By the time that Madalina woke again, she found herself laying on top of a firm bed with magic coursing around her.
She flexed her fingers and found that there were bandages around her left side, covering her left eye and parts of her shoulder and her forearm and hand that had gone unprotected by the door. She couldn't see out of her left eye, and panic started to rise in her.
Her gaze darted around and as she tried to sit up a little, she felt a handcuff around her wrist, keeping her confined to the bed.
"What happened," she asked with a voice raspy from smoke inhalation and looked to the right to see a nurse sitting nearby. The machine that she was strapped to had a large mana crystal turning in place, which was standard for the infirmaries in the city of Icegrowth.
The nurse startled when she spoke, springing to her feet and calling for a doctor. Madalina flexed her fingers again and found that the numbness in her arm was muting the magic that normally coursed through her body.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get herself to conjure up a little crystal of ice. She heard someone knock on the door and her vision faded back in, but only on one side.
"Madalina Chantilly?" Asked the doctor, a tall and willowy elf with dark skin and hair that dangled off her head like lichen. "I'm doctor Seethsap. You've suffered a terrible injury, my lady."
The doctor sat next to her and pulled up a floating information tablet, also powered by a green mana crystal. "You've got third degree burns on the left side of your body," she explained softly and slowly. "And your eye has been damaged by the fire as well."
Madalina felt tears well in her eyes, but she nodded to show that she understood. Her gaze trailed from the tablet to the handcuff on her unburnt hand, and the doctor sighed.
"Am I in trouble with the Icegrowth Investigative Precinct?"
"They have their suspicions but I wouldn't say you're the main suspect, my lady." The nurse bustled around and continued to do her job as the doctor spoke, making sure that Madalina was comfortable and well looked after more than anything else.
Madalina's gaze turned towards the ceiling. "But I'm still suspicious."
"I'm afraid so."
Doctor Seethsap frowned at the revelation, and Madalina frowned as well, mirroring her expression.
"Where are the detectives? I want to meet them." She asked, after reaching for her water cup that had been placed beside the bed.
"I'll go and let them know that you're awake and willing to speak."
The doctor and nurse hurried away to what Madalina presumed was a waiting room, and the young woman felt a tremor run through her body. This was no nightmare like she had prayed it was. This was her reality now, and Madalina didn't know if she could cope with it.
She didn't have time to dwell on how her life would be different from this point on, because someone knocked on the door before entering.
Two people entered, she realized. One of them was an elf like her with short, curled hair that hid the tips of their ears, chestnut in color. Their eyes were a vivid green with a ring around the iris that was bright blue.
So they were from the skyward city, if she had to guess. The other person was a woman standing behind her investigative partner, holding a little notebook in her gray palm.
She had tusks that jutted out from her bottom lip, wrinkles across her face, and jet-black hair that was done into a tight braid that fell across her shoulder. She was tall, and she looked tired. Madalina could relate to that. She felt exhausted as well.
"Ma'am," the elf said, taking a seat near Madalina and frowning at the handcuffs. "My name is Pelleas. That's Bula. Can we ask you a few questions?"
They fumbled with a set of keys and then unlocked Madalina's wrist from the cuffs, the pale woman observing them both with an exhausted stare.
"I suppose," she answered softly and timidly, curling her now-freed hand into a fist against the blankets.
"We know that you were in the mansion at the time the fire started, and we know that there had been a threat to you and your family's lives earlier – by lord Teloran, is that correct?"
She nodded. Glancing at Bula, she noticed that the orc was regarding her with something like pity in her gaze.
"It seems like far too much of a coincidence," She said after taking a sip of her water, "That the mansion burned down the night he said I would live to regret it."
"You're right about that, madam Chantilly." Pelleas' hands twisted together, and they bit their inner cheek. They were nervous about something. Madalina steeled herself to hear it.
"But I do have to ask if you'd received any other threats before this."
"Not a single one."
"Interesting. What do you remember about the incident, madam?"
"I remember the smell of smoke. That was what woke me from my slumber. I heard the fire soon after, and I ran to wake my parents."
"But their door was locked, and I fear that they were … oh, gracious … already dead."
"What makes you say so?"
"No matter how loud I screamed, neither of them answered. No matter how loudly I pounded on the door or tried to get them to wake up …"
"I see. Madam Chantilly, I'm so sorry. That must have been horrific."
"There's really no words to describe it … do you have any further questions?" The magic surging through her veins was beginning to make her exhausted as it numbed the pain. "If not, I would greatly appreciate getting some rest."
Pelleas nodded and pulled on Bula's coat. "We'll leave you alone then. Hope you recover quickly, dame Chantilly."
"If we have any other questions, we'll contact you," Bula added as she ushered Pelleas out the door.
Madalina fell into a slumber so dark that nothing could wake her, dreaming of nothing but flames.
Outside of her room, Pelleas spoke to Bula in a hushed undertone. The woman scribbled something off of her notebook, gazing at Madalina's sleeping figure through the lined window, and then the two of them took their things and left.