Claiming The Remnant

Chapter 42

[ Garrett ]

“Try and relax, tensing your muscles is making it worse.” I stepped down into the huge empty bath that was set into the floor. Ridiculous sized bath for one person, like a small square swimming pool.

“I c-can’t.” He moaned, still gripping his chest, fingers curled bunching the front of his tunic.

“First burn out, huh?” I held him under the tap and turned it on. He yelped at the cold water hitting his heated skin.

“Yy-yeah, I dd-idn’t think I cc-could.” The lad looked at me, cold water splashing down his clothed body. His voice held a myriad of emotions. Unsure what to do with that tangle I decided on a different approach.

“I was wondering if you would answer a question for me, Zach?” Water was slowly pooling in the flat bottom of the bath. There was about an inch. I debated sitting him down but then the falling water would be spraying up everywhere. “You’re normally hopping about everywhere, struggling to string a sentence together. What’s so different tonight? Or have you been putting it on?” Zach raised an eyebrow at me. His look said that he thought I was being dumb. Maybe I was.

"It's quiet at night." He spoke really slowly trying not to stutter.

"I still don't get it." I did. It was obvious once he said but he needed to be distracted.

"Are you really that ignorant?" Zach gasped in pain, shuddering while I held him in place.

"Your temperature isn't going down fast enough." I hopped up the side after sitting him on the floor of the bath. As I grabbed a stack of towels I kicked off my shoes. The water hadn't gotten into them yet so I took the opportunity to stop them from getting ruined. I threw all the towels into the bath and then slid down the side, trying not to splash too much. "Perhaps I am that ignorant. Enlighten me." His breathing was erratic and it looked like he was struggling to keep his dilated eyes on me. They appeared to want to roll back in his head. This wasn't good. "Come on, explain." I commanded while wetting towels and draping them over him in an attempt to cool him quicker. I really needed Grace.

"I can see everything that is in contact with the surface I'm in contact with." He rasped. "The busier the castle is, the more there is to see, it's distracting." His eyelids fluttered and his head lolled a little.

"Why not get Amerise to make you something?" I lay him down in the two inches of water and put a wet towel over his chest.

"The King did, but I felt blind, I feel blind now." He whimpered.

"It's just temporary, it will come back." I reassured him in a low soothing voice. "Ask me something, I asked you a question. Your turn." I switched out the towels as the ones I’d first put on him were warm already.

"How do you know?" Zach grunted out the question.

"How do I know what?" I coaxed.

"Um." He took a sharp breath. I swished the water next to him moving the water that had been warmed by his body away.

"I see, a few questions there. Ask as many as you want." I placed another wet towel over him, keeping my voice calm despite the panic I was feeling inside. Zach was getting worse.

"What was that thing you were doing to Lady Esther? Pressing on her chest?" His speech was thick, like he was talking through honey.

"It’s called C.P.R, stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The idea is to push on the heart and keep the blood moving around the body." I cursed inwardly at the heat I could feel coming off his body. The water around my ankles felt warm.

“How did you know to squeeze her heart like that?” I could see him gesturing under the towel. He seemed oblivious to the fact he was covered.

"Don't have magic, can't rely on magic. As the Captain of the King's guard I have to know a lot of things." I swirled the water harder before dragging a wet towel through it bringing a little wave over him. “I’ve never actually had to physically squeeze anyone's heart before but I know how it pumps.”

"Including about magic…” He mumbled to himself, figuring out that I wasn’t as ignorant about magic as I’d let him believe. “That's why you knew I needed a cold bath." His face scrunched up and squeak escaped his pursed lips. He was being really brave.

"Yup, it's just not cold enough. Grace should be here soon but just keep talking to me Zach, ok?” I submerged him now that the water was deep enough but kept Zach’s face above the surface.

“Ok,” He breathed heavily, “What was Han th-threatening to tell?”

“Thought you knew everyone's secrets already.” I chuckled, keeping things light. “Before you arrived I asked Willis to help and they said no. Disobeying a direct order is a serious offence.”

“Is, is Willis your boyfriend?” Zach asked, starting to slur very slightly.

“No, Willis and I are together but Willis doesn't think of themselves as a boy or a girl. I am Willis’s boyfriend but they are my partner.” I swear his pupils had gotten bigger, not from what I said but from the burn out.

“But they have boy bits?” The lad said, genuinely confused but clearly curious.

“It’s not about the physicality, it’s who they are inside.” I moved him around the bath again, looking for a cooler spot.

“Doesn't make sense.” Zach managed to say in a pained voice.

“It’s like…” I tried to think of something simple and accurate but Zach stepped in and saved me from making some silly comparison.

“Oh, I get it, no wonder Willis is ss-ssoo Je-jjeealo…” Zach slurred heavily. s**t.

"GRACE!!" The water filling the bath was getting very warm. I lifted him up, out of the warmed water, holding the now hyperventilating Zach directly under the tap again. His eyes had rolled all the way back and his arms had gone slack.

Poflorin came running in first. No hesitation whatsoever he got right into the bath and put his healing hands on his friend. If saving that miserable gutter rat’s life cost Zach his I wasn't sure what I would do.

Grace was next in, looking flustered. Her usually impossibly neat hair was down rather than in a bun, the bright orange streak visible to all.

"He needs cooling, quickly!” Poflorin sounded panicked. Not good. Grace came around the side of the bath that we were on and knelt, reaching for the boy with one knobbly hand. “No! Not like that, you'll just burn out yourself. Focus on the water." He instructed sharply. Grace put her hand on the tap, eyes lighting up with a deep orange glow of magic. "ISHA!!" The Healer screamed as his friend convulsed in my arms.

A woman in a fluffy pink dressing gown and bunny slippers came sliding into the bathroom. I might have laughed had the situation not been so serious. The twin most certainly wasn't Isha but she didn't complain.

"Imbue the tap with Grace please." He begged. There were tears in Poflorin's voice. They might not be streaming down his face but they were right there. Zach was in trouble. I could feel the panic in the air.

"Healer… you're not risking a burn out as well are you?" I asked Poflorin while Grace and Izla imbued the tap. Grace had orange magic as indicated by the streak in her hair. Orange was the colour of heat, air and fire. The brighter the shade the stronger the affinity and the abilities. Grace’s bright orange magic gave her control over all three components, she could manifest and manipulate fire and temperature and move air. Unlike Zach and Willis and all the Healers, Grace only had a streak and not a full head of orange hair limiting the volume of all the facets of orange that she could manipulate or manifest.

"No. There isn't much I'm actually doing. Mostly pain management." He spoke in a rush, eyes glowing bright gold. I nodded hoping he wasn’t lying to me. Icy slush started coming out of the tap. We all held our breath as the slush poured onto his chest. Grace dipped her hand into the mostly filled bath and the temperature dropped.

My clothes were clinging to me and I was more aware of them now that it was cold. My feet were already going numb. I lowered the lad into the water. His breathing began to even out and the tension leached out of his muscles.

"Zach?" I called gently when his eyelids began to flutter.

"Yeah." Relief coursed through me and Poflorin breathed a big shaky sigh.

“Things were looking a bit rough there for a minute, how you feeling?” I asked, seeing that Poflorin was trying not to choke on his welling emotion.

“Hh-hot.” He moaned, a tiny smile twitching at his lips.

“Zach?” Healer Poflorin called tenderly. "I need to go, are you going to be ok here with the Captain?" The young Healer was starting to look cold but I knew he didn’t really want to leave his friend.

"Ye, we good. Esther?" Zach asked weakly, eyes closed as he breathed deeply.

"She's hanging on.” Poflorin turned to me. “Never seen this before. It's the opposite of a burn out. A build up of her magic and we can't get it under control and Amerise hasn't been located yet." He sounded at a total loss.

“Don’t even think about trying!” I practically shouted at the green haired lad. Poflorin looked at me with alarm realising the issue instantly. He should have held his tongue about Amerise; although he hadn’t asked Zach to try and locate her he might have well of. "She needs syphoning?" I directed the question at Poflorin.

"Basically." That was what he said but I felt like what he actually wanted to say was ‘durr’. Being talked down to because I didn’t have magic was nothing new, the general hierarchy left me at the bottom. Purple was ultimate, the colour of the Remnant. It was myth, it was legend, it was the cause of all this mess. Black, silver, gold, pink all sat on the next tier. Then white, orange, yellow and those with non-colour related traits. Blue, green, red and non-magic users at the bottom. Although, most would trust a non-magic user over those they called the Deceivers. Shifting, intangibility and synthesis; blue, green and red. Considered untrustworthy.

The order had nothing to do with skill, or usefulness, it was purely a social construct. People seemed to think that the colour of magic and morality went hand in hand but it wasn’t true. I’d had plenty of different colours in the dungeon. Criminals didn’t just come in shades of blue, green and red.

"Cuffs from the dungeon are imbued with syphoning in varying degrees. All guards should be carrying a low impact pair.” I told Poflorin matter-of-factly. I liked that he and Zach were friends. Hopefully he would see that non-magic users had value too. One day he would be the Head Healer, and it looked like he would be at least less of an ass then his Father was.

“Damn, you’re right. Grace, Isha,” I couldn’t help but cringe a little when Poflorin used the wrong name again.

“Izla…” I whispered to him. He looked a little embarrassed.

“Sorry Izla, find as many guards as you can and get their hand-cuffs.” The Housekeeper and Izla left at speed. The acoustics of the tiled room meant Izla’s whispered complaints about the impoprioatory of walking the halls in her dressing gown were not missed by any of us. Zach laughed a little. My arms were frozen from holding him in the now deeply cold water. Healer Poflorin kissed Zach on the forehead and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly before half wading, half swimming out of the bath.