Episode 56 - Tears of healing 2 ‘The Deep Night 2’

Another awkward silence followed with Aedelak constantly shifting her eyes between Louis and Ron, not knowing what to do, embarrassed to know that they have seen everything she did…

On the other hand, when she saw that the child younger than her was uncomfortably holding in his cough, she with no other choice took the initiative to break the silence. Turning around to re-tuck her sister's sheets, just like she did with Aernest, she then reluctantly walked over to Ron.

“KUKKH”

Ron coughed in embarrassment seeing Aedelak walking directly to his bed. He raised his hands up to stop her from coming closer, and to indicate that he was alright. That being said, he completely forgot about his upper body being cut up, and the physician's warnings to stay still that he ended up stretching his newly sutured chest, the pain hitting him at once.

“AH!”

Wincing from pain, Ron lowered his head, his whole face scrunching as he felt cold sweat start rushing out of his sweat glands.

Surprised, Aedelak paused by the end of Ron’s bed.

“Would you like me to call someone Lord Ron?”

Aedelak worriedly asked, seeing Ron bring his hands to hover around his chest.

He shook his head in response to her, as the pain gradually faded away.

“....Would you like some water, Lord Ron?”

Aedelak asked again, seeing him recover his breath and exhaled out.

Ron automatically shook his head but thought about it again, and hesitatingly nodded. His throat was really parched and he indeed needed some water.

Seeing him nod, with the help of the night lights Aedelak slowly walked toward a small table where a jug of fresh water and cups were. Slowly pouring two cups of water, she used a tray to carry the two cups using her uninjured hand. Aedelak then headed back to Ron, and placed the tray on his night table, handing him his cup of water.

“Tha...nks”

Ron with difficulty thanked the older girl, not daring to look up towards her. Seeing water glistening with the night light, he gulped yearning for the beautiful looking water. However, because of his earlier actions, he hesitated to use his hands to accept the water, afraid that he would rip open his sutured chest.

Seeing Ron’s eyes going from sparkly to sad, Aedelak also felt aggrieved for him. Understanding that he needed help, she brought the cup of water towards his lips, and with Ron’s quick perception, he sipped his water in a rush!

“Slowly…”

Taking away the cup from him momentarily, Aedelak unconsciously sternly warned him.

Taking a glance at Aedelak from the corner of his eyes, he nodded, and carefully sipped his water again. Once he satisfied his thirst, Ron nodded again to indicate that he was done.

“Thank you...”

Ron sincerely thanked her, watching Aedelak help him go under his covers, tucking him like she did to Aernest and Aeselak.

“No problem Lord Ron”

Leaving Ron’s half-empty cup on his night table, she picked up the tray containing the other cup of water and walked towards the patient next door. Without asking for permission to enter his vicinity she walked towards Louis' night table and put the tray down. Seeing him extend his hands, she picked up the cup of water and handed it over to him.

Aedelak quietly watched as Louis finished his cup of water, extending her hands to take back the cup.

“Would you like more water, eldest young master Louis?”

“No, it’s alright”

Louis replied, watching Aedelak leaving the empty cup beside his nightstand.

“Would you like anything else?”

Aedelak asked again in courtesy, stepping back, as she stared at his bandaged right shoulders in dimmed lighting.

“... No need, you can rest.”

Louis watched as Aedelak immediately turned around and walked back towards her bed without any other words. He listened to her bed creak and listened to the sound of her picking up her sheets that had slipped out of her bed earlier on. When her breathing started to become slower, Louis mumbled.

“Good night…”

He looked across the room and stared at the shadow of Aernest's and Aeselak's bed with the help of the light from the moon.

The two boys fell asleep minutes after Aedelak and soon five breathes slowly blended into the awkward night that turned into one deep night. The moon quietly watched them sleep, protecting them from afar until it disappeared into the bright light not returning again until the dark returns...

Slowly one by one, the children of the Great Nobles started coming home. Everyone slowly got better with the exception of Aeselak who was still in a deep sleep. The Emperor wanted to keep her on watch at the Imperial Palace to keep her under the care of the best physicians however with the pleadings of Aeselak’s mother, Sara, asking for Aeselak to return to the house of Veria, she was then transported back with the okay from the Imperial physicians and safely returned.

Aedelak and Louis healed faster than expected, and within the 2nd week, Aedelak was back to taking care of Eugene and Euria again. Slowly and carefully returning back to her daily routine, with the help of an older maid who was temporarily filling up for Aeselak’s place. At first, everyone was alarmed that Aedelak wasn’t able to move her left hands, afraid that her nerves were damaged, however with time, starting from her fingers slowly twitching, she was able to use her left hands again, bringing relief to everyone. Her collarbone also healed magnificently, lifting up heavy furniture just fine!

Louis' fractured shoulder helped up in an instant, and within a week he was back to continue with his studies and some daily training. His training instructions were, of course, fitted to not further harming his left shoulders.

Aernest woke up 5 days after the incident and brought everyone great joy and relief! However, when he woke up that day, everyone had a great laugh because of his unkempt curly hair turning into a curly mohawk, his incredibly confused face from being in a transparent box also not helping stop everyone from laughing. More than that, everyone was deeply reassured when Aernest had no signs of being in pain, in fact, he was incredibly funny, crawling around and plastering his face left and right against the transparent glass, unknowingly creating an incredibly weird face all the time.

Other than his talents in being a comedian and consoling everyone, his ruptured ears were slowly healing. Everyone is incredibly careful when it comes to sounds and noises around him especially during the next 6 months. Fortunately for Aernest, there exists an audio-noise canceler invented by the Xenperian military who uses them when firing guns, and with that, he was able to have a modern-like headphone on his ears at all time, running around everywhere without a care in the world now that he wasn’t stuck in a transparent cage! His headphones keep his hearing to an incredible bare minimum.

Unfortunately for Ron Graeme who had his ribs collapsed, he was stuck in bed for 2 whole months, his hands and feet bound together by his mother Adele Graeme who enforced a ‘Ron-can’t-move-even-a-centimeter’ law in the house of Graeme. For Ron, this was a incredible torture to his soul. He was someone who loved exploring, jumping from trees to trees and that's why being stuck to his bed was his worst nightmare. Every day without a break, he would complain to Adele who in turn would smack him senseless and that’s why he could only whine to his father who would always comfort him. And like that, he lived for 2 months, only able to take short walks with the stare of Adele still watching his every move.

As for Aeselak who still had no signs of waking up any time soon, she was forcefully moved by Levis and Moniqua who made sure she was always well taken care of, to the main house to live in a spare room downstairs. This was of course at first refused by Sara, however, with the persuasion of Moniqua, she gave up. The house doctor of the Veria family also moved in and lived at a quarter closeby, checking up on Aeselak every day. With this, Aeselak’s bruises started slowly healing, her hair that was pulled out also slowly growing back, however, because she was unable to eat solids, her body was slowly getting thinner, her baby fat no longer existing.

With Moniqua’s encouragement, Aedelak brought the twins and Aernest to Aeselak’s room every day, allowing them to freely crawl around on top of Aeselak to play with her. The reason for this was because when she first brought the twins to visit Aeselak, the twins had accidentally rolled over on top of Aeselak face, however, because of that, there was some movement coming from Aeselak, one of her finger’s twitching in reaction. The house doctor deduced from this that Aeselak was unconsciously awake and that constantly engaging with her would be a vital step to her waking up.

Because of this, Moniqua immediately urged for everyone to visit Aeselak frequently, especially the children, and that was how Aeselak’s condition improved bit by bit. And by the 2nd month, Aeselak was able to respond more by moving parts of her hands, especially when people were talking to her….