Echos of a fateful meeting

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti blinked in surprise at the question about the tub. He wasn't used to quite so many questions. Normally when he tended to people they simply did as they were told or actively avoided knowing too much. He would have understood if it were questions about how long it might take to heal.
"The waters are healing...we added healing herbs, they stop the wounds from festering." He explained which was true although the whole of the truth was that there was also a healing that only he seemed to be able to do. That healing needed water. Likely Bastian would have bled and slipped into the eternal sleep if it weren't for Leti watching over him and stemming the flow with his gift.
For a moment leti seemed confused about why the man needed outside but understanding dawned on him. He hesitated for a moment, thinking that perhaps it would be best to bring the man a chamber pot but perhaps some fresh air would do him good.

He moved to take the man's arm around his shoulders on the side of the broken leg. Leti would help the man slowly out of the cave and brought him to a chamber pot outside near the vegetable garden. Even in the dark it was possible to see how high up on the mountain they were. The many stone steps disappearing down out of sight.
He of course waited turned away.
Once Bastian had finished he helped the man back inside to what seemed to be a common living area. It was lit by a large warm fireplace with a cauldron hanging over it. There was a large wooden table forged from a tree with several stools placed around. Warm light spilled over the room and moon light could be seen from the few small windows carved into the outer wall. There were herb racks and shelves of equipment for making various medicines but in general it was a very...homely room. He helped Bastian onto one of the stools and then left to another room shortly.
When he returned it was with a robe. As much as the man's nudity certainly didn't bother either of them, leti didn't want bastian to grow cold either.
Leti hummed as he set about pouring some soup for himself and bastian. It had been a long time since he had eaten with someone other than father.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

His question seemed to make the young man uncertain, which caused a conflict. He liked to know things and he found it a little suspicious. But at the same time...Leti had saved his life. If asking about the water made the man who had spent over five days ensuring he didn't die uncomfortable, then even despite his curiosity he was inclined not to ask about it. At least, not right now.

While Bastian couldn't say it was the man's magic that had saved him, he understood well enough that without Leti's care, he would certainly have bled out in that field. There was no maybe about it.

He didn't walk so much as lean on Leti and hobble. Even with the easing of his pain for the moment, using his leg hurt and standing made him feel lightheaded. Outside, even in the darkness, it was breathtaking. And cold. He stared at the stone steps for a long moment. It was a long way to walk even without carrying someone. Had Leti done that alone? He still had yet to see anyone else.He kept his thoughts inside as he relieved himself.

Bastian was grateful for the stool and the chance to catch his breath. He leaned forward against the gorgeous wooden table, arms folded in front of him to make a sort of pillow, forehead pressed against them. He didn't feel sick, just an immense exhaustion. They hadn't walked very fair (he hadn't paid much attention considering he'd been focused on not swearing), but he was covered in sweat anyway.

The robe settling around his shoulders made him start slightly and he realized he was...well...hadn't been wearing anything besides bandages. But he was confident in his body and Leti hadn't seemed bothered so he hadn't really thought about it. If anything he felt hot instead of cold, but the robe was welcome either way. "Thanks," he said, looking up and finally taking in a view of room as he pulled the robe on and tied it with heavy fingers around his waist.

The table was the centerpiece of the room. It felt very much like a cave, but not so roughhewn as the one he'd been sleeping in. This felt more like a home. There was a hearth with a cook pot at one end and all the accoutrements of any central living and cooking and eating space. It was a strange juxtaposition form the mountain side below. The windows were nice. Even though it was moonlight, the natural glow was appealing. "Do you live here alone?" he asked, watching the man collect food for both of them.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti set down a bowl of soup in front of bastian with a warm smile. "No, father lives here as well but he is often working in the village. He is sleeping now, perhaps you will meet him soon." He set down another bowl for himself and took up a stool next to Bastian. He could see now how exhausted the man was and his eyes filled with concern "Does it hurt badly anywhere?"
He knew that likely moving around had been too much of a strain for the man. Leti reached out to feel bastian's forehead to be sure that the man didn't have any sort of fever. He knew from looking at the man's wounds that none had become infected but it was hard to know completely.
Talking of his own family caused something to occur to him "Do you...have family? They must be missing you." Surely after five days if he had family then they must be worried sick Leti thought. He knew his own father worried if he was so much as late for super. "Father could perhaps send a letter along for you?"

[Sebastian Arcturis]

He wondered if the young man's father was a healer too. Most families worked that way at least, children taking after the parent's roles. He wondered if he was a healer for the village. To make that journey every day was dedication. Why not live closer? Admittedly, Bastian did like the atmosphere of the homey cave. And the distance. Maybe that was why.

Bastian smiled slightly into his arms at the question, lifting his gaze to the man's grey eyes, a light of amusement in his own. "Badly?" Oh everything sort of hurt, the qualifier had been necessary. Sore from sleeping, an aching broken leg, a number of stab wounds in his back and side. "My back. Breathing feels like a chore." He avoided taking deep breaths, but that meant more smaller ones and more movement.

After not having moved or worked out in five days and barely having eaten, even that effort had been a lot. He didn't move this time at Leti's touch, more comfortable with the action. He had a slight fever, but nothing alarming or that would indicate infection. The other man's hand didn't feel obviously cold. But it had been a work out, walking so much. He'd get used to it. He shifted slightly so he could sit up a bit more and took a few small bites of food. His arms felt heavy, but he could feed himself today, at least.

Family. He wasn't sure how to answer that for a moment. He decided to take it literally. That would be easiest. "My father. Doubt he's worried." A letter hadn't occurred to him. Because he and his father weren't close. Oh, Allerick would be worried of course, but it wasn't personal. He'd be more concerned Sebastian was being tortured and could give up information. More concerned that his prodigal son of the Wardens, the boy he had invested so much in, was now dead and useless to him. Worried about having to start over. Bastian shook his head at the suggestion of a letter. "I'll think about it." He was quite content, at least for a wile longer, not to think about his father.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Feleti was glad to see the man was only exhausted from moving about. He hmmed absently at the man's answer, making a mental note to apply some attention there latter. In a way that was good news as it meant that the healing was taking hold well. Leti hated seeing others in pain. Perhaps that was why he enjoyed being a healer.
He watched Bastian begin to eat for himself and marveled at the man's progress. As much as it would be nice to congratulate himself alone he knew that partially it was Bastian's own strength that was the cause. He had felt it when he was healing Bastian, the clawing desire to survive. Even now Bastian seemed to be stubbornly forging ahead. Feleti had seen all sort of patients before, some tended to wallow in their misery, others wanted to hope but couldn't help but be discouraged. Bastian was the other sort, the kind that refused to succumb. It was a strength of character that Leti was always fond of when he had the chance to see it.

Leti picked up the spoon to eat himself but paused midway in response to how bastian had described his family. From Bastian's tone and his disinterest, Leti gathered that they must not be very close. Being a healer brought you into many different sorts of homes. He himself had always been so close to his father despite not being blood that it took him by surprise sometimes when others weren't. "alright" He replied softly and resumed eating for awhile.
Even in silence it was nice to share a meal....well it would have been even nicer if the man he was sharing it with weren't there because of a battering. But it was still nice.

After a few minutes in the quiet Leti turned to Bastian with those big curious eyes again. "What do you do? What brought you all the way to greyshollow? Are you a trader?" He knew the roads could be very dangerous. Even though he dreamed of traveling himself he knew that people rarely did so without good reason.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Eating for himself was progress. It was also exhausting. But if he couldn't walk for himself or very much else, he was determined to do something. It was especially frustrating, considering a normal day for him he was up at the edge of dawn to work out and spar and instruct other guards and meet with the King and follow him about his day (usually just to the throne room and dining hall but it was a lot of standing) and then evenings were often more training or meetings and ended in tavern visits to decompress. But he couldn't do any of that. He couldn't even keep a sleep schedule.

It was more frustration than strength, at least how he saw it, but Feleti wasn't wrong. It was only partly his ego, so he told himself.

Bastian didn't mind what the man thought of his family or lack thereof. He had a sister and there were the wardens and he cared about both but the feelings weren't that of a usual family. Nor did the man assume they were returned. He certainly wanted them too. But Cera didn't even know about him and he didn't know much about making those sort of connections.

He enjoyed the meal and made it about halfway through the soup before his stomach decided that would be enough if he wanted to keep any of it. He pushed the bowl away so he could lean on the table again. Bastian shook his head at the questions. His demeanor wasn't dismissive or uncomfortable in the face of Leti's curiosity, just distant. Like he was still warming up to the man who had had five days to become intimately familiar with him in some ways. "I'm a soldier. Was going to visit a friend in the village." That was technically true.

Clearly he was not a very good soldier, from his own judgement. One mystic and this happens? Well, certainly knowing what he was fighting against would have helped. Then maybe he wouldn't have started a fight in a goddamn forest, but he had been a little...overeager.

"You're a healer?" It was barely a question, knowing what he did. "Why?" More of a question. "Why live on top of a mountain?" Also more of a question. Leti had asked him three after all, he thought he should try to return the favor.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti didn't mind that the man couldn't finish his food. If anything the healer seem to make a face akin to 'well done' when bastian pushed the bowl away. It was normal for someone in his state not to take to food easily.

His eyes lit with admiration as Bastian's admission. "A soldier! Really?" He couldn't help from exclaiming before he realized and tempered himself a bit, adding more softly "We don't have many in the village...and the ones we do don't really like to talk about it..." There were a few retired soldiers sprinkled about but that was the sort of work you had to leave to do really. That and the more he learned about bastian the less silly his imaginations about the man while he had slept seemed. After all Leti had spent the first day or so frantically being unable to focus on anything but keeping bastian breathing. However once the man had been stabilized that had still left leti with a lot of time looking after the unconscious man. Feleti was used to spending time alone, and had developed a slight habit of talking to himself. He would have been pretty embarrassed if Bastian had remembered all of the aimless prattle and well wishes he had spoke whilst tending to bastians limp form. At first it was more to calm himself down. Things like 'hang in there' and 'I'm right here with you!' but it eventually moved to things like 'with a face and a sword like that you're almost like a knight from a story....where did you come from...' and other musings.
To have one be more or less true was strangely exciting.

At first Leti didn't understand Bastian's question at first. His face fell to confusion. Was there a reason not to be a healer? and this was his home?
But he realized it must seem very inconvenient to a stranger.
"My father is a healer, he took me in as a babe to have an apprentice." He felt no shame in saying his fate had been decided at birth or admitting his father was adoptive. Everyone in the village old enough to know did know.
He smiled as he explained, clearly happy with his lot in life. "Healers have lived her for as far back as anyone can remember. It's.....important." He finished with a shrug. He had never questioned it but his father had always raised him with the notion that having a healer look after this place held some higher significance.
Of course Bastian hadn't seen the parts Leti loved most about his home. Those were secrets that even the villagers that had been treated here didn't know.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

He wanted to take to the food...he just wasn't sure the food wanted to take to him. Even after resting a moment his stomach didn't want to sit still. It mirrored his own feelings, he supposed, but seeing the soup once was enough.

Bastian nodded. He could hear and see and feel Leti's excitement. The man supposed being a soldier was exciting. after all. "It can be hard to talk about," he agreed, his tone bellying his age. He'd been in a lot of real fights. Often just with bandits, but a few mystics and assassins. Well, an tavern brawls, but he hardly counted those. He liked fighting. But it was also one of the few things he knew. And he knew it well. Magic...not so much. Most of his soldiering saw him a guard at the palace. But every now and then he got himself put on a patrol of the island. To get away. He supposed Leti had a similar fascination with seeing more than just the same walls of his home village.

He was rather like a knight from a story. Only not the nice kind.

Face buried in his arms, he didn't see the initial confusion, but he felt it in the air. He hadn't meant any judgement in his words, simply asked the questions to better understand. He wasn't much of a people person so...he rather liked the cave in the mountains complex the young man had going.

Important like the healing water thing, maybe. Bastian wasn't sure. He closed his eyes again. Adopted, following his father footsteps...none of it really bothered the man. It was respectable, he supposed, to adopt and to teach them a trade. "You're father sounds like a respectable man," he noted, voice trailing off slightly. Something else about the man's words stuck in his head bout he couldn't shake it loose just then. From Leti's tone, he seemed to like it here.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti smiled fondly at bastian's kind words as he finished his own soup. "He's....a very kind man. He was a field medic once. He also finds that hard to talk about too though." Feleti knew a few things about his father's past and the few stories that cain felt comfortable telling but mostly cain just told him it was dangerous.

Sure sometimes the man could be harsh or strict and he wasn't the best father. Even so, Cain had always tried his best and Feleti liked being a healer. It felt good to ease pain and help people. Even though he dreamed about going out to see the rest of the island he knew that living here had a purpose too.
"We should get you back to resting..." Feleti said noticing that Bastian was near to sleeping at the table. He had already prepared a proper bed roll for Bastian next to his own. He couldn't keep leaving the man in the washroom all the time....even if it might be more convenient for healing if Bastian stayed in the tub.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

A very kind man. Unlike his own father. But Allerick was more...a guardian than a father. And even that was a little generous. Harsh and strict were the typical forms of affection Bastian knew form the man, though any attention was rare. A field medic meant Leti's father was familiar with combat, even if he hadn't fought himself.

Healers were useful everywhere, at least. Just like soldiers. More than soldiers.

Bastian let out a hum of agreement. It was difficult to keep his eyes open, despite wanting to. He wouldn't argue with laying down for a bit however. Ideally not on the hard floor or tub, but he'd slept a lot of places and he was positive he could fall asleep right here if given the chance. He was well on his way there already, honestly. He pulled himself up a little but stayed leaning on the table. "Something with more pillows," he said. It was almost a joke. The sort that sound even more hilarious to tired people, whether they are actually hilarious or not. He was also serious, considering how much his back hurt.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti chuckled a bit at the man's almost joke. "Of course" He replied with a smile and lit a lantern before he came over to help the man move about the cave. There were actually three 'doorways' out of the room not including the cave entrance. One was the room with the tube that Bastian had entered, the other was some sort of storage room and the one in the center seemed to lead down at a bit of an incline serving as a hallway of sorts.

He held up the lantern as they made their way down stone steps. The way the light seemed to fade out far below indicated that the stairs led to an almost inexplicable depth. However they only walk a short ways down the steps before turning into a room hewn from the stone as the others were. This too had the look of being made homely by the furniture and decorations. He helped Bastian over to where two bedrolls lie off to a corner of the room. They were simple fabric laid on straw and stuffed of sheeps wool to dampen the harsh stone ground. More of the woven sheep's wool blankets and pillows made an appearance as well. It wasn't the finery a man from the palace might be accustomed to but it was a plenty more comfortable than sleeping in a stone tub.
The room itself had a rug, a makeshift desk, a chest, a handful of books, columns of wax from candles and many flowers hung about drying on the walls. In general despite the relatively small amount of furniture it still felt lived in.

Leti helped Bastian into the bed and tucked a blanket over before crawling in next to Bastian. If any notion that crawling in to bed with another man was scandalous had occurred to Leti it certainly didn't show on his features. In general it made sense to Leti that he should be near in case Bastian should wake and need care in the middle of the night. Though perhaps the desire to be so exactly near the man was born of an attachment that Leti himself hadn't realized yet.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Bastian stood with Leti's help, though it was clear he would almost prefer to sit there and sleep at the table. He grumbled at the top of the steps. Of course there were stairs. Even tired as he was though, the depth of the steps wasn't lost on him. Though he was relieved they weren't navigating all of them he was mildly curious. What sort of fantastical thing was buried in the healer's cave at the top of a mountain? The dark was more of an invitation than a deterrent. "Big place," he mumbled.

The bedroll and straw was a beyond welcome sight. He did sleep in a proper bed in the castle, but it wasn't much to sneeze at. This was comfortable, in his simple opinion.

He wondered if this was Leti's bedroom. It seemed likely from the furnishings. Sleeping next to another man didn't strike him as anything special. He didnt have his own room at the castle, after all.

Sleeping with another man up against him and under the same blanket...that wasn't something he was used to. It was sudden and alarming but he didn't move.

"What are you doing?" Bastian asked, tone largely impasive. Admittedly, if he wasn't so tired, he would have jumped up and crawled away and told the guy to fuck off. But he was tired and out of it and it still felt sort of like a dream.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti hadn't caught the mumbled comment. Though he would have agreed. It was an impossibly large home. Well, actually a small portion of it was their home. Cain had to scold Leti a lot and often about exploring the old passageways. The deeper the passages were the older they seemed to be or perhaps that was because there was no one to maintain them anymore. That meant that wandering off was dangerous, not just because of getting lost but because some of the narrower tunnels could collapse.
He had no fear of Bastian making such a mistake in his condition.

Bastian's tired but seemingly irritated question caught Leti by surprise. He didn't know much about life outside but even from what he had seen of village life it wasn't so odd for family to share a bed. He had already spent nearly a week sleeping at the man's side so it hadn't occurred to him that the addition of a better bed might change something. The question was met with big innocent eyes and an unassuming stare. "I'm....going to sleep..." He replied slowly with a hint of confusion in his voice "Aren't you tired?..." Then he seemed to realize but "Oh! are you cold? I could find another blanket if you like?" is what he asked thinking that the problem lie with sharing one blanket.
Perhaps if it had been any other patient he might have created more distance but he trusted Bastian and wanted to be near him.

[Sebastian Arcturis]

Bastian was slowly understanding the cave network was extensive. It sparked a small curiosity that he had to put aside for now. He also didn't want to wander off in someone else's space.

One would need to have a family to share a bed with them. Leti might have been falling asleep next to Bastian every night but the Warden didn't remember much of it. Even last night or whatever time it had been that he slept.

The look on Leti's face made it abundantly clear that there waa no point in making a big deal out of nothing. And then he was asking if he wanted anotjer blanket.

He didn't bother answering if he was tired. It was obvious enough. "I'm alright, he said, settling into the bed and spending more effort on getting comfortable than on whether he found it awkward Leti was sleeping so close to him. Sebastian wasn't used to being close to people period, physically or emotionally. It wasn't something he had ever been raised with.

The Warden yawned and shifted to his side, the right one that wasn't so injured. He conveniently ended up facing the other man but he was too tired to care. Eyes closed and a heavy breath later, Bastian felt himself drifting off, provided his sleeping companion didn't move very much.

[Feleti Eidothea]

Leti seemed unsure what to think of bastian's answer but watched settle in without saying anything. Once Bastian seemed comfortable enough to be falling asleep Leti shifted only slightly to tuck himself in.
After a few moments of watching the other man drift off the cozyness of their shared warmth under the blanket had Leti falling asleep as well.
Luckily for Bastian Leti tended to sleep quite soundly. He was used to getting a long deep sleep considering that one had to rely on their own rhythm to wake up in such a dark cave. Even on bright days very little light from the main entrance made it's way down to the room. Leti was quite used to navigating in the dark when he had to but he imagined that wouldn't be very pleasant for their guest.

Even so given how long Bastian had slept yesterday likely leti would rise much sooner. He would carefully shift out of the bed and move back out toward the main room to begin his morning chores.