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After Adarin and Isabella depart, Edarial gets back to juggling projects. Unsurprisingly, Iobel is a large help in this. Once she gets a handle on all of the things involved with being a monarch, he can not constantly be doing that alone. He still helps, he's still there doing monarch things and fixing the country, but now he's got a bit more free time to devote to other things.
Accordingly, there's a project he picks back up that he was only tinkering with before his marriage. He'd like to reinvent the fountain that heals familiars, have there be others in strategic locations, so that spellbinders don't need to rush to the capitol to avoid being unmade. Progress on the project's always been slow, there's a reason that it hasn't just been reinvented immediately after the spell charts were lost, but he's got some very good reasons to work on it with a near-obsessive zeal.
One day, to his utter surprise, when he goes to find another portion of the spell-chart to complete, he can't find it. He stares at the chart, stunned. Then he starts checking his work. It takes him a few days to finish the corrections.
Then he's done. He's remade a revolutionary spell chart.
He picks up the huge spell chart, does his best to fold it down to a reasonable travel size, and then heads off to show the nearest spell binder - Iobel.
royal_obligation
come_midnight
"Sure, but you have to tell me what to focus on first. Bleeding?" she prompts. "Stay awake, you sound concussed if I'm any judge, I have a spell for that but it has to wait for midnight."
royal_obligation
"Mm. Dunno if I am," mutters Edarial. "But lots of things hurt - ... broken ribs, fractured arm, th're was another one but I forget what it was..."
Berathyme slithers over. "I do not believe he's bleeding," she pronounces. "Externally."
Berathyme slithers over. "I do not believe he's bleeding," she pronounces. "Externally."
come_midnight
"Okay. I could set the arm but it'd be a waste, it won't misheal between now and midnight, the important thing is to stay awake, you understand? Talk to me."
royal_obligation
He tries to nod, then hisses in pain. "Ow."
Then, quietly, he starts counting to fifty.
Then, quietly, he starts counting to fifty.
come_midnight
Iobel tries to find a comfortable way to sit, given her leg. Eventually she winds up lying on her front next to her husband, fingetips still on his shoulder to remind her not to suddenly jostle him.
royal_obligation
"Are you okay?" he asks, eventually. "Y' sound better off then me, but - are you okay...?"
come_midnight
"I don't hear anyone trying to dig us out. Or any of the guards, but they aren't in this pocket whatever their condition, that I'm pretty sure of. It's small or our voices wouldn't echo like this."
royal_obligation
Berathyme slithers closer, and gently, gently, settles down next to him.
He's silent for a few seconds, then resumes counting.
He's silent for a few seconds, then resumes counting.
come_midnight
Iobel lies there listening to him. Eventually Cricket trots over to her and curls up on her back.
royal_obligation
After a while, he stops counting again, and whispers, "... Why are you worrying...?"
come_midnight
"You may have internal bleeding even if it's nothing Berathyme can smell, you could be dying, and if you're talking that'll let me know if you start to slip and I can start trying heroic measures like jostling the ceiling of this pocket we find ourselves in. And my head injury spell can't fix a coma if you fall into one, so you have to stay awake."