The room stared at Everyn as though they expected her to spew out encyclopedic knowledge of Ryala and her condition.

  “I have no idea how to fix this!” She snapped. “I tried to tell you when we first got back, but no one listened and now look.”

  “That attitude won’t help anything,” Mari scowled. “I acknowledge we made mistakes. I assumed you knew something. She lived with you, clearly you knew this critical little fact about her, and you don’t know anything else?"

  Everyn clenched her teeth, trying desperately to keep her word that she would rest once she got here, “She drank straight alcohol on our missions. Is that helpful information, Mari?”

  Mari’s expressions lightened in speculation, “Why?”

  “Something about contaminants in our food and water. It’s not as though those with her condition can get drunk. Alcohol is just about the only poison her body doesn’t react to.”

  “But diseases do,” Mari muttered. “I would wager she was keeping her blood heavily saturated with alcohol to prevent infection. But this disease was too much for even that, and everything we did only made this worse.”

  “Now that we’ve established the obvious, what should we do about it?” Everyn grumbled, feeling beginning to return unfortunately sharply to her leg.

  “For starters,” Mari glared unamusedly. “ Anything else we try to stabilize her will have to be heavily saturated with fermented products.”

  “Which will not only take time we don’t have but will also kill the effectiveness of most potions.”

  “I’m aware,” Mari pinched the bridge of her nose. “But it’s something.”

  “What ingredients do we have left? I could try to make--”

  “No,” Mari said shortly. “You are to be resting.”

  “I thought you wanted my help.”

  “Do you have anything useful to add that the rest of us don’t already know?” She retorted.

  Not new information but she could help. Help with ingredients, prep, experimentation.

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  Everyn opened her mouth to say as much, but was interrupted before she could eek out so much as a word, “No. There’s nothing you can I add I can’t get the others to assist with. Now, Nata, could you ask the men to bring her cot so she can lay down?”

  Nata nodded and scuttled from the room with her head down.

  “I don’t need a cot,” Everyn told Mari. “And I can help from this chair.”

  “We could sedate you if you prefer?” Mari offered sarcastically. “If you don’t remember, more than just your leg was injured. You hit your head while you were out there. Nata didn’t detect any major damage when she looked through your mind, but it would make me feel a lot better if you just relaxed,” She added, her shoulder falling, her determination melting into exhaustion. “As best as you can at least. When Nata gets back with the cot, can you at the very least just rest for one night? I’ll have the others scrape together what fermented fruit and grain and any liquor that might still be around. You can help us in the morning. Deal?”

  Mari was right, as much as Everyn hated to admit it. She was no use to Ryala or anyone else if she made her injuries worse and she was forced to stay put longer.

  “Fine. On two conditions.” Everyn finally agreed.

  Mari looked at her with tired eyes, “Fine. what is it?”

  “First, keep her secret as closely as you can,” Everyn nodded toward Ryala. “Only people who need to know. This doesn’t have to be gossip.”

  “Agreed,” Mari said. “She had good reason to hide this, but I can’t keep it from Elissa you know.”

  Everyn’s jaw tightened.

  Ryala’s career with her team was almost certainly over, “I know.”

  Mari gave a nod of understanding, “And the other thing you wanted?"

  “Before I can rest, bring Sterling and Valan here. They should hear about all this from me. They’re going to find out sooner or later.”

  -----------

  “When do you think they’ll wake up?” Valan sat on his bed across from Sterling, patching the miniscule holes in one of his shirts just to keep his hands busy.

  This wasn’t the first injury on their team, but this one was seeming to be worrying Valan out far more than usual.

  “I don’t know,” Sterling responded.

  Everyn had been examined and stitched up and was going to be perfectly fine, but last he’d been told they were still trying to patch up Ryala. Though it did seem strange that Ryala’s injuries would take longer. They were, overall, less severe.

  As for Cora, he couldn't even begin to guess. She should have healed near instantly, but she didn’t.

  Sterling could only assume it was her Spark. How long they were gone, she must not have had time to hunt before the others were attacked.

  She knew she wouldn’t be able to heal well, and she went to help anyway. If that news didn’t help her win the favor of the rest of this place, this really was a hopeless cause.

  Regardless of how the other felt, Sterling for one was thankful beyond words that she was with them when this happened.

  “Sterling? Valan?” A woman appeared in their doorway.

  Sterling recognized her as one of the recovery team, but couldn’t recall her name.

  “Mari!” Valan flew to his feet, flinging the shirt to the foot of the bed. “You have news?”

  She nodded, “Everyn’s awake. She’s doing fine, but she needs to talk to you both.”

  “What about Ryala?” Sterling stood.

  A subtle tension spread across Mari’s features, “That’s what Everyn wants to talk to you about.”