Spring the 34th, 519 AV
With her one good hand, Oresnya pulled her long silk strip off the chest top where she had thrown it in a bundle the night before and held it to her naked torso. She hadn’t bothered to light a lamp to see by. Her Symenestra eyes saw just as well in the dark, and light still made her throbbing headache worse. She had seen her nose in a mirror the other day. Whoever Leo had brought from the Infirmary knew their work well. Though it was swollen as Hai, there was no crookedness to it at all. The deep purple bruises on her ribs would have been visible in dim light even to those without her special eyes, but Oresnya didn’t need to see to tell they were there. Every breath in reminded her. That pain had waned over the past three days to where she could force deep breaths. It still wasn’t comfortable, but she was managing. The man had told her he couldn’t treat the cracked ribs, and Oresnya couldn’t tell about the hand as it was still wrapped firmly in the splint the Inarta man had made for her.
The one thing she could tell about the hand was that it was useless wrapped up the way it was. There was no way for her to grip anything, and the bandage just made it heavy. It was doing her no favors as she tried to hold the silk strip to her torso and make the first wrap around her waist. After a quarter bell of failing miserably, Oresnya swallowed her pride, bundled the silk into a ball in her good hand, and wandered over to the door to her apartment.
Opening the door, she found him where she always seemed to find him every morning. The Inarta man had been assigned to monitor the Symenestra’s movements and activities within the city. After several times asking him for his name and him refusing to give it each time, Oresnya had given him one of her own.
“Good morning,er silk Bob.”
His eyes brightened when he saw her, and Oresnya could see worry visibly melt away. “I was hoping you had died.”
It was their customary conversation each morning, but she could see today that he didn’t mean it. Somedays, she wasn’t so sure. The conversation usually went on in a rehearsed way for a little longer, but Oresnya cut it short this time. “I need help.”
A curious expression crossed his face, but he followed her gesture for him to step inside. Leaving the door open to give him some light to see by, she held out her silk top to him. “I need help. With clothes.”
Bob tried to hide it, but his eyes lit up when he realized she was wearing no top and lit up further when he realized the opportunities that lay in front of him.
When she still didn’t get a verbal response from him, Oresnya pushed the silk into his hands and repeated once more, “I need help.”
He had seen her in the top plenty of times, every day for over a season, and with a few instructions from her was able to replicate her way of putting it on, albeit slowly and less precisely. Bob took his time, though Oresnya was sure it was not for precision’s sake. It probably would have laid better had he been hurrying, but as it was, he was distracted. She knew he was stealing glances as he went, but her tired mind didn’t care. She was getting dressed and that was what mattered.
When he came to her ribs, he let the fabric fall slack and only pulled snugger after several firm demands of “Tighter!” from Oresnya. It took a moment for the annoyance to clear to realize he had been trying not to hurt her. Not to mention, the more he messed up and had to redo sections, the more peeks he got to take. Finally, though, her chest was covered, and Bob sped quickly through the rest. Reaching the end of the silk strip, Bob couldn’t manage a bow and, instead, inelegantly double-knotted the material to hold it all in place.
The end result was satisfactory enough though uncomfortable with the way the cloth gathered and bunched in places and pinched in others. Still, Oresnya wasn’t about to complain about it. She was grateful and did manage a “Thank you.”
With her dressed, the two ventured out into the stone hallways of Wind Reach. It was later in the day than when Oresnya usually rose for work, and so she found the hallways were less busy than usual. With the halls this clear, she quickly made her way to Felicity’s Fabrics but stopped before opening the door. She wasn’t sure what kind of reception she would receive. If the woman she had bit was there, she’d have nothing good to add. If she wasn’t there though, that could mean that Oresnya’s bite was worse than she had thought. She hadn’t drained her venom. The ache in her cheeks was evidence enough of that, but with as potent as it was, a little went a long way, especially trapped beneath the skin the way it had been. Waiting wouldn’t do her any good either though. The longer Oresnya waited to show her face, the more their rage toward her would build.
With a sigh, Oresnya pushed the door open and awaited the answer to how much they despised her.
