Somehow, it’s been almost a week since I was brought to the Light. Jak, Morgan, and Locke continue to treat me well, like I’m one of them. Morgan cooks for me and sits with me in the evenings, most of my days are spent with Jak helping and learning in the healer’s rooms, and both Locke and Morgan have begun to show me how to fightproperly, just as they promised when they have time in the evenings as well, though Locke doesn’t speak to me much.
I see now by what I’m learning from them that the training pits taught little in the way of actual combat. They just wanted us to learn to kill each other, become merciless and hard, before we were taken up to be trained properly. But thanks to Locke and Morgan, I’m already able to wield a knife with confidence, and move more quickly in a fight.
But I’m very confused by their kind manners. All three of them are making me waver in my promise to myself to have little to do with them bar whatever is necessary for this bond that’s now between us.
The claiming part still hasn’t been done, either. It’s bothering me, making me feel vulnerable. Soon, Voss will take me to train with the fae. I don’t want him to simply be able to rip me away from the Light, and lock me up in the Underhill because the males I’m bound to refuse to fuck me.
'What's this one used for, Bryn?' Jak asks me, putting one of the many jars he has in the healer's room stores under my nose.
I let the frustration melt off my face before I look up.
I sniff at the vessel in front of me. There's only been one or two so far out of the many that he's had me smell today that I haven't known, and he seems pleased.
'Is it for burns?' I ask.
He grins. ‘Right again!’
I can’t help the warmth that curls around my innards and I clench my hands at my sides where he can’t see.
Stop it, Bryn! What care you for his regard?
I don’t want them! I can’t trust them.
'I hadn't realized that you had learned so much at The Barrack,' he continues, unaware of the words I’m silently chanting to myself.
I shrug, giving him what I hope is a wry grin.
'I had to learn,' I say. 'The healer wasn't there for the humans, so I gleaned what I could, both in knowledge and sometimes in supplies as well if I knew he wasn’t going to notice.’
'Did you help the other humans?'
'When I was able to,' I say lightly. 'But most of the time they didn't trust me. They knew I was different, and they were afraid. And, if they accepted help and Ogdan or Sio found out, they'd bepunished. Well, Ogdan would have them hurt me, so that Fate would do it for him.'
Jak is silent for a long time, and when I look up, he's turned away again, looking through more of the stores with a frown on his face. He's left a cloth bag on the table beside me. I pick it up and smell it as well, thinking.
‘For megrims, I think.’
He looks back and gives me a wide grin.
‘I don’t think there’s much to teach you about herbs except their names,' he says, and I smile back.
In spite of the mantra, it does feel nice to be good at something…for him to think I’m good at something.
There's a knock on the door, and I look up at it, my heart leaping. We discussed this, I say to myself to steady my nerves. This is just another step to make this place my home. To do that, the people must accept me, and this is the best way to ensure that happens.
Jak gives me a nod, his countenance encouraging. ‘You can do it.’
I release a breath to steady my nerves.
This is the first person here that I will be healing by myself in the few days since I began helping Jak.
Gods, have I really been in the Light for almost a whole week?
I open the door, and, in the apothecary that's usually deserted, a woman waits with a small child. When she sees me, her eyes narrow.
'Where is Fae Jak?' she asks haughtily.
Fae Jak?
