"My lady, it is your father. He is asking for you." The young apprentice bowed once her message was delivered and hurried off to continue her work.
Hereniel heaved her feet off the daybed where she had finally found a quiet moment to rest. Her feet were aching from all the standing and running up and down the stone steps. She slid her feet into her slippers and groaned as she felt the pain run from her feet and up her legs and to her back.
Her father's room was on the second floor and she hurried up the stairs, opened the heavy door to his chamber and kneeled next to his bed. He extended a weak hand, it's skin beeing close to transparent and as she grasped it she could feel it tremble in hers. He looked up at her in a sudden moment of clarity and his blue eyes pierced into hers.
"Darling, we need to discuss this more thoroughly..." He croaked.
She put a hand on his forehead and urged him to be quiet. "Nonesense, there is no need. You will recover, I've told you this before."
He gave the weakest of smiles as he shook his head. "It is too late for such hopeless dreams daughter, you know it."
She looked away, afraid to look him in the eye for fear of bursting into tears. Only in her solitude in her chamber would she allow herself to do that.
"It is your duty to take over, as head of house and healers, when I am gone." He continued.
She began protesting, knowing already it was futile. "Father, there are many men here far more superior than I in both healing and leading. They would fulfill this task with more success and willingly too."
"But they are not family!" He croak in a louder voice. "There is only you left." She looked gravely at him and he lowered his gaze when he realized what she was thinking. "No, there is no use. You know he choose a different path. He is no longer my concern." He stared stubbornly at the wall.
"He still consider us family. Why else would he keep sending us all those letters?"
Her father frowned. "Well he stoped sending them now did he not? He could be dead for all I know!" She remained silent, looking at her father's pale face. She squeezed his hand lightly and he squeezed hers back. "Don't you think I have considered the possibility?" He asked. "I would do anything to have him back with us, to have him safe. I have failed him and I have failed his mother."
"It was his wish to leave. You could not have kept him caged, even for his own safety."
"Still..." He muttered stubbornly. "A promise is a promise. Even more so if it is a promise to a dying woman." She could not argue with that so she let him continue. "No, it is up to you. I want you to take my place... Unless by some miracle he turns up on our doorstep, which I find very unlikely."
She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his forehead. His skin was burning. "You have strained yourself enough now, father. Time to get some more rest. Dinner is due and you need your strenght for that." She patted his arm and hoped that for once he would stop arguing. He grunted and she could hear him talking to himself as she left his room.
She closed to door behind her quietly and with her back against it she let out a sigh of relief. If only her brother would still be with them. Things would be so much easier and she'd have someone to share the weight on her shoulders. She thought about sending someone after him. She knew his last whereabouts. Would it be possible to find him?
