Brendan was growing in leaps and bounds. He'd shot up several inches since Eirian had left. He looked more and more like Uncle Jaques, which she was thankful for. It'd be a lot easier for him as he grew up to be compared to his uncle rather than his father.
After Mingzhe had helped her back to her room, Marian had arrived with Brendan, and Eirian felt a bit like she was seeing them for the first time in far longer than she actually was. Marian had always had a shadow over her as long as Eirian had known her. Probably a lot longer. Since the death of her husband. It stayed with her the same as the morning colors she cloaked herself in. But even dressed in black, Marian seemed lighter, smiling more honestly and brightly, especially in the presence of Brendan.
She placed him on the bed immediately, and Eirian was taken aback when he immediately crawled into her arms and started crying. Eirian had no idea what to do with him, and neither Mingzhe nor Marian moved to help her. In fact, they both looked pleased, and Eirian had no idea why.
In the end, she just carefully wrapped her arms about the crying child and awkwardly patted him on the back. It didn't stop the crying, but he seemed to relax, and his grip on her still-injured body relaxed a bit. The pain subsided to the same dull ache that the pain potions had kept it at the entire time she was in the healer's care, and Eirian relaxed. She shifted him into a slightly more comfortable position before turning to Marian. "Where's Finn?"
Before the older woman could respond, Finn himself burst into the room and cried. "They released you already?" He was already in tears, and Eirian sqwacked when he threw himself on the bed and into her arms, barely managing to avoid crushing Brendan. She hadn't known what to do with Brendan, who was barely two; what the hell was she supposed to do with Finn, who was an adult? Albeit a very young one. And a very emotional one. Marian looked entirely too pleased with what was happening, so she definitely wasn't going to be of any help. She turned to Mingzhe, who bore a soft expression as he watched them. It disappeared as soon as he realized she was looking at him, an embarrassed flush rising in its place.
Eirian squinted at him, tried to gesture at the two crying figures in her arms with the one eyebrow she'd managed to regrow, but Mingzhe just looked confused. And then he didn't, but he couldn't hide the twitching of his lips as he turned away and started arranging the potions the healers had sent with her on her night table.
Eirian started to growl in warning, but stopped herself when she realized it would startle Brendan and Finn, and she was just going to have to suffer it until they cried themselves out.
At least, Marian had summoned the good wine. She set out a fresh pitcher and glass on another table and set about pulling out Eirian's sleeping clothes.
Finn recovered first, eventually sitting up and taking a seat next to tot Eirian, so close he was still tucked against her leg. He rubbed Brendan's back as the younger boy's cries subsided into gentler and gentler sniffles, and he fell asleep against Eirian's chest, exhausted from the emotional outburst.
"You're going to heal, right?" Finn was visibly upset at the sight of her remaining injuries, and while they weren't anywhere near as bad as they'd been that first week. She was still mostly wrapped up like a mummy while her skin regrew in several places, and her hair was, depressingly, still a mess, but a new healthy inch had finally grown. Most of her teeth had grown back, too, thank the rock, since she was still craving pretty much anything that required chewing. The healers had been annoyingly stingy about that, too, and Eirian had been so bored she'd started a list of things she wanted the kitchen to make as soon as the last of her teeth were hard enough. It had been an odd feeling, old enough to realize exactly what was happening as new teeth erupted to replace the ones that had shattered from the heat of the wildfire. Painful, more so than she'd expected, and it reminded her of the growth spurts she'd had as a teenager, but just in her mouth.
It'd be a miracle if she came out of this without an addiction to pain potions.
But she told Finn she'd be fine. "It'll just take a while."
Finn frowned and peered closer at her skin, as if he could see through it if he looked hard enough. "Is it true that the wildfire is inside you?"
Eirian snorted. Even now, it was licking at her skin, trying to get out. "Yep."
~ tbc