21(Full Summary: Sixth in the Paladins Series: The war has taken a turn for the worse, the crown prince's life is in danger, and the people are suffering, afraid and hopeless of what the future will bring them. Can life and hope rise from the ashes?
Amorette has spent her entire life hidden away in the darkness, but for the first time she has been brought up into the light. The world above blinds and confuses her, but its filled with beauty and wonder and the nicest, most wonderful man she's ever met. She gives herself to him freely, but now has to fear what the uppers will do when they find out she's alive.
Cupid has used his position as a physician in training to avoid signing up to join the army, but after their enemies strike at their heart, he can no longer justify running away from the duty. The last thing he expects is to pull a paladin out of the rubble and suddenly need to take care of someone who has never seen the true light of day. She says that she's his woman, and he dare not turn her away for fear of what might happen to her if he leaves her on her own. But what will he do when he's called to the front lines and now has this helpless girl to care for?)
Out of the Darkness
Amorette tried to run. She tried to get away. Her broken and beaten body wasn't able to take more than a couple steps before the world came crashing down around her, pummeling her into the ground, and burying her under the weight of her own failure.
As she fell, as she was crushed, the last few hours replayed in her mind with horrific clarity and detail, as if to remind her of her own powerlessness.
Knees broken, shoulder broken, arm ripped through by a ruthless blade, she had been forcibly shackled to the largest, central pillar that carried the bulk of the weight of the massive Gold District plate that, for the entirety of her life, she had only known to be over her head. The metal chains combined with her own broken body meant that summoning her great strength to try to break free had been out of her capabilities.
Once, Amorette had broken the pillars herself in an attempt to get the attention of the uppers who lived their ignorant lives up there, upon the district plates, always within the sunlight, always safe and happy. Completely oblivious to the dark stirrings going on beneath their feet. Amorette had hoped that breaking the pillars would get their attention and force them to come down and investigate.
She had been only partially right. They came, but they had the turned their eyes onto her instead. They hadn't listened. And because of their own refusal to see past her actions to get their attention, the entire Gold District was falling down around their heads, hurting both the uppers that she hated and the unders, the people whom she called family and friend.
That was how she had gone from breaking the pillars to holding one up.
Amorette was strong, but she wasn't quite that strong. Even at full strength with a perfectly formed body, she didn't think she would have been capable of holding up that pillar for very long.
It was so easy to think about giving up. Just letting it fall. Once it crushed her, at least, she would be free of the agony of her tortured body being further abused both by the uncomfortable position she was in – her broken arms stretched backwards by the chains that kept her back pressed against the large pillar – and by her own attempts at remaining upright – her broken knees trying to remain strong and unmoving, digging into the dusty dirt of the subplate space that saw light for the first time in generations as the first half of the plate crumbled down.
Her own people would have evacuated, she had no reason to hurt herself further.
But she remembered the unknown young man that had been brought down here to be buried in the rubble along with her. And she thought of the people, the uppers, that lived on the plate that would be falling and dying with it as the district crashed down. Sure, they were arrogant uppers, but even Amorette didn't think they deserved to die like this.
So, fighting through the pain, she held on.
Half of the District had already collapsed, and it was laying practically at her feet. The thick dust cloud that had rushed into her lungs, choking her, had finally settled somewhat. However, that still left her coated in a thick layer of it, coughing up what she had inhaled, and struggling to keep the massive pillar held upwards despite the choking air.
What followed had been the longest couple of hours of her life.
Tears burned down her face as she summoned a strength she didn't think it possible to possess as she struggled against the impending inevitability of her own failure. Each second tempted her further to just give in, to end the pain, but she still fought on.
A woman came down, trailing a man she spoke to with suspicion. They looked at her with pity. They knew they couldn't help her.
But, at least, they could take the other man away. The one Amorette didn't know but whose groans of pain were oddly encouraging. If she could just see that one life sparred, then she would think that maybe the pain might have been worth it.
The uppers prayed to some divine being they called the Lord. They said that He watched over them all and protected them. It had always sounded like nonsense to Amorette, but she found herself praying to Him for just a little more strength, to hold on just a bit longer. She was doing this for those uppers of His after all.
The woman ran away. The man took the unconscious guy far from the base of Amorette's pillar and dragged him over top of the rubble that was all that remained of the half of the plate that had already fallen. They couldn't climb back up, it was their only route of escape.
And with the three of them gone, Amorette was alone. Struggling against the pillar. Weeping. Each breath a pained gasp through the dust that still clogged her lungs. More than once, her vision went blurry and gray and, as a brief spell of weakness came over her, the pillar slipped down just a little bit further.
When it did so, she heard the metal manacles binding her wrists snapping. The metal was finally pushed too far and, unable to bear the weight of the massive pillar and the plate segment it held, it broke apart.
Amorette's tears fell faster as she cried in hopeless despair. The loss of the manacles meant that her arms were no longer being forced backwards. She had to keep them back with her own strength. And it was an impossible task.
The moment the chains snapped marked the beginning of the end of her battle.
The arm that had been pierced by a sword was actively bleeding, the wound unable to close thanks to the stress it was under. Though it burned and bled, she was able to keep it upright, pressing backwards, maintaining her backwards grip on the pillar.
However, the shoulder that was shattered, without the manacles to keep it in position, no longer had the ability to move as she demanded it. As the chain fragments fell around the pillar, her broken arm collapsed with it, weakening her already tenuous position.
The pillar slipped again, pressing down against her spine.
Sweating, crying, Amorette gave those above a silent apology. She hoped that as many as possible had been able to evacuate the plate.
But her strength was at its end, she was going to drop the pillar.
The moment she had seen the bright, blinding explosions that had broken apart the far pillars, beginning the cascade that was bringing down all the individual segments, she knew that she wasn't going to live through this.
However, that certainty of her own doom didn't in any way lessen her desire to live, to fight for her own life.
The pillar was falling, but she thought that maybe, if she ran, she could reach the large pile of debris that was the half of the district that had already fallen. If she followed the two men that had gone that way and she got far enough, she might be able to live.
Loud grinding and groaning of stone warned her that, regardless of her wishes, the pillar was finally giving out on her.
Taking in a breath, she used her bleeding arm to push herself off of the pillar, to almost throw herself forward, in the hope that the boost could convince her pained knees to move in such a way that she could escape the falling plate.
Her broken knees allowed her only two stumbling steps. Gasping, crying, she tried to force herself forward, but she could only fall.
The ground came up to meet her, and the landing sparked agony from the different, broken parts of her body. She shivered, trying and failing to push herself further.
Loud groaning of bending metal, the snapping of the connection points, and the grinding of breaking stone echoed out over her head. She was barely able to turn, looking back as the large, central pillar slipped off of its base.
The point of it slammed into the ground, the force reverberating up along the body, snapping it just a few lengths up the shaft. The rest of it fell straight downward, bringing with it the entire central segment that it was holding up.
As it came forward, the segment fail-safes tried to snap apart, to minimize the damage. However, the cascade was too powerful, too far along. The smaller support pillars behind the central one were pulled out of place by its movement, creating more snap points, pulling along more segments. Again, and again, reaching backwards, crossing over the rest of the district.
Amorette watched, a strange calm coming over her heart as her entire body relaxed. Her spirit was filled with an odd sense of peace as the pillar fell, the plate crashing down. Darkness, dust, and debris fell over her head and her eyes closed reflexively.
The entire world was shaking as it entombed her.
Amorette couldn't say how long she was lost in the darkness, awash with pain. She couldn't move, she couldn't see. To a point, she wasn't even capable of thought. Each staggered breath brought with it sharp pain in her chest, yet coughing was too difficult to perform. Hunger twisted and curled in her belly, hollow and longing for any type of sustenance. She couldn't hear anything except the occasional, distant sound of falling rocks and grinding stone.
However, the sounds were few and far in between. With no way to pass the time, almost all of her senses blinded, she could do nothing but catalog the many pains that continued to plague her body. The pain was the only thing that convinced her that she wasn't dead.
However, she didn't think that she was far from it.
With each passing second, she felt herself slipping further away. She might have slept, but she couldn't really tell. She couldn't move due to her four broken limbs and a large weight on her chest that was keeping her trapped in place. It took a while of being lost in the pain for her to begin feeling hunger. But, almost immediately afterwards, she became aware of how desperately thirsty she was.
Her mouth became dry, adhering her tongue to the roof of her mouth. Smaller pains began aching all along her muscles, those that hadn't been actively bruised and damaged. The pain, hunger, and thirst became the only things she was aware of.
However, they were slowly fading. Gently easing in intensity. Those moments that she was rather convinced she slept, she awoke almost not in pain. Death was sweetly coaxing her down and she willingly sank into its embrace.
When she heard the movement of stone, she didn't think anything of it. The plate was settling on top of her. It barely even registered in her fading consciousness.
However, when light breached her dark space, it burned in her eyes and along her skin and a grimace of pain crossed her features. She tried to turn her neck away from the light, to seek the sweet relief of the darkness, but her body refused to move.
Another sound boomed out over her, coming from the light. She couldn't imagine what it could be. It wasn't the sharp grinding of stone though. It was warped, warbling, echoing strangely. It was nothing that she was capable of recognizing.
However, a few moments after she first heard it, something grabbed her body.
The shock of the sudden, strange stimulus caused the pain that had finally faded into a dull, distant throbbing to come blazing back into life. The return of it made Amorette moan pitifully. She couldn't hear herself over the echoing booms crashing against her ears.
She didn't know what was happening, but she knew that it hurt. More sounds joined the first and the pain worsened around her shoulders as something began tugging at her. She wanted to scream for it to stop, to leave her alone, to let her die.
Her voice failed her. Her body refused to move.
The pressure, the tugging continued and the sounds only got louder.
Then, something wonderfully cool hit her lips. She couldn't recognize it on a mental level, but as drops trickled past her dry and cracked lips, her body recognized water.
Her mouth opened automatically, allowing the sweet liquid to fall through. Cool and refreshing, it spread out over her dry tongue and nearly choked her as she struggled to drink it. It overwhelmed her, too fast to swallow, and nearly flooded into her lungs. Coughing up the precious liquid was as painful as the pain in her chest that the motion elicited.
While she was attempting to drink, the tugging had stopped. But the burning pain had already returned and refused to dull a second time. The taste of water on her dry tongue only brought her consciousness further from the brink. She didn't want this. She just wanted to die, to return to the sweet embrace of the darkness.
However, she wasn't capable of voicing her preferences and, before she could actually drink any, the water was pulled from her lips and the pain worsened again as she was yanked out of her death bed.
The pressure in her chest eased, but it still hurt to draw breath. The light only became brighter, burning her skin and eyes alike. A soft whimper escaped her lips, but the pained cry only encouraged the booming sounds around her to move faster, hurting her more.
Her stomach sank, then suddenly she was floating. Ascending into the burning light. If this was what death was, she would rather remain in the painful darkness.
The tugging, the booming seemed to continue for an eternity. Occasionally, the jarring movements would cease for a moment, but the reprieves were short lived. At some point, someone offered her water again, which she once more attempted to greedily drink, but was again forced to stop when she only succeeded in choking.
Then, just as before, it was taken from her. She cursed the clumsiness of her own throat, wanting to reach out for the water to return, but her arms refused to heed her calls.
Her stomach sank again, and the feeling of floating worsened for a moment. Amorette didn't pay it much mind because, at least while floating, the tugging and pressure wasn't pulling at her body and the pain could lessen again.
However, after being disturbed, the pain wasn't calming down in intensity like it had before in the cool, cramped darkness.
She missed the darkness. Its familiar comfort was her home. All of this light was burning and blinding and scoured like razors upon her already open wounds.
More water was pressed on her and Amorette tried not to choke this time, not wanting it to be snatched away from her. However, she didn't need to be so careful as, this time, the water trickled slowly into her mouth. Drop by careful drop, as if to be sure she wouldn't choke.
The sensation of floating came to a strange, sickening halt and the water was taken away only to be replaced with that horrid tugging and pulling.
After a moment, however, she was gently laid down onto something. It wasn't dark and cool here, but at least she wasn't being pulled about, and that was already an improvement.
As she was wondering how long the light would continue to burn her to ash, a shadow finally fell over her eyes. The merciful darkness finally allowed her eyes to barely crack open. The lids felt like they had been stuck together and weighed a great deal. Even that small motion took more effort than she had to spare.
However, in that bare glimpse, she caught sight of the shadow.
The concerned face of a rather handsome man, his green eyes flashing in the light as he stared down at her, brow pinched in worry. The light at his back set his hair aglow. He was probably the most beautiful person she had ever seen.
Something moved at the corner of her vision and she distantly realized that he was offering something up to her a moment before the careful drops of water returned to her mouth.
She struggled to focus on his face as her tongue lapped up the trickle.
He opened his lips and sound escaped from his throat, but the words were the warped, echoing booming cacophony that had pulled her from her descent into death. Her tired and fading mind couldn't do more than recognize that he was speaking, his voice only indecipherable mush. Another echoing voice answered his, turning his gaze from her briefly.
After only a moment, however, he looked back. He gave her a smile and said something else. The sound of it was strangely soothing in comparison to the loud crashes from before.
That feeling of floating returned and the cool shadow the man had cast over her was removed and she had to close her eyes back against the sunlight. She tried to listen to the booms all around her, to pick out that soothing voice, but they were all blending and melding together making it impossible to discern one from the other.
The compounding sounds were grating on her ears, blasting through her head and hurting her more despite the fact that no one was tugging on her any longer.
More water was offered to her and she drank it but didn't attempt to open her eyes again. She simply allowed the painful sounds and sickening floating sensation to carry her away back into the relieving blackness of unconsciousness.
Cupid ran alongside the stretcher that bore the newest survivor, frowning at the extent of damage that covered her body. Considering how far down they had needed to dig to find her, he wasn't really wasn't surprised that she was so badly broken.
What really concerned him was how pale, gaunt, and dry she appeared.
To be perfectly honest, they hadn't been looking for anyone in the rubble of the collapsed Gold District any longer. All the bodies they had been discovering in the last few days had been long dead and it had been determined that no one could possibly have survived the six days that had passed since the plate fell and still be alive.
When the crew going through the rubble had announced they found someone, Cupid had been disbelieving. However, when they brought her up the makeshift lift that had been built off of the side of the Pleasure District, right into the waiting arms of the physicians waiting at their equally makeshift clinic, she had definitely been alive.
Her eyes had opened, but Cupid didn't think she could have possibly seen anything. They were glossy and unfocused. Her lips and tongue were dry and cracked while her entire body was pale and her shoulder clearly deformed. A long gash, not currently bleeding but still relatively new, was cut through the other and the pained, raspy way she was breathing convinced him that there must be some damage to her chest as well, though he couldn't be certain.
Workers bore her on a stretcher, taking her through the familiar path of the Pleasure District that would bring them to the lift connecting it to the Magnesium District, just one plate below. While the Pleasure District was normally a place for fun, entertainment, and relaxation, the paths that they had been taken over to clean up what remained of Gold had become deserted and desolate. Occasionally, someone would appear to offer food or water to the workers and volunteers, but mostly the denizens of the Pleasure District had retreated deeper into their segment of the city.
Not that Cupid could really blame them. If he weren't an apprentice physician, working to take care of first the survivors and now the workers, he wouldn't want to involve himself in this either. The sheer magnitude of the death and destruction was enough to turn the stomach of the unprepared and the unaccustomed.
Magnesium was a larger district than Pleasure and it hosted the majority of the trade schools, universities, clinics, and hospitals that serviced the massive mountain city of Gwenael. It had been Cupid's home since he had come here about two years ago now. He had enrolled into the medical college then had been apprenticed to the most respected physician in the city.
While it had always been Cupid's dream to become a physician, he hadn't ever really dreamed of what his life had become. He hadn't anticipated the war that had ravaged their borders and had struck them here, right in the heart of their capital.
Yet, here he was, running alongside the improvised stretcher that carried the unconscious but certainly fortunate survivor of the Gold District collapse. Unless another miracle happened, she might very well be the last one.
Under his direction, the strong laborers took the girl to the clinic that he worked at, Master Hue's clinic, and directly to the large lift built and designed specifically to hold patients within their beds, meaning it was longer and wider, but slower to ride upwards.
Master Hue's clinic was a three story, impressive building boasting its own apothecary and gardens to better allow it to serve the patients that came here to seek treatment. Over the last week, that number had grown quite large as the survivors unearthed from the rubble were all being brought here to be treated.
Those that could heal on their own were being given beds and attention from Master Hue's other apprentices. Cupid was one of the few that had volunteered to leave the comfort of the clinic to perform emergency field medicine by the downed plate.
However, the survivors that looked as though they might not survive, who needed an extra hand to give them their best chance at survival, were first being taken to the private third floor. The level which held Master Hue's office and, most importantly, the private clinic that tended to the paladins – the powerful, Lord blessed woman that protected and served their country.
There were three beds in the wide room, but only one of them was currently occupied. A woman with short cut blonde hair reclined backwards onto a nest of pillows, her face screwed up in discomfort as sweat trickled down her temple.
Her wrist was at an odd angle, a large gash was healing through her thigh, and a fever had gripped her as she fought off an infection. A man that had been one of the first pulled from the rubble had been determined to not need her help initially, until his wound had become angry red and his life had been put in danger by the fever that wracked his weakened body.
After that, there was no choice but to bring him to Lady Paladin Elaine. The Bloody Healer. Her Lord given power was the ability to take on the wounds of others and heal them with her own body. She could perfectly heal in days what others took weeks, months to recover from. A fever was uncomfortable to her, but it wasn't deadly.
Over the last week, Lady Elaine had been hurt again and again, taking on the wounds of those that had no hope without her – both survivors and unlucky rescue workers alike. Because of her, the other paladins were all able to work without needing to heal their own wounds.
It was unfortunate that the only way for her to heal was to be hurt herself, but it was a burden that she assured them she was willing to bear.
Her fiancé, however, was less magnanimous. Lord Odilon Yvain, who never strayed far from her bed, didn't like that she was constantly harming herself for others. Even now, when Cupid walked inside, he glared at him askance, already knowing full well what he was going to ask Elaine to do.
"My lady." Cupid bowed to her respectfully, regrettably. He felt guilty to ask, but he would feel worse if he allowed someone to die that could be saved. "We've found another survivor, but she's in a bad way. She needs your aid."
"A new survivor?" Elaine asked, surprised before gesturing him forward with her good arm.
Cupid stood back, allowing the laborers to bring the stretcher close to her bed.
Elaine barely glanced at the girl as she reached out for her. She was more concerned with the extent of the damage to her body and didn't focus on her face. Lord Odilon tightened his jaw and Cupid saw the desire to stop her in his eyes, but he said nothing as Elaine's hand touched the girl's wrist.
The change was instantaneous.
With a loud snap, Elaine's bones in her shoulder, both knees, and along her ribs all fractured at once and she gasped in pain. Blood welled up from on the deep wound along her arm and immediately began staining her plain dress and the bed below.
Odilon was already there, pressing bandages against the wound. However, he didn't attempt to wrap her newly broken limbs. There would be no point as they would be healed in two days at most and, Elaine had assured them multiple times, the tight bandages actually made it harder to heal.
"Thank you, my lady." Cupid bowed to her, some of the tightness in his chest easing as he saw the new girl's breathing relax and even.
She was by no means out of danger. After how long she had been buried, she was going to need constant care. Lady Elaine couldn't take away the effects of dehydration or starvation.
"Take her to the second floor, there should be a free bed there," Cupid ordered the men before walking briskly across the room to where medicines were kept for the use of the paladins. The dried herbs and leaves used for pain relief were already out, ready to be gathered.
The other apprentices would know what to do with the girl. For now, he needed to get Lady Elaine something to help take the edge off the pain.
Since he was mixing her medicine, he decided to add something for fever relief as well. Taking new wounds didn't mean the old ones had disappeared. They were just compounded now. No one worried for Lady Elaine's life, but that didn't mean she had to suffer unnecessarily.
After mixing the medicines, Cupid put them into a teabag before calling one of the clinic servants to bring him some hot water.
The faucet in the room only made cold water these days.
As Cupid was waiting for the hot water, he moved around Elaine, propping up her broken arm to ease the pain a bit and bringing her a clean blanket to replace the blood stained one. Then, he wrapped some loose dressing around the arm, just to keep her from bleeding further.
By then, a servant had brought him the requested water and he began to steep the medicinal tea, bringing it to Elaine's table where Odilon could serve her. The young lord was busy, but never so much that he couldn't put things away to care for his fiancée.
Cupid didn't take it personally when he glared at him. He could only imagine how much it must hurt to see the woman you love hurt like this.
After being assured that she didn't need anything else, Cupid left Lady Elaine's side to visit the second floor to see if any of his fellow apprentices needed help with anything.
As he started walking downstairs – deliberately not using the lift – he stifled a yawn.
It had been an extraordinarily long week and he hadn't been sleeping very often or very well through most of it. It didn't look like that would be changing anytime soon, either. Even without any more survivors being pulled out of the rubble, there was no end to the amount of work that had been piled on everyone's collective shoulders.
Cupid could still remember feeling the massive rumbling and shaking that had accompanied the falling of Gold. It had been late but he had been partying with his friends in the Pleasure District, celebrating what should have been an auspicious, historic day. Not only was the princess now officially an adult and celebrating her coming-of-age ceremony, but they were simultaneously signing a treaty that should have ended the war with their northern neighbor, Gascony.
Should have.
The treaty signing was just a trick to sneak in Gascony soldiers that had strapped dynamite to the support pillars beneath Gold. Though the plates could safely lose a couple pillars and remain undamaged, the sheer number of destroyed pillars had created a fatal cascade that took down each segment and pillar after it.
Now, there was no peace. They had lost a great deal of ground in the war – rumors abounded of just how far Gascony had managed to push them back - and Gwenael, their capital city, was now facing a massive power outage. The geothermal energy plant beneath Gold had been the target of the attack and, without it, Gwenael was crippled.
The clinic's windows were wide open, allowing in natural light and, at night, they lit old fashioned lanterns. What little power they did have was being focused on the lift to bring immobile patients upwards. They boiled their water over fire now, unable to get it hot from the pipes, and every effort was being made to conserve what little energy they had.
Without the Gold District energy plant, the largest energy creator in the city was the palace. Though, it was not large enough to supplement the entire city. What it could spare was diverted to Magnesium for the sick and injured, but even Magnesium was doing its best to avoid wasting and using what they didn't absolutely need.
Cupid didn't realize just how dark it got at night without artificial lights to alleviate the shadows.
A hole had been ripped out of the center of the city leaving them without energy, with numerous dead, a great many more missing and assumed dead. There was a good chance, Cupid knew, that not every body would be recovered from the rubble of Gold.
Just two days ago, there had been a nationwide day of mourning, honoring the missing, presumed dead Master of the Sacellum. He had been lost when Gold had collapsed. Though his body hadn't been found, a paladin had seen him fall and, after so much time, there was no way that the elderly man had been strong enough to survive. There was a chance that the young woman they saved now wouldn't make it either, even after having her wound burden removed. The odds that an old man survived being buried was impossible.
They couldn't really hold a proper funeral for him as there was no body to burn, but the ceremony had commenced regardless. Afterwards, the new Sacellum Master had been announced and that had marked the moment that they stopped looking for survivors.
Everyone in Gwenael knew that there was an ongoing war. The shadow of it had been hanging over them for the last two years, threatening to fall for even longer than that. Almost everyone still in the city had surrendered a family member to fight, and a great many had lost that same member.
Cupid himself wasn't a native to this city. He was technically a refugee from Antonin Pass, the first city to fall to Gascony at the very beginning of the war. He knew quite well how real the war was and how it felt to have it fall over your city.
However, the people of Gwenael had not. This was the first time that the war had struck so close to them and, worse than that, nearly everyone killed in the plate collapse was completely innocent. Far too many of them were children. The Gold District had been home to wealthiest and most noble citizens and the majority of them had been at the palace that night in the Royal Complex to celebrate the princess' coming-of-age and the treaty signing. However, those too young to go and servants that didn't need to attend had all remained behind.
It was well known that the death toll could have been much higher, but that was a cold comfort when they were pulling children's broken bodies from the rubble.
War had struck a hard blow to the capital city itself, a place far from the front lines, and a place that it had always been assumed would be fully safe from harm. Even when the war got bad, the people here didn't really imagine it could come to them.
And now it had and no one was prepared for it. Feelings of fear, apprehension, and anxiety were thick in the air wherever he went. The lack of energy meant that production had come to a near complete halt and shortages had begun. Not in food or water as those were imported or unaffected, but in things like supplies and tools. Without energy, few of the people in Steel could keep manufacturing. Commerce had come to a halt.
The unsettled air just made Cupid more certain of his decision.
After going downstairs and making sure that the new survivor had settled in – she was still unconscious – he left the clinic altogether. He still needed to return to the outdoor clinic to help tend to the workers that were cleaning up Gold. Though the rescue efforts were no longer continuing, they were still hoping to find a few bodies to return to their families.
That, and the rubble still needed to be cleared. The city had to rebuild. They had to restore power. And the only way to do that was to get the energy plant back up and running. All efforts were being made to clear that area.
However, before Cupid returned to the outdoor clinic, he had something else he needed to do first. He hadn't been sure before if he wanted to do it, but the choice had continued nagging him, disturbing what little rest he was still able to get.
He had already talked about it with Master Hue as well. The older man had frowned in understanding, telling him he would approve of whatever Cupid chose with a heavy heart.
"You are sure about this?" He had asked, searching Cupid's face carefully.
When Cupid had assured him that he wasn't, that he was still trying to decide, Master Hue had given him the barest hint of a smile.
"Take your time, then. Whatever you choose to do, you'll have my blessing. And, if you do decide to do it, I'll speak to the medical college for you."
With that worry out of his way, Cupid had been free to simply weigh his options. It wasn't really something that he wanted to do, but it was something he felt obliged to do. It wasn't so much tempting him as it was calling him. He had always felt a bit guilty about not doing it before, but, after seeing Gold fall, he felt downright selfish.
Before returning to the Pleasure District, he made a detour and instead went to the docks and got into one of the small aircabs. They had their own small steam engines, meaning they were still capable of running.
He then flew across the city, coming to rest on the far, lower district of Copper. It was right below Steel and had been the most affected by the energy crisis. Copper was the shopping district and, without commerce, the streets were disturbingly empty, far too many shops closed due to having nothing to offer any longer.
The half of Copper that traded in foodstuffs remained strong, however the area that Cupid landed within was not so lucky. Most of the shops here – tanners, cobblers, etc – had been closed since they could make only a small amount, if any, product.
However, Cupid wasn't after any of them. He paid the aircab pilot and walked into the city, following the signposts that were directing him towards the small building that had been taken over and converted by the army.
The recruitment station.
There always seemed to be a line here these days. Most people that could have had already signed up for service. However, each day, a new batch of boys and girls came of age and were eligible to enlist to fight and protect. Seeing their city destroyed had only encouraged them, and those that had abstained before, to come and sign up.
Including Cupid.
Though he had been reluctant and hesitant over the last week, he felt strangely calm and certain as he stood in line, waiting for his chance to enlist. As though he needed further convincing that he was doing the right thing.
He wasn't giving up his dream, he was just adjusting it slightly.
It took some time for him to make it to the front of the line. The older soldier there – now incapable of fighting due to having lost one of his arms in battle – was seated at a desk just outside of the building, making use of the natural light to write down everyone's information. He had a hard look in his eyes, but he didn't appear haggard or tired.
If anything, he looked fired up. Angry. As though the attack on Gwenael had been a personal affront to him and signing up recruits was his only means of revenge and he was going to take to that task as though his life depended on it.
When Cupid finally stepped up to him, he didn't even look up as he changed papers, setting the last recruit's application on a pile with the others.
"Name?" He asked, holding his well-used and thin quill over the paper.
"Alaire Cupidon," he responded, surprised by how strong his voice sounded to his own ears.
"Are you of age?"
"Yes, sir. Twenty-three this year."
"Address?"
Cupid gave him the location of his modest home in Bronze.
The soldier nodded, noting it down. "Any weapons experience?"
"No." Cupid hesitated only a moment before saying. "But I'm a physician."
The old soldier paused; his quill held up over the paper before turning his eyes up to him. He finally looked Cupid up and down before nodding once, noting his profession on the paper.
"Good. We need more medics."
He didn't ask Cupid any more questions, but he could see just from comparing the two applications that his own didn't really resemble the man's before him. He had a specialty skill, and a necessary one, so he would be given that task he knew.
Nodding once in satisfaction, the soldier set his quill down so he could offer Cupid his only hand. As they shook, he gave him a hard smirk.
"Thank you for your service. You'll get your first orders at home when we figure out where you're needed. Wait for your letter."
"Yes, sir." Cupid nodded.
As he walked away, a weight came off of his chest. He should have known that agonizing over the decision for so long only meant that he should have just done it right from the beginning instead of wasting a week losing sleep over it.
Cupid had never been a warrior. When he had been in Antonin Pass, he hadn't had the opportunity to apprentice himself to the town's only physician, as the older man already had an apprentice. So, instead, Cupid had practiced upon the many goats that they herded there. It wasn't quite the same as healing humans, but it had been better than nothing and he had been good at it.
Coming to Gwenael and enrolling in the medical college here had been a dream for him. One he was happy to have achieved. He had justified not joining the army by telling himself that people still needed a physician at home and that he was still helping people.
When Gwenael had been peaceful, it had been an easy thing to believe.
However, seeing war come to this place, watching it be hurt as Antonin Pass had been conquered, just enlightened him to his own cowardice, his own selfishness.
He was an able-bodied young man with a special skill that could be used on people that truly did need his help. Running from the front lines and convincing himself that it was the right thing was just a lie that he had used to justify keeping himself safe.
It had been foolish before; it was downright idiocy now.
So, despite agonizing over it for so long, Cupid's steps actually felt lighter as he walked away from the recruitment station to find an aircab to take him back to the Pleasure District.
Master Hue was working at the outdoor clinic – leaving his own clinic to be run by his army of apprentices and servants. Master Hue was too old for the army, but he hadn't hesitated to volunteer to help those working around Gold.
As though Cupid needed reminding that he was being a coward to refuse to sign up when he knew his master would have done so, were he capable of it.
The clinic was still busy when he returned, and he felt a bit guilty for leaving them alone for so long to go to the recruitment station. However, if he had waited until they finished their work for the day, the station would have been closed already. He normally didn't leave the clinic until the laborers finished their work down below.
Master Hue, despite his age, was working vigorously around the clinic, running around like a much younger man. When Cupid arrived, he could see why. One of the workers had slipped walking across the debris and, on his way down, had sliced open the entirety of his left thigh and more than half of his lower leg. The gaping wound was open and actively bleeding. The man was already pale, shivering as though he were cold.
Cupid immediately ran forward, grabbing bandages to apply pressure in an attempt to stop the pulsatile bleeding. Master Hue didn't even question where he had been or why he was suddenly showing back up. They were more focused on the man.
It took them over an hour to stop the bleeding and sew his skin back together. He had to be carried away to a proper clinic in Magnesium after they were done. He was still pale, but he wasn't bleeding out any longer, meaning he was probably safe.
"Did you do it?" Master Hue asked simply once the man had left as he washed away the blood that coated his hands and arms.
Cupid didn't hesitate as he tossed the soiled bandages and gauze into a bag so that it could be cleaned or destroyed as necessary. He didn't need to ask what Master Hue meant.
He nodded once, standing up tall. "I did it."
Master Hue flicked the water off of his hands before grabbing a towel and drying away the remaining droplets. He walked to Cupid's side, giving him a small smile.
"I'll miss having you as an apprentice, but I'm proud of you. I'll go to the college tomorrow and tell them why you're leaving."
"If I return, will you take me as your apprentice again?"
"When you return," Hue corrected, grabbing his shoulder. "And I doubt I'll need to accept you at all. You'll be a full-fledged physician when I see you again."
"The military isn't a recognized apprenticeship."
"Bah." Hue waved away the words with a grin. "I'll convince the college otherwise. And if they're still being stodgy about it, I'll hire you myself."
Cupid smiled. It hadn't really been a worry of his, but it was still nice to hear. "Thank you, master. I won't let you down."
"I know you won't." Hue nodded to him.
The moment was interrupted as another worker came in, this one complaining of a finger being bent out of place after a stone fell against his hand.
Time possessed no meaning.
Amorette would occasionally float in and out of consciousness at random intervals that she couldn't predict, remaining awake barely longer than a few moments, then would lose herself to the darkness once again.
One of the times she rose from the depths, she was shocked to find that she wasn't in pain. Cramps and general aches continued to gently throb all over her body, but it was evenly distributed and the agony that had been plaguing her for as long as she could remember was gone.
The surprise was brief, however, before she slipped unconscious again.
When she next awoke, it was to find someone allowing a liquid to drip into her mouth. Anticipating more water, she eagerly began lapping it up.
Only to be surprised by a taste that crossed somewhere between bitter and sour. It was vile on her tongue and, despite her overwhelming thirst, she yearned to spit it back up. The action took a strength that she didn't have, however, and she was forced to allow the offending liquid to continue sliding down her parched throat.
Almost immediately afterwards, she fell unconscious again.
That pattern repeated three or four times – she couldn't be sure; it was hard to keep track – before she finally felt her consciousness truly returning to herself.
The climb upwards from the soothing darkness was sluggish and slow. However, her mind was finally able to capture and recognize her surroundings with some reliability. It was slow coming on, but she came to the dim realization that there was a roof over her head.
However, despite staring at it for a long minute, it was not a roof that she recognized.
A strange scent was in the air. It tickled her nose rather pleasantly. Though she didn't know what it was, she took in deep, slow breaths to fill her lungs with it.
As she was drinking in the light and pleasant scent, she came to the second realization that there were sounds all around her head. Movements and gentle whispers. They weren't familiar either, but she was too tired to bring herself to be concerned about that.
However, after a few minutes of allowing the return of her senses to delight and tease her, gentle curiosity made her wonder where she was. Why it was so clean. Why it was so bright.
Turning her head was surprisingly difficult and, after starting the motion, she simply let her neck drop and glance into the room she found herself in.
While still not concerned, she found herself confused.
There were more people in here with her. All laid out in cots not dissimilar to her own. They looked to be injured and healing, her immediate neighbor was sleeping with his leg in a cast, elevated up away from him in a sling attached to the ceiling. Distantly, she recognized that she must be in a place where the sick and injured were kept.
But she was confused about why it was so clean.
The walls were smooth and strangely colorful, a pale kind of dusty gold trimmed with bright blues and yellows in a delicate and intricate pattern near the ceiling. There was a small wooden table next to her bed and it was oddly shiny without a single scratch or crack in its surface. Her neighbor's sleeping space – and she imagined her own as well – had a crisp white sheet over the soft and thick pallet. It didn't even look anything like a pallet, it was too thick for that.
A bed, she realized dimly. Her father had told her once that the uppers slept on thick pallets called beds that they covered in fabric and cradled their bodies like clouds.
If that was a bed, then did that mean she was... up top?
As that baffling thought was crossing her disbelieving mind, a shadow moved over the side of her bed, bringing with it a small light. A candle banishing the comfortable dimness.
"Ah. You're awake."
The gentle voice, whispered and soft, turned her eyes away from the strange room and to the young man that was pulling up a stool to sit beside her bed.
She didn't need a moment to recognize his face. She knew it instantly. This was the man that had come to her in the darkness, lost to the pain, and had offered her water. Somehow, in the blurry and unstable memories, his face remained a bright beacon.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, setting his candle on her bedside table. In his hands was a shallow bowl filled with a slightly viscous liquid.
Amorette's brows furrowed at the sight of it. That awful taste from before was still in the forefront of her mind and she didn't want to have more of it forced on her.
As though he had read her mind, the man chuckled, lifting the spoon and stirring the contents.
"Don't worry. It's not more medicine. This one is soup." He promised before setting it onto the table next to the candle. "We need to start getting your strength back up."
Soup. Meaning food. Just the thought of it was enough to make her stomach tighten painfully, reminding her that it had been some time since she had eaten.
"Here. I'll help you sit up, then I'll feed you. Just relax. Let me do all the work. You're still weak and we don't want to waste what little energy you've regained, all right?"
Amorette didn't respond, but he seemed to take her silence as understanding. With a smile, he stood and reached down. Before she realized what he was doing, he had grabbed hold of her and was lifting her torso up off the bed, balancing her against his chest.
Her heart immediately skipped a beat as he held her close, securing her with an arm wrapped around her body, keeping her steady, as his other arm reached behind her head. She couldn't see what he was doing, but she honestly didn't care that much.
The scent coming off of his skin was strange, but not unpleasant. Something vital and vibrant mixed in with the pleasant scent she had been enjoying just a moment ago. It was concentrated now, coming solely from him.
After just a moment, he finished whatever he had been doing and gently leaned her back down. This time, she didn't lie all the way flat, instead finding herself propped up into a partially reclined sitting position, a firm but comfortable cushion wedge keeping her upright.
"There." The man sat down again. "You feel all right? Ready to try eating a bit?"
Amorette gave him a single nod. She had so many questions, but all of them were driven from her mind when she thought of food.
Her response made him smile and the sight was enough to send her heart racing again. He didn't seem to notice as he lifted up the bowl and moved closer.
His hands were steady and slow as he lifted a spoonful and brought it to her lips, holding it over the bowl to avoid dripping any on her.
Amorette's mouth opened, eager to accept any bite offered. However, it was only liquid that poured past her lips. Probably the most delicious thing she had ever tasted and easy to let slide down her throat, hitting her empty stomach with a strangely hard impact.
"Once you're taking the soup well, we can start giving you more firm foods." The young man told her, filling the spoon again. "You've been without food for a week. If we tried to feed you now, you wouldn't be able to hold it down. So, just soup for the moment. I promise, I'll get you a treat once you're able to eat though. Doesn't that sound nice? Think of it as incentive to get stronger faster."
A treat? What kind of treat?
Amorette couldn't ask, however, as he brought her another spoonful and she was too hungry to deny taking it.
He fell silent as he continued offering her the food that she took gratefully, watching him carefully as he continued to feed her. The world around her was entirely new, but she found herself fascinated by this one man.
His clothes were clean and they fit his body well. It was a far cry of a difference from the unfitting, dirty, and threadbare clothing she was used to seeing on people. His skin was equally clean and free of blemishes.
He didn't even look real. The sleeves that were rolled up to reveal his forearms to keep from getting in his way was so artistically beautiful that it was breathtaking. His shirt was just tight enough to outline the clean, healthy lines of his body.
Her stare caught his attention and he smiled, holding up the last spoonful.
"Sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Cupid. It's nice to meet you."
Amorette swallowed the last bite, trying not to think of how strangely full that small amount of soup had made her. Despite being full, she felt the powerful desire to continue eating. She licked her lips as he poured her a cup of water from a jug on her bedside table.
After helping her drink half of it, he set it down within reach so she could get more if she wished.
"Do you have a name?" He asked, still smiling.
In the time since he had begun feeding her, full darkness had fallen outside. The sun must have set, Amorette realized. The only light available to them was that of his candle and one, larger lantern placed in the center of the room.
The other patients were either sleeping or whispering quietly to each other. Only one person was sitting up like Cupid. He was stationed beside the lantern, staring at something in his lap that Amorette didn't recognize and only occasionally lifting his head to check the room's occupants.
She was so busy taking in her surroundings that she forgot to reply to Cupid's question. Her silence finally banished his smile and he leaned forward, looking at her carefully.
"Do you... remember your name?"
Her gaze focused back on him and she gave him a single nod.
"Can you talk?"
She hadn't tried in a while. Her tongue darted out again and she licked her lips as she took in a breath to give it a try.
"My name... is Amorette Tilde." Her voice was dry and rough from disuse and the attempt made her cough slightly.
However, Cupid smiled, sitting back. "Amorette. I'm glad to see you doing better."
"Where, er... What am I doing here?" She asked hesitantly, still trying to figure out what was going on around her. Why she was above the plate? In all her life, she had never been above the plates. It was strange and discomforting.
"How much do you remember?" He returned carefully.
Amorette frowned, thinking back. She remembered a lot. Too much. Holding up the pillar. Trying and failing to run. Then being crushed. And the pain. More than anything, she remembered the pain.
She turned her eyes down to her hands, lifting her palms. It was difficult, due to her fatigue, but it wasn't impossible as it had been before. Had long had she been unconscious that she was already completely healed?
"It's all right," Cupid said, reaching out and holding one of her lifted hands with a gentle smile of understanding. "If it hurts to think about it, don't try to force it. You'll remember with time, I'm sure. You were found buried under the Gold District. You were trapped there for six days."
"Six days?" How was that possible? Even if her shoulder hadn't actually been broken, there was no way the gouge through her arm had healed in six days. "What... Why am I like this?"
"Well, you were pretty extensively injured. We brought you to the paladin, Lady Elaine, to be healed. That was about three days ago now."
"I've been here that long?"
He nodded once. "We've been slowly giving you water and medicine, some diluted soup, to try and wake you up. Even if Lady Elaine took your injuries, it was no guarantee that you would survive. You're very lucky, Amorette."
Lucky? Was that what she was?
She shook her head. She had to get out of here. She had to go home. Her father would be heartbroken, thinking that she was dead. She had to get back under the plates where she belonged.
"Hey, easy." Cupid took her shoulder, squeezing it firmly. "Don't worry about anything. We're going to take care of you. Is there any family we can find for you? Someone to come and get you?"
Her father lived in the Iron District, under the plates. They wouldn't be able to find him and, even if they did, he couldn't come up here. This was where the uppers belonged, and the uppers didn't have a kind view of the unders.
Maybe they didn't realize she was an under. Maybe that's why she was here. They might have mistaken her for an upper and brought her up.
Cupid tilted his head at her curiously, still waiting for a reply. Amorette found herself shaking her head at his question. She didn't need him to find her father. She would find him herself once she got out of here and back under where she belonged.
Her response made him frown as he sat back, folding his hands in his lap. "No? Well, never mind. We can worry about that when it's not so late. I'll let you get to sleep."
He stood, picking up the cup and offering her water again. She drank it, forcing her stomach to accept more despite it already being painfully stretched. Even knowing she was full didn't make her satisfied and she only wanted more.
After allowing her to drain the cup, Cupid filled it with more water before taking hold of her and hugging her to his chest again so he could remove the cushion she was laid against. Being that close to him was no less startling than it had been the first time.
However, when he laid her back down, her lids immediately felt heavy and were all too eager to close and give her the chance to sleep again.
"I'll be back in the morning, and we can get you cleaned up, all right? Don't worry about a thing, Amorette. I'm going to take good care of you."
The sincerity in the oath surprised her.
He was taking care of her? For what purpose? To what end?
Maybe he had claimed her when he saved her. Maybe he was considering her his woman now and that she belonged to him because he had pulled her from the rubble. It wasn't uncommon for such favors to be traded in Iron. That was the biggest reason her father had for making sure that she was strong and independent enough to live without anyone's aid.
However, Cupid had saved Amorette and was taking care of her now. She supposed that meant that she did belong to him. At least, until she had repaid the debt that she now owed him.
Being owned by an upper wasn't an appealing thought. Though, to be fair, being owned by anyone wasn't an appealing thought.
That was just the way things were, however, and it wasn't something she could change. Besides, whether she liked it or not, he had saved her and he was taking care of her. No one did something for nothing, she had to return the favor.
It wasn't pleasant to think of giving her body to an upper, but, at least, he was an attractive one with an interesting smell.
A smell that continued to linger, tickling her nose despite him being long gone. She took in a deep breath of that scent, clinging to the flavor of it as though it were life itself.
The next morning, as promised, Cupid returned to her bedside. His shadow fell over her, obscuring the bright light coming in through the window that near blinded her.
Amorette had seen the blue sky before and she knew what sunlight was. However, the glimpses she used to get of it were rare, only spotted in the seams between the districts. The bright light was constant here, the blue sky completely filling the window. It was blinding, but Amorette couldn't help but stare at the blue square, wondering just how big it could be.
As she was trying to imagine it in her mind, Cupid returned. He brought with him two women, both wearing dresses finer than anything she had ever owned.
After he fed her more soup, he worked with the two girls to help stand her up. Amorette initially thought that she wouldn't need their help. However, the moment she was upright, she began to sway and was saved only by the two women putting her arms over their shoulders.
Cupid then led the way to a small bathing chamber were an entire tub was filled with water. Amorette thought that it must be the source of their water.
But then Cupid told her that she would bathe there and that the two women – servants of the clinic, he called them – would help her do so. Once she was changed into clean clothes, he would come back and do a physical – whatever that was – to make sure that she was healing well.
However, Amorette barely heard most of what he was saying because she was too busy being baffled by the fact that this entire tub was for bathing. Bathing! There was enough water to provide for the entire population of Iron a few times over and she was supposed to use it just to scrape the dirt and dust off of her body.
It seemed wasteful and frivolous, but the two servant women were quick and adept at their job. She was still reeling from the knowledge that the uppers had so much that they could waste an entire tub for bathing that she didn't realize that they were undressing her until she was already naked.
Cold air hit her skin and she jumped, covering her chest.
Her surprise made it easy for the two women to direct her towards the tub. They didn't place her inside as she had assumed. Instead, however, they whetted a sponge and began running it up and down her body, wiping away the thick layer of grime, blood, and sweat that remained attached to her that hadn't already been cleaned away while she had been unconscious.
That action made far more sense to Amorette. This was close to how she imagined a bath would be. Though, it was strange to keep all their water out like this. Then again, maybe it was just easy to come draw from it if it was in a convenient tub.
Once they got the majority of her clean, the two women steered her closer to the bin. Amorette allowed them to do as they wished, making it easy for them to lift her legs, one at a time and submerge them into the water. Before Amorette knew what was happening, she was seated on a low stool submerged inside the tub, the water lapping at the top of her chest.
She had never been immersed in water before. The sensation was a strange one. Just dragging her arm through the water was odd. The motion was resisted by the water itself and she could feel the currents of it hitting against her chest under the surface.
In the past, if she was lucky, there was enough water for her to rub along her body and banish some of the dirt and muck that covered her. She had never been properly bathed before.
Her confusion wasn't a problem now, however. The servant women, as though accustomed to bathing people, were already getting to work. One of them filled a jug full of the bath water and then immediately poured it over her head, soaking her hair through.
The other poured something into her own hand. Amorette only had the chance to detect an unspeakably amazing smell before the woman had her hands in Amorette's hair. She began scrubbing, forming a thick lather that trickled down Amorette's face and into her eyes.
For as much as it smelled wonderful, it burned her eyes horribly. She cried out, dunking her head beneath the surface, scrubbing desperately at her face which she was sure had be melting out of her head because of that concoction.
When she came up with a gasp, her eyes screwed tight, the women apologized for letting it get fall into her face like that. They didn't seem worried, so she didn't think her eyes were really melting. She still kept them tightly shut while the two went about their business.
It took them some time to clean her. They put more of that foamy stuff in her hair multiple times before they were satisfied that it was clean. Then, they spread more around and over her body. It all smelled incredible, but Amorette was weary about letting it near her face again after some of it hit her lips and she discovered it tasted worse than the medicine. She began to wonder what kind of strange poison they were using to clean her.
When they finished, they helped her out of the tub – the water of which was now dirty brown. One girl came forward with another pitcher of clean water and poured it over her head, rinsing away any of the dirty water that might still be clinging to her.
Amorette watched as it pooled on the floor, wondering how they were going to clean this up. Uppers were strange people to deliberately flood their dwellings.
However, even as she had that thought, the water flowed away. Her eyes opened in shock, trying to figure out where it had gone.
Before she could investigate, however, the other woman came forward with a thick and fluffy towel, clean and crisp and warm. She then began running it over Amorette's body, wiping away all the water that clung to her thin form.
It was such a beautiful, fluffy piece of cloth that Amorette was afraid to touch it. The woman, however, didn't even seem to care that it was getting soaked through, probably ruining it. She even ran it over Amorette's head, drying the strands a bit, before tossing it over a near bench rather carelessly.
Uppers had so much water, so much luxury, that they could have clothes just for drying. It was magnificent and wasteful. Fabric like that could probably dress two people in Iron, and they were using it just to dry her off.
They had even provided clothing for Amorette. A dress, pretty and made from a soft, creamy fabric was folded for her in the corner of the room. The two of them pulled it over her head before tying a ribbon around her waist, cinching it in place.
It was the the finest dress Amorette had ever worn. Short, simple sleeves with a round neckline and a skirt that reached down to her knees. It was warm like the towel had been and there wasn't a single patch in it anywhere.
"This way," one of the women said kindly as they took hold of her arms, helping to guide and steer her out of the bathing chamber.
She was brought to a small room just off of the larger one that she had been sleeping in with the other invalids. This room didn't have a bed inside, but instead had two large and comfy chairs that were placed in front of a table that had a steaming teapot and two teacups, waiting for her use.
More impressively, and more incredibly, the far wall was almost completely dominated by a large, crystal clear, pane glass window.
The women helped to sit her in one of the chairs, but Amorette couldn't look away from the image presented to her through the large window.
She had never seen above the plates before, though her father had told her stories of what it had been like when he lived here. The things he had told her seemed completely unbelievable to her, even as a child, when she compared it to the Iron world she lived in.
Looking out the window made her realize that even her childhood imagination hadn't been enough to truly envision what the upper plates would be like.
There was just so much! Of everything!
She had thought the room she had been in before to be colorful, but it was plain and drab compared to the beauty of everything she saw outside of the window now. She appeared to be looking out over a large garden filled with so much greenery that it almost hurt to look at. It was enclosed by a bright, shining gold gate beyond which she could see what she imagined must be a street.
But what a street it was. There were so many people! All of them wearing a dizzying array of colors and patterns that she hadn't even imagined could exist. They marched past the garden gate, not even to bother looking inside, as though it were uninteresting to them.
The women left and Amorette found that she had the strength to stand.
She moved towards the window, drawn in by the beauty of everything she was looking at.
And the sky? The bright blue sky. It seemed to continue on forever. There was no end to it. It stretched out over their heads. And no one was even looking up to admire it!
A strangled breath blew past her lips as her head came to rest on the window.
And she found that it was warm. The glass was warmed by the sun. The rays of which continued to stroke along her skin, even through the glass.
A shiver went through her and tears pooled in her eyes as she stared down at the bright upper world, laid out before her in stunning clarity. It was unspeakably beautiful. Completely incomparable to the dark, gray place that she called home.
For all that beauty though, it was also strangely... painful.
The light hurt her eyes. The warmth burned her skin. The colors, the patterns were blinding, hypnotizing and her mind couldn't keep up with them. But despite that, she couldn't bring herself to look away.
"Ah. You're up."
A pleased voice finally made her tear her eyes from the outside, looking back as Cupid walked in after her. In his hands was a small pair of shoes, nothing like the oversized boots she had once used to wear. These were dainty slippers with cute, white embroidery on them.
"Excellent." He grinned, pleased to see her moving under her own power. "Then, I think, you'll get some good use out of these, eh?"
"Cupid..." Amorette called to him, looking back. "This is..."
"Must be quite a change after being buried for so long."
Cupid's voice was soft as he spoke to her. He tried to make it sound lighter than it actually was, but his gut was twisting inside as he looked at her.
Freshly cleaned and put in a new dress, even if it was just one of the cheap ones they would give to female patients who needed to have their clothes cut away for whatever reason, she looked already leagues better than she had before.
However, it also illustrated fully just how gaunt and skinny she was. She must have been tiny even before she had fallen under the plate. After so long without food, she was practically skeletal. It looked as though a spare breeze might blow her over. Cupid had been thinking about keeping her on a purely liquid diet for a while yet, but if this was how she looked now, he might move that schedule ahead a bit earlier.
"Come, sit with me," he encouraged, pointing to the chair.
It took a moment for her to turn away from the sight of the window.
But, Amorette reminded herself, he owned her now. She had to do as he said.
With a soft sigh, she turned away from the beautiful world beyond the glass and sat back down on the chair opposite of him. He smiled as he set the slippers down at her feet.
"Here. Give them a try."
Amorette bit her lip, wondering if she should. It probably wasn't wise to take more from him. She already owed him so much already.
However, it was stupid to walk around without shoes. Walking around barefoot just left you open to the possibility of cutting your feet. And cuts led to fevers. And fevers led to death.
Besides, what was one more thing to owe him on top of everything else?
She moved her feet forward, sliding them inside.
The soft interior was even better than the dress and she stared, shocked, as she moved her toes. The uppers used such amazing fabric for feet?
"There. You look great. Shall we have some tea?" Cupid nodded once, turning to the pot that had been steeping on the table.
She watched as he poured them both a glass. He asked if she wanted cream or sugar as though it were the most normal thing in the world. She eagerly said yes. It wasn't often that she got sugar, much less cream.
Her enthusiasm made him smile and he was quite generous with both before handing her the cup. The sweet smell tickled her nose delightfully. It almost smelled better than him, though not quite. She was eager to take a drink and the warmth spread throughout her entire body.
"You like it?" Cupid asked, sipping at his own. Though, he did it far more gracefully than herself, holding the cup by its little handle with his fingers. Must be how a gentleman drank tea.
"How are you feeling, Amorette?"
"I... don't know," she admitted slowly. Honestly, everything about the upper world was so shocking that she barely had time to comprehend it all, much less develop feelings.
"Well, that's okay. No need to rush anything. I'm just going to do a quick examination, make sure that everything is all right, then I'll get you something sweet to eat. You like sweets, don't you?"
She blinked in surprise. "Is that my... treat?"
He chuckled. "No. Your treat is for later. I just like giving people things they enjoy while they recover. It's probably a small comfort after everything that happened to you, but these small comforts can do wonders for healing, you know."
She didn't know, so she took another greedy gulp of her tea.
"Don't worry, Amorette. I'll find out where you're supposed to be now. And, if you have nowhere else to go, I'll find you a place. Things are bad, I won't deny it, but they'll get better. No matter what happens, I'm your friend, all right?"
He would find where she was supposed to be. Meaning that he didn't know that she was an under. And if he didn't know, she certainly didn't want to tell him.
From what she knew of the arrogant uppers, if he found out, he would just as likely attack her as he would simply throw her back subplate where she belonged.
So, she nodded, as she made to take another drink of her tea, only to find it gone.
Cupid refilled the cup with a smile, once again being quite liberal with cream and sugar. It was almost too sweet, but she loved it dearly.
She didn't belong here, but she was going to enjoy it while it lasted.