Ponderosa did her best to push on pressure points on her back and hold her in different positions to see if she could get her to start breathing again. After several long moments, Iredys gasped again. She moaned. Her breathing sounded labored before several tears slid down her cheeks. Ponderosa kept her head supported while she stimulated Iredys’ body enough to make sure she would continue to breathe. Then she checked on Iredys’ wounds. No blood seemed to be coming through the bandaging yet. Ponderosa hoped that was a good sign. She’d have to get a better look in a moment. She needed to keep herself on task and not get too distracted.

She shifted Lady Iredys so she could sit beside her, then she picked up the glass of gruel. Setting the edge of the cup against her bottom lip, she waited for Lady Iredys to open her mouth. Lady Iredys whimpered, but finally opened her mouth to accept the gruel. Her face scrunched a little before she tipped her head back as she swallowed the first little bit. She drank it all with tears running down her face. Ponderosa set the empty glass aside. She lowered Lady Iredys so she lay on the cot fully once more. Lady Iredys reached out to her and felt for her face. When she found Ponderosa’s chin, she reached a little higher and tapped her lips.

‘I’ll eat in just a moment, My Lady,’ Ponderosa thought to her.

‘Your Lady is dead,’ Iredys voice whispered back.

Ponderosa took Lady Iredys’ hand in hers and gripped it firmly. ‘She is still very much alive.’

‘No, she isn’t.’

Lady Iredys pulled her hand to her chest as the edges of her mouth turned down. Ponderosa rubbed her shoulder then stepped away to let her rest. She picked up the used glass and brought it to the wash bin. Then she grabbed a clean glass and made some meal for herself. It was the only meal she knew how to make, given the absence of her tongue; the only food she’d been able to have since escaping the grasp of that man.

She sat in a chair beside the table while she slowly drank her own meal of ground wheat, alfalfa extract, and water. Her thoughts wandered away from the present. Her eyes drooped with fatigue, but she couldn’t sleep yet. There was still so much more to do to make sure Lady Iredys could weather the storm of her recovery. Ponderosa finished her meal. She rinsed out the glasses before grabbing her supplies to redress Lady Iredys’ wounds.

She was glad to see that the bleeding of her wounds had stopped as she applied more healing oils to the wounds and dressed them with clean bandaging. She applied a soothing gel to the burns around the embedded stones. Lady Iredys brought her hand up toward her chest as Ponderosa finished applying the gel. Her fingers felt the uneven skin and each of the stones, wiping away some of the gel in the process. Her frown deepened. She closed her eyes and let her hand rest on the bed once more. Ponderosa applied a little more gel then stood to set her supplies on the table. An audible tap made her turn as she set the containers down. Lady Iredys patted the bed twice.

‘I could not, My Lady,’ Ponderosa thought to her as she knelt beside her.

‘I want you to.’

Reluctantly, Ponderosa shifted Lady Iredys closer to the wall so she could lie beside her. Once she lay down and had helped Lady Iredys into the position she wanted to be in, on her left side, then Ponderosa closed her eyes and slept.

The loud chatter of birds woke Ponderosa late the next morning. She opened her eyes, feeling disoriented. She looked around, while remaining as still as possible in order to not disturb the still sleeping Lady Iredys. They were still in her house, but the cot was no longer against the North wall. It had been moved much closer to the hearth and a fire that was still burning steadily. How…? What…? Who…?

She continued to look around, trying to see if there were signs that someone else was, or had been, inside her house. All of the other furniture was where it had been last night. Only the cot had been moved. Had she moved it closer to the fire and just didn’t remember? It was possible; she had done some strange things in her sleep since she had been marked.

Ponderosa rubbed her eyes and forehead. She turned to check on Lady Iredys. She touched her forehead with the back of her hand, no fever; that was good. The feel and sound of her breathing was even and deep—another good sign. There were no signs of blood coming through the bandages and the bindings on her broken arm and leg looked secure and not too tight. However, the blackened flesh around the stones remained unchanged.

Ponderosa carefully felt around the stones, as she tested the elasticity of the skin, to see if it was possible to try and discern which runes that man had used.

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Lady Iredys took a sharper breath as Ponderosa lightly prodded her flesh. Ponderosa paused and then gently continued when Lady Iredys did not wake. The skin was moving relatively well for a deep burn, but it was impossible to see any distinct lines that would indicate which runes she would be dealing with. She sighed. She had hoped to get lucky and be able to identify the specific runes, so that she knew how best to address the magic—since magic could run rampant if the right precautions were not taken—but she had no such luck. Whatever the magical effects, she prayed they would not attract the attention of Their Majesties anytime soon, if at all. Ponderosa lightly brushed her hand across Lady Iredys’ head before carefully climbing off the cot.

She stoked the fire and set another log into the hearth. She shook her jars of herbs—including several jars containing Alfalfa—so that they could continue to infuse the alcohol and oil with their healing and nutritive properties. She washed the cups they had used last night before turning to see if there was anything else that needed her immediate attention. She scanned the single room cottage. The herbs she had hanging from the rafters were still drying; the curtains hanging over the windows could use a good washing, but not just yet.

Ponderosa turned to the stack of wood beside the hearth. It was quite a bit lower than usual. It wouldn’t hurt to grab a few more pieces from under the awning beside her woodshed. A pot of fresh snow would be good as well so that she had fresh water to use for redressing Lady Iredys’ wounds. Grabbing the pot she wanted, Ponderosa stepped outside. She walked a short distance from her house before scooping up as much snow as she could into the pot. She grabbed several good sized pieces of chopped wood from beside her woodshed then stepped back inside her cottage.

She paused just inside the door. Her chairs and her chest of personal items had been moved, and noticeably so, in the short time she had been outside. She hadn’t seen or heard anyone enter, so how…?

Ponderosa cautiously set the pot down close to the hearth and set the wood on top of the pile. She checked on Lady Iredys, but found nothing amiss with the sleeping woman. Had they been found already? If so, was this that man’s way of messing with her mind?

Looking at Lady Iredys’ serene, sleeping, face, Ponderosa shook her head. She stepped around the cot and grabbed one of the chairs so that she could bring it to the table to sit while she wrote her thoughts out. As she set the chair on the floor once more, Lady Iredys started to convulse on the cot. Ponderosa grabbed her Chamomile tincture and hurried over to the cot. She lifted Lady Iredys enough to give her some, then set her hands over Lady Iredys’ forehead and heart. The jerking continued for several more minutes. The chair she had moved scraped across the floor to where it had been. Only then did Lady Iredys stop jerking and writhing on the cot.

Ponderosa kept her hands in place a minute longer as she stared at the chair. Psychokinesis? Several large tears slid down Lady Iredys’ face. Ponderosa gently wiped them away, apologetically. Then she moved the blanket aside in sections so she could check the majority of Lady Iredys’ wounds. There wasn’t a lot of change to be seen yet, but she was pleased that there were no signs of inflammation or infection. When she finished, she lowered Lady Iredys’ forearms a couple inches so she could access where the semi-precious stones had been burned into her chest. She still could not see the runes, so she didn’t know which stone the psychokinesis was connected with, but the darkness of the burns seemed to have changed some. Ponderosa shifted her position a little in order to change the angle at which she was looking at the burns.

The burn around the Aquamarine was very dark and very dull, like an old burn that was starting to show visible signs of dehydration. The burn around the Emerald was a little less dark and slightly shiny. The burn around the Ruby looked the most new. A couple blisters had crept up the side of the Ruby. Ponderosa’s brow furrowed before she turned her attention to the Diamond. The burn was darker than the burns around the Ruby and Emerald, but not as dark and dull as the burn around the Aquamarine. It was almost as if she had been burned methodically. And with how sadistic that man was, she knew he was capable of doing it.

Ponderosa looked at the rest of the burns to make sure it wasn’t her mind making up stories trying to find an explanation of what had just happened. The skin around the Jet looked just as new as the Ruby, but was it? She shook her head to not let herself get distracted. The burn around the Alexandrite looked older than the Jet, but the coloring and texture looked very similar to that of the Emerald. She shifted her gaze up to the Peridot. That burn was even older than the Emerald; however, the burn around the Peridot also looked quite a bit drier than the burn around the Aquamarine.

As much as she wanted to know what runes were burned around each stone, the color of the flesh had not changed sufficiently to allow for that. She doubted that she would be able to guess which runes were burned around each of the various stones, since she had yet to discover if any kind of relationship existed between the Pearl and Dagaz rune in her own chest. Ponderosa thought of the possible runes as she stepped away to grab her burn soothing gel and scar softening oil.

She gently massaged the oil into Lady Iredys’ face then turned her attention back to the burns as she studied each one a little more as she applied more gel to the Iredys’ upper chest. She could see more clearly now that the burns around the Emerald and Alexandrite were the exact same. Had they been embedded at the same time?! Ponderosa couldn’t stop the shudder that passed through her body. The pain of one was bad enough, but two? It was a wonder that Lady Iredys had survived the onslaught. Or had she?

Her thoughts drew her back to what Iredys had said to her a week ago.

‘Please, …I am a dead woman, but he cannot find out about my child….’