Gregory became aware of pain when he came back to consciousness. It was duller than he expected it to be, but still there. Peeling his eyes open, he found himself in the healing room again. An older man in healer’s robes moved around, putting things away.
“What happened?” Gregory asked, his throat raw.
“You survived, though if there hadn’t been healers on hand, you might not have. Your ribs were broken. One of them was splintered and pieces of it shredded your lung. A larger piece also hit your heart. You had a number of lesser injuries as well, including a severely fractured leg. You were injured worse than the other one, but since he stopped defending himself first, the grandmaster ruled in your favor.”
“How lo—”
“Now that you’re awake, I can get your friends,” the healer said, cutting him off. “Don’t move. We healed you, but your ribs will be tender for the rest of the day, and you should try to keep off that leg for at least another hour.”
Gregory started to reply, but the healer left. With a sigh, he looked for some water, but no cup was to be seen. Yoo-jin glided into the room with a questioning look on her face.
“Water?” Gregory asked.
Yoo-jin stopped by the door and called into the hallway for assistance. Someone replied, and a moment later, Yoo-jin came over to the bed. “They will bring some. You’ve made a habit of barely winning, it appears.”
“Yuki?”
“Fighting now,” Yoo-jin replied. “She asked me to come and watch over you, but the healers kept me out until now.”
“Your water, ma’am,” a young woman with fox ears said, bringing in a small decanter and a cup.
“Thank you,” Yoo-jin replied, taking the offered items. “He may have some, yes?”
“Yes. The healer just wants him to stay off his leg for an hour and not exert himself for the rest of the day.”
“We shall wait here, then,” Yoo-jin said as she poured a cup of water and handed it to Gregory.
The woman bowed and left them alone. Gregory took the cup and sipped, carefully, not wanting to take too big a drink and cough. “Did Jason survive?” he asked once he was sure he was not going to cough.
“They treated him on the field,” Yoo-jin replied. “His throat was bruised and it hurt him to breathe. He had the air driven from him, but otherwise, he was fine. You did manage to black his eye and split his lip in the few seconds you beat on him before the grandmaster declared you the victor.”
“Fighting the physically enhanced is more difficult than fighting a fire magi,” Gregory sighed. “If she can get inside so he can’t throw fire, she’ll be fine. Nick isn’t an enhancement magi.”
“Let us hope you are right,” Yoo-jin said, trying to hide her worries and failing.
“I have faith in her,” Gregory murmured between sips of water.
“You do, don’t you?” Yoo-jin said, looking a little better. “Tell me, when did you know you loved her?”
“It wasn’t a knowing, it was a growing,” Gregory replied. “I liked her from the first day. Truthfully, I probably lusted after her first. She is exquisite, easily eclipsing anyone I had thought beautiful before. Spending time side by side, I learned that she is smart, funny, and caring. The lust was tempered by friendship and the friendship grew. I was sad to learn she was betrothed, but not surprised. It would have been more shocking if she wasn’t.”
“You might be surprised on that score,” Yoo-jin sighed. “We know she is beautiful, but people see the skin, hair, and eyes and they do not see her, they see her heritage. Sorry, I interrupted. Please, continue.”
“Her heritage never mattered to me. Still doesn’t,” Gregory said, looking at the ceiling. “I’ll never be able to pin down the moment when I knew exactly, but when you took her from the room to speak of betrothals, my heart died.”
“Yes,” Yoo-jin smiled gently. “You will be good for her, and she for you. Much like my dear one is for me.”
“You and Hao, how did that happen?”
Yoo-jin looked into the distance, recalling memories years behind her. “We met during one of his business deals for the Han clan. He was working under a senior trader and I was a clerk for the shipping company they were making a deal with. Much like Yu and you, I knew on seeing him that he was my heart. It took some time to work out the details of the deal, and the two of us found time to get to know each other. Hao didn’t know how smitten I was, but I could see that he was interested in me.”
Gregory lay there listening to her, wondering if he and Yuki would be able to look back with the same fond remembrance. Time slipped by as she explained the difficulties they faced to become betrothed. Her father had been beside himself with anger about her choice, but her mother had been able to soothe him enough to agree to the betrothal.
“Prepare a room! We need the burn salve and the eye oils!” The deep commanding voice of the person in charge ordering people around interrupted Yoo-jin.
Gregory had been smiling, but on hearing the urgency of the words, his heart clenched. He tried to stand, but Yoo-jin pushed him flat, shaking her head at him. “Stay here. I will go. You don’t want to break your leg again; she wouldn’t forgive you.”
Gregory was torn between agreement and pushing her away and going himself. Shaking his head, he tried to stand again. Yoo-jin sighed as she helped him up. “Lean on me, then.”
Gregory did as she said, leaning on her and hobbling with his injured foot raised off the floor. Lin and Hao were in the hallway four doors down, both of them looking grim, and Gregory felt his heart tighten further.
“How is she?” he asked as they limped closer.
“She took a fireball to the side of her head at the end, but she didn’t relent,” Lin said without emotion. “She broke his arm when he burned her, then knelt on it and ground the joint down. He quit at that point; between the pain and her burnt visage glaring down at him while her fists slammed into his face, he couldn’t handle any more.”
“They’re trying to save her eye,” Hao said softly, clearly in shock. “Her hair was burned to the scalp. We were told to stay out of their way.”
The family gathered around the door, waiting for the healers to come out. While they waited, Lin spoke into the silence, feeling a need to tell Gregory what happened.
“The fight started like yours; Shun used a series of fireballs and she used shadow leap to dodge them. He spun and launched more fireballs behind him, but Yu wasn’t there. She had leapt behind the grandmaster. She was laughing at him as she came out from behind the grandmaster, using shadows to hold Shun. She went after him, but he used something that bathed the area in bright light, which banished the shadows and the bindings with them. By that time, she had closed the distance and they ended up in hand-to-hand.”
Gregory listened, imagining the fight as it was described even as he stayed focused on the door waiting for word.
“She was fast, faster than he seemed prepared for. He managed to hit her several times, but they didn’t make her back away. She was intent on sticking close to stop him from doing what he did. She was hurting him more than he was hurting her, but she slipped up and he was able to throw her and put some distance between them. Shun threw another couple of fireballs at her, but before they reached her, her shadow swallowed her and then she was behind him. He was able to stop her from getting his neck and the fight continued.”
The sound of cursing in the room made them all go still and silent. Gregory’s heart was hammering in his chest, and he strained to hear or see anything.
After a long moment, Lin continued, “Yu got the upper hand and got ahold of his arm. She was trying to make him submit,” Lin’s voice caught. “She should have just broken the fucking thing. Her moment of weakness is what let him hit her with the fire. The spectators went silent when she was bathed in the fire, though it only burned for a second. When she started hammering his face with his arm pinned under her knee, they went crazy. The magi called the fight, declaring her the winner, and the healers rushed in. They got her moving, with a healer beside her the whole way.”
Once Lin was done telling about Yukiko’s fight, they stood there in the hall, waiting. The seconds ticked by with glacial slowness. The woman who had brought them the water burst out of the room, running down the hall at full speed, not answering when they called after her. She was back a minute or two later with a small bag in her hand. She ignored them again, going right back into the room.
Time stretched, and after what seemed like hours, the fox-eared eurtik stepped out of the room. Seeing them all waiting, she bowed to them, “She is doing fine. The healers have her sleeping to let the medicine do its work. You might want to wait a few minutes before you go in, as… she is healing from a severe burn.”
The older man from before stepped out of the room. “You may go, Mindie,” he dismissed the woman, then focused on Hao. “She will have the full use of her eye again, but she will have trouble seeing for a day or two. I would urge you to have her forfeit the fight tomorrow so it can heal without further damage. She will be sleeping for an hour while the salves repair her skin. I recommend you wait so you don’t have to see the damage yourselves; some find it difficult to handle.”
“We can go in now?” Hao asked bluntly.
“Once the other healer steps out, you may go in,” the healer replied. “She’s lucky. The fire used by the Eternal Flame normally burns longer than it did on her. We would never have been able to save her eye if it had.”
“We understand. Thank you, healer,” Yoo-jin said, relieved that her daughter was going to be okay.
“I told you to stay off your leg and not exert yourself,” the healer added pointedly, staring at Gregory.
“I’m not on my leg, and I’m resting,” Gregory said flatly. “I’ll gladly sit as soon as I can go in.”
“Stubborn idiot,” the healer muttered as he stalked away from them.
It was only another minute or two before the other healer left the room. “Don’t try to wake her. She needs to sleep while the medicine works, but you can go in now.”
The four of them entered the room and Gregory felt his blood go cold at the sight of Yukiko lying on the bed. One side of her face was covered in bandages. Her long flowing hair was mostly gone; only short white stubble remained on half of her head. A few long locks remained on the far side of her head. With Yoo-jin’s help, Gregory got settled in the chair next to the bed. Resting his hand on Yukiko’s arm, he closed his eyes and pushed down the rage he felt at Nick for what he had done. The four of them sat or stood in silence as time ticked away, waiting for Yukiko to wake up.
