Whatever they were talking about lasted for a few minutes and Embris waited patiently far enough away that she couldn't hear what they were saying. When they were done talking, the Silverthorns started to turn away and Embris took that opportunity to move in to speak with Tchisa before someone else could start talking with her.
"What was it that you called me over for?" Embris asked, hoping that she wasn't making a mistake by reminding Tchisa that she was the one who'd called her over here.
Tchisa stared at Embris for a moment before shaking her head while chuckling. As she waited for Tchisa to speak she couldn't help but feel her face heating up in embarrassment. She wasn't sure what was so funny, but she wasn't going to ask. She was confident that it'd become clear once Tchisa told her what it was that she had wanted from her.
After Tchisa stopped chuckling, she looked at Embris, her eyes full of amusement and said. "Oh, I needed that."
Embris hoped that she wouldn't need to say anything more at that point, as it started to feel like everyone was starting to watch them from the entire room. While Embris was confident that it was just her imagination, she wasn't going to look around to verify.
Finally, Tchisa's smile dropped. "You really haven't figured it out yet, haven't you?" she asked, the question sounding rather rhetorical, which made Embris feel even more embarrassed, even though she wasn't sure why.
However, since it was a question, she felt like that gave her an opportunity to say something without making it worse for her.
"No, ma'am."
Tchisa chuckled again before telling Embris, "I was calling in everyone I could think of so they could share in the celebration of that wolf getting killed. There wasn't anything that I needed from you personally or needed you for. So, if you're worried about having someone else fill in for your shift, don't be. I was already told that it was authorized and it's not a bad thing to spend time with family you haven't seen in a long while."
Embris slowly nodded, wondering if there was family Tchisa had that she hadn't been able to see for a long time. She wasn't going to ask about it, but the way that the woman spoke made her wonder about it. Especially since she knew that there wasn't much that she really knew about the woman.
At least aside from her being the one in charge. Not that she knew much about anyone else here, even Jenn, as she thought about it. Which for some reason, made her wonder if she should start trying. After all, she was at least friends with Jenn, so if she started working at getting to know her, then maybe she'd be able to learn about things that she might not otherwise learn.
Besides, she knew that Jenn could read and write, which meant that it was possible that she might be able to get Jenn to teach her rather than waiting for an opening in the classes for that. As she knew that the waiting list for them was pretty long.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she brought herself back to the present and nodded at Tchisa. "I just wanted to be sure that there wasn't something that I might have done that I shouldn't have," she answered, which seemed to set off another laughing fit for Tchisa.
While Embris couldn't help but chuckle a little as well, she wished she understood what was so funny. She couldn't say why, but it almost felt like Tchisa was enjoying this a little too much.
_
As Embris walked off, Ralph felt surprised when Lily turned to him and buried her face in his side, her arms wrapped tightly around him, her body shaking with sobs that surprised Ralph. For as long as he remembered, Lily hadn't shown any significant emotion, yet here she was clearly upset about something.
As he put his arms around Lily, he could feel his friends watching, making him feel self-conscious about this, but not seeing any other way to deal with this. Especially since he wasn't sure why she was so upset in the first place. Nor did he want to do anything that would make it worse.
Yet, he also didn't want to deal with this while his friends were watching.
So, he picked Lily up while still holding her against him and carefully made his way outside. He hoped that she might be willing to talk with him more after this, but he didn't plan on getting his hopes up. Especially when he couldn't say what this was about.
When they were outside, he found a place to sit on the side of the building and settled Lily in his lap before he gently pulled her away from him.
"So, what's the problem?" he asked, hoping that she would at least stop crying. If only so that he wouldn't feel as helpless about the current situation. After all, even after being around Lily for so long, he still had no idea what she was thinking. All he knew was that she knew two words and had only spoken three times that he could remember hearing her speak.
Lily looked at Ralph, her sobbing subsiding, though her tears were still flowing freely. Ralph waited patiently for her to speak, but he couldn't say that he really expected her to. Not when she hadn't said that much up to this point, which made him feel a little self-conscious that he was waiting for just that at this time when there wasn't any guarantee that Lily would actually speak this time.
Yet, he knew that she needed to start sometime. Even if she didn't really want to.
Then suddenly, Lily leaned against Ralph, resting her head on her shoulder as she said, "Mama doesn't like me."
Ralph wasn't sure who 'mam' was supposed to be, but he doubted that that was the case. Mostly because he doubted that whoever it was really thought about Lily enough to like her or not like her. Yet, he doubted that he'd be able to convey that accurately to someone as young as Lily.
"Did she say that?" Ralph asked, unable to think of anything else to say as he held Lily against him, feeling that he was at least making progress with getting her to even say that much.
Lily shook her head, which didn't surprise Ralph that she wasn't answering him vocally. Though, he had hoped that she would.
"Well, since she didn't say it, maybe she just didn't realize that… whatever she did hurt you like that."
Ralph had paused because he really wasn't sure who it was that Lily had dubbed 'mama' although he knew that there had to be a few candidates that he could think of. He wasn't sure who it could be until he suddenly remembered Lily had essentially dragged Embris over. Something that made him feel hot in the face as he connected the dots and realized who Lily was likely talking about.
"I think she left for other reasons than because of you," Ralph said, rather confident of whom he thought Lily was referring to when she said 'mama'.
Ralph felt Lily turn her head up to look at him, though he didn't tilt his head to look at her. He wasn't sure what he'd say if Lily confirmed what he thought and he wasn't really sure what he thought of Embris as well. He suspected that she'd be someone who he'd probably be fine going out with, but at the same time he couldn't say that he thought she was interested in him. As she certainly hadn't shown any indication that she might be interested in him up to this point.
Not that he was confident in his ability to pick up on things like that.
After a minute, Lily buried her face against Ralph again, though he could feel her smiling for reasons that were only clear to her. Ralph was at least happy that she'd stopped crying, or at least he assumed she had, but he wished that she'd be a little more talkative and let him know what she was thinking as he certainly knew that he couldn't tell without her at least giving him some clue.
However, at the moment, he was content to remain like they were. He wasn't sure what his friends would think of him in this moment and so didn't see the need to return to them right away. Especially with how Lily seemed happy enough like they were.
Ralph noticed the sun setting against the horizon. While it was mountainous terrain, making the sun set earlier than it would otherwise, somehow it felt just right to have it set at that moment. Even though he didn't typically think of things like that, it just felt like it fit the moment somehow.
"Look at the sunset," Ralph said to Lily, not sure if he should keep quiet about it. As while his friends weren't in sight, he couldn't say that they'd let him live this down at any point.
Ralph felt Lily lift her head and turn to look at where he was pointing, the sun setting against the mountains, casting the sky a myriad of colors that Ralph wasn't sure would be possible on Earth, though he did wonder if it might have something to do with the magic stones that restored their magic when they were in contact with it.
_
Morning came and Embris couldn't help but feel rather energized. Tchisa had spoken to Riewis and had convinced her that Ralph and those with him weren't a danger, which meant that Embris didn't need to act as an escort for her siblings anymore.
Not that Riewis was happy about the decision.
Although, the only downside was that Embris needed to take her shift as one of the guards for the Blue Rose's stand-ins. A fact that was the only problem with everything that was going on that morning. Or at least the only problem for Embris right then.
While she was pretty sure that they'd remain for at least another day, Embris wished that she could spend it with her family. If only because she wasn't sure when the next time they'd be able to meet like this would be.
So, as Embris walked towards the central building, she did so knowing her heart wasn't in doing her job that day. She'd known some of the others who also had days when their heart wasn't in it, but this was a first for Embris. She wasn't sure if it might be a trend for her or if it was just for this one day. After all, she didn't plan on leaving with Cinder and Feon when they left and they planned on leaving Lyshean for her to take care of since the settlement was a much more stable place for her to grow up in that Embris was confident there wouldn't be any real problems.
All of that was on Embris' mind as she made her way to the doors of the central building. However, a problem occurred when she saw one of the Silverthorns outside of the building, looking worn out and sweaty. She paused to make sure that the woman just wasn't feeling well rather than some other problem when she noticed colored spots on the woman's neck, causing Embris' blood to run cold.
She recognized the signs of the spotted plague, just as anyone would , but somehow she had thought that the disease wouldn't affect them on this world. She wasn't sure now why she had thought that would be the case, just that she had.
Then there was the fact that she needed to go into quarantine with this woman since she was the one who discovered the illness. Which meant that she wouldn't be able to spend more time with her siblings before they had to leave. After all, Embris wasn't going to ask them to stay when it was over something like this. Especially with how serious it was.
While she vaguely remembered that one of Ralph's friends had figured out how to treat the plague, she couldn't remember how they'd treated it nor did she expect that they'd remember. As it was just one of those things that no one wanted to think about.
As Embris looked up, wondering where she should take the woman to go into quarantine, she saw other Silverthorns walking towards them, clearly oblivious to the danger that was posed by the woman kneeling by Embris.
"Get back!" Embris cried out, startling the Silverthorns. "Spotted plague!"
Embris didn't have to elaborate on what she meant, as everyone knew the dangers of what that was and why she was so serious about it.
Embris helped the woman next to her to her feet and half led, half carried the woman a distance away from the central building. One thing was absolutely certain, they didn't want the Blue Rose's stand-ins to catch the spotted plague if they could help it. Especially given how vulnerable they would be to it.
As Embris moved the woman along, Tchisa called out after her. "Embris! Stay right there!"
Embris looked back, not sure what Tchisa wanted, but her eyes widened when she saw the woman walking straight towards her, her stride full of purpose.
"This woman has the spotted plague!" Embris called out, a feeling of panic starting to well up inside her as she imagined Tchisa getting caught in the quarantine and likely ending up catching the plague as well. Something that Embris was confident would hurt everyone who considered the Blue Rose to be their leader. At least given how influential Tchisa could be when she wanted to be.
Some had commented that it didn't matter what happened to any of them, that they could just easily be replaced, but Embris felt that people like Tchisa weren't just someone who could be replaced. Whatever skills or abilities that she possessed to help keep the peace among them was beyond anything that Embris knew she herself had. Not to mention the fact that she couldn't imagine anyone else having the finesse Tchisa had when it came to settling disputes and keeping order around the settlement.
Not to mention a memory of where everyone was stationed at, something that Embris knew she wouldn't be able to duplicate. Especially when it came to remembering who was sent where and what patrol was supposed to cover what area. Maybe she'd be able to work at being able to do that herself, but she couldn't say how long it might take for her to reach that level. Though, she was rather confident that she would be a lot older than Tchisa was now when she reached that level.
"Yeah, I know," Tchisa said, her tone as serious as Embris had ever heard it. "Roesadra and Oleania both have it too as well as half the settlement. So, quarantining that woman won't help us out any."
Embris suddenly felt like her strength abandoned her. She wasn't sure why, just that she felt like sinking to the ground and not moving anywhere.
However, while she didn't expect it to be something that would happen, she thought she'd at least say something about how the plague had been treated and by whom. While it was a long shot, it was at least better than the alternative, which was to quarantine the entire settlement and hope that some of them survived the outbreak.
While she was confident that Rephis and Nymis were safe from it, since they'd caught the plague before and everyone knew that you couldn't catch it a second time, she wasn't optimistic about their chances of being able to survive on their own. Especially if another creature like that wolf came along. Nor was she confident that the ogres would help them since they likely wouldn't want to have the plague spread among their kind, even if they didn't know just how dangerous the spotted plague was.
"My siblings once had the spotted plague," Embris said as Tchisa got closer. "They all survived because someone came along who knew how to treat the plague."
Embris felt a little surprise when Tchisa froze, her eyes wide with surprise of her own. Not that she really was that surprised. It was more that she hadn't seen Tchisa so surprised, which seemed almost like a surprise in and of itself.
"How did they treat the plague?" Tchisa asked when she seemed to recover from her surprise.
Embris merely shook her head. She couldn't say how it was done, just that it had happened. "I really have no idea, but the ones who treated them are in the settlement now."
Tchisa suddenly looked thoughtful. "Actually, now that you mention a treatment, I remember hearing about how a slave was able to treat the plague some months back and keep an entire shipment of slaves from dying from the plague. I hadn't thought much about it because it seemed so farfetched, but if you know someone who could treat the plague, then maybe that story wasn't so outlandish as I had originally thought."
Embris wasn't sure what Tchisa was talking about but she wasn't going to push the matter. After all, that story wasn't important. After all, she had no idea who that slave could have been but she did know who the person who had treated her family and kept them from dying.
"Well, if you take care of her, I'll go find Amelia. I think she was the one who knew how to treat it best," Embris said, letting Tchisa take the woman into her care. "Though, I'm not sure where they slept last night."
"If she was the one who treated your family, then she's already on the job. Though, she did ask where Cinder was even though I don't have any idea why she was asking after your brother."
Embris sighed. She had left Cinder sleeping because she didn't want to disturb his sleep, just like she always did with Rephis and Nymis. After all, they had been up pretty late and Embris didn't want them to be cranky with her for waking them up, especially if they were having a nice dream at that moment.
However, if Amelia needed Cinder for whatever reason, then she was confident that she'd be able to smooth over any annoyance he might have for getting woken up before he'd have liked.
So, Embris started heading back to her home where she'd left Cinder and the rest of her family.