CH187 Thera’s perspective

Thera woke up far earlier than she usually would, the emotions from the previous day leaving her with a poor sleep as she cracked open her eyes and found herself surprisingly close to Ben’s face.

It took a moment but she remembered asking him to stay, she just hadn’t expected to wake up next to him, nor to have ended up using him as a pillow midway through the night.

Actually, haven’t I been in this same spot before? She thought to herself, thinking back to the dryad village before a horrifying possibility sprang to her mind. Wait, of all the times we’ve had to sleep in close quarters recently, isn’t this the only time I’ve woken up first? Don’t tell me this happens often?

Ben had never mentioned anything like that, but she didn’t think he would if that really was what was happening and felt her face grow warm as she tried to gently pull herself away without waking him.

The embarrassing potential managed to cover some of the hurt she’d felt yesterday, but she wasn’t exactly sure if she liked the trade-off and promptly decided to pretend nothing had happened. They were hunting partners which meant they’d find themselves in tight quarters occasionally, she would just tell herself it probably wasn’t a common occurrence and leave it at that.

Even awake though she wasn’t sure she was ready to face the day. She knew things were going to be uncomfortable when she left and actually started interacting with her family, she just didn’t know how she was going to handle it, so instead she put it off, grabbing a book from a shelf and reading for a little while until she heard her door open.

Her mother walked in and she cursed herself for not locking it the night before as Pelenia cast a look to the still sleeping Ben before seeing her daughter’s blushing face.

Mercifully though, she didn’t make any comments, instead quietly asked Thera to join her and left the room, expecting her to follow.

She did as she was asked, knowing in her heart that even if it didn’t get any immediate comments she was going to regret being seen like that for the rest of her visit as they made their way down to the dining room and took a seat, a light breakfast already waiting for the two of them to enjoy.

As they sat, Thera decided to get things out of the way. “I’m sorry I acted like that yesterday, I was just a little… surprised I guess.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. I wish I’d known about what happened with the others though, me and your father would have tried to announce things a little differently.”

“Well what’s done is done,” She told her mom with a shrug as she started nibbling at the food in front of her, though her mother seemed to disagree.

“I wouldn’t quite say so. Your father is going to be gone for a few days as he… Deals with the spirits who seem to be attempting that sort of thing. As for Lux, well I spent a long time talking with her last night. Aside from the fact that she’s also feeling ready to kill the others, she swears she didn’t know. I was hoping you’d still be willing to work with her for a bit and talk things out?”

“Um, I guess that would be fine,” She said, already prepared to die from how awkward it would be if it was the truth. Considering that she only got along with half of the great spirits she should have given her aunt more trust before reacting like that, so now she needed to try and make things right.

“Excellent, in that case she’s waiting for you at the hospital, I know she really wants to talk to you as well so you should hurry over after eating.”

“Uh, I need to wait for Ben to make a life resistance amulet though, I wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt,” She explained to her mother, trying to delay things until she was more emotionally ready.

“That’s no issue. Sonya explained how you’d been doing things in Stonewall but when I passed that along to Lux she was sure she’d be able to compensate for any issues you might have so long as we have a dark resistance one on hand.”

Great. She thought as she looked to her plate, almost empty and let out a sigh. It seemed like she wouldn’t be putting things off.

She got to the main hospital of Anailia and immediately felt overwhelmed. Unlike the clinic where there’d be maybe a dozen people at most waiting to be treated at a given time, the hospital was packed with people, healers and patients alike constantly moving around and being treated as they were.

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She’d never gone there herself, instead always receiving any treatments she needed from her mother while she lived in the nation, with a typical healer not being trusted enough to maintain their minds while working on her, so she’d never known the scale that an average person had to deal with.

Taking a breath as she went, she tried to relax as she went up to the closest person who seemed to work there and be free at the moment, asking them for directions to her aunt.