“Of course we can heal that for you, dear.”
The cleric didn’t even look up from her paperwork as she slid a piece of parchment towards Ridani. “Just sign here and we’ll add it to your debt.”
“Are you fucking serious? This is your fault!” Ridani shoved the parchment back across the desk without even glancing at it. The cleric finally looked up.
“If you have the gold now, we’d be happy to take immediate payment.” Her pale eyes searched Ridani’s face. “Though, I will warn you, you are falling rather behind.”
“This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t sent me there!” Ridani winced as her shouting reopened the wound on her cheek. Blood dripped hot down the side of her face. She wiped it away. “They had magical weapons! This was from a fucking frost blade!”
“Yes. It will scar if you don’t get it healed.” The cleric remained as unfazed as ever. “I’m more than happy to fix it now.” This time the parchment rose of its own accord to hover before Ridani.
“Forget it,” Ridani spat, tearing the contract out of the air. It burst into flame in her clenched fist. “I’ll fix it myself.” She turned to leave.
“Oh, Ridani?” the cleric called after her. Ridani paused.
“What?”
“Did you collect their payment?”
“Go to hell.” Ridani stalked out of the room, but not before she heard the cleric say, “in that case, there will be no additional forgiveness towards your own debt.”
Ridani slammed the door as hard as she could in response. Her cheek burned with a deep cold, as though a shard of ice were embedded beneath her skin. She pressed her hand to it as she walked, feeling blood coat her fingers.
Almost without meaning to, she found herself standing in front of Salidyn’s room. She stared at the door for a long moment. It had been a while since they’d last spoken. Too long, admittedly. She took a breath, opened the door and stepped inside.
The similarity to their mother’s lab was instantly apparent. Ridani’s gaze slid away from corners of the room out of a deeply-ingrained habit. The air around her brother’s bed rippled like heat on cobblestones, but she set her jaw and walked in anyway.
Salidyn was just a dark-haired lump under the blankets, but he shifted when she drew close, lifting his head. His eyes were flat black.
“Ridani.” His voice had that faint layered quality that their mother’s used to have. It made the hairs on the back of Ridani’s neck stand on end.
“Hi,” she said shortly.
“How…long has it been?”
“Not long,” she lied. “A few days.” It had been at least two weeks.
His flat black eyes met hers, and she found herself having to look away. The reflection in them was wrong, all strange shapes and impossible angles.
“You’re lying,” he accused.
“Fine,” she snapped, still not looking at him. “It’s been a couple of weeks. Happy?”
“No,” he said shortly. A pause, then, “are you bleeding?”
“What do you care?”
“Don’t be childish.”
Ridani glared at him and he glared back.
“Yeah, I’m bleeding. I got cut up today trying to cover your fucking treatments.” She scratched at the dried blood along her jawline, fixing her gaze on the pillow next to Salidyn’s head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his expression tighten.
“Get one of the clerics to heal that for you.”
Ridani scoffed. “And owe even more? For something they might not even heal properly? I’m not an idiot.”
Salidyn’s eerie eyes fixed on the wound. “They can cure that,” he said quietly.
“Yeah, I’m not betting on it.” Ridani turned her face away, staring down at the rough-looking coverlet on the bed. “Are you comfortable?”
“I’ll survive. Stop changing the subject.”
“There’s nothing else to talk about.”
“Really? That’s all I get?” Salidyn attempted to lever himself upright, but fell back with a frustrated grunt. “I haven’t seen you in weeks and that’s all you can be bothered to say to me?”
“What do you want me to say?” Frustration bladed her words. “Do you want to hear about all the fights I’ve been getting into? All the people I’ve been stealing from? All the shitty things I’ve agreed to do for the church just so they can come in here and give you another potion that doesn’t fucking do anything? Is that what you want?”
Salidyn was glaring at her again. “Yes! You don’t tell me anything anymore! You disappear for weeks on end and when you do finally visit you can’t give me a single straight answer! You’re”— he cut himself off with visible effort.
Anger blossomed in Ridani’s chest, hot and familiar. “Oh, what, are you going to accuse me of behaving like a child again?” she said mockingly.
“You are.”
“Newsflash, Salidyn, I don’t get to be a child, remember? I’ve been working since I was ten to pay off our fucking debt. Your fucking debt.”
Hurt lanced across Salidyn’s face before his expression shuttered. “That’s not my fault.”
Ridani snorted. “Oh, so it’s mine?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“Fuck all the way off.” The wound on her cheek was still aching with that cold. She pressed a hand to it, feeling the burn beneath her fingers.
Salidyn’s gaze followed the motion. “If you want to blame anyone, blame our parents.”
“Our parents are dead,” she spat. “They were selfish, terrible people, and they’re gone. They’ve been dead for ten years. They’re not the ones who got me into a debt so great that there’s no way in hell I’ll ever pay it off. This is just going to be my life now. Forever. Did you know that? I’m never going to be free of this awful fucking place. If it had just been me, if I only had to pay for the last ten years of room and board, I could probably do it. But these treatments, Salidyn? The ones that never do a damn thing? They’re going to cost me my life.”
Salidyn was staring at her as though she’d slapped him. He opened his mouth. Shut it again, and continued to stare at her. His eyes were so cold, so alien. They used to be a warm brown, but now strange things swam in their depths. And still, he managed to look hurt. Like she was being unfair.
Ridani backed towards the door, horrified to realise she was shaking. “You’re a terrible brother,” she said, hating the way her voice cracked on the last word, hating him for making her feel like she was the one in the wrong. The words ‘maybe things would be better if you just died already’ hovered on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t force them past the lump in her throat.
She stormed out without another word.