Chapter 46: Elexis
"Elexis she's-" Axton tried to stop her before she went into Lythian's tent.
"Axton, she's my sister." She pushed the tent open and found Lythian and Bevin standing there. Lythian's knees wobbled but she was standing on her own and Bavin gave her a nod as he saw Elexis in the doorway. Lythian tried to turn but she stumbled and Elexis rushed to catch her. Elexis caught her and laid her slowly down on the pillows and blankets, now even more grateful that she had insisted on Lythie getting the lion's share of the cushions.
"Hey Lexi!" Lythain said, her eyes lighting like a child when she noticed who it was that had caught her. "Bevin is trying to help me walk again." Elexis looked down at Lythian's legs. Her sister was wearing the smallest clothes they had that weren't for children, and yet the tunic and pants still seemed ill fitting. The problem wasn't her height, Lythain was definitely short, barely more so than Reagan, no the problem was how thin she was. When they put on clothes that fit for her height they had just slipped right off, her figure was so thin. Now looking at the twigs her sister was trying to use as legs Elexis worried she might never really recover.
"That's great." She looked at Bevin and he gave her a smile that told her all she needed to know. Lythian was trying, but it would take time. "Have you been keeping your food down?" Lythie had been throwing up everything they gave her when she had first gotten back, but if there was any hope of being able to walk again she would have to be able to keep the food in her stomach. Lythie looked away.
"Sometimes," she looked back at Elexis, a new excitement on her face as if just remembering something, "I ate my supper last night and I haven't vomited yet, I think I managed to keep it down." Elexis gave an odd smile at the absurdity of Lythian's happiness in that moment. How Lythian was so light and quietly hopeful all the time Elexis had no idea. She seemed so fragile and yet ever since they had pulled her out of the mines she seemed to be more and more the sister Elexis had remembered. Like Lythain, through all the hardship hadn't broken. Like she had tucked that girl into her heart and let her rest while her body had to go through hell.
Part of Elexis wondered if Ana had been doing the same. If when she had screamed at her that day she had yanked that little girl that Ana was so desperate to protect out of the place she hid her in her heart and had stabbed her. She thought about that warehouse now, about the damp and the puddles, and she couldn't help seeing a phantom corpse of a child, her blood pooling with the rain. Couldn't help wondering if at that moment she had killed her sister. That it wasn't some assassin or executioner that might one day have ended her, but that Elexis had, in that moment, been the one to strike the final blow.
She blinked and saw Lythain was holding her hand, leaning her head on Elexis' shoulder where they sat in the cushions. Lythie hadn't asked about Ana, but she knew that her sister had been thinking about her. What could she say? How could she explain what-where- who Ana had become? How could she explain that day at the warehouse?
Lythie would forgive her, both Ana and Elexis both, but Lythie would know that in that moment Elexis had used strategic thinking and manipulation before thinking to extend her heart to Ana. That even when her sister's heart was bleeding out before her eyes she would sooner force her to find her own way than try to help Ana heal it. She might see just how heartless Elexis was. And though they would still be bound as sisters as they always would, could Lythain still love her when she knew the sort of love Elexis gave in return?
She left the tent waving off Axton's questions, she had other things to focus on, she had sent a team to receive Airlech's report, and though they certainly wouldn't be back today she needed to make sure that the council was ready to meet and discuss its contents when they did return.
Elexis had been reluctant to send Reagan, if only because she had so much pent up energy that it made her worry she would do something stupid. Reagan wasn't one for reckless decisions, she was impulsive, and made decisions in the moment when it came to combat but she almost never started a fight or got them into trouble. She was intuitive and used her split second impulses to get them out of trouble.
She had sent Reagan with Oya and Korvis. Reagan had never really liked Korvis, or she didn't like how incompitent he was when it came to being quiet, but Reagan had gone with him. Oya on the other hand might have been able to go without Reagan or Korvis, but she didn't want to send a fourteen year old into the streets of a major port city without someone to watch her back. And though she had no doubt that Reagan could take care of herself and Oya she also wasn't sending two girls into a port city without a man to vouch for them. Their exchange point was in Backwater, the section of Ilynas where a lot of criminals hung out in between jobs. The king's men didn't really bother trying to go in and lock everyone up, too much work and too dangerous, so they just got the gangs that tried to expand past the loose borders of Backwater. And while this worked great for rebels who didn't want to get caught by said king's men, it didn't work well for any girl that wasn't eight feet tall with biceps larger than most people's heads. So they sent Reagan and Oya with Korvis, because despite Reagan being quite capable of taking down almost anyone who crossed their path, Elexis knew that a far fewer would dare to do so if Oya and Reagan had Korvis guarding their back. And she didn't particularly feel like taking chances when it came to their safety.
She knocked on a stack of wooden crates, "Rudien, Reagan and the others will get back in a day or two, tell Ominae to be ready for a meeting when they do." Rudien grunted in response, not looking up from his list of supplies being sent and received.
The rebellion didn't just care for themselves, they also sent supplies to villages in Altoness that needed it. Extra blankets and firewood on cold winter nights could save lives.
Most of their supplies came from their allies in the Southern Islands, they too were rebelling against Galcinar and had far more farmland than Altoness. Right now Conner was fighting to make sure that supply line was kept open. Galcinar had discovered their secret chain of food and other goods and had sent one of their top commanders, Ben Tolstoyov to find and destroy it.
Ben Tolstoyov. She had sent Connor the moment they had gotten word they knew about the supply line. And when they had learned that Ben Tolstoyov was the one they were sending to deal with it she had been grateful, not only did this get Ben away from Ana, but it also gave a reasonable excuse for her to send a warrior like Conner to protect a meager supply line. While they had lost a few shipments the supply line had stayed mostly intact. For the time being though Conner would stay in the Southern Islands.
"How are the shipments coming, any big losses?"
"No, though we're short two shipments of wool, and one shipment of bread." Rudien said, looking up from his chart. One of the messengers runs up to him with a letter which he hands to Ruiden. Ruiden takes the note, dwarfed in his enormous hands and looks it over before nodding to the messenger who promptly scurries away than looking to her and amending, "Scratch that, just two shipments of wool, the bread arrived a little late, apparently the boats were held up in the harbor." he wrote something down on his chart and Elexis got the sense they were done talking but she wanted to talk to someone. Rudien wasn't exactly the best conversationalist but it didn't matter, the bulky Head of supplies could listen well enough.
"When's the next shipment of wool coming in?"
"Well that's the thing, the last two haven't arrived, either Galcinar managed to round up the rebels that were in charge of the supply chain for wool, or we're just really unlucky."
"Knowing us it's probably both." Rudien gave a small huff of amusement, looking from the crates of dried fruit that were being unloaded from the wagon they just arrived on and back to his chart.
"Of course," As she walked back to her own tent she couldn't help from muttering, "it always is."
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