Elva and Daryll, along with Etta and Precy, were the only Wyverns at the manor. Ed had gone to battle with Kire, and even Jan had been away on business on Kire’s behalf, securing another alliance. It always made the healer uneasy now whenever the family was separated, which was funny, considering she had been the first one to move away from the Capital. Now, all that rebellion seemed so petty, after having known what it would be like to lose both her brothers and to see the empire crack in two. She remained behind the most out of all of them, both because of her duty to the large Northern territories, which now were a safe haven for the Wyverns, and because, on the off chance that the rest of the clan fell, she, Daryll, and the girls would carry on. [i]Gods, stop this morbid thinking[/i], she thought, as she prepared the next lesson for the newest healers she had been training. 

She heard a shout from the great hall, and a commotion immediately after that. “What in the gods?”
“Milady!” an attendant cried out, bursting into the infirmary. “The Empress is hurt!” 
Elva cursed, and immediately instructed the healers in the room to prepare to receive Kire, rushing out with three others carrying a stretcher. When she reached the hall, Elva only took a moment to pause in surprise. “Ruli?” 

Questions later. Elva bent down to examine her cousin. Rulitus had thankfully pulled off most of her armor, still warm from the portal. Kire’s right arm twitched, and the skin around the forearm looked burnt, the same way her Ring finger had after the gate. The clothes she had worn underneath looked scorched as well, and the side of her face was covered in soot from when she had barely evaded the flames from the explosion. “Gods above,” she breathed. She gave instructions in Taakalon to the other attendants, who immediately carried Kire back to the infirmary. For several minutes she spoke only to the attendants, and upon reaching the infirmary she dove into the work herself, loosening whatever clothing was left on Kire, carefully cleaning the skin, injecting medicines and applying ointments. 

“I assume the Ring would help heal her, but with her being unconscious and the severity of the burns, it’ll need help,” she finally said in common tongue to Ruli, pausing in her work while another healer immediately took over the work she had left of. Elva’s gaze roamed over him too to scan for injuries. He looked perfectly alright, if not winded. In fact, he didn’t even look dressed for war at all, and she couldn’t remember either Kire or Ed mentioning going back to the other world to bring him or the elf woman to fight with them. She caught the eye of another attendant and told her to bring out a coat and boots for Ruli before turning back to him.

“What happened?” [i]And where’s the sword?[/i] “Does—does this mean they lost?” she said, her face grim, bracing herself for terrible news. [i]Where’s Ed?[/i] Elva swallowed the sudden chill from the dread she felt at the question.