“Hey! Harmoni!”

Harmoni looked up from where she’d been walking down the hall. Rasha was running towards her. (Fleck was still outside. He'd introduced Moon to Asplenium this morning.)

“Harmoni! Harmoni, Wesles is awake! And Tolith is letting people visit him now.”

Harmoni’s eyes popped a little wider, breath catching. It was the weekend. Harmoni had been planning to check on the stables, and then spend the day with Cooper and Moon. But the first task paled in comparison to seeing Wesles. She would think about him sometimes, when she was going to sleep, or trying to meditate. Or when she thought he might like to do the things she was doing with Rasha and Cooper. And it was always in the context of that bloody bundle she’d last seen him as. If she could see him as not that, she’d like to do so.

As for Cooper and Moon. . .

“I’ll let them know where we are,” Fleck assured her. Besides, if she wanted to introduce them to Wesles, there was no time like the present. “Get going.”

"Sorry Asplenium, Moon and I have something we're going to do." He jerked his head towards the exit to the cave, gesturing for Moon to follow. "Come on."

Harmoni followed Rasha down the hall.

Rasha had indeed talked to Tolith about her potential healing magic. According to her, that was how she already knew they could visit Wesles.

She worked fast.

She reached the medical room, and pulled Harmoni inside.

The room was circular, and white. There were a few beds inside. There were a few cabinets with medicine and first aid as well, sitting in little glass vials. But since Tolith used mostly magic, there was less of that than one might think.

And there was Wesles, sitting up in bed. He was pale, but he wasn’t bleeding anymore. He was almost the same size as before, if a little thin. And he was healed up, except. . .

Except he was missing an arm.

Harmoni tried not to stare, especially as Wesles noticed them.

He smiled. There were obvious shadows under his eyes, and Harmoni had seen him smile before. He was clearly tired now, by comparison. But it seemed genuine.

Well duh? They were friends.

“Rasha! Harmoni. Man isit good tosee you.”

Rasha grinned and slid into a seat next to him. “Good to see you too. How are you?”

Harmoni didn’t know how she managed that. She didn’t think Rasha knew Wesles well, but she was already treating him like nothing had changed.

Harmoni didn’t want to make a habit of staring at her friends.

A bit late for that.

And she supposed it wasn't that big of a big deal. He was alive. This was much better than the last time she'd seen him. But she was a little shocked.

‘If it helps, you stare intensely sometimes. Your friends probably don’t think much of it by now.’

‘That does not help,’ Harmoni assured him.

If anything, the stress would make her expression worse. But Wesles, meanwhile, was trying to answer. So Harmoni shook her head and tried to focus on that above all else.

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“F-Well, it sounds stupid tosay that, huh? But, I mostly feelfine? Believeitornot. Tolith healed meup prettywell, aside from theobvious. He offered to bringin a cleric for the obvious. But he installed this magical port inthemeantime.”

Wesles tapped a metal covering on his left shoulder, where his arm used to come out. He turned in bed slightly, so they could see better. The cover was split into slices like an orange. Five out of six were glowing a faint blue.

As soon as he moved his right hand away, something appeared there, flickering in and out for a moment. It was see through, with a faint sparkle, like it was made out of a star's trail. But it was clearly in the shape of an arm and hand. He moved it around a bit, bending it where an elbow should be, and using the fingers to pick up the blanket before letting the arm disappear, like a computer going into sleep mode.

“No way,” Rasha said, sitting up straighter. “That’s insanely cool.”

It kind of was actually.

Wesles grinned. “The only downside is it takes magicalenergy torun.” He pointed at the metal port. “The lights tellme howmuch magic isleft. Eventually, I’ll have to put morein, like castingaspell. Bestnotto waste energy when I only need onehand.”

Rasha noticeably looked around the room, moving in her chair to do so. “Is there anything else to do?”

Wesles dropped against the pillow, running his hand across his face. “Ugh. That’s the problem. I’ve been sleeping alot. But now I'mawake. Tolith broughtsome books. But it was getting sodull. That’s why I’mglad you’re here.” He blinked and seemed to realize the implications. “It’s not theonly reason I’m glad you’re here. Ofcourse you’re friends andI’d be happytoseeyouanyway-”

Rasha and Harmoni quickly assured him they understood.

Cooper and Moon chose that moment to make their appearance, opening the door.

“Right,” Cooper said. “What are we doing?”

~~~

After some introductions, card games were what they ended up doing. Cooper found some decks in the cabinet beneath the counter, and they all knew different games. It led to some interesting playing.

“Behold! A two!” Wesles held up his two in victory. He probably would’ve jabbed it at them with even more vigor if he wasn't still propped on the pillows.

“Wesles . . . you can’t play a black two on a red two,” Rasha told him. “That’s your game, not mine.”

“It could be your game,” Cooper suggested. “Combining the rules is its own kind of fun.”

“Not when the rules are contradictory," Rasha shook her head. "He just needs a number bigger than a two."

“Oh.” Wesles put his card down, pulling up another one. “Behold a Queen! What are you going todo now?”

Rasha smiled. “Reverse card. Your turn again.”

“No!”

Harmoni laughed, hard. Wesles picking up more cards made her laugh even harder if anything, tears springing up in the corner of her eyes. It wasn’t that funny. She knew it wasn’t that funny. But most of the game had progressed like this. Wesles wasn’t the first to overreact, and Harmoni wasn’t the first to laugh.

The dragons had had a laugh earlier, during one of the other games. They hadn't been playing. They didn't have hands. But if they viewed the cards in Wesles and Rasha's hands, Cooper and Harmoni would know what they had. They'd have to, by nature of their bond. The two without dragons had forgotten, or not known this, the first round.

The dragons thought it was really funny. Harmoni felt a bit bad about making Rasha and Wesles lose so thoroughly, but it was hard to ignore the knowledge once she had it, and she had to admit it was a little amusing, watching them be increasingly confused, and watching their realization when Cooper filled them in, at the end of the game.

The dragons were supposed to stay with their rider after that. Or under the bed. Or somewhere they couldn't see anyone's hands.

Fleck didn't mind. He enjoyed looked at Harmoni's hand, and giving her advice.

'Play the 12.'

'There isn't a 12. You just want to give bad advice.'

Fleck grinned.

This was just . . . fun. Nice. She wondered if more things were supposed to feel like this.

Well, it seemed like the feeling Fleck got when he played with Moon, or when he played with other dragons in the nursery, before he’d joined Harmoni. Before they'd learned he wouldn't grow up exactly like them. So yes?

Harmoni could appreciate his wrestling a little more now.

“So Wesles, the rest of us were going to Ovant tomorrow,” Cooper filled him in. It was actually Cooper’s turn. He looked between his hand and the pile. “We’re going to see a fortune teller. Do you think you’ll be well enough to join us?”

“I think I’ll be wellenough. I don’t know if Tolith will giveme formal permission toleave. But Ithink I can just walkout anyway. It's notlike he's watchingthis room allthe time. Obviously.”

Harmoni didn’t know how he did that. Disregard what authority told him so easily.

‘You ignore the headmaster,’ Fleck pointed out.

Because he also ignored her. That was very different. If he told her to do something, she wouldn’t want to refuse.

And as much as she worried about Wesles’ health, she kind of envied him for that.

“Don’t think youcan distract me,” Wesles said. “You still haveto take a turn.”

Cooper gave an exaggerated pout, and started pulling cards.