“It means a lot to them.”
Lynn just nodded. She packed up her bag and headed towards the door. There was one more thing she needed to do before leaving, but she didn’t want to raise the point. It might add unnecessary attention to both of the subjects.
Luckily, Gabriella spoke up first. “Before you go, would you mind visiting Shalise?”
With her carefully practiced ‘mild-surprise’ face on, Lynn said, “I thought she was up in Montana, schooling. Is it vacation time already.”
“There was…” Gabriella looked down, rubbing her hands together. “An accident. She won’t tell me the details, but about a week ago she shows up covered head to foot in bandages. She barely speaks and barely eats.”
Lynn frowned at that. She’d heard Shalise was injured. Bandaged head to toe seemed different from the report. Not eating definitely wasn’t in the report.
“I know you’re busy,” Gabriella said quickly, apparently taking Lynn’s failure to respond as hesitance. “It would mean a lot. To all of us.”
Lynn forced her frown into a small smile. “Of course, Gaby. She’s up in her room?”
The caretaker nodded.
Lynn took the stairs to the second floor. She stopped just outside the first door and knocked lightly.
No one responded.
“Shal? It’s Lynn.”
Nothing.
Undeterred, Lynn opened the door a small crack and peeked inside.
Shalise sat on her bed, propped up by a multitude of pillows. Stuffed animals covered every available inch of her bed, and much of the floor where several had been knocked off. The normally chipper girl would always pick them up and replace them on her bed. But they just lay there, abandoned.
The poor girl’s arm was up in a sling, bandages visible on the hand sticking out of it, or perhaps that was a cast; Lynn wasn’t sure. Her face had a deep red gash stretching from her nose to her ear. A bandage might have been there at one point, a bit of medical tape clung to her cheek. Her other hand rested in her lap, also wrapped in a bandage. If the lump under her blanket was anything to go by, she had a cast on as well.
Lynn felt a twisting in her heart as she looked at her girl. Her face was as blank as a corpse.
Shalise’s large brown eyes just stared dully out the window, half turned from the doorway. They were unfocused and didn’t seem to track to any movement outside. She didn’t spare a single glance towards the woman standing in the doorway.
Lynn had only a vague idea of what happened at that school. When the request for assistance came in from the school’s dean earlier in the week, they had sent a few cursory investigators. Preliminary reports were about rogue necromancers unleashing zombies on the town.
She’d hoped to get a few inside details from Shalise, but nothing warned her that it had been this bad.
Lynn stepped into the room and shut the door quietly. She discreetly pulled her wand from the holder on her back and put some simple privacy protections on the room. Anyone who even accidentally overheard anything would suddenly feel a need to be in the opposite end of the house.
With the protections in place, Lynn replaced her wand–Shalise being none the wiser–and moved to the empty chair beside Shalise’s bed. She placed a hand on the girl’s knee, confirming that she was wearing a cast. She slid her hand up to the girl’s thigh only to draw back at the girl’s shriek.
Stuffed animals went flying as she scrambled back against the pile of pillows. Shalise stared, wide-eyed and far more focused. It took a moment before recognition set in and Shalise slumped back against the pillows.
“Hey kiddo,” Lynn said. She offered a sad smile.
“Sister Cross. I thought I was going to die.”
Lynn wasn’t sure if she was talking about just now or back on Halloween. Possibly both. “I’ve told you, call me Lynn.” The stubborn girl just shook her head. “If you want to talk about it, I’m here.”
They sat in silence for a minute. Lynn replacing her hand on the girl’s thigh seemed to set her off. She burst into tears and leaned into Lynn’s shoulder.
At least she didn’t pull away, Lynn thought as she patted the girl on her back.
Shalise started talking about her time at school. Learning magic, her roommate’s creepy pet spider, the teachers and how one of them named Yuria something–the poor girl let out a sudden sniffle as she said her last name–was her favorite, and on and on about her friends and roommates.
Then she got to Halloween, or the preparations for it. How Shalise agreed to go to a party despite her roommate’s apprehensions.
That was something Lynn wanted to follow-up on. Did they know something was going to happen?
She chose her costume and helped a friend choose one. She went over the party and her roommate dancing the most awkward dance she’d ever seen with some stranger.
Her voice was excited and animated, if a bit tear filled. The fun she had brought a small smile to Lynn’s lips.
Then she went silent.
“Shal?”
“I don’t really know what happened after that. I was on the ground and in pain.”
She went silent again. Lynn gave her a light squeeze.
“I was attacked by a zombie. Then its head just exploded in front of me. All over me. That’s where I got most of my injuries.”
Lynn frowned at that. The reports didn’t mention she was attacked by a zombie. How she was even sitting in front of her had to be a miracle.
Shalise lifted up the arm in her sling. “Doctors say I might not be able to use my hand again, too much of the wiring… eaten. I’m lucky it doesn’t need to be amputated. When a magic doctor says you’re out of luck, you know you’re really out of luck.” She sighed. “My leg broke when I fell to the ground and the zombie landed on top of me. My other hand isn’t healing properly, though that injury saved my life so I suppose it is forgivable.”
Lynn quirked her eyebrow at that. “An injury saved your life?”
A brief grimace of panic crossed Shalise’s face before she settled back into her melancholic look. “I was supposed to tell all the doctors and teachers and anyone else who asked that a potion stopped me from becoming a zombie.”
“It was something else, then?”
Shalise brought her eyes to meet Lynn’s for the first time since she entered the room. She searched back and forth, looking for something.
Lynn couldn’t hide her disappointment when the girl dropped her eyes back to her lap, apparently not finding it.
“My friend said I’d get the person who saved me into a lot of trouble if I ever told what actually cured me. I think I owe her enough to stay silent.”
Lynn sighed at her reluctance. She couldn’t remember the last time Shalise kept something from her. That it was an injury that cured her spoke of black magic. She thought for a moment about asking Shalise to see the wound, but decided to let it be.
From the sound of it, Shalise knew this person, this ‘her,’ outside of whatever incident this was. Probably not a necromancer that grew a conscience. Someone who was at the club? A friend then.
Something to look into later.
“So what are you going to do now?”
Shalise just shook her head.
“You sounded like you were having fun, learning magic and being with your new friends.”
“I…” She leaned back and turned her gaze out the window. “I think I need time, for now.”
“I understand. Don’t take too long to decide, you’ll fall behind in class.”
When Shalise didn’t respond, Lynn stood up and ruffled the girl’s brown hair. “I have to go. In fact, I’m going to Brakket.”
Shalise’s eyes snapped over to Lynn. “You? Why?”
“Didn’t I ever tell you? The Elysium Sisters are necromancer hunters.”
Shalise’s eyes spread wide open. Lynn was quite sure she didn’t know that the order of nuns was even magical.
“They hurt a good friend of mine so I’ll be going personally to oversee the operations.” She fluffed up Shalise’s hair once again. “I have to make it safe if that good friend decides to go back to school.”