They all went quiet. Footsteps approached the door but continued down the hall.
"Yeah, think so." Heln honestly wasn't sure what else to say. Every other time he'd come here before now, his dad had been in the room and they hadn't had the chance to talk about it.
He'd talked to Rhyss a little. She'd stopped by on their second day home and demanded that they trade crystal scripts. She'd called him later in the night, just to talk, but he had heard the note of panic in her voice. He hadn't been sleeping well, either.
"So why aren't we dead? I'm not complaining; it's just an honest question."
Rhyss sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I don't know, honestly."
"It's because Rhyss threw rocks at it." Heln grinned at her and she elbowed him.
Bel looked delighted. "That actually happened? I honestly thought that was a delusion brought about by the concussion. Rhyss, my respect for you has grown."
"I had to do something; you were hurt and he was stuck in, I don't know, a magical brain place." Rhyss was blushing again.
"That's not entirely accurate—"
"Nope. I like it. Magical brain place." Bel smiled sweetly at Heln's scowl. They heard footsteps again. "Well, we'll talk about it more when I'm not partly loopy on pain killers."
"Really? It doesn't seem far off from your normal personality." It was Rhyss's turn to smile at Bel.
"I'm gonna take that as a compliment. So what happened with the Guard? I know you were worried about being discharged…"
"I wasn't discharged." Rhyss folded her arms. "In fact, they wanted to promote me."
"I'm sensing a but?"
"I quit."
They both stared at her. Heln had heard about the promotion but not that she was quitting. She hadn't said a word on that before now.
"Why?" Bel was the first to recover. "You're like… the best damn Guard Trainee out there, left-handed or otherwise. And I'm not just saying that because you saved my life once or twice. You just are."
"It's not for me." Rhyss shook her head. "I realized that, down there. Don't get me wrong, I still want to learn how to protect people, but I don't want to be stationed off in the forest somewhere, that doesn't really help anyone the way I want to."
Bel's shocked expression faded and turned a little sly. "Sounds like you want to be an Enforcer."
"Don't push it, Bellamy." But Rhyss was smiling again as she looked at Bel. "I don't know yet, still have a lot of time to figure it out. We're sixteen, and now that I know how long four days can be, I can say that I have a long, long time."
Heln nodded, even though something told him that maybe it wasn't true. "Yeah. We do."
"And I think I saved your life a lot more than once or twice."
Epilogue
Rhyss felt like she could breathe for the first time in days.
Bel was okay. It was one thing to hear it from Heln and her sister. It was entirely another thing to see her up and talking. A little out of it, but very much alive and breathing.
For three days the only thing she'd seen when she closed her eyes was Bel lying on the ground, paler than death. The only thing she'd heard was her breath rattling in her throat.
Seeing her up and hearing her talk was all Rhyss needed to not feel a tightness in her own chest when she took a breath.
Bel and Heln's dad Tavlyn had bought Bel fruit and books. She'd babbled excitedly at him and Rhyss had taken the opportunity to slip off, needing a moment to just breathe. Bel was okay. They were all okay.
Mustering up her courage, Rhyss took a deep breath and entered Vin's room.
Heln had wanted to visit Vin, too, but Rhyss needed this first visit to be by herself. She had a favor to ask, after all.
Vin was sitting up in bed. He looked up at her, his gaze a little dull. He had a healing patch over one eye. The healers weren't sure if it could be saved or not. An unlucky shard had gotten him.
That wasn't his worst injury. His right arm had been crushed to the point where it couldn't be saved. The healer's hall tunic was knotted a little below the shoulder.
"Hey." He sounded like he hadn't said anything for a while. The Vin she remembered usually had a hard time not talking. "I see you made it out of the faerie hole or wherever they're saying you went now. Looking good. How are the kids that were with you?"
"Bel and Heln are fine," she said, then corrected herself. Bel would still be in the hall for a few days. "Mostly fine. You look terrible."
"Thanks, Rhyss, you always say the sweetest things."
There was the Vin she remembered.
Rhyss sat next to his bed. "I mean… I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything, I…"
"I was just doing my job, Rhyss. You know what the job is like." Vin finally smiled, a little. "But hey, my eye is doing better, and they're fitting me for a fancy new arm soon. And those kids I saved, their dad, he said when I'm healed up he has a job for me with the Enforcers. Might piss off a few people but eh, actually makes it more appealing. More importantly, my favorite trainee is alive and well, and I heard something about a promotion…?"
"I turned them down." Rhyss felt guilty about it for the first time. Her mother had been sending her reproachful looks over meals for the last three days and asking her if she was absolutely sure and she hadn't felt bad at all. "Actually… I quit."
Vin was silent about that.
"I don't want to learn useless things," she continued. "I was almost useless. I almost got everyone killed. I don't know if you'll want to, but I want you to train me. I want to know how to fight. How to really fight, and really help. Think you'll be up for that?"
She wanted to protect everyone
