He sat with Rosalea until he was sure that she really was resting. He adjusted the mental magic blocks he used when visiting towns to put them into place here. Then he moved out of the room, ensuring the door was locked. He returned to Rhainnon’s room. She was sleeping, and her lungs were clear sounding, even as he moved his head closer to her. He slowly withdrew from that room.

“She had a little to eat,” Oralee said as she walked through the hall to be alongside him. “I just took her dishes to the kitchen.”

Kaylar nodded. “I am glad to hear that.” He smiled as she moved alongside him and put her hand on his front leg. “I have moved Rosalea to the corner room. I have locked her in on purpose for now.”

Oralee made a musing sound. “I think I understand. I will make sure someone is available to check in on both of them frequently.”

“Thank you. I just do not yet trust her to wander about without looking for trouble of some sort. However, I want to ensure she has plenty of food and anything she wants to entertain herself. She needs rest to recover. I want to spend a lot of time with her.”

Oralee nodded. “But, remember that you have that council meeting to go to. I can stay and manage things with our patients here, but who do you want to go with you instead?”

Kaylar grumbled. He had forgotten about that. “Wymund should come.”

Oralee smiled. “He will be very excited, especially if there is an opportunity for him to trade with some of the others. What do you want me to do with Rhainnon if she starts to feel better?”

“Do not let her tax herself, but I do expect she will be making a speedy recovery.” After all, Rosalea tried to dump her life into her. Kaylar hesitated, thinking about Rhainnon’s parents and Rosalea’s cut. “I want to keep her separate from Rosalea, but she is free to otherwise move about and get acquainted with everyone if she seems greatly improved before I get back.”

Oralee nodded and bowed to him and headed away to talk to his head chef. Kaylar went to his private quarters to have a nap. Well, all of this is going to take up a bunch of my time and be plenty stressful.

Yelena was there waiting for him. “How is everyone? Did it work out with Rosalea? You look tired.”

He nodded yes to all the questions, “Everyone is looking like they will be better in the next few days.” He flopped over on his cushions.

“I am glad,” she said. Yelena was empathetic to his mood, and so she kneeled down by his head and stroked over his nose and face until he fell asleep. It made him feel the smallest bit better. He usually wanted to be the source of reassurance for his humans, but right now he was happy to accept it.

***

Rosalea had never been hung over. She had seen Uryans that were suffering from it though, and she felt it was close to how she was feeling now. The light made her head hurt, and she wanted to just roll over and go back to sleep because she felt so exhausted. However, she was hungry and a little stiff. The bed was almost awkward to sleep in after the beds she had endured for the last two years.

She got up and looked around the room; there was a cloche on an end table near the bed, so she lifted it to reveal a glass of cool, sweet tea and thick slices of fresh bread. There was fruit and some sort of cream. It was a feast after all the time without. She finished every bit, feeling almost over full, and then she tried the small door to the side of the really large door that seemed to be sized for the dragon.

It was locked. Rosalea tried the bigger door; it was also locked. Perhaps I will just break myself out then, she thought and tried to focus on her magic. However, similar to when the dragon had come to see them in Mire, she found she could not see or connect with her magic.

She spent some time exploring the room. It was tall enough with plenty of floor surface area to accommodate the dragon entering the room. There were tapestries, a shelf with some books on it, a desk, the end table with a chair, and the bed. The window was big, and outside, Rosalea could see a few birds huddling together despite the fall weather.

After a while, she decided to sit on the bed and read one of the books. It was a history about a country called Eirenn. Rosalea had never been, she did not plan to go, but it was a little interesting reading about coastal elves… which she had never seen and didn’t expect to see.

Finally, the door opened. Rosalea looked up, but it was just Oralee. “Good afternoon. I see you have been up a little while. How do you feel?”

“I am fine. Where is Rhainnon?”

“She felt very good this morning, so I have let her visit her home. She wanted to see if it was still clean, I guess.”

Rosalea stared. “Rhainnon has her own house?”

“Not everyone lives in the castle. I live here. Maybe you will too. But there are fields and herds of different animals, and there are houses near those areas. Rhainnon’s home is among the sheep pastures.”

Rosalea felt she understood things a little better. Everyone here had a purpose. Rhainnon’s was raising sheep; something she was already skilled at from home? “When can I see her?”

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“Not today. You are to stay in until you are more properly recovered.”

“I am well,” Rosalea insisted, rising from the bed.

“I have eyes, my dear. You have dark circles like a raccoon. You need more rest.”

Rosalea could tell that was the end of it, so she did not argue. She was a little afraid her purpose had been to heal, and now that Rhainnon was healed and the dragon knew she did not like him, what did it mean?

By the end of the first day, she was definitely annoyed about being cooped up and so clearly locked in.

Things did not get better the second day, and she felt like her magic was completely recovered after all this forced bed rest. She spent time trying to dislodge the block preventing her from accessing her magic, but she could not reach into her internal world to even find it. The room was nothing more than an oversized prison. She did not like the world looking so gray and bland, and longed to see what she was used to seeing all the time. She especially longed to hear the birdsong just outside the window with her magic and know what it was about, or to see the plants look a little less dull even in the fall air.

Her mind wandered. Rooms like these must be a nightmare to clean. It would take ladders to reach some of the windows, the walls, or ceilings. But, it was spotless in here. Even the tall blue tapestries did not seem dusty or musty. The entire room had a blue color scheme to it. The blue tapestries, bedding, carpeting against the gray walls made the colors feel almost as if they suit her current mood. Except, all of it was bejeweled, thick, luxurious, and screaming with richness. She could have slept almost as comfortably on the carpet as in any bed… except the feather bed in the room. Even the bed made her feel small and overwhelmed; in normal circumstances, she would have expected three to sleep in it.

Now it was the third day, and she was thinking that he was just going to keep her here forever. She thought about what it might take to break her way through the window to get outside. She looked at it and contemplated it while she was brushing her hair. The door clicked open, and she was expecting to see Oralee bringing her more food. Then she realized that the little door was not the one that had clicked open, but the dragon size one. Her heart began pounding, but she calmly set the brush down and bowed to him, as the Ieshans had taught her to do.

“I should be very irate should you choose to break my window,” he said mildly. She flushed. Her pulse rate quickened drastically as she felt potent annoyance that he had been spying into her thoughts. He was analyzing her. “So, Rosalea is your name?” She nodded. He shifted a bit and rattled some of his scales along his back. “Very well. Now that we have some time to talk, I would like to explain things very simply to you, exactly as they are between us.”

She looked up. Was he finally going to tell her what he wanted? She watched him carefully, without meeting his eyes. He was silent watching her likewise with his deep blue eyes.

“The choice I am going to lay before you is life and death.” Rosalea felt coldness sweep through her, but she waited for him to continue and tried to not jump to conclusions. “You belong to me. The moment I brought you here, you belonged to me. You are mine. Your life is mine. You are my responsibility. You are at my mercy.” He waited. Rosalea looked down; she could not stand to look at him. He continued, “You will work for me, do as I ask when I ask, stay where I ask you to stay… or I will have to kill you.”

Rosalea looked down, she felt cornered. He was very blunt, and she knew just by the way he held himself and the way he looked at her, he was serious. He had gone through all of this trouble to save her… she turned away to the window.

There was a bird sitting on a branch outside of it. It was warm outside, so it was singing cheerfully, and it made her feel like the rest of the world would go on without her just fine. She was having a hard time not thinking about this. But she didn’t want him to hear her thoughts. Even so, she knew that he could take every scrap of her freedom. He could control her body. He could control her access to her magic. He might even be able to control her thoughts. She ran away from the Ieshans to free herself, and yet she had somehow ended up here. If she had no freedom, how was death all that much different?

Movement in the corner of the window caught her eye. How was she seeing her own reflection there? She frowned, and then realized that the reflection was not frowning back. It was not even quite her; it felt and looked to her like an older version of herself. This version of herself had shadows of some sort of red mark that looked a bit like burns. She watched the image of her older self move and hold her right hand up so that Rosalea could see it clearly. Upon her hand, there was a bright blue circle, similar to the color of the dragon’s main body, and it had a mountain and his name across the top. Then some symbols she could not quite make out and a line. A brand.

The eyes looked intensely at her, holding that brand out until the image faded.

Even if I agreed… she stopped thinking in the middle of the thought.

***

Kaylar, feeling the stubbornness and turmoil of her emotions, more than partially expected her to choose death. She better not, he thought, feeling a wave of sudden defensiveness and anger press through his own emotions. He had worked really hard to save her, and he was trying to see her bright sides, and he was now paranoid that she would go ahead and throw that away because he took another bad approach with her. But then, he had brought her here under desperate circumstances, and she had done as he had needed. Was that consolation enough? No.

She was looking out the window, and he was wondering if he could work the situation around to his favor despite her being uncooperative.

But then, she turned around. Even if I agreed– she began to think but flushed just a little and broke her thought off. Kaylar suspected that he knew what the rest of the thought was. “I do not want to die. I will serve you then,” she said. She was still angry at him. He could feel it coming from her so intensely that it ought to be its own dark aura clinging to her her. Then she did something he did not quite expect and held out her right hand, palm up. Had she seen his brand on Oralee or some of the others?

Kaylar inclined his head. I suspect that you were about to tell yourself that you can agree now and then provoke me later if you want out of this contract. It made him tired to even think about her being even more openly aggressive and difficult. He breathed out, and then focused for the branding spell. A bright blue circle began in the center of her palm, and burned inward on itself, leaving a trail of markings behind. It was a sphere which showed a rising sun between a pair of mountains. Along the top and bottom, there was draconic script. On the right mountain there was a raindrop, a leaf, and an animal. On the left mountain there was a solid boulder, some curly lines, a star, and an empty circle was in the center.

A rain drop for imber, a leaf for plant, terra for the boulder, the lines must be Caelus, and… the star and empty circle?

Kaylar answered her thought directly. “The blank will fill itself in when you gain a liana and show your changer magic. The star is for essa.” She looked down slightly, a good motion to hide the change in expression that he felt in her emotions: the spike of embarrassment and anger. He wondered if she knew he could sense her emotions, if she would also attempt to control those around him as well. The whole idea gave him a headache just thinking about it, and he resolved to do all he could to keep that information from her.

“Let us have a look at that left hand,” he said. She slowly held it out, it was still bandaged. “Unwrap it.”

She slowly did so, revealing the stitches and the still red and puffy infected wound. It was much better than it had been; the purple color in her arm was gone. “I shall send Oralee with some more salve to help ease the infection. I will also see about having those stitches removed; it looks like it is about the right time.”

He could feel her burning with the desire to ask a question. He lingered a moment, but since she would not ask it, and would not think it, he would not try to address it. When he looked at her face, he saw an expression so diffident and placid, he would never have guessed the turmoil behind it.

“I shall also see to it that you are provided better clothes.” He hesitated. “I look forward to getting to know you better.” She bowed to him politely, and he was pleased that he had introduced a small sense of confusion into the stubborn girl.

He shut the door and locked it. He found Oralee working with Galena to use her imber magic to help clean a chandelier. These two were sweet, open, and happy to see him. He repressed a sigh. “Oralee, I am going to try an experiment. I want to see if I can get her to ask for me. If she wants to leave her room, recommend she talk to me. If she wants to know something, tell her you cannot answer.”

Oralee raised her eyebrows. “She is that stubborn?”

“I just want to see how far it might go.”