LTSV - Lost & Found 20 (Patreon)

Cecily smiled sheepishly. “I usually walk,” she admitted. “I was worried about getting bored. I don’t sit well with nothing to do, but I want to be there as soon as they let you out. You should be under close observation for the first few hours after an inscription trial.”

“Fair enough,” Mira allowed. Not only were they facing a long ride, apparently, she would also be asked to wait while Mira was fitted with her temporary inscription. “Do you…”

“I have enough material for my hobby, Mira. Stop worrying,” Cecily chuckled. “Nanny took me with her to the textile wholesaler and we’re sharing a new pattern book. The nighties I found in the catalogs were all very high quality, but all their trim had net backing and I think it’s scratchy. So I thought I’d make my own trims and ask Ginger to sew them on for me. What do you think?”

She held up what, in another world, would pass for five inches of Guipure lace except Mira had just seen Cecily hand tatting it with her own eyes. The band she was working on looked like coiled leaves that interlocked with one another, end to end and tip to tip. 

“It’s lovely,” she said with all honesty. 

Fortunately, she already knew not to ask if Cecily had any pieces she was very proud of. She was a genius lacemaker, but Baron Rousseau confiscated all her work in the game. It wasn’t until she got invited to the Capitol’s big harvest ball in game two that she encountered someone that she didn’t know wearing one of her best laceworks; an exquisite point-de-gaze lace collar  she’d made for her mother’s fortieth birthday, that her father took away when he was angry with her one day and later told her he’d burned it. 

It turned out he hadn’t been destroying her work, he’d been using it as gifts and sometimes even bribes—leading to the heroine to lose the last clinging shreds of filial affection she had for her stepfather. 

‘Not looking forward to that mess,’ Mira thought to herself as she took out her book. At the rate matters were going, she’d be right in the middle of it. Well, perhaps she’d have Cecily’s mother kidnapped and hidden somewhere safe. Cecily and Vesper were concerned by the legalities, but Mira was more worried about getting the woman to safety before he thought to have her lobotomized or something. Or maybe she should just make time to have him die in a tragic accident. If she did that, then she’d need to arrange accidents for his rotten crotchfruits as well, which tripled the work.  

Things like this made her miss her third life, when she’d reincarnated as the oldest daughter of a family of assassins. She hadn’t been expected to practice the family trade herself, but she’d had a group of agents who reported directly to her and could dispatch them to deal with annoyances like this whenever she liked.

It was amazing what problems could be solved with a little strategic murder. Alas, that was hardly ever an option in any of Mira’s lives.

000

Eventually they did reach the Royal Hospital, so called because it existed half on the grounds of the royal compound. The hospital straddled the thick outer wall of the royal compound, which was like a small city district all to itself and housed all six of the royal residences that were located within Avenon. Hadleigh Palace was located in the center of the sprawling garden grounds of the royal complex and that was where the Prince Consort lived and where the crown’s official state affairs were held. Located behind Hadleigh Palace was Lyonhall, the official heir’s residence, and in the four corners, there were the four dowagers’ courtyards; Rosepark, Riverpark, Lindenpark, and Oakpark where the Royal Hospital was now located. 

Unlike the other dowager buildings, Oakpark had been built into and then past the golden stone wall that enclosed the royal compound. It was, in a way, a fifth gate into the Hadleigh Palace Complex. Mira hadn't been invited into any of the areas that extended into the inner perimeter of the palace grounds, of course. Even if someone had invited her, she didn’t want to go. Her luck wasn’t that good. If she went, she’d surely run into Andrei or one of the other love interests. 

Instead, she visited Doctors Padre and Desmona in a common-use evaluation room where they’d set up a table for her to lay down on.

The permanent procedure had been described to her as a tattoo, but the temporary inscription was applied with a paste not unlike henna, except it was black and left blue streaks on Doctor Desmona’s fingers so maybe there was an indigo component in the paste?

The doctors carefully shaved away sections of her hair that radiated up from her nape, then painted on a complex series of spellforms onto her spine, neck, and the shaved spots on her head. After that, Mira had to lay in place for several hours as the stain set so it really was like henna.

Funnily enough, she could feel the inscription working and it wasn’t pleasant.

“Are you feeling well?” Doctor Desmona asked while one of her nurses dabbed lemon and honey on the drying paste so that it wouldn’t crack and result in a broken line.

“Mm,” Mira made a noise rather than try to describe her exact mood right away. “I’m uncomfortable. It doesn't hurt now, but I feel as though it could start at any moment.”

“That feeling should ease by the time you’re ready for release,” Doctor Desmona promised her.  

Finally, the paste cured and the nurses came to brush it off her. It left behind pale green lines that Mira could only just barely see in the mirrors they held up for her, like veins showing through thin skin. 

“I still don’t feel at ease,” Mira told Doctor Desmona, who entered a hushed conversation with Doctor Padre and the other physicians who’d come to watch the procedure. 

“I’m releasing you to go home for now. A quiet environment will do you more good than an overnight stay in the hospital,” she told Mira afterwards. “However, I must ask your sister to stay close to you tonight. If you can share a room, that would be best. If this feeling persists into the morning, come back and we’ll reassess.”

They’d let Cecily back into the room for this part and she was currently doing most of the work involved in keeping Mira upright. 

Mira felt nauseous and groggy. She could stand, but she very much didn’t want to and her petulant feelings grew fast despite the fact that she really knew there was nothing to be done about it just yet. 

“I’ll keep a close eye on her until tomorrow morning,” Cecily promised the assembled doctors. To Mira, she said, “We can have a slumber party. Won’t that be nice?”

Cecily and Colvin supported her out of the examination room, through the long cold halls of the hospital, and back out into the punishing sun where Mira promptly got a migraine. Her helpers must have felt her flinch because Cecily asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Photosensitivity,” Mira gasped. She knew that couldn’t be good. Her odds of getting to go home today were getting worse and worse. “Bad.”

“Oh dear,” Cecily whispered. Louder, she said, “Anna? Please go back inside and find a physician’s attendant. She’s reacting badly to strong light. Hurry!”

“What can I do?” Colvin asked, voluntarily looking at Cecily for perhaps the first time since they’d been formally introduced. Usually, he treated her with respect, but also like very distinguished air. 

“Help me get her into the carriage. It’s closer than going back,” Cecily decided out loud. “She needs to be away from the sun before…”

Then the worst thing that could possibly happen did.

“Cecily?” someone called out, sounding both surprised and delighted. “Cecily!”

Mira looked without meaning to and so she was the first to spot the smiling blonde teenager trotting towards them from the direction of the Central Palace Grounds.