Bird of a Nest - Chapter 45: Chapter 45

Eyeri woke up early, shaking off a nightmare that he couldn't quite remember past the fear. He pressed against the body next to for a moment before sitting up and taking a look around. Everyone else seemed to be asleep, and a gentle light coming from the window suggested it was very early. He crawled out and ducked into his room, doing some breathing exercises to calm his beating heart.
It took a moment, but they worked. It helped when he didn't remember the dream. Cai'ress' situation had brought up some memories that simply being trapped in a cage again had not. The Royals were too tender with him for those memories. The scars over Cai'ress, however. Those were different. Eyeri traced some of the red marks on his arms that were similar to the pattern on the stranger.
"Take care with how you slice, and you can keep an animal alive for much longer with much prettier features," Eyeri whispered, looking at his arm sadly. Since he started growing the scar had morphed beyond recognition, but his former master had carved a rose into his arm to decorate him. Om'hat would likely have been doing it to prolong the pain. His powers reached out, and with a flicker of light, the scar faded to nothing. Eyeri smiled, tears in his eyes. His master would have removed that one anyway. He wouldn't want ugly marks on his prizes and Eyeri was still pretty enough to be kept.
How long would it take for Cai'ress to be able to remove his scars? Eyeri had so many he would never be able to banish truly. But a few, like the morphed rose, from time to time, he could will away. Cai'ress wasn't a healer which made it even harder.
"I'll have to do my best to help," Eyeri mused, pulling his clothes off and changing into clothes he could get dirty. Today, with how his chest was feeling, he needed to see if the gardeners would have use of his hands. Something more substantial than dancing around the clinic until someone sat him down with a pen and paper.
In the early light, Eyeri looked at himself for a moment. His ribs weren't visible anymore, but he was still slender, still delicate to look at and too pale for his brother's liking. Eyeri felt his heart tighten as he looked at his 'healthy' body. He needed to be careful. Soon he'd look too well-fed, and with the others observing Aw'endo's eating habits, Eyeri wasn't going to get away with losing the few pounds he had. "Only a few more weeks until I'm 17," he mused, stretching and putting his shirt on. "Just need to eat a bit more to keep them happy. At least until Aw'endo is eating properly again," He shifted and looked out the window. "You about?"
"Always," It was Per'den. The only guard on the Royal duty that Eyeri knew the name too. Captain Par'nast seemed to have designated Per'den as the spokesperson for when they needed to interact with Eyeri.
"You must sleep at some point," Eyeri lifted an eyebrow, resting on the edge.
"The night duty is covered. You should eat regularly, as should Aw'endo," Per'den scolded, a flutter of wings and he was next to Eyeri. A large hand pushed him further in the room, so he was safer.
Eyeri rolled his eyes but sat further back. Since he started interacting with Per'den, the guard had grown just as bad as everyone else about his safety. He was more inclined to let Eyeri do what he wanted, but he made his displeasure known in other ways. "So, the stalker. If someone was stalking my brother, would they be able to get into the gardens?"
"For the area you want to go? No, the herbs and flowers section is within the Royal Quarters, the same as the Royal Clinic. It had to be for Former Consort Gar'kin."
"Excellent," Eyeri beamed. "Fetmar won't get too annoyed with me wanting to spend the day outside instead of under whosever's thumb he decides today." Eyeri rolled his shoulders and shifted to climb out the window. When he'd picked the room, the reason was its size, but it turned out to be the best room for escaping out of too.
"Shouldn't you at least tell him first?"
"No," Eyeri shrugged, ignoring how Per'den's hands rested on his body as the guard supported him on his clamber. "He'll get paranoid about the stalker. I know him." Eyeri almost fell as one of his handholds broke. His heart thumped hard for a second, but he was safe. Per'den's quickly shifted to get a better hold of him. "He worries about silly things like that." Eyeri's voice a little breathless.
Per'den shook his head and gave up trying to support Eyeri and instead just plucked him up into the air, back to chest one arm around Eyeri's waist and his thigh between Eyeri's legs. "And your guardians?" he checked. The body in his arms shrugged. Eyeri held on to the arm around his waist as Per'den flew them to the ground.
"Busy," Eyeri offered, spinning out of Per'den's arms with a playful look in his eyes. "Da needs to rest another week, or so, Tai'ray has his responsibilities, Nel'os needs to talk to Aw'endo and Dyn'ad is running between everyone trying to get them to behave."
"And your way of helping is to run off and do your own thing?"
Eyeri paused, the playful look disappearing and Per'den felt a regret run through him as uncertainly ran over the boy. Eyeri's entire statue moved from confidant to hesitate, legs pressed together and shoulder's slumped. "I mean," Eyeri scratched the back of his head. "Doing some gardening is hardly destructive. Not like some of the things I could get up to." There a slight movement, a half roll and tilt and Per'den was shaking his head and waving his hands in surrender.
"No, this is much better," Per'den agreed. "Don't. Just, don't."
That playful glitter returned, and Eyeri looked at the walls again, eyes mapping a way along the mix of stone and tree. "You sure? Fetmar says I'm not bratty enough."
Per'den caught Eyeri as he moved to find a handhold and shook him slightly, arms trapping him in a half hug as Eyeri laughed. "No," Per'den butted their heads lightly. Eyeri fluttered his eyelashes but nodded. "And you're plenty bratty enough," Per'dan shook his head, letting go of Eyeri. "How your brother doesn't see it is beyond me."
Eyeri shrugged. "I'm the baby. I get more leeway than the others. If Oira is screeching about Makio ruining an experiment and I'm swinging my legs in the background, people tend to miss if I'm helping the twins play a prank," he offered as they began to walk towards where Gar'kin and his mates planned out the day. "Now I'm not panicking about everything I worked for being reduced to nothing I can be calm and quiet. An all-round good boy who doesn't cause trouble. Aw'endo is dramatic enough that I can hide behind him and do whatever I need to do."
There was a heavy sigh from the guard who remained behind Eyeri but close enough that they were nearly in conversation. "The only thing you need to do is behave and do what your Guardians' tell you to do. And arguably Head Healer Pol'ar. He is the one deciding your education."
"Head Healer Pol'ar is," Eyeri screwed up his face trying to think of the right words. He had started out disliking the man immensely. Now he had spent a lot more time with him; the man had grown on him slightly. He mostly got annoyed when Pol'ar touched him with far more familiarity than Eyeri felt he had. Per'den handled him when it was needed, but after that, barring the odd gesture, there was a respectable distance. The Royals touched him freely, but they were supposed to be his guardian's alongside Ryraso. Pol'ar was none of that.
"A respected member of the court,"
"A grumpy old man who knows a surprising amount about people,"
"The two points are not mutually exclusive,"
Eyeri snorted and nodded. "I am aware of my responsibilities to seem normal to him. Or as normal as I can get away with seeming. Being normal means doing my writing exercises and keeping my studies up while I wait to be old enough in his eyes to train as a healer."
"From the boy who gave himself one less scar,"
"Pervert,"
"It's my job to keep an eye on you, and it was a sizeable mark," Per'den pointed out, making Eyeri glance down at his arms. It was a rather sizeable clear mark now on his right arm, almost half of his inner forearm was clear white skin like it had never had scars. It was a big enough patch that people who knew his scars might notice. Eyeri reached to roll his sleeve down to cover it, but Per'den's hand covered his. "Eyeri, it's a good thing."
"It's ..." Eyeri bit his lip. It was a good thing. Healing from any trauma was a good thing. He didn't want people to congratulate him on healing his scars. Not when many would never go, it would make not being able to recover them a failure. He didn't want that. "It happened." He looked away, but he didn't try to cover it. It wasn't the gardeners who would notice. It would be fine.
"Wait," Per'den ordered, eyes flashing up ahead of them. He gently pushed them to the side and off the path. Eyeri followed obediently, able to hear yelling in k'nairi as he paid more attention to their surroundings. His stomach sunk.
"Let me guess, Gar'kin and his mate Kol'bur?"
"Hush," Per'den murmured, but there was a nod to his head.
"There goes the gardening idea," Eyeri shrunk in on himself. It was selfish, he knew that, but he had wanted to do something away from all the drama. It was just a shame Gar'kin was deciding to pick now of all times to try to court Ang'as seriously, despite having a nest who did not want the man.
There was a flutter of wings, and Gar'kin flew away over their heads, someone continuing to yell angrily nearby. Per'den's wings lower and nodded. "I think it would be best to leave them alone today," he allowed. "It was a rather serious fight."
"Aren't they all?" Eyeri exhaled, folding his arms and watching Gar'kin fly off into the distance. There was a shift in how Per'den was standing. Eyeri narrowed his eyes. "What am I missing?" A conflicted look about whether to tell passed over Per'den's expression. Eyeri moved closer to the guard, staring him down. "If you don't tell me, I'll find out from Nel'os anyway. Or Zaro, he's spending a lot of time with the former consorts too. Gets to hear lots of tidbits about what they are all up to."
"Kol'bur said that if Gar'kin wants to court Ang'as, he should dissolve the nest." Per'den slumped slightly. "Gar'kin didn't exactly say no to the idea."
"Can he do that?" Eyeri blinked, eyebrows furrowing. "I thought people couldn't break bonds?"
"Normally, no. The only one who can break a bond is the Winglord. Only, Gar'kin can too," Per'den explained, clearly choosing his words carefully. "If Tai'hon, Ang'as or Mos'it bonded to someone, they would be able to as well. Being a consort to the Winglord is more than a title. The line acknowledges it as a service to the Winglord. If they deem that the people they have bonded themselves to are restricting them from serving the Winglord, they can break those bonds independently to the Winglord's assistance to show their devotion to serving him."
"And breaking the bond to court Ang'as serves the Winglord, how?"
"It's the reason why they can do it. Consorts don't have to declare the reason," There was a helpless look on Per'den's face, clearly struggling to find the right human words to explain concepts even k'nairi did not wholly understand. This situation wasn't a normal thing for them. Bonds broke because of death, not because of past loves endangering the current.
Eyeri nodded slowly, peeking out from where Per'den had hidden them to see the k'nairi left behind weeping on the ground. He winced and moved back in. They'd have to be careful not to be seen. This wasn't something someone would want to be witnessed.