September 5, 2014

In Which Jeda Finds No Response

February 19, 1187

"Thank God!" Jeda had mostly recovered from her illness of a few days. Minus the worry about Hollie (such a lucky thing she had such a trustworthy nanny!), the sickness had been something of a vacation, much as she envied the people who couldn't say that about throbbing headaches and moderate fevers and vomiting six times a day. But it had been a while since she'd seen an adult who wasn't the nanny or her maid or the physician Dea had sent for.

She hadn't seen Dea in a day and a half or so either; from what she remembered of her half-asleep conversation with Gennie, Dea had been confined to her room, since Ietrin hadn't planned on paying any doctors.

But at least Sparron was here now. And if Sparron had headed straight for her room, then her father and Camaline had probably made for Ietrin's study, intent on liberating Dea.

"I'm so glad to see you."

"Good to see you're feeling better."

"Thanks. I hope you're feeling better too."

He took a couple seconds--just long enough for her to start fearing the worst--but delay or not, the nod did come. "I'm all right."

"Sit with me?" She shuffled toward the edge of the bed, a little more room on the empty side. He took it, a prolonged blink as his head grazed the board.

"I missed you," he muttered.

"I missed you too." Though, it seemed an odd sentiment to express after a brief, routine illness?

"I miss doing this. We should do more, just the two of us."

Eh? "We do things..."

"Yes, but it would still be nice to do more." He drew one hand from his core and dragged his finger along the bed curtain, an absent-minded wave of fabric trailing behind. "I want to know we enjoyed our time together."

But they had. Hadn't they? "We do enjoy it..."

"Yes. Never know when it's going to be the last time, though."

Jeda opened her mouth, but there was no response to be found. She didn't want to think about what he meant by that anyway.

NEXT CHAPTER:

5 comments:

Van said...

This is one of those transition posts that didn't really want to exist. I've had a long week.

Winter said...

Ietrin just gets better and better, doesn't he? What a toad.

*sigh* This feels like Sparron saying goodbye to Jeda. Such a good sibling relationship. They really both deserve better than what life has handed out to them. :/

Van said...

I pity whatever poor soul gets stuck doing the eulogy at Ietrin's funeral. There's not much good to work with. :S

There is something off about this conversation, isn't there? :S At least they have each other, but it's true that they both deserve so much more.

Penelope said...

I think in the case of Ietrin, you would have to just make shit up. You could throw some truth in there too, but they would have to be insignificant truths made more impressive than they really were. "King Ietrin the First was so exceptional at backgammon that rulers from neighboring countries would visit merely to bask in the glory of his victories against the finest backgammon players in all of Dovia."

So tangential.

I think this might have been a very rare occasion for Sparron-- One where he probably shouldn't have said what he was thinking. (As opposed to his more frequent habit of needing to say what he is thinking and declining to do so.)

Van said...

And so it came to be that Naronian students in 2014 wondered why they never learned anything about King Ietrin I other than his backgammon skills. XD

It was a rare occasion for Sparron, since he usually prefers to keep his thoughts to himself. There's something about Jeda that draws a little more out of him.