Chapter 38: Ceremony and Ball- After the Battle
As I was lying on the floor of the ballroom, I could hear that the battle was drawing to a close. Tim was making his way back over to me to finish the healing before I bled out, but surprisingly, I stayed conscious the whole time he was working on me. 'Maybe my body is just getting used to the punishment.' I thought to myself.
"You didn't have to do that, you know," Tim said to me in a slightly angry voice. I was puzzled by what he meant. "You were already hurt. You didn't need to take another hit; you could have died." I sighed, having finally understood what he was saying.
"But I didn't." I managed a weak smile at him, and his angry face fell away, leaving tears in his eyes instead.
"Yeah, you didn't. You're fine now. I have to see if there are others that I can help. If you move while I'm gone, I'm going to kill you when I get back." The Cleric wiped his face and left me in order to go tend to any of the other wounded. It wasn't long until my Master had appeared by my side.
"That's a good friend ye have." She told me. I nodded while still lying on the ground. "Ye know yer fine now, right? Ye can sit up." I shook my head this time.
"If I do, I don't think I'll recover from whatever Tim will do to me." We both laughed a little bit, and she agreed with me.
"Looks like ah'll need to start teachin ye more effective battle alchemy. Ah, have a feelin that things are about te change fer ye and yer friends." I looked around the room, taking in the sight of dead bodies and injured people. I couldn't help but feel that she was right.
"You want to start right now?" I laughed, but she looked at me very seriously.
"As soon as we get back. Ye need te prepare fer whatever is about to happen. The military will want ye sooner rather than later now." I had forgotten the reason that we were here, to begin with. It was to build relationships and receive a better position when we were drafted. It looked like we'd been successful, 'the King and Queen owe us their lives at this point, I suppose.' Master kept me company until my group of friends found me. Laura ran up to me and tossed herself on top of me to hug me.
"Todd, are you ok? You got hurt again?" She had landed on me pretty heavily, so I coughed a little bit before responding.
"I'm ok really, Tim patched me up real good, I promise!" I looked at my friends; their nice new clothes were ripped and matted with blood. I couldn't tell if it was theirs or their enemies. "What about you, guys?" Grace spoke up next.
"We're ok just a few bumps and bruises." Derek flexed his almost nonexistent muscles at me.
"You know they can't hold a candle to my lightning-fast attacks." Sarah elbowed him playfully in the stomach.
"I think you mean our attacks." She said, and Derek rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. It was nice to see that the battle hadn't dampened their spirits too much. It wasn't long until Tim was back to check up on me.
"You know you can sit up, right?" He said, leaving me stuttering about him telling me not to move. "I didn't mean that you couldn't sit up! I meant, don't run off and get yourself hurt again!"
"Well, how was I supposed to know that?" I mumbled, but we both wound up laughing it off.
"It's good to see young people in such high spirits after an attack like that!" The King had come up to our group and was now laughing. We all moved to give him a bow, but the man just waved it off. "Come on now; we're comrades in arms now, aren't we?" He gave us another chuckle. The Queen walked up shortly after checking on her children and making sure that none of them were injured.
"I know that you all planned to go home tonight, but I would like to invite you to stay and rest in the palace for the night. It wouldn't do not to offer our hospitality after your warning and your fierce protection of our family." We thanked the queen and decided to take her up on her offer. After all, how often do you get the chance to sleep in a castle? I thought that it was bizarre for the couple to be able to even think about hospitality at a moment like this, though.
"If you'll beg my pardon, your Majesties, but how can you be so calm after something like this happened?" The royal duo looked at each other and chuckled light-heartedly before responding to the question.
"Well, we've been expecting an attack, to be honest. We just didn't know when or exactly who." The Queen said.
"Although we do have our suspicions, and if they are correct, it could spell war for this country, I'm afraid." The King followed up. That was what I was afraid of. This battle was hell enough; how could we survive an all-out war with someone else? This was the end of this conversation, however, because servants had suddenly appeared as if they sprung up out of the woodwork to whisk us away and take care of us for the night.
We followed the servants until they stopped at the door. They opened the door to reveal the most lavishly decorated bedroom I'd ever seen. It had a large canopy bed with intricately carved wood, and what looked like must have been a hundred pillows. There was also a large bay window that looked out over the gardens. One of the servants entered into the room, and we all began to follow her in. The servant stopped us in our tracks when we were just a few steps into the place, though.
"Excuse me-" She began. "But this room is reserved for Miss Grace. You will all be escorted by the other members of staff in the hallway." Our group was shocked. We hadn't even thought of the fact that we might have separate rooms. We'd all been sleeping with just a cloth door between the male and female rooms for so long that we just figured we'd all sleep in this one area. Grace stayed behind with the female servant, and the rest of us took our leave.
The rest of us were put in rooms throughout the same hallway. Each room was just as impressive as the last. I was in the one farthest from Graces' room at the very end of the row of doors. A male servant stayed in the room to show me where everything was and offered to draw me a warm bath. I accepted the invitation and wondered when the last time was that I hadn't washed with a bucket of tepid water.
After the bath was ready, the steward left the room, allowing me some privacy. I crawled into the big tub of warm water and settled in. I was glad for these amenities, but unfortunately, I couldn't relax. My hand moved to the spot where just earlier that night, I had watched a blade come through my body. I remembered the pain of when Tim had to pull it out of me. It was amazing how I had been able to stay awake throughout the whole process.
I kept rubbing the spot, and the memory kept coming to me; in my mind, I was replaying that pain again and again. 'How many more times will I be able to survive something like this?' The thought depressed me. After all, we would all probably be going to war soon, and there was a likely chance that my luck would run out sooner rather than later. I sighed deeply and sank into the tub, submerging myself in water.
I stayed under, holding my breath and just trying to enjoy the warmth. I came back up for air and decided that I would think of something else. 'We still need a new roof winter will be here soon.' That thought crossed my mind, but it didn't soothe me at all. 'Master said she would teach me more battle alchemy when we get back!' Usually, this thought would excite me, but unfortunately, all it did was remind me of the reason for those new lessons, which meant that I was back at the war subject.
'What are some things that make people happy?' I tried to come up with a list—Christmas, cookies, family, music, dancing. I stopped thinking when my mind wandered to dancing. I remembered earlier tonight when I was being led around the dance floor. 'That was fun, right? Or at least it would have been if I hadn't been so worried about the attack.' I thought to myself.
Then I remembered Tim; he kept smiling through it like the attack didn't even matter to him. I wondered how he managed to do that? I was utterly freaked out. I decided that I would look back at the memory and consider it a good one.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Mischwin
Mischwin Hey guys I'm getting ready for work now but I hope you enjoy the chapter! Have a wonderful day!
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