“You can use the knights, then.”
Alessia and Daelia look at me in surprise. “The knights?”
“Yes, the knights. You can send them in as armed guards for the missionaries and temporary laborers to get the farms started,” I propose, my heart beating faster and faster in my chest. “I know Kharu and Emilia, two of the most prominent knights in the country. They would be glad to serve the Kingdom of Krasta in their rehabilitation efforts.”
Alessia regards me curiously, some of the warmth returning to her expression. The corners of her mouth twitch upward as she says, “Look who’s finally decided to participate in royal decision making. I didn’t know you were a passionate humanitarian, Aurelio.”
Humanitarian?!
I splutter, feeling as though I’ve been punched. My fake cough falls flat as I try to cover up my reaction.
“I think you’ve got the wrong idea. I just heard that Kharu and Emilia have been bored lately, that’s all. It’s not like I’m making any suggestions you wouldn’t think of yourself.”
“I wouldn’t have thought to use knights as laborers in a million years.”
I blanch. “Oh—well—now you would. Carry on.”
Feeling as though I may explode from embarrassment, I keep my head down and continue helping the sick and the injured.
What was that? Why do I care so much?
I don’t know what this feeling is, but it’s something entirely unfamiliar to me, and it’s powerful. I swing like a pendulum between passion and devastation as I continue to lie out the ailed villagers. For a moment, I fear I may cry looking at the face of a toddler that’s suffering from severe malnourishment. Then, I’m swept away by a sea of anger staring at a teenage boy who’s running such a high fever. He’s sweating buckets in the shade.
Is this how Alessia feels all the time? How the hells does she hide this crap?
I shake my head. Being with Alessia and seeing her express herself more freely is reminding me just how out of touch I am with myself. Apparently, there’s an emotional train wreck underneath all this intellectual apathy, and I didn’t even know it.
Just what are you going to teach me about myself next, Alessia? I wonder, watching her get to work healing the first villager.
I can’t know what else she’ll teach me, but I’d be lying if I said I’m not a little excited to learn.
Chapter thirteen
Alessia
The greens, blues, and purples of healing magic flow from my hands into the body of the poor child before me. She can’t be any older than five, and already, she’s combatting a serious disease, one that took our nation centuries to properly combat. The fact that there’s a simple potion back at home that would cure this malady, though, sets my blood to boiling.
She shouldn’t have to experience this. Damn you, Krastan royalty!
My magic glows softly as it enters the girl’s chest. I follow it with my eyes as it integrates with her bloodstream, then circulates throughout her body, brightening wherever it encounters the virus. It takes a considerable amount of my magic to cure her, enough to make me suspect she wouldn’t have made it another week without this cure.
She’s the third one out of five that has been that close to death.
My mind is racing, and my emotions are out of control. It’s taking more effort to keep myself calm than to heal these people, and that’s saying something, because there’s only so much magic I can use before it starts to physically affect me. My heart rate is spiking to an unsafe level, and sweat is pouring down my back despite the cool shade.
The only thing that’s helping me to keep calm right now is Aurelio’s comment about the knights. To see him light up like that, his gaze hyper focused on the task at hand, a twinge of pink showing up in his face the faster he talked…he surprised me. He does have a heart of gold under there, and he does have passions he holds dear. He just refuses to show them, let alone talk about them. I think he surprised himself just as much as he surprised me when he made that suggestion.
Damn it, Aurelio, you’re even more attractive when you care, I think, grumbling to myself.
“You alright?” he asks.
I nearly jump out of my skin. I look to my left, seeing Aurelio watching me intently from further down the line of patients. I startle once again when he makes eye contact with me without warning.
“Oh! Yeah, I’m fine,” I say.
“That’s a lie. But I know this must be hard on you.”
Not for the reason you think! I want to shout. Instead, I finish the healing spell on the child, then move onto the next one, saying, “It is hard on me. Every leader must care deeply about each one of their citizens. To see another nation’s people neglected makes it easy to imagine them as your own. It’s a rather painful imagination.”
