Chapter 16: A Hot Bath

Lavender helps Lumenovus out again. As they talk, they compare rings that they are wearing. (For those who would be interested to know, the rings describes are my wife's and my wedding rings.)

 All through breakfast Pinvey kept giving me a look, daring me to go see Lumenovus.  I couldn’t do it, I was too embarrassed about what she’d overheard.

 I felt horrible for not going, especially right before I saw him enter the arena at lunch.  It hit me then that he could still die during any one of his matches, and I would have missed my last chance to see him.  The first thing he did was look to my seat.

 I waved when I saw him, and he smiled.  He’s not mad.

 By the time the fights were over, I didn’t care what Pinvey saw or thought anymore.  Seeing him move was more amazing than ever.  I understood what he meant by control.  It was almost like a dance this time.  He gracefully deflected every blow, delivering increasingly harder counterstrikes until his opponent called.  He grew tired at the end of the hour, and ended up with a few minor wounds to his hands.

 Pinvey was still watching me.  I wanted to find a present for Lumenovus anyway, so I went to my room to stall and look for one.  Yes, what from a fairy princess’s room to give a human man?  I decided to stick with what I knew and grabbed some more spare cloth.

 I made sure no one was following me when I went to the briars.  What I didn’t expect was for someone to be there already.  From around the corner I heard muted laughter, with an occasional thud.  I crept and looked around.

 There were two soldiers outside of Lumenovus’s cell, laughing at something within.  My heart started racing.  What am I going to do...

 I tiptoed across the hall where I could see further into his cell.  Two more soldiers were holding Lumenovus up by the arms.  Simon was hitting him.

 It was just the five soldiers.  Without my half sisters there, I didn’t have anyone to oppose me.  I stepped into the hallway.  “Simon!”

 “I thought you’d run to your room,” he called from the cell.

 “Take your men from here, now!”

 There was a hesitation, but I heard them drop him.  They came out, locking his door.  Simon came last.  The soldiers left, while he stood next to me.

 When they were out of earshot he said, “I’ll remember this.  Just like I’ll remember that you laughed when that monster did as much to me.  Yes, Pinvey told me about that.  You’ll end up in the stocks again sometime.  I know you will.  I’ll see you then...  Princess.”  He started walking away.

 I made myself catch my breath.  “Simon,” I called after him.

 “What?” he said, stopping without turning around.

 “The prisoner is not to be disturbed again.  If you will remember, he is in the process of a court proceeding.  You are not to interfere.  Is that clear?”

 “Yes, princess.”  He added ominously, “I will remember.”

 I took a deep breath, and flexed my legs a few times to get some strength back into them.  I approached my friend’s cell, afraid of what I might see.

 Lumenovus was on his knees, curled forward with his head on the ground, holding his belly.  “Are you alright?” I asked.

 “Yeah,” he wheezed.  “Just...  Cramps.  Mostly hit my...  Abdomen...”

 “Cramps?”

 “Hurts...” he muttered.

 “I’m sorry...  If I’d have come sooner...”

 He gasped a few times, and shook his head.  “You just saved me.”

 “I’m sorry I didn’t come this morning,” I said, my guilt making me speak quickly.

 He gave a short, loud laugh, and moaned.  “Ugh.”  He collapsed onto his side, and seemed to relax a little.  “Don’t make me do that...  I know you can’t come all the time, Lavender.  You don’t owe me a thing anyway, what are you apologizing for?”

 “Maybe because...  I wanted to.  And I didn’t.  So I’m sorry.”

 “Well,” he said slowly, “if you wanted to, why didn’t you?”

 I blushed, knowing I couldn’t tell that whole story.  “Pinvey.  Enough said?”

 “Yeah.”  He sat up, then slowly took a breath in and arched his back, supporting himself on his arms.

 “I brought you some extra cloth...”  I slipped it through the bars.  “Are you going to be okay?”

 “I am going to be very sore.”

 “Is there anything that can help?”

 With half a smile he said, “A hot bath.”

 “What’s that?”

 He looked at me, and I could tell he hadn’t meant for me to respond.  “A joke.”

 “No really, what is that?”

 He looked at me, as if he couldn’t believe I wanted to know.  “A tub, big enough to get in, filled with hot water.  My muscles would relax, and I would smell much better.”

 Was he mad?  Of the few things fairies feared, water and fire were the very worst.  We never held water in anything larger than a jug for fear of drowning.  “You...  Get in, water?”

 “Yes.  You never have?”

 “You could drown!  Even I know that!  I could drown!  Why would I go in water?”

 He just grinned and said, “I guess I could drown, if I wanted to.  I don’t know though, I think I’d keep sitting up.”

 “It’s not funny...” I said, stunned.

 “Oh, hey, I’m sorry,” he said.  He stood slowly, with a few grunts, and came by the bars.  “It’s just something people do, I didn’t know it was such a big deal.”

 “It’s alright, you just surprised me.”  I decided to have some fun with him back.  “I was going to say one of the basins we use for grape smashing might work...  But since you enjoy making fun of me so much, now I’m not so sure...” I smiled.

 “Come on, Lavender, I was kidding about having one anyway...”

 “I’ll see what I can do,” I said.

----

 It wasn’t hard to arrange at all.  I ordered some workers to carry an unused basin to Lumenovus’s cell.  I got strange looks for it, and even stranger ones when I asked them to fill it with hot water.  He looked at the basin when they were done.  “It’s huge...”

 “Is it okay?”

 “Oh, yes!  It’s perfect...”  He dipped his hand in the steaming water.  “The water’s not too hot either.  I’ll get right in, if you don’t mind.”

 He wandered to the far side of the tub and began removing his clothes.  As he climbed over the edge and got in the water, I got a glimpse of his entire body.  So similar to our men, yet so different.

 “Ahh...” he said, settling in.  My heart was skipping beats.  On top of the sudden rush caused by seeing his nude form, I was so nervous about him slipping and drowning.  “I can’t believe you folk never take a hot bath.”

 “You’re crazy,” I laughed, unable to believe what I was seeing.  Then I shrieked as he dipped himself under!  “Lumenovus!”

 He stayed under, running his hands through his hair, then came up with a gasp.

 “Are you okay?” I asked in a near panic.  “What is the matter with you?”

 He laughed.  “Just rinsing my hair.  It’s full of dirt.”

 “Gods, you do some weird things.”

 He just laughed again.  “It’s perfectly safe.  You just hold your breath.  It feels great.”  Saying that out loud seemed to remind him to relax.  He sat back again with a slow sigh.  “How did you manage this, anyway?  It seems unreal, right now.  A hot bath...”

 “I managed.  I am a princess, remember.  Just enjoy it.”

 “As you wish, Princess,” he said with a lazy grin.  I never thought I’d enjoy being called that, as it was usually done with sarcasm or exasperation.  He said it with such affection and admiration, I was glad his eyes were closed.  I’m sure whatever expression came over my face hid nothing.

 I watched him as he laid there, slowly rubbing a piece of the cloth I’d given him over himself.  After doing that awhile, he just laid with his eyes closed, breathing deeply.  I didn’t want to interrupt him, so I ended up staring at his body, slightly distorted through the water.

 “Lavender?” he said, his eyes still closed.

 “Yes?”

 “Are you really not disgusted by me?”

 Funny you should ask.  My wings fluttered a little at the thought that he should care.  I felt a bit more even with him, after all my questions the night before.  “Not at all.  Actually...  I think...  You’re rather pleasing to look at.”  It felt good to admit it to him, but it made me blush.

 One of his eyes opened to regard me incredulously.

 I crossed my arms.  “But my opinion is bias, I like you,” I said with playful defensiveness.

 He closed his eye and a great smile came over his face.  “Thank you,” he said simply.

 “And Pinvey’s a doe,” I added, knowing where the question had come from.

 He looked at me again.  “A female deer?”

 “A female rat!” I laughed.  “What do you call girls you don’t like?”

 “A b***h, I suppose.  Similar enough.”  He gave a quiet laugh, which trailed off into a contented sigh.  “Thanks again...  For everything,” he whispered.

 It was wonderful to see him so relaxed, especially knowing I had a part in it.  “You’re welcome.  Is this really going to help?  It doesn’t make any sense.”

 “It’s going to help immeasurably.  You may have saved my life.  Again.”

 “When have I saved your life?”

 “You mean aside from being the only reason I haven’t descended into utter despair?  Well, you fed me that first night, you’ve been keeping me in clean bandages, you got them to let me use my staff in the arena.  You warned me in time to block a thrown dagger.  You just got Simon to stop...”

 “Alright!” I cut him off, and laughed.  “You’ve helped me a lot too, you know.  Just by listening, and talking with me.”

 “I’ve loved talking to you...  You know, it reminds me of why I began traveling in the first place.  I wanted to just talk with people, and help them any way I could.  It’s just that I saw so much...  Vice.  It seemed the only way to help most of the time was to try to tell them they were wasting their lives.”

 “Is that what you used to talk about that people didn’t like?”

 He gave that amused smile of his.  “Oh, you’re going to ask me while I’m sober?  Very well.”  He held up his hand.  “This ring is the only piece of jewelry I ever have or ever will own.  Here...”  He took it off and leaned over the edge of the basin to hand it to me, dripping water as he did so.  “It’s inscribed, can you read it?”

 It was heavy, a dark silver in color.  There were no markings, it was just a plain band.  “It’s blank...”

 “Look on the inside.”

 I held it up to the light.  “Transient...  Guests...  Are...  We?”

 “Yes.  The single most important thing anybody can know.  Perhaps even for your people after all, since you aren’t truly guaranteed to last forever.”

 I swallowed.  No one ever talked about such a thing!  “That’s just...  Awful.”

 He sighed and took his ring back, then sank into the water again.  “It isn’t.  It’s a part of life.  To ignore it, and to spend your life chasing fleeting pleasures at the cost of other’s happiness, as so many people do...  That is awful.  Death approaches, you realize you’ve wasted your time, and it becomes a terrible experience.  But, if you can look back and know you’ve left the world a more beautiful place than it was before you...  Then you know you’ve had your fair portion, and shown gratitude for it.”

 He sure said some things I never thought I’d hear.  “I admit I’m intrigued...  But I can also understand why people would encourage you to move on.”

 “Yeah, well...  I mean it in an optimistic way.  It takes some explaining to make it clear.  Few people care to listen...  But you’ve got me talking about other things.  Things I haven’t thought about in years.  Hope, and dreams...  It’s been awhile since they’ve come up.”

 “I’m glad I don’t make you want to talk about dying...”

 “If you’re really intrigued, I can tell you more.  I’m telling you, in the end it isn’t as morbid as it sounds at all.”

 “I’d like that, then,” I said.  To keep the conversation from dying, I took off my own ring.  “Here’s mine,” I said, handing it to him.

 “A butterfly...  It’s pretty.  I’ve never seen a ring like it.”

 “It was my mother’s.  It’s all I have of hers.”

 He continued to hold it, turning it so the gems played in the light.  There were four stones, that made up the wings.  “Is there any significance to the butterfly?”

 “My mother liked them a lot.  So do I.  She used to tell me they’re an important symbol of how anything can change.  She said the same would happen to me...  Not that I would change, but that my life would.”

 He handed my ring back.  As I took it I realized I hadn’t taken it off since before she left, and that I had never let anyone else hold it.  “She was right,” he said.  “Anything can change.  I like that.”