You don't intend to sleep, because you aren't sure how you can go to sleep. You sit with ghosts at the end of a pier, your back against the railing just in case, and you doze.
You startle awake and blink at the lightening sky, as footsteps approach behind you. "You were right," says the stern voice of the head healer, Shen Xingqiu. She sounds exhausted, the kind of exhausted that only working all night can bring, the kind of exhausted you're all too familiar with. (With Sunshot behind you, you thought that was the end of it, but you're learning that adulthood isn't the end of crises, just learning to better weather them.)
Your thoughts not quite out of the water, you just make a question-shaped grunt in response as you stand.
"Your lucky charm must really want to live, because he made it through the night," she says. "We fed him as much blood-replenishing medicine as was safe, and some sedatives. Yan Heibing will be watching him through the afternoon, but there isn't much to do now but wait until fever sets in."
Fever would be a good sign, you remember. Fever means that the body is fighting to stay alive, as well as the spirit. (You don't think about the woman who taught you that, another flash of red in your memories, nothing but ashes.)
You nod, and then raise your eyebrows. "My lucky charm?" you repeat.
"Well, it isn't as though we have anything else to call him," she replies. "I'd heard that foreigners had strange hair colors, but..."
It is certainly the most striking thing about him. You nod. "His injuries?"
Shen Xingqiu's expression goes flat. "A collapsed lung, broken ribs... He was run through in three places in the chest, and shows signs of illness and stress from before that. We think it was twice from the back, and once from the front, and the blades weren't small. One of the ones in his back was dragged upwards at an angle - there's no way of telling if his nerves will heal properly. If he survives at all."
You expected a grim report, and this is on par with what you expected. There's still blood on your sleeves, you realize. You've well and truly ruined these robes by letting it sit. Still, one thing bothers you -
"There were no weapons around him," you say. "Or signs of any other people at all, as far as I can recall."
"How strange," Shen Xingqiu says. "Well, you can send a team to investigate after you've gotten some sleep."
You frown, but before you can protest, she fixes you with a look and says, "Go to bed, Sect Leader. If there is any change, someone will wake you."
You're very bad at arguing with doctors. "Fine," you say. "But if anything changes - "
"Of course," she replies, bowing. You manage to bow back, and stumble towards your bed, leaving your bloody robes in a heap on the floor. They'll wait for tomorrow, too.
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You startle awake and blink at the lightening sky, as footsteps approach behind you. "You were right," says the stern voice of the head healer, Shen Xingqiu. She sounds exhausted, the kind of exhausted that only working all night can bring, the kind of exhausted you're all too familiar with. (With Sunshot behind you, you thought that was the end of it, but you're learning that adulthood isn't the end of crises, just learning to better weather them.)
Your thoughts not quite out of the water, you just make a question-shaped grunt in response as you stand.
"Your lucky charm must really want to live, because he made it through the night," she says. "We fed him as much blood-replenishing medicine as was safe, and some sedatives. Yan Heibing will be watching him through the afternoon, but there isn't much to do now but wait until fever sets in."
Fever would be a good sign, you remember. Fever means that the body is fighting to stay alive, as well as the spirit. (You don't think about the woman who taught you that, another flash of red in your memories, nothing but ashes.)
You nod, and then raise your eyebrows. "My lucky charm?" you repeat.
"Well, it isn't as though we have anything else to call him," she replies. "I'd heard that foreigners had strange hair colors, but..."
It is certainly the most striking thing about him. You nod. "His injuries?"
Shen Xingqiu's expression goes flat. "A collapsed lung, broken ribs... He was run through in three places in the chest, and shows signs of illness and stress from before that. We think it was twice from the back, and once from the front, and the blades weren't small. One of the ones in his back was dragged upwards at an angle - there's no way of telling if his nerves will heal properly. If he survives at all."
You expected a grim report, and this is on par with what you expected. There's still blood on your sleeves, you realize. You've well and truly ruined these robes by letting it sit. Still, one thing bothers you -
"There were no weapons around him," you say. "Or signs of any other people at all, as far as I can recall."
"How strange," Shen Xingqiu says. "Well, you can send a team to investigate after you've gotten some sleep."
You frown, but before you can protest, she fixes you with a look and says, "Go to bed, Sect Leader. If there is any change, someone will wake you."
You're very bad at arguing with doctors. "Fine," you say. "But if anything changes - "
"Of course," she replies, bowing. You manage to bow back, and stumble towards your bed, leaving your bloody robes in a heap on the floor. They'll wait for tomorrow, too.