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clan-fuildarach · 8 years ago

Text

beginner mistakes

vaska returns to her old fuckup ways and also is a useless lesbian about ailbhe

After fleeing the market in disgrace, the Cú na Mara had found another safe port a little further north. Morning dawned bright and breezy, as wind from the interior of the Windswept Plateau cleared away the oppressive heat rising from the Ashfall Waste.

Vaska stood at the crow's nest, gazing out at the coastline with wide eyes. It was so rare to see such a nice view without having to bother with flying. Leaning against the wooden railings, she stared off into the distance, trying to catch a glimpse of the Cloudsong. The cloud-scudded sky was empty of any tell-tale flash of orange.

“Hey! Hey, Vaska!”

She turned to see Lehine and Ailbhe pull themselves up into the crow's nest. Vaska studiously avoided looking at Ailbhe. Lehine was waving a couple of large green glass bottles.

“Check it out,” Lehine said excitedly, producing a corkscrew from somewhere in her clothing. Handing one bottle to Vaska, she set about starting to uncork the second.

Vaska turned over the bottle, searching for a label. “What is it?”

“I don't know,” Lehine said, “but it was the cheapest shit I could find at the market. The shopkeeper said it would burn my mouth out!” Apparently very enthusiastic about this thought, she gave the corkscrew a final inexpert tug and succeeded in opening the bottle.

“I've been telling her we shouldn't,” Ailbhe said, in a vaguely pained tone. “We can't be getting drunk when there's work to do, right? Why don't we wait until this evening?”

“Don't be silly,” Lehine said, taking a sip directly from the bottle. Lowering it with a gasp, she went on rather hoarsely, “there's nothing going on, Leo and the others are out looking for another market. We just have to hang out here until he gets back.” She elbowed Vaska with a grin. “Tell her, Vaska.”

Vaska bit her lip. Both of them raised good points, but disagreeing with Lehine would seem cowardly, and disagreeing with Ailbhe just didn't sit well with Vaska. But, at the same time, Vaska didn't want to look churlish in front of Ailbhe.

“It should be fine,” Vaska said. “We can just stay up here.”

Ailbhe thought about it for a good few seconds, a tiny, adorable frown on her face. Then she nodded and smiled, flashing her stubby tusks. Vaska felt herself blushing and quickly turned away again.

It was nice. Just the three of them and two bottles of unspecified alcohol that may or may not have actually been floor cleaner. They sat together, Lehine complaining loudly about how the market trip had been cut short the night before, Ailbhe visibly struggling not to gag every time she raised the bottle to her lips. Vaska sat directly beside her, thigh-to-thigh.

Ailbhe's hand lay, unsuspecting, on the floor. Vaska stared at it. The conversation – both Lehine and Ailbhe were now sharing stories about their childhood in the Sunbeam Ruins – had started to pass right over Vaska's head. Someone passed the bottle to her and she took it without really paying attention, almost spilling half her mouthful of drink down her front.

“Vaska, are you okay?” Ailbhe had turned in to face her; Lehine had wandered off and was trying to climb one of the innumerable ropes running from the mast.

Vaska nodded quickly. “I'm fine. Um. How are you?”

Ailbhe smiled. Vaska literally felt her heart skip a beat.

“I'm fine! Can't complain – I got a letter from my parents a couple of days ago, it was really sweet.” Her golden eyes were so warm. Any more drinking and Vaska would probably start composing poetry about them. She hastily set down the bottle.

“That's really great,” Vaska said, stumbling over her words a little. “I remember them from my training, your mother is so sweet. Your father, is, uh...”

Ailbhe laughed. “I know, I know, but you get used to it.” She sighed wistfully and reached for Vaska's hand all on her own. Abruptly, Vaska didn't know whether she was supposed to be happy or horrified, surely her hand was all awful and sweaty, why would Ailbhe ever want to hold it-

“I heard about the healing thing,” Ailbhe said, apparently blissfully unaware of the minor mental breakdown Vaska was going through. “That you can't get a proper tutor. That sucks!”

This was a good distraction. Vaska nodded. “I really wanted to be a healer, too, I thought it was, like... my whole future... but no one wants to teach me.” She squeezed Ailbhe's hand for support. “What's wrong with me? Luke was fine with it before but now I think I've done something wrong and I don't know what... maybe I should apologise...”

“Well, I don't know about that,” Ailbhe said. “I don't think you did anything wrong? Everyone is really busy and maybe the healers don't have time to take on an apprentice. It's probably not your fault.”

Vaska nodded, reassured. “Yeah... yeah, maybe I should just try in a couple of months, or when Fiach isn't so busy with Tadhg.”

“That's a good idea,” Ailbhe said encouragingly. She glanced away briefly, almost bashfully. “To tell you the truth, I really like hanging out with you and, um, it would suck if you had to have healing lessons all the time... but that's kind of selfish, I guess.” She shrugged limply. “Sorry.”

Do something, Vaska's inebriated mind screamed at her. Kiss her! But what if Vaska was reading the signals wrong, what if Ailbhe really did just think they should be friends, what if-

Oh, shit, she was still waiting for a response. “Uh,” Vaska stammered out, “don't be sorry. I feel the same way. This is... fun.”

Ailbhe was getting kind of close. Really close. Vaska couldn't move for a moment, and then it all just sort of came naturally to her, her awkwardness and anxiety scrubbed away by Ailbhe's warm presence.

They were inches apart, Vaska's eyes drifting shut in anticipation, when Lehine fell. The rope simply gave way, and with a yelp Lehine was gone.

“Oh my gods!” Ailbhe leapt to her feet, releasing Vaska, and ran to the edge of the crow's nest. Vaska followed, her heart pounding, and leant over.

Lehine had fallen once before from the top of the mainmast but that time she'd managed to catch a roll of sailcloth and break her fall. She'd had no such luck this time. Far below on the swaying deck, a small ring of dragons stood around Lehine's still form.

It was a mad rush to get down to the deck, Ailbhe hot on Vaska's heels, the rope ladders burning at their palms. Vaska reached the deck in record time, staggering slightly as she attempted to keep her balance.

“Is she okay?” she called, pushing through the dragons to reach Lehine.

Lehine was breathing, but her breaths were tight and shallow. She clutched at her calf, where – oh, gods, Vaska could hardly look. There were shards of bone tenting the skin, poking out in places, leaking golden blood. Vaska turned away, nauseated.

“Lehine!” Ailbhe threw herself down by Lehine's head. “Hey, stay awake. We'll get a healer.”

Lehine groaned something indecipherable.

“What was that?” Ailbhe said, concerned.

“Ha... ha,” Lehine said weakly. “you guys are so... fucking gay...”

“Ssh, don't speak,” Ailbhe said. She glanced up. “Someone get a healer!”

No one moved. Tadhg, the youngest in the crowd, raised his hand as if he was answering a question in class. “Um,” he said in a tiny voice, “dad and Luke are out... I think Zeta went with them.”

Vaska forced herself to look at Lehine's injury again. It was a broken leg. Just a broken leg. But the sight of it brought back horrible, blood-soaked memories of the clan camp burning around her, Faolín bleeding out... Vaska had been unable to help out then. But now she could. Before refusing to teach her any further, Luke had taught her how to mend broken bones.

How difficult could it be?

“They'll be back soon, right?” Ailbhe said.

Tadhg only shrugged.

“No, it's okay,” Vaska said, “I know this. Someone get me some paper and ink.”

“My hero,” Lehine gasped, as Tadhg ran off to plunder Fiach's supplies.

Now armed with paper and a pen, Vaska set about cutting the paper into spell tags, running through her limited knowledge in her head. There was the healing rune, the depth modifier, the time – well, she didn't know how long it would take, so she could leave that out. This was a bigger heal than the minor cuts and fractures she'd attempted in the past.

“Ailbhe, Ailbhe-” Lehine grabbed at Ailbhe's hand as Vaska started to write. “If I die here... promise me... you'll actually kiss Vaska-”

Vaska finished the first line of her spell and quickly placed the tag onto Lehine's leg. Blood began to soak into the paper.

“Shut up,” Ailbhe said, with a faint, shaky grin, “it's just a broken leg, you're not going to die.”

Lehine snorted in amusement. “On second thought, maybe... climbing the ropes was a mistake...”

The bleeding was stopping. Vaska added another script to the tag, this one focussing on drawing the fragments of bone back together into a whole. Heat radiated from the paper as the spells took effect.

Vaska was just finishing up the second tag when Lehine froze. A deep shudder ran through her body. Then she started to cough.

“Uh... that shouldn't happen,” Vaska said quietly. She glanced back at her tags, reading through the spell scripts, trying to spot the mistake. Lehine was hacking and retching now, blood running down from her lips. It looked like she was trying to cough up a lung. Ailbhe tried to hold her still but Lehine was shuddering, bringing up bloody mucous and... something else.

Tadhg, who'd hung around to watch, abruptly turned and waved. Vaska sat back, numbly reading and re-reading her spells, feeling increasingly faint. She'd done something wrong, but she didn't know what.

“Dad!” Tadhg called. “Hey, Lehine's hurt!”

Vaska turned. The exploration party had returned, just in time to catch her in the act of killing one of her best friends. Fiach was with Leo, showing off a new pen he'd just bought. Luke and Rúth were both burdened by heavy rolls of paper, chatting animatedly.

Fiach's smile fell away and he started hobbling over, but Luke got to Vaska first. Dumping the paper unceremoniously on the deck, they snatched the pen off Vaska and got to work. They didn't talk to her. They didn't even look at her.

Vaska sat aside, nausea tugging at her guts. Luke discarded her spell tags and instructed Ailbhe to tear up some of the fresh paper to make new tags. They wrote without hesitation, and within a minute Lehine's chest was plastered with glowing spell tags, her leg ignored for the time being. Slowly, she stopped coughing. Her breaths turned into a weak wheeze.

Rúth leant over the scene curiously, apparently the only person present who wasn't particularly concerned about Lehine.

Finally, Lehine's breaths evened out. She remained unconscious, but the sound of her steady breathing was enough to bring tears of relief to Vaska's eyes. Luke turned their attention to Lehine's broken leg, writing a short and very simple spell that served to make Vaska feel even more embarrassed.

“Is she going to be okay?” Ailbhe said softly.

“She'll live.” Luke rose to their feet and stretched, discarding their pen. Then – just as Vaska had been dreading – they faced her for the first time.

“Luke,” Vaska said faintly, “I-”

“Come with me.” They grabbed her by the upper arm and practically dragged her away from Lehine, towards the edge of the deck. Vaska scrambled upright and allowed herself to be led, her head low, her face on fire. Luke shoved her against the railings and released her, watching her expectantly.

“There was no other healer around,” she said quietly. “I thought she was going to bleed out. Otherwise I'd have waited, I really would...”

“Well, you're not wrong,” Luke said. “Blood loss is a major concern with compound fractures.”

Vaska frowned. “So... what did I do?”

“You didn't limit the speed,” Luke said. Amazingly, they didn't even seem angry. “It went too fast and caused some neoplasia, which metastitised... you can always tell when they start coughing like that, it's when you know it has spread to the lungs.”

“Oh.” Vaska stared out at the gentle sea, then quickly glanced back at them. “Was she... was she going to die?”

“Yes. And even now, her lung function might be impaired for the rest of her life.” Luke met her eyes. “Vaska, this is very serious magic. You know enough to be dangerous, and that's my fault, I suppose. Not that you're completely free of responsibility, because, honestly, one of the very first things I told you was that you have to place limitations on a spell. So that one's on you.”

Vaska nodded, accepting this.

“Look,” Luke said. “If you come down to my room later I'll show you what exactly you should have done back then. And then... well, I guess then I should teach you how to reverse the neoplasia... and then how to restore lung function...”

Vaska's eyes widened. “You mean-”

Luke made a bad-natured noise, then nodded. “Yeah. Fine. I'll be your... your teacher. And you'd better appreciate it, I have a busy schedule and it's not my decision to train someone how not to kill people. But I don't have a choice.”

A shaky, delighted grin appeared on Vaska's face. “Oh my gods – do I need, like, equipment or anything? How early in the morning should I visit? I can-”

“On second thought,” Luke said, cutting her off with an upraised hand, “how about I go to you when we have a lesson. Or whatever. Anyway, I'll be busy looking after your friend so I suppose you can shadow me for that.”

“Right,” Vaska said, nodding eagerly. “Thank you so much, uh, sir? No, professor – doctor?”

“It's just Luke.”

“Of course, duh – um, I'd better go and check on Ailbhe... and apologise to Lehine. Is that okay?”

Looking all too pleased to get rid of her, Luke nodded and waved her away.

#ailbhe holds vaska's fuck hands: the novel #vaska cfd #ailbhe cfd #lehine cfd #quill darach

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