Giles' Keeper

It all hurts. My skin feels molten burning against the hot water. Why am I in a hot bath? It’s too warm. “Sire, are you ready for another change in water?” Ophelia’s voice sounds crystal clear as sharp as ever, so loud it makes my temples pound, thrumming against my skull. It hurts so badly, must they talk?

“Please, gather more cool liquids, I’ll coax some into her shortly,” Giles sighs behind me, his hot breath crosses my skin burning me more.

“Right away Sire,” Ophelia responds immediately, her steps echoing through the tiled floor before the door swings shut. The lights seem so bright through my eyelids, I can’t stand it wanting to cry. Instead a weak moan gurgles from my lips as I peel my heavy lids from my cheeks staring at everything.

“My sweet? Are you awake?” He whispers against my soaked head, his breath burns my skin, the scent stirs something in my chest, the feeling of him pressed against me calms the raging storm yet incites the inferno further.

“Hurts…” I moan, my throat constricting dry as if I’ve eaten cotton.

“What hurts my sweet?” Giles asks his hand moving to rub my bare stomach stirring the water irritating my skin yet making my heart flutter.

“Hot… so… hot,” I struggle to breath feeling as though I’m suffocating under the intensity of heat. How am I so hot? I feel sweat beading on my temple as he kisses my hair. Am I sweating?

“I know my sweet, you’re so strong,” he rubs his hands down my arms making me whimper. My body feels like I’ve been stretched, quartered by four horses and stitched back right while stuck in an inferno of a fire. “Does that hurt you?”

“Have I been… quartered by horse?” I croak feeling his laughter through our bound that sends spikes through my mind spearing my skull.

“No, my sweet, you haven’t been quartered, I wouldn’t let that happen,” I hear his amusement as he threads our fingers crossing my arms with his over my body. I’m not sure I believe him with how horrible I feel. There’s a knock on the door making me groan at the sound that thrums against my skull.

“So loud,” I complained to him as the door swung open Ozul stood in the doorway as Ophelia blocked him with a frown.

“No, you mustn’t enter, my lady is indecent,” she gasps, waving her arms in front of him as he stares down at her with his brow arched.

“Ophelia, bring a towel to cover her will you?” Giles cuts in his voice sounding distant to my ears like he’s carrying his words on the wind. Ophelia turns to look at Giles before frowning at Ozul who snorts rolling his eyes as he crosses his arms over his chest.

“As if I’d peek at my brother’s partner in the nude, she’s my sister,” he growls, making me wince at it.

“Stop… not so loud.” Their voices are grating on my ears as Ophelia gasps whirling to focus on me nodding as she grabs a towel rushed to cover me.

“I’m terribly sorry my lady, I didn’t-”

“My ears… they hurt,” I groaned, feeling sick from the pain overloading my head. She slaps a hand over her mouth before nodding and laying the towel out irritating my skin as it grows heavy with water, clinging to Giles’ arms.

“Ophelia, where’s her drink?” Giles questions watching her pause before flushing.

“Odessa is bringing her up a fresh pitcher, her bath water is being readied Sire,” she whispers as Giles nods and waves her out the door.

“Very well, please give me a moment with Ozul,” Giles directs her out. Ophelia pauses staring at him before turning to frown at me with worried eyes. I hurt too much to care. I close my eyes feeling the weight of the towel pressing against my sensitive skin. Ozul steps to the side as he motions for Ophelia to step out before he closes the door behind her casting privacy amongst us. What is this about?

“We’ve located their camps, destroyed what remained of them,” Ozul advises Giles, making me peel my eyes open at the statement to stare at the window at the uneven brightness battled by dark rolling thunderous clouds.

“Any signs of another attack?” Giles asks, thumbs rubbing my shoulders gently. Attack? The events leading up to the coronation are hazy at best, my memory of anything after seeing Giles is gone, vanished- not even a fleeting wisp of an idea.

“I haven’t recalled the other groups of knights. I’ve returned to send word, I plan to ride out again, going further out to explore possible siege points. We can’t risk another hit after everything,” he answers, crossing his arms over his chest, I blink at him watching his movements confused. “How has reconstruction of the wall been? Are our fields strong once more?”

Giles rests his chin on my head growling lowly, making my head ache all over. “No growling… it hurts,” I groan, listening as it stops immediately.

“The wall is still under final construction, our fields have been reinforced with the power we have remaining. Reznor and I have been holding the clouds steady to keep from the ever brightening sun, we are entering a dangerous era,” Giles admits lowly tension fills his voice, even as he struggles to keep his body relaxed.

“Has she managed to escape the worst of it?” Ozul asks, eyes meeting mine with a small frown.

“This is the most lucid she has been since the attack,” Giles admits quietly.

“Will she be ready for-” Ozul cuts himself off as Giles tightens his arms around me.

“I’ve been warned that it will be dangerous so soon,” he answers as Ozul turns to stare out the window, his large form shadowed under the tense sky.

“It will be dangerous if you wait,” he turns to stare at Giles before there’s a knock.

“Enter,” he calls through the door as his arms tighten further, unwilling to let go.

“Sire, her refreshments are here,” Ophelia states, taking the pitcher from Odessa looking around the room before her eyes meet mine worry ever present. What all happened?

“How long until a change in water?” Giles asks her, staring Ozul down who refuses to relinquish.

“It is- ready now, Sire,” she stutters over her words making my skull and spirit so very exhausted.

“I’ll remove water,” Ozul states, finally grabbing a pale to remove buckets of near boiling water, exposing the damp towel to cooler air. The cooling sensation is short lived as pain stabs through my skin making me groan, fighting the harsh change in temperment.

“It hurts,” I moan, shifting against Giles as Ozul pans out the water, tossing it from the window efficiently.

“I know my sweet, you need to breathe for me,” Giles pressed his lips to my damp head, murmuring against my temple. “Easy with the water, start by her feet,” he instructed the servants carrying the pales of water. All of them flushed as they kept their eyes averted from our forms. The water feels icy as it’s poured over us, gasping at the stark change, I close my eyes, wincing at the overwhelming sensations.

“Make it stop… please,” I whisper attempting to hide my face in his neck feeling lost and floating in a sea of hot pain.

“Relax for me my sweet,” Giles kisses my temple squeezing my hands as another bucket is poured over us, freezing me temporarily. Why go from scalding hot to freezing? I want to cry as another covers my chest making me gasp at how taut my body grows. “Prepare her a glass Ophelia.”

“Yes, Sire, right away,” she nods, hurrying to get me a glass. She stands beside the tub before Giles keeps our hands joined and grabs the hand before nodding back towards the door

“Thank you, you are excused,” he sends her out while guiding the glass to my lips. “Take a drink my sweet, it’ll help you,” he murmurs, encouraging me to drink.

“Are you willing to make the hard decision?” Ozul makes Giles turn to him.

“You need to leave,” Giles barely holds his growl as Ozul continues to stand stoically.

“The fate of the race is at risk,” Ozul argues as I swallow the cool liquid shivering against Giles more.

“What… is this about?” I swallow blinking my eyes, turning to watch as Giles sets the glass down my arm feeling like lead as he moves.

“The dragons are depending on their Queen to save the ra-”

“Out!” Giles growls his chest growing in size, heating the water to something manageable as he glares at his brother.

“What?” I feel my chest tighten as I try to turn, his hand brings my arm back to my chest holding me to him.

“She needs to know the truth Giles, hiding it from her is foolish,” he growls in return, my head splintering with a headache, my skin feels as though I’ve laid in shards of glass. As I try to raise my arms he holds steady.

“Get. Out. Now,” Giles snarls, blinding me with the sound as I groan, slamming my eyes shut, gasping out, ready to cry from the intense pain.

“Stop… please… it’s…” I struggle, gasping for breath, my teeth chatter, jarring me as the shivers turn into shakes locking my weak muscles. The heat returns in an instant twice as bad as before, the towel burns against my body where it touches, scratching my sensitive skin.

“What my sweet?” Giles asks his voice low, blowing over my temple. I stretch my fingers struggling with the pressure of him against me.

“I- it,” I groan, gasping as I feel my fingers ache with the contact. “Hurts, it’s touching- I can’t,” I shake my head pushing against his arms wanting, needing the towel off of me.

“Words my sweet- I need you to breathe, keep calm,” he tries to sooth as I struggle to focus on the assault of everything. My nostrils burn at every scent that invades my awareness; it intensifies the pouding pain in my skull. Any subtle movement of the towel, of him or even the water burns me with the sharp abrasive sensitivity.

“Too much,” I struggle, opening my eyes, the bright colors blending, to a rainbow of blurriness, nothing looks the same. Why does everything look that way? What happened? The bright light streaming through the clouds shines around where… Wasn’t someone here?

“My swe-” the comforting voice turns to a high pitched buzz blurring in my mind to the pitched sound that doesn’t end.

“I… ah… ugh… Ji-” my tongue stops working, forming any thought as I roll my head feeling a solid body and lips moving against my head as the pitched buzz returns.

Another tone shrieks in my ear jerking at the noise I struggle against. What’s on me? Why is it touching me?

“Ughh,” I swallow, gagging at the metal taste filling my mouth, the flavor twists my belly as I fail to kick my legs, fighting whatever is holding me. Why are the colors moving? What’s wrong with me?

The high pitched buzz returns in my ears, head shaking before it feels like I’m sinking in water, unable to breath against everything. Is my chest moving? Head moving? Am I moving?

The tone shrieks louder as if in my head, my face feels compressed before nodding forward and backwards as the weight is torn from my chest all of it rushing around me. Are my eyes open? Am I breathing? Nothing feels real, the dancing colors dulling to a blinding yellow as the tones sound over one another as if people are yelling. Pressure builds in my chest as heat unfurls in my core before exploding through my limbs, igniting the pain all over.

Slowly yellow turns to white my body empty of feeling as everything explodes to a sudden rush, a collapse of my entire existence.