Of Emily

There it was sitting in front of him, just for the taking, his opportunity, his freedom. A guard stood with his hand on the cell door, lit from behind by the fitfully burning torches.

"The king wants you."

"Oh does he now? Fancy that."

"None of your lip beast, or I'll put your other eye out."

Laok chuckled as his head hung between his knees, "Do that and I'll be no use to anyone."
The guard just bent forward and grabbed the Jothani's arm and hauled him roughly to his feet. Laok had been imprisoned so long there wasn't much he could do to fight back... yet.

The tiny girl, almost skeletally thin, lay on a bed of finest linen and down, looking like some horribly starved effigy enshrined as a god. Laok looked down at the young princess in disgust. The guard had deposited him in the royal bedchamber where she waited, along with her nervous and fretting parents. He slid them a sidelong glance and smiled inwardly. Oh how far the mighty had fallen, to finally turn to /his/ aid.

Well, he had better get to work. He clicked in his mind and looked at the girl. He was momentarily taken aback by the amount of infection that laced through her, he had a moment of pure panic where he thought he would barely have enough energy to heal the girl, let alone enact his plan. Then he smiled inside again and turned to the king, his expression rearranged into one of worry, "She is very, very sick. I don't think I have the strength to heal her, at least not all at once..." He turned his gaze back to the girl, "Though maybe, over the course of a moon, if I was given more to eat..."

The guard grunted unhappily, obviously loath to give his prisoner any better treatment than he was already getting. The king, however, was almost ready to fall all over himself in his eagerness to supply Laok with what he needed. "Yes, double rations, and meat too, not just bread and water, see to it!"

The young Jothani extended his hand over the sleeping girl's chest, closed his eyes, and dove. He really wasn't very good at this. He did his best to ease her illness but expended much more energy than he should have. His healing was clumsy and poorly wielded, but when he finally pulled out and opened his eyes he saw that he had been able to do some visible good. She had a little bit of color back in her. She was still pale but no longer bordering on the transparent, and her breaths came easier without the rattling sobs she had before.

"Emily!" The king lurched forward and flung his arms around his daughter, tears welling up in his eyes. He parted her hair with shaking hands and kissed her forehead. "Why won't she wake?" He asked, his voice shaking.

"I told you, I'm not strong enough to heal her outright, it might take up to a moon." Laok was visibly wilting, leaning on a table for support. He was also quickly loosing patience and just wanted to go lay down.

"You can go then, and you'll get double-rations from now on, with meat thrown in." The king nodded to the guard who grabbed Laok roughly by his atrophied bicep and guided him back to his cell.

When the door clanged shut Laok had his head once again hanging between his knees. This time, however, his shoulders were shaking in silent laughter as he realized, the key to his freedom had finally presented itself.