Chapter 76 I Have Feelings I Am Not Sure I Am Allowed To Feel
“My… my lady.” The elf woman that opened the door of the church was a strange face to Maeve, not like it mattered anyway as the woman in question. “It is quite late at night—”
“The children.” Maeve felt out of breath, like she had run all the way here. Amir, who was behind her, would have never let it happen, of course, but it didn’t change the fact that she felt like she wasn’t breathing as well as she should. “Are they well?”
“Y-Yes. I believe they’re sleeping.”
“Let me see them. Please.”
The elf woman looked unsure, her eyes flitting to Amir. Their stare lasted for about three seconds before she moved away, her head bowed slightly.
Maeve, who had on only a full nightdress and cloak hurried down the halls of the cathedral, her steps determined but hurried until she reached the room filled with the female children and found the one bed she never thought she’d be looking for.
Lara was unsure of what was happening or why she was awake until she suddenly felt herself being pulled into wide arms, the smell of jasmine and roses moving to her nose as she whispered, “Angel?”
Maeve didn’t bother to respond. She held the girl tight to her chest like she was worried a little gap would end whatever dream she was having even if all this was real. “You’re okay.”
“Course I am.” The small voice asked, her voice muffled quietly in Maeve’s chest and filled with sleep. “Bad dream?”
“No. Just wanted to see you, little rat,” Then slowly, she set the girl down back to bad. “You can return back. I’ll see you when I can.”
Lara didn’t let out a sound of protest while Maeve slowly placed her back on the bed, the little girl instantly curling and holding onto the teddy that Maeve had bought her.
The face of another child with blank eyes and blood all over her clothes flashed through her head.
Maeve fought the urge to vomit.
The second she was away from their dorm rooms, she walked over to one of the pillars of the building, her hand on it as she let out everything in her stomach.
There was someone behind her holding her hair up ever so quietly, and she didn’t need to turn to know who it was until she was done, her voice quiet, “You heard everything in the office.”
“I did.”
Of course, he did.
Amir’s voice was the same as before. It had that regal curt tone he used when they first met, and the politeness on another day would have made her laugh or poke fun at him but she couldn’t seem to do that now. “Did you know about it?”
There was a pause. The night sky shone bright, casting a low shadow over his face. His long hair cradling it gently like a halo before he said softly, “Yes.”
“Was it you?” The bitter taste in her mouth refused to go away. It burned on her tongue, in her throat, in her chest as she looked at him, “Did you tell her about the revolution? About the people there?”
Amir’s eyes betrayed no emotion, his voice quiet. “No.”
Maeve wanted to say she didn’t believe him. She wanted to say that he was lying but she couldn’t seem to do it. The tears in her eyes threatened to fall again, but the second she tried to look away, his hand reached out and caught the teardrop, his eyes on her face. “I asked around for information since you were gone. It was only then I found out what they were doing in your name. I have done nothing since having this knowledge.”
“And what was it?” She looked at him, searching his face before her voice cracked, “Tell me.”
“There are rumours that they now believe you have abandoned them in your cause, especially since you have not been speaking to them.” Amir did not mention that he heard of her tails with them, or that he had always known. “There is a new leader now. A strange person of power, they say. The gender is unknown… but they’re starting something, a curse like what had happened in Satyr— and ever since their arrival into it, a sickness spreads.”
A sickness. “What is it like? What are the symptoms?”
He didn’t respond instantly. Instead, he took his hand away from her face and took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over to her.
As she took her, her eyes scanned over the words, her stomach twisting even more. It was a list of villages that were most and least affected with an accompanying list of symptoms. Veins darkening, hallucinations, delirium, aggression— and then decay.
And after, the body is left with a stone.
She knew instantly what it would be.
“It is far more… contagious with humans, especially children. Possibly because they have—”
“More mana.” The realization hit Maeve like a truck. Because of course. The Elves… it was far different from them. It was the wraiths hanging on to them and the food they ate that made the curse become as terrible as it was. “Amir—”
“The elves here have sworn to let us know if anything is contaminated.” He cut in, his voice low. “They are also trained to fight anyone that comes in here that they do not know.”
“But… but the others…” Her throat burned. Her eyes blurred. Maeve’s voice fell into a whisper. “What will happen to them?”
“I will try to find a way. You need not involve yourself here. You have not slept in a while. I had… planned to handle it before we would meet again. It has… unfortunately taken longer than expected.”
Maeve's grip on the paper tightened, the edges crumpling beneath her fingers. “You planned to handle it alone.”
Her voice was flat, hollow in a way that made Amir's composed expression flicker for the briefest moment. “You planned to handle a plague that is killing children while I was on your own?”
“Like a certain person I know.”
Maeve stopped, her eyes staring at him like she was seeing him for the first time, and then a small smile came to his lips. “I am your husband. But your diplomat and informant first. I can handle the rest of this. You can keep doing what it is that you wish to do.”
Somehow, she felt the urge to hit him hard across the face because she knew what it meant. He would keep on maintaining this distance and she would possibly not see him for a few more days, or possibly weeks, until something brought them together again.
She wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
He had always been… there. She knew it. He was someone she trusted to always be there. This… “Okay.”
But she had faith in him. She always would.
Now, she just had to find a way to let him handle the rest of this without him knowing she would have her hand in it as well so he’d return home faster.