Sienna Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 10 of 11

Sienna stayed at Ember's cabin for two more days, letting the wounds close enough to move without tearing. Then she dressed in clothes someone had left folded beside the cot, strapped on what remained of her armor, and walked back to the watch tower. The others looked at her when she arrived, surprised or concerned or both. She ignored them and checked the duty roster, found her name crossed out for the week. She picked up a pen and wrote it back in. Someone asked if she was sure. She didn't answer. She took her post at the eastern wall and stood there through the morning shift, scanning the treeline like always. The scar was quiet. The beast was dead. But the watch still needed bodies, and hers was standing. By afternoon her ribs ached and the shoulder wound had started bleeding again through the bandages. She returned to the barracks and found the training yard empty, the wooden rack of practice swords leaning against the wall. She pulled one free and went through the basic drills, forcing her body to remember the patterns. The sword felt light and wrong after the weight of her real blade, but she kept moving. Each swing pulled at the half-healed tissue. Each pivot sent pain through her side. She didn't stop. When the bleeding soaked through and left red stains on the fresh bandages, she kept drilling until her arms shook and the sword slipped from her grip. She picked it up and started again. Ember found her there at dusk, breathing hard and gripping the practice sword with white knuckles. She didn't say anything at first, just stood in the doorway watching. Then she walked over and took the sword from Sienna's hand, set it back in the rack. Sienna started to protest but Ember pointed at the blood on her shirt, the way she was favoring her left side. "You're opened up again," Ember said. "Come back to the cabin." Sienna shook her head. "I'm on duty at dawn." Ember looked at her for a long moment, then pulled a roll of clean bandages from her coat and held them out. "Then let me wrap it here." Sienna took them and sat on the ground, unwinding the stained cloth herself while Ember waited. When she finished, she stood and walked past Ember toward the watch tower, not back to the cabin. She had a shift to finish. The pain didn't matter. The wound would close or it wouldn't. Either way, she'd be at her post.