she was here, she might as well take a dip. The cold, dark depths were incredibly tempting right now. 

She would have liked to have prepared a little better, light a fire, warmer clothes, but she hadn't brought any of that stuff with her. She found a thick branch and set it by the ice before stripping down to her underwear. With the branch, she smashed through the ice, ploughing her way into the lake until she was waist deep. She let the branch go, took a deep breath, and ducked under. The cold washed over her, and her body relaxed, her mind going blissfully blank. 

She wasn't sure how long she stayed in that lake, how many times she came up for air, and how many times she went back down. But she was getting sleepy, and her movements sluggish. There was something comforting in the almost loss of control. 

She felt hands wrap around her arms and pull her up, coming face to face with Kalys. She wanted to ask what he was doing there, but her words were so slurred she wasn't sure they made any sense when they came out. He was saying something to her, but she couldn't really make it out; her head felt all foggy. 

Kalys lifted her out of the water; she went limp in his arms but not quite unconscious. She was freezing, and he was certain if she were not an Illusen, she may very well have died. As it stood, when he carried her lifeless body from the lake, death was still a possibility. He held her up as he wrapped her clothes around her, then his own coat. He needed to get her back to the manor. 

He held her closely to him in the hope his own body heat would seep into her and start the warming process. 

The trip home only took minutes; he pushed the limits of his power and his body to make it quickly, and focusing on that helped restrain the roiling tension in him. Had she been trying to drown herself? Freeze herself? Or was she just careless? The latter he could deal with; the other two he wasn't so sure about. 

He got her back to the manor, rushing her to her room. On the way he saw Mika, and he commanded her to Sun's room to set up the fire. The woman jumped to it, not wasting time with questions. 

Kalys knew her reputation and how efficient she could be. It was one of the reasons he had chosen her. 

He set Sun on the bed, unwrapping the layers he'd tucked around her while Mika fiddled with the fireplace. Once down to Suns wet underthings, he swapped jobs with the woman; she could strip her down while he lit the fire. It was a poor attempt to preserve her modesty. 

Once Mika had her in a thin shift, Kalys brought her to the fire, setting her down in front of it before looking to Mika. 

"I need you to go to Perdition, to the Sixth. Speak with Commander Sorola, that her skills are urgently requested."

Mika nodded, and with that she was gone. Kalys kneeled beside Sun, pressing his hands to her too pale, too cold face. If he were a religious man, he might have uttered a prayer. 

He hadn't realised how attached to her he had grown. Her quiet presence at mealtimes, the laughter that tinkled down to him when she was with her friends, even the glares she sent his way when he said something she disagreed with. 

He couldn't lose her, and the mere thought of it was almost enough to induce panic. Such an unfamiliar feeling... Had this all been because of how he'd handled the Belzar boy and his friend?

Commander Sorola was the greatest healer in Perdition—quite possibly the country. Kalys had seen her bring people back from the brink of death. Hopefully, Sun wasn't that far gone, though. 

It took a few more agonising minutes before Mika and Commander Sorola arrived, during which he tried to rub warmth back into her hands with his own. The Commander smiled gently at Kalys, who greeted her with a nod. 

Sorola came to sit beside Sun. 

"This is the sister, I take it?" She asked, her voice light and gentle. 

Kalys had never seen her raise her voice or lose that pleasant demeanour, no matter the horrors she was faced with. Her composure rivalled his own. 

"This is Sun," he told her. "I believe she's hypothermic." 

Sorola reached out, taking her hand in both of hers and closing her eyes. Kalys could feel the woman's power as she examined Sun.

"Mm, dangerously so," she said. "How did this happen?"

"She fell through the ice of the lake," he lied. 

"You're also wet; you may want to change."

He could feel the iciness from his wet clothes, but it didn't bother him much. They would dry before it ever became an issue for him. 

"Soon," he replied. 

He wanted to be here; for his peace of mind, he needed to be here. 

Sorola worked on Sun. Kalys didn't know how her power worked, or the extent of it, but he had seen her produce what could only be described as miracles. Most of the Revenants in Sorola's division had manifested healing-based abilities or excelled in healing casts. That wasn't to say they couldn't fight; Sixth Division members were capable of both, and most units wouldn't go into battle without one or two of them. 

Sorola sat beside Sun, still holding her hand. Slowly, painfully slowly, Sun's colour started to come back, her breathing became noticeable again as her heart rate must have been returning to normal. 

Internally he breathed a sigh of relief. After a few more agonising minutes, Commander Sorola gracefully rose to her feet and retrieved the top blanket from Sun's bed, tucking it tightly around the petite girl. 

"There was no sign of frostbite at least. And she's out of the woods now," she told him. "Her core temperature is close to normal. She'll need plenty of rest and fluids, ideally warm fluids. When she wakes, she'll likely be fatigued and a little disoriented. Partly from hypothermia but also from the intense burst of healing she just underwent."

"When will she wake?"

"Impossible to say. It could be today, or she may sleep through the night and not wake up until tomorrow sometime. Best to let her sleep. She'll have more mental clarity then."

Kalys nodded. "Thank you for your assistance."

"I can see myself out. Goodbye, Kalys."

Kalys internally huffed at her familiarity. The woman had practically watched him grow up, but he was no longer the boy she would slip cakes and sweet treats to. 

"So what really happened?" Mika asked once Commander Sorola had left and was well out of earshot.

"It's as I said," he told her. "You're dismissed for the rest of the day. I'll watch over her."

Mika didn't look like she believed him, but he didn't care. He pulled over the chair from Sun's desk and sat down. As he watched her sleep and her colour continue to return, he wondered at her motivations for being out in the lake. 

He had too much time to speculate. The girl needed to wake up; he had questions.

-

Sun groaned as she rolled over, snuggling deeper into the blankets in an attempt to drown out the voices. It was a futile effort, but she still hadn't learnt to just do nothing. Her head felt stuffed with cotton, and her limbs were struggling to listen to her. Was she sick?

"Are you well, Sun?"

She flinched at the deep voice, peeking out of the blanket to see her brother sitting in a chair nearby. He was leaned back, one leg crossed over the other. He looked very regal. She also realised she was on the floor in her pile of cushions. And the fire was on. No wonder it was so hot. Still, she pulled the covers back over her head, partly out of shame as she remembered yesterday. 

"I'm fine," she lied, her voice hoarse and throat dry. 

Yesterday came back to her with stark clarity, and this time she was tempted to purposefully go drown herself in the lake. 

"Care to tell me why you were in the lake yesterday?" He asked. 

"I like it in there," she replied from beneath her blankets, possibly a little petulantly. "If I knew how to swim, I would have been out deeper."

She could feel the disapproval at that. 

"Had I not been faster, you could have died. Were Commander Sorola not such a skilled healer, you could have died."

His voice hardened with every word. She heard the creaking of the chair as he stood up, his footsteps coming closer. 

"This is important, Sun. Come out."

It wasn't as hard as his usual orders; there was something softer to it this time. So she lifted the blanket and peeked out. He was holding a thick tome in his hand, open to the page he wanted her to see. 

"You mentioned Aris Illusen was afflicted with the same problem you have."

She read the words; it was a list of names, all Illusens, some with their maiden names listed as well. It had their birth dates and locations and their deaths with the cause. She found Aris's name, her stomach sinking at the cause of death. 

Suicide by drowning.

"Maybe it was an accident," she suggested softly.

"He froze himself in the ice; that was intentional. Was yesterday?"

She looked up at him then, though his countenance was mostly unchanged, there was a hint of worry—of fear—there, buried in his crystalline eyes. He was scared? Of what, exactly? She didn't think fear was something he was even capable of feeling.

"I wasn't trying to drown myself; I just... I was going to get out after that last time, but you got me first." 

"You wouldn't have survived if I hadn't. I don't think you understand how close it was."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. 

It had been a stupid accident, a stupid thing to do. She had truly believed she would be fine. And if he was actually worried about her, then she did feel guilty for giving him cause. 

"I don't want you going to the lake alone," he told her.

"I just won't go back at all."

She would never take someone with her, and it was probably best to stay away anyway and avoid temptation. She should also finish Aris's entries and see if she could gain insight into the events leading up to his suicide. 

She tried to haul herself up on weak arms, but Kalys reached out, a firm hand on her shoulder urging her back down. 

"Rest. Mika will be in soon with some tea and something to eat," he told her. 

She didn't have the energy to argue, so she just nodded and lay there, watching Kalys disappear out the door. 

With him gone, her eyes slipped closed, her bone-deep weakness and exhaustion enough to make her fall asleep easily. 

Even the Traverse was no match today.