[Rybinsk] A thousand cracks (Nastya/Alyona)

6th November 2003

It was November now. Aglaya was making slow progress in her recovery even if not as much as she had hoped for. The young woman was still feeling weak and exhausted and the formerly so brave and daring witch felt that she startled easily and was wary of most people. She had started to go for walks with Bronislav a while ago. Usually doing it when nobody was there to witness that she actually left the house because she did not want to have to justify herself, did not want these questioning looks, did not want company; she just wanted this to be her secret.

Whenever she went out she tried to disguise herself, wearing hats to conceal her red hair and a scarf that she pulled up to her nose that basically just her nose and her eyes were still visible from her face. She had started with very short walks, feeling tired after only ten minutes outside. However, Bronislav had soon started dragging her further and so they ended up in the nearby forest. Unfortunately the young dog had taken an interest in chasing rabbits and Aglaya tried to keep up with him for a few steps until she dropped the lead and stood there, feeling rather lost. She had called out for the dog but the animal hadn’t listened. Feeling anxious and exhausted, Aglaya sunk down on the ground, leaning against a tree, crying. She felt unable to get home, unsure how she could possibly explain that Bronislav had run away and just felt paralysed. After a while, the young woman was almost dozing off despite the coldness that slowly crept through her clothes, Bronislav reappeared, and tugged on her sleeve, trying to animate her to move again. It took her a while to gather enough strength to get up again and even longer to walk home. The next day she spent mostly in bed, feeling too weak and discouraged to do anything at all.

However, over the next days she felt that she needed to work on regaining her strength. She did not want to be a pathetic and feeble creature, she did not want to give up. She had always been a fighter, after all. There was no way that she’d let some insane stalker ruin her life. With new determination the witch now took (still secret) walks with Bronislav almost every day, choosing the time wisely when she did not expect any family member to visit her. She also began working on her low beam in the living room and at the barre in front of the mirror, while still trying to avoid looking into the face of her reflection as this still disturbed her.

It was November though. The annual Christmas gala was close and, while nobody had addressed the topic with her yet, Aglaya felt that she should prepare for the event. She needed goals anyway. It was maybe a little too high set for her current condition but she didn’t want to accept defeat just yet. The work outs were exhausting and sometimes Aglaya felt unable to mount the stairs to her bedroom after working on the beam for like half an hour and just took a nap on the sofa until she regained enough strength to move again. She still drifted into unsettling nightmares occasionally but the more she worked out the less frequent these nightmares appeared.

Her mother, clearly noticing that she was pushing herself a little too far, warned her to take it slowly but seemed overall pleased with the progress she was making. Therefore, Aglaya even began working on a new routine, preparing a choreography on the beam. She was well aware that she was not even halfway back to her former strength but she wanted to train properly again. Despite the fact that she would rather try training in secret, Aglaya felt that she should inform her mother that she wanted to get back on her broom. It would be foolish to take the risk without taking proper precautions. She was not going to allow herself to be helpless again. If her mother was around she could quickly fix any injuries that she might get. Alyona was a healer, it was her job anyway.

Alyona had, after all, even complained that she had not shown her the splinching injury in the first place. When she had discovered it sometime mid October, Aglaya had had to listen to a long and angry rant about how her mother could have healed it quickly and without even leaving a scar. Aglaya didn’t mind the faint scar that remained after her mother had finished her work, though. She found it strangely pleasing. It was a reminder that she could still make her own decisions (and own mistakes) even if not all of them were wise when she looked back.

Although reluctant at first, Alyona had agreed to accompany Aglaya to the artistic flying school to try training again. Encouraged by this concession, Aglaya had written her coach a brief note to meet her there and had accepted her mother’s offer of walking her there in the evening after the official trainings had ended. She had considered apparating but she did not want to take an unnecessary risk of injuring herself before she’d even get to mount her broom and, besides, if she walked, she could even take Bronislav to the flying school as well. She did her warm up under the observant eyes of both her great aunt and her mother and felt how her heart was beating quickly when she finally mounted her broom.

She flew a few laps in the arena, not really doing any moves yet, just trying to get used to the height and speed again and trying to keep her balance. Then she asked Aleksandra to play the music she had chosen – Toccata and Fugue by Bach – and began to try some sequences she had worked out on her beam at home. It was exhausting and after a few minutes Aglaya was sweating quite a bit, was panting, and felt dizzy. However, she was unwilling to end her training prematurely. She could go on, she did not want to accept that her body was not ready for this.

As she flew a sharp turn, Aglaya lost her balance for the first time, slipping off her broom as she just couldn’t put enough pressure on the first platform to steady herself. She soon found herself on the ground, feeling lightheaded and shaky but she waved at her mother and her coach, indicating that she was doing okay and pushed herself up to go on flying. Deep inside she was aware that this was not going to end well but she did not want to surrender yet. She tried sequence of steps but as she felt more than a little dizzy now, she missed the centre of the platform, twisting her ankle and falling off her broom yet again. There was a sharp pain and she heard her mother call out to her but she did not even try to understand what she was saying as she crawled on all fours to get back to her broom. Aglaya forced herself to her feet again, mounting her broom and trying to smile towards her small audience that she could not see clearly because there were pixels obscuring her vision now.

There was still a sequence of little jumps that Aglaya was determined to try before she’d be willing to end her training. She tried to ignore the warning signs that her body gave her and went for the first jump. Instead of landing safely on a platform again, Aglaya landed with her right foot on the left footrest which resulted on the broomstick being catapulted upwards. The pain that occurred as the broomstick hit her shoulder with full force made her lose consciousness even before her body hit the ground for a third time.

@Nastya Tikhomirova

When Aglaya had announced that she wanted to try training again, Alyona had been reluctant at first. She felt that it was too early, too dangerous, but she also wanted to encourage her daughter to move on and try to live her life again. Therefore, she had hesitantly agreed to accompany her to the artistic flying school and, well, she also knew her daughter well enough to be aware that she would probably attempt to fly with or without her consent anyway. It clearly was indefinitely better to be right there to prevent the worst than to learn about what happened belatedly. After all, both her daughters seemed to think that keeping things from her was a good idea.

She eyed Aglaya suspiciously as she warmed up, watched her first laps on the broom nervously and was almost running towards her when she fell off the broom for the first time. Aleksandra, however, held her back, saying that it was perfectly normal for an artistic flyer to fall off their broom during training and that she should allow her daughter to get used to flying again and not patronise her. Alyona did not quite agree with that statement. Aleksandra did not know everything, after all. She was unaware just how ill Aglaya had been and how slowly her recovery was progressing.

However, she remained put but had mixed feelings as she kept watching her daughter. On the one hand she enjoyed seeing Aglaya fly again. There were brief moments where the champion’s former greatness seemed to become visible again and then there were struggles that revealed a little too clearly that Aglaya was nowhere near to being in shape again. Alyona bit her lips when she saw her eldest daughter fall off her broom yet again and shook her head.

“I should stop her from continuing,” she muttered as she saw how Aglaya crawled back to her broom and only pushed herself to her feet once she reached it. “This is not good,” she said. Her face was pale now and she felt how hear heartbeat quickened. “Aglaya, it’s enough. Stop it!” she yelled but her daughter did not seem to hear her. “Why does she never listen?!” she muttered more to herself than to Aleksandra or Anastasiya who had joined them in the meantime.

“Do you still think I should let her continue?” she asked Aleksandra, her voice pained. She pulled out her wand, tempted to put an end to Aglaya’s performance. However, before she could do anything she saw Aglaya attempt a jump that went awfully wrong. Her heart skipped a beat and she gasped. “No!” she screeched in panic. Aglaya lay on the ground for a third time now, but this time she did not try to get to her feet again, did not move at all.

Bronislav, who had lain on the floor, rather unimpressed by what went on so far, seemed to feel the need to check on his owner and reached Aglaya even before Alyona made it there, snarling at the healer as she approached her daughter. “Nastya!” she yelled angrily. “Get this dog out of the way. Now!” She took a shaky breath as she moved closer to the injured athlete. “Take him out for a walk. You can return him to your sister later,” she told Nastya, forcing her voice to sound calm and relaxed. “I’ll take care of her. She’ll be okay…” She wasn’t sure how much damage had been caused, but she assumed that she would be able to fix it somehow.

Once the dog was out of the way, Alyona knelt down next to Aglaya and sighed. Even without examining her closer the healer could tell that her daughter most likely had a clavicle fracture. She summoned a stretcher and moved Aglaya onto it, using her wand. For a moment she considered her options and then decided to take her straight to Aglaya’s place even though that wasn’t connected to the floo network and thus wasn’t the most convenient choice. However, she assumed that Aglaya would not thank her for doing anything else.

“Please, don’t tell anyone about this,” Alyona told Aleksandra as she cast a disillusionment charm on both Aglaya on the stretcher and herself and then levitated the stretcher and guided it through the streets to Aglaya’s place. It was exhausting and her omnipresent headache got worse due to the exertion. As they reached the house and got inside, Alyona first lifted the disillusionment charm before moving upstairs and placing Aglaya in bed. She did not feel able to look at her daughter for a couple of minutes. Then, however, she took Aglaya’s sweater off and examined the damaged shoulder. She shook her head and a worried expression spread across her face. She could heal the fracture but it would still take a while to heal properly as it wasn’t just a simple facture that could be fixed by a quick flick of her wand. At least, while Aglaya was still unconscious, she could do all in her might to help without having to explain herself. After having restored the bone as well as possible, Alyona immobilised Aglaya’s right arm, using a bandaging charm. Then she changed her into her pyjamas, leaving the right sleeve empty, and sat down in the armchair next to her bed, waiting for her to wake up.

Nastya still hadn’t finished her first full week of training when Alyona made her vaguely aware that Aglaya was about to attempt her first training session. Nastya wasn’t sure if Aglayka would want her there or not, but she figured she’d come and give her support regardless.

During the last hour of official training, Nastya had been on the beams with Veronika working on their new element, the double split or the split switch (they hadn’t decided what to call it yet). Progress wasn’t particularly fast, and Nastya kept slipping off of the beam on her landings, much to her frustration. She was quickly tiring, and Veronika noticed this and told Anastasiya to stop training for the day almost half an hour early. Nastya didn’t accept that, she was determined to do the full training day, feeling the pressure of having to take Aglaya’s place in the gala that was quickly approaching. She pretended to do as she was told and began to walk away from the beam room towards the changing room, but once she was certain that Veronika had left, Nastya immediately turned back into the beam room and worked for another hour, past official training hours.

Eventually she finally landed one, though she didn’t have enough time to properly switch legs in the air.  Since that wasn’t good enough, Nastya wanted to go again, but as she felt a sudden wave of dizziness and unwillingly sat down on the beam. It was a welcome reminder that she had pushed her limits for the day. Nastya checked the time, and knew that Aglaya had already started. Nastya slid off the beam and lay down on the mat until the room stopped spinning, before she quickly got changed and headed to the arena, hearing music already playing. It was awful, anxiety inducing nightmare music, so it was clearly Aglayka’s.

She could see Aleksandra and Alyona in the distance and moved to join them. As she grew closer she was surprised to see Bronislav, but very happy nonetheless. She loved the dog very much. Nastya didn’t react at all as Aglaya fell off of her broom the first time, still slowly making her way towards her family. She had fallen many times in beam training, it was not unexpected for falls to happen. Reaching them both, Nastya nodded her greeting to both witches, before turning her attention to Aglayka.

Some moments that almost reminded her of her rival made her smile. But it didn’t stop her from gasping a little as she fell down again, and her eyebrows knitted together in concern. Aleksandra did nothing, and Nastya glanced at her mother, pleased that Alyona, at least, was taking action as she called out to Aglaya, who naturally ignored it. She heard her mother mutter to herself, but found she couldn’t respond, keeping her eyes glued on her sister, feeling her heart slowly start to speed up as her mouth grew dry. She knew something was going to go wrong. She just knew it.

Out of her periphery, Nastya saw her mother withdraw her wand, it seemed like a smart decision. Anastasiya watched and felt utterly helpless as her sister attempted a jump and the broom smacked her sister in the shoulder. Her heart sank as her sister, this time, didn’t move. “Aglayka!” She shouted, running towards her sister as fast as could in her tired and slightly weakened state. Breathing deeply from the exertion as she got there, she saw Bronislav snarl at her mother. It wasn’t his fault, he was no doubt as worried for Aglaya as the rest of them, but he wasn’t helping by preventing Alyona from doing her job. Alyona yelled at her to get Bronislav out of the way, and Nastya smiled tensely, glad that she had been given an occupation that she could actually succeed in. “Yes, Mama.” She replied resolutely, with a steady expression, despite the violent beating of her heart.

“Bronislav!” Nastya gently patted her thighs, beckoning him to come to her in a sweet and cheerful voice. “Come on, Slava! Come!” She called to him again, smiling brightly to encourage him as she reluctantly left Aglaya alone and came towards her. “Good boy,” she cooed, as he reached her and jumped up towards her. “You’re such a good boy,” Nastya knelt down and petted him, smiling despite the situation at hand as he licked her face. “How about you and I go for walkies? Would you like that?” She asked playfully, as he wagged his tail and softly barked in agreement. “You would? Well then, let’s get your lead on you.” Nastya murmured, as she pulled out her wand and summoned Bronislav’s lead. She glanced over to see what was happening with her sister as she caught the lead in her hand and clipped it onto his collar. Her face fell as she saw her sister be lifted onto a stretcher. Bronislav seemed to notice the change in her forced mood, as he licked her hand and tugged on the lead, eager to have his promised walk.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming…” Nastya sighed, as she stood up and let Bronislav lead her to the entrance of the flying school, briefly looking behind her with a frown, as she left the arena.

Nastya didn’t really pay attention to where Bronislav was leading her, anywhere away from the school was fine with her. Now that she didn’t have to pretend to be strong, or be useful, Nastya could let her guard down. She saw they had managed to walk into town by the river, and Nastya guided her sister’s dog to the seats by the river edge. Finally, she allowed herself to cry with worry for her sister as she sat down. Bronislav hopped onto the bench beside her, laying his paw on her shoulder, and Nastya wrapped her arms around him and cried into his fur. He seemed happy to let her cry, placing his snout onto her shoulder. She was so angry. She’d have to perform now. She had hoped Aglaya would do so well that she could be replaced, and then she could step down as the ‘star’. Then, she could withdraw altogether so that she didn’t have to look at posters of herself when they went up. Aglayka had ruined everything. She wanted to hate her, but she couldn’t. She loved her sister too much. “Why can’t everything be normal for once, Slava?” She asked the dog as he looked up into her face and licked her tears. Nastya laughed genuinely, gently stroking his fur and affectionately kissing the top of his head. “You’re right, Slava… I don’t need to cry.” She smiled at him. “I just wish she’d recover already and not keep having setback after setback.” She stroked his head, giving him another hug. “Why can’t she be sensible, Bronislav?” He barked, and Nastya laughed at him again, as she kept a hand on his fur, gazing out onto the river, seeing the streetlight’s reflection in the water.

“How long do you think we should stay out here, Slava?” She asked her companion, as she tried to decide how long Alyona would need to do her work. “I’m sorry we didn’t do much of a walk… I’m just a little tired. I think I worked too much today.” She admitted to the dog, something she’d have never admitted to any of her family if they had asked. “I’ll let you pick up any crazy stick you find on the way back to make up for it, hmm?” She said warmly, as Bronislav placed his front paws over her legs and laid his head down between them.

They remained thus for another fifteen minutes, before Bronislav leapt up and jumped off of the bench as Nastya involuntarily shivered, feeling the cold night air coming in. “Sorry, Slava!” Nastya muttered, as she grabbed the lead. “Didn’t mean to startle you.” She gazed in the direction of Aglayka’s house before taking a deep breath in and out. “We should probably get you home now, shouldn’t we? Come on, let’s go.” She softly pulled on the lead to let Bronislav know which way she wanted him to head, and they slowly made their way back. Halfway there, Nastya felt the angry gurgle of her stomach and she realised in all the chaos that she hadn’t had dinner yet. It probably explained why she felt so tired and more weak than she should have, and yet she was secretly pleased. If Alyona didn’t mention anything about it, then Nastya certainly wasn’t going to bring it up.

Opening the door to her sister’s home, Nastya stepped in and sighed in relief as the warmth of the home washed over her. Quickly shutting the door behind her, Nastya slid down the door to sit on the floor, patting the space beside her so that she could take off Bronislav’s lead and hang it up. The dog instantly tried to climb the stairs and Nastya sternly lifted a finger. “No! Come here, Slava.” She said quietly but sternly, smiling as he obeyed. “Good boy,” She muttered as she reluctantly stood up, feeling how the room spun a little but soon restored itself. “Now, stay. Stay…” Nastya backed away from him, heading towards the staircase and was pleasantly surprised when the dog did as she asked. “Good… stay…” Nastya added as she started to climb the stairs, before turning her head and heading the rest of the way up, pleased when she saw that Bronislav had not followed her.

Entering Aglaya’s bedroom, Nastya hesitantly coughed to make her presence known. “Hey, Mama…” She offered a hesitant smile, glancing at her unconscious sister for merely a second. “I hope we gave you enough time. How is she?” Nastya asked, still not quite daring to look at her sister properly, nervously anticipating what her mother was going to tell her. “Is there anything else I can do to help?”

There was a constant noise in her head and there were distant voices. Aglaya heard them coming closer but in all honesty she did not want to hear anything, did not want to try and listen. There was also pain and it got worse the closer the voices got. Her eyelids twitched, but they felt heavy as though some invisible weights were pulling them down.

She could now recognise the voices as the ones of her mother and sister and she forced her eyes open. For a moment the world was spinning quickly and she felt nauseous. Her eyes fell shut again and Aglaya noticed that it hurt to breathe. She tried to remember what had happened but she couldn’t. All that she could think of was the pain that overshadowed everything.

She made another attempt to open her eyes and wanted to turn her head to the side to see her mother but even slightly moving her head seemed to be too much right now. She gasped in pain as her vision faded out again. Cold sweat moistened her face and she blinked a few times before she could make out the silhouettes of her mother and sister. “Where…” her voice was faint and faded as she realised that she knew exactly where she was. She was at home in her bedroom. Just what had happened to bring her here and caused her so much pain was something she could not work out yet.

“What…” her mouth was dry and she felt too exhausted to articulate a complete question just yet. She tried to figure out where the pain came from and realised that she could not move her right arm. In fact, she realised that it seemed to be firmly tied to her upper body. She wanted to sit up but she neither had the strength nor did the pain in her shoulder and chest allow her to move.

She heard her mother say something and felt anger rise up inside of her. Her mother was a healer. She had to be able to fix this. There was no way that she had to suffer so much pain with Alyona there. What was her mother thinking? Was this some sort of punishment? What for?

Aglaya felt how tears were watering her eyes but she didn’t want to cry now. She vaguely remembered that she had been on her broom, trying some sequences of a new choreography. She did not want to be confined to bed again. It had been too long already. She was losing valuable time. The annual gala was close. The competitive season wasn’t far away anymore either. She needed to train, she needed to work on a new routine.

“Mama, why don’t you fix me?” she brought out with great difficulty. “It’s your job. You ought to be able to heal this.” She looked at her mother, her expression pained. “Do something,” she implored. “Why do you sabotage me?” She closed her eyes again, feeling too feeble to keep them open anymore now.

For a while Alyona just sat there covering her face with her hands, trying to compose herself. She needed to stay cool, she needed to do all in her might to help her daughter but right now she could not do a whole lot. She barely dared to lower her hands and allow herself to look at Aglaya who, once again, lay in bed, unconscious. The healer wondered if they’d ever get past this horribly complicated time again. If there was a future ahead where she would not be constantly worrying about her children.

She heard that Nastya and Bronislav came into the house and tried to sit up a little straighter, tried to force a neutral expression onto her face. She did not want to worry Nastya unnecessarily. Then again, how could her younger daughter not be worried given her own fragile state and the situation at hand? Alyona wondered why she had not forbidden Nastya to come to Aglaya’s place in the first place. She should have prevented her from seeing this.

“Hey,” Alyona said weakly, offering a small smile. “Yeah, I did all I could do at this point,” she said, trying to sound calm and confident when she was really just wishing herself far away to give in to her feelings for once. The woman felt like she’d need to release all these pent up emotions at some point or she’d burst.

“She’s…” Alyona shrugged and sighed. “Well, she’ll be fine, but it’ll take a while, I’m afraid.” She paused, wondering if she should explain to Nastya what was wrong. She decided that it probably was best to give her the information now than to offer bits every now and then when the situation would call for an explanation.

“She has a complicated clavicle fracture,” Alyona explained. “I fixed it as well as I could but her shoulder is heavily bruised and swollen now. I’ll have to check again and see if I can do more to heal it once the swelling gets better. It’s nothing that can be fixed quickly.” Her voice trailed off as she saw that Aglaya seemed to wake up.

“Shh,” she said soothingly as she leaned forward, ready to extend a hand to push Aglaya down again, should she attempt to sit up. It was not surprising that her daughter was disoriented and Alyona was almost tempted to tell her where she was and what had happened. In fact, she had been about to explain everything when Aglaya spoke again.

The healer was flabbergasted that her daughter could muster enough energy to blame her for not fully fixing her. Truth be told, her accusation that she was sabotaging her made Alyona’s heart skip a beat. Did her daughter not realise that she was doing her very best to heal and to support her? She took a deep breath, bracing herself to respond when she saw that Aglaya closed her eyes again. It was futile to reason with her in this feeble state anyway. Alyona felt how a tear ran down her cheek and quickly wiped it away. She pushed herself to her feet and left the room, hitting Nastya ever so slightly as she passed because her vision was now already too blurred to see clear. “Sorry,” she muttered in a trembling voice. Once out of the room, Alyona leaned against the wall and a sob escaped her. “I can’t do this,” she whispered, “I just can’t do this.”

Nastya didn’t notice when Aglaya initially opened her eyes for the first time, too busy talking to Alyona to look at her sister. She listened to Alyona intently, nodding in understanding, taking it all in. “Okay.” She acknowledged, unsure what else to say as her mother said she’d done all she could. A small frown appeared before she could stop as Alyona added that it would take a while to heal. Her elder sister definitely wasn’t going to suddenly be strong enough to do the gala then. Great. It really was all down to her now. This first training session had been her last hope and her sister ruined it. There was no way out of this gala now. A flicker of anger bubbled up in her mind and Nastya did her best to sweep it aside for once. It wasn’t the right time, she could be angry later once she had actually processed everything she was being told.

The younger of Alyona’s daughters nodded vaguely as she was told it was a clavicle fracture. Nastya wasn’t sure she knew what a clavicle actually was. Something to do with the collarbone, she thought. However, she didn’t want to look stupid and admit she wasn’t sure. “Oh… that’s…” Nastya trailed off, not sure what to say. It was annoying? It was frustrating? “Disappointing.” She finished, feeling like that sounded like the nicest word she could think of to describe how she felt.

Anastasiya gave a relieved smile as she heard Aglayka’s faint voice. She sighed, it was good to see her awake. Nastya stayed where she was at the far edge of the bed merely watching and observing the interaction between her elder sister and their mother. As Aglayka finally spoke full sentences, Nastya half-laughed in disbelief, incredulous that her sister somehow managed to immediately attack their mother for something that was, quite frankly, Aglaya’s own fault. She shook her head and pinched her brow, even more shocked when Aglaya accused Alyona of sabotaging her. That was unbelievable, and uncalled for.

Still staring at Aglayka in disbelief, Nastya gasped at the unexpected collision as her mother bumped into her, stumbling back slightly as Alyona passed by quickly. She turned her head to follow her mother as she left the room, and her brows furrowed in concern. That was odd for her to just leave. She wondered if perhaps the comment had really hurt her mother’s feelings. It certainly would have hurt her own had Aglaya said it to her instead. Nastya was compelled to follow, she had to make sure Alyona was okay. This wasn’t easy on any of them.

“Really, Aglayka?” Nastya asked sarcastically, feeling a little bit frustrated and having a distinct lack of sympathy for her elder sister at that moment. “Was that necessary?” She  sighed, running hands through her hair, taking a deep breath as she shook her head again. “I’ll be back in a bit, I have to make sure she’s alright.” Nastya said, before sighing again, as she turned around and stepped out to find her mother.

Anastasiya felt a sad smile pull at her lips as she laid eyes on Alyona. She cautiously stepped forward until she was directly beside her mother, hesitantly laying a gentle hand on her mother’s shoulder. She wasn’t really sure how her mother would react, in her entire life Nastya didn’t think that she had really ever seen her like this much. “It’s alright… it’s okay.” Nastya murmured softly, as she tried to soothe Alyona as best she could. It was much easier for her to be the old Nastya that everyone once knew when people needed her to be that person. It made her feel that she was still herself too, deep down, that she could still be the strong, sweet and steady Nastya she once was. The calm and rational girl in a crisis.

“I’m sure she didn’t really mean it.” Aglayka was clearly in pain and disorientated. It wasn’t too surprising for her to be agitated and lashing out on people that didn’t deserve it, even if it was extremely irritating. Nastya chewed on her lip as she gazed at her mother, wondering if perhaps she should suggest that her mother take a break. She was sure she could handle things on her own as long as her mother gave her instructions if she needed to do anything else.

“Do you… do you want me to stay with her so you can go?” Nastya kindly asked with a gentle, encouraging smile. “Just tell me if there’s anything else I can do that needs doing and I promise I’ll get it done.” Sure, she was hungry and exhausted and angry her plans had been ruined. But none of that mattered when her family needed her help.

Aglaya felt that she was close to drifting into a state of unconsciousness again but she did not want that. She fought against it but it seemed almost futile. It took her a moment to force her eyes open again and she realised that her mother had left the room, had gone without fixing her. The realisation combined with the anxiety that it induced made her breathe harder and that again caused more pain. Tears were watering her eyes already before Nastya addressed her.

Through the noise in her head Aglaya heard her sister’s distant voice telling her off for the things she had just said her mother and then Nastya left the room too, claiming that she had to make sure that Alyona was okay.

Of course it was more important to check if she had not accidentally hurt her mother’s feelings than to make sure she was not suffering from too much pain. Her mother and her sister might be here now because of her accident but they clearly worried more about each other than about her. Aglaya wanted to tell them to leave her alone already if they didn’t care and if Alyona did not even want to fix her injury.

She tried to sit up but as she lifted her head and tried to get into a sitting position her sight faded out again and she sank back down onto the pillow, gasping in pain as she did so. It took her a few seconds to attempt sitting up again and this time she tried a different approach, rolling a little to her unharmed left side and using her left arm to push herself up.

Gasping as she sat up, she moved her legs to get out from below the cover and down to the floor. The dancing pixels were back and obscuring her vision as Aglaya made a tentative attempt to get to her feet. However, she soon realised that she was absolutely in no state to try and stand, let alone actually attempt to go anywhere. She felt way too weak and dizzy. Besides, she realised that her ankle was not feeling quite right either after she had twisted it when she had fallen off her broom for the second time. Apparently Alyona had not seen it or not deemed it worth her attention.

Aglaya sat back down on the mattress, feeling slightly nauseous and welling up again. She wanted to lay down but she wasn’t quite sure how to do that. Pain was radiating from her shoulder injury, making her whole upper body, her right arm and her neck feel more than a little sore. She didn’t want to call for help either and she could not see her mother and sister from where she was sitting so they probably didn’t see her either. It seemed as though she’d have to either wait for one of them to come back into her bedroom and help her somehow or she’d have to grit her teeth and let herself sink down no matter how painful it might be. While Aglaya thought that she preferred the autonomous approach, she still hesitated.

Alyona had not expected Nastya to follow her outside nor had she deemed it a possibility. In fact, she felt rather embarrassed that her younger daughter saw her struggling so much as she approached her. She ought to be strong. It not was no option to show her daughters that she, too, was having difficulties to deal with the situation.

Nastya laid a hand onto her shoulder and Alyona smiled slightly. It was really nice to see that at least Nastya cared and understood her to some degree.

Alyona took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah,” she said, trying to sound normal. “It’s okay. I’m okay. Don’t worry.” She lifted her hands to first wipe away her tears and then went to massage her temples again.

She nodded as Nastya said that Aglayka probably didn’t really mean what she said. Alyona thought that was very likely indeed but that didn’t really comfort her anyway. She felt bad that she could not simply heal the injury and make her daughter be as healthy and strong as she used to be. It was unsurprising that Aglaya struggled with her current condition and part of Alyona felt that she ought to be able to do more for her. In fact, she knew that she could do something against the pain but she felt that might not be a wise thing at this point. Aglaya needed to rest, move as little as possible for the next days. If she felt no pain, Alyona doubted she could make her eldest child actually stay in bed.

“That’s really sweet of you, Nastenka,” Alyona said, reaching out to pull her younger daughter into a brief hug. “I’m not sure it’s good if you deal with her though. You need your rest as well… I cannot possibly demand this of you.” She took a deep breath. Truth be told Alyona wanted Nastya to stay with Aglaya as she felt that it would be toxic if she’d have to stay with her eldest daughter tonight.

“If you’re really serious, though,” she eventually ventured, “there’s vegetable soup in the kitchen which should suffice for both of you. I brought it when I came to walk Aglayka over to the school… She needs to rest, move as little as possible…” she shrugged, “cooling her shoulder would be good, too. I hope that when the swelling lessens there’s a better chance to heal her injury some more.” She clearly hoped that she’d be able to fix Aglaya’s shoulder more the next day but it was still an injury that would take some time and it broke her heart that Aglaya’s first attempt at training had ended with such a setback.

Nastya’s brows furrowed in concern as she watched her mother wipe away her tears whilst trying to convince Nastya that she was okay. It was obvious that Alyona was not, and they both knew that. Nastya wasn’t sure what her mother was trying to accomplish by pretending that she was perfectly fine. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Anastasiya asked before she could stop herself, gently rubbing her mother’s shoulder for a few seconds longer before dropping her hand down by her side again.

She watched as her mother nodded in response to her words, but the artistic flyer wasn’t sure that she was really succeeding in making Alyona feel better about the situation. Nastya wasn’t sure what else she could really do or say to explain away Aglayka’s words until they lost their harsh bite. What her sister had said had been quite mean, after all. It didn’t help that Nastya considered her mother awfully difficult to figure out and understand… Who knew what Alyona was thinking?

“Oh!” Nastya gasped in surprise, not expecting to be pulled into a brief hug. She barely had time to reciprocate, gently patting her mother on the back before Alyona let go again, and Nastya almost stumbled back, feeling a little bit like a rag doll. “Nonsense!” Nastya automatically replied as Alyona stated that it might be good for her to stay instead of their mother. “You’re not demanding, I’m offering.” Nastya added, a little more weakly. “And I need no such thing,” she argued against the idea of rest, as the room began to spin again, “I am perfectly well now.” Anastasiya finished, as she sneakily laid a hand on the wall to steady herself from the spinning room.

“I am serious,” Nastya interjected, as Alyona seemed to concede to her offer. She smiled at her mother as she informed her about some vegetable soup. “Alright.” If Alyona wasn’t staying though, then that vegetable soup would suffice for Aglaya and only Aglaya. Of course, Nastya had a sneaky suspicion that her sister wouldn’t really be up for being spoon-fed like a baby or for trying to figure out how to use a spoon with her other hand, which would still involve the humiliating idea of Nastya having to hold the bowl for her. The experience really was very humiliating, Nastya knew that oh so very well indeed. Her contingency plan, should Aglayka refuse the soup like she suspected, was to throw the soup into two bowls and throw the contents down the sink. She’d then clean the sink but not clean the bowls, making it look like they had both eaten the soup.

Nastya nodded her head in understanding, mouthing the words to remember them as Alyona listed what needed to be done. “Cooling?” The younger Tikhomirova sister piped up, with a quizzical expression on her face, hoping she didn’t seem overly dumb that she needed clarification. “How do I do that? Conjure some ice, dump it on her shoulder and expect her to stay still?” Nastya made a face, feeling like she was missing something there. Surely, that wouldn’t be very enjoyable at all and Aglayka would probably just accuse her of torturing her sister for fun. Plus, when it melted, Aglaya would end up with half her bed soaked.

“We’ll be fine. I’ll figure it out.” Nastya smiled confidently, despite feeling anything but. “You go and rest, you need it…” Anastasiya added warmly, with an affectionate smile as she made a shoo-ing motion with her hand.

Nobody seemed to be in a hurry to come back to her bedroom and Aglaya was almost relieved. She did not want her mother to tell her off for sitting up and she clearly didn’t need Nastya to disapprove of everything she did. However, she was in a tricky situation and unsure how to manoeuvre out of it again.

She was breathing audibly now and turned her head slightly to look at the pillow. However, even moving her head was painful at the moment. She would have liked to lay a little higher than she had but getting an additional pillow or growing this one was out of question. Shifting slightly, Aglaya wondered how she could best lay back down again. Probably just letting herself fall to the left side would be painful but the quickest way still.

The distant voices from the corridor reassured her that she had to find a way of laying back down without help. She put her left hand down to the side and then slowly moved it towards the pillow lowering her upper body only slightly as she did so. Aglaya held her breath now and her eyes were watering.

She hesitated a few seconds before risking what was bound to make the pain worse. Then she let herself fall onto her left side. The pain increased instantly and a yelp escaped her. Her vision faded out the moment her body hit the soft pillow. Although she would have liked to get right back into the same position that she had had when her mother and Nastya had left the room, she could not pull her legs back into the bed and shifting her upper body so she’d lay on her back properly again felt even more impossible.

Aglaya was only vaguely aware that someone stepped into the room again. She did not even try to open her eyes or say anything. She was done fighting, all that she hoped for now was that someone would help her get into a more comfortable position again and that she’d then be able to sleep. Even if her mother did not seem generous when it came to giving her painkillers she surely would give her a sleep potion and in her current weakened state Aglaya felt certain that already the smallest dose of that would allow her to sleep until the next morning at the very least.

[out]

“Of course I am,” Alyona said sharply. While it was nice to hear concern in her daughter’s voice, to know that she saw that it wasn’t easy for her, either, the healer didn’t want to worry Nastya. She couldn’t afford to be weak when her daughters, when the entire family needed her strong.

Although Nastya had only just offered to stay with Aglaya and Alyona had been really tempted to take her up on that offer, something about the weak voice in which Nastya spoke and the way how she steadied herself at the wall made Alyona reconsider. Besides, her younger daughter said that she was perfectly fine and that was definitely a lie that only reassured the healer that it was up to her to look after both her girls.

Her opinion was finally made up properly when Nastya seemed to be unable to figure out how to cool her sister’s shoulder. Clearly an untrained witch was not the best option here. Aglaya needed a proper healer to take care of her or they’d make a bad situation even worse. After all, the older one of the two sisters would have to be patient as this injury would take a while to heal properly.

“No,” she said quietly and then looked at her daughter, a determined expression visible in her eyes. “No,” she repeated. “I won’t let you stay with her.” She added, straightening her back. The remainder that Nastya needed to rest and wasn’t well again yet forced her to pull herself together. She still looked tired and pale but the tears were gone and she knew that somehow she’d be able to do what needed to be done.

She was just about to tell Nastya more when a yelp from inside the bedroom startled her. She exhaled loudly and patted her younger daughter’s shoulder. “You go downstairs and… feed the dog. Then sit down on the sofa and wait for me. I’ll just check on your sister and administer a potion so she can sleep. I’ll take you home then.”

Alyona made a step towards Aglaya’s bedroom but hesitated, turning back to face Nastya again. “You won’t train tomorrow. You need to rest. Don’t even try to fool me.” Having said that she rushed into the bedroom.

As she saw her eldest daughter in quite a different position than when she had left her she shook her head and sighed. Aglaya seemed barely conscious though, so Alyona chose not to confront her. She just quietly put her back into a good position to rest and wiped the cold sweat off her daughter’s forehead. “I’ll give you a potion now,” she said quietly as she retrieved a small vial from her bag and uncorked it. “Open your mouth,” she muttered and poured a few drops onto her tongue. “I’ll come in first thing tomorrow morning,” she promised, before pulling out her wand and casting a cooling charm on Aglaya’s shoulder.

“Sleep well,” she whispered as she made her way out of the room and went downstairs to take Nastya back home.

[out]

Nastya narrowed her eyes as her mother responded sharply, but nodded anyway. She didn’t believe Alyona at all, but knew better than to push her luck and argue. After all, it wouldn’t help anyone. Despite the healer seeming to concede to her offer not more than a few moments prior, Nastya wasn’t sure if Alyona would actually agree to it anymore. The other witch remained silent, never answering her question about how to actually cool her sister’s shoulder. By this point, Anastasiya was regretting that she had offered in the first place as the room didn’t seem to stop spinning, and what started out as her hand just steadying her was slowly turning into her arm and shoulder propping her up against the corridor wall.

Nastya tried not to sigh in relief as Alyona said she wouldn’t let her stay with Aglaya, managing to suppress the heavy exhale and merely raise an eyebrow in her mother’s direction instead. Perhaps her suggestion of dumping ice on her sister’s shoulder really was just too dumb and Alyona thought it best that she shouldn’t accidentally make things worse (again). “Oh… Okay?” Nastya muttered, not really sure what else to say, and waiting for her mother to say something else to clarify what Alyona actually wanted her to do.

A sudden yelp coming from the bedroom grabbed Nastya’s attention alongside their mother’s, and Nastya’s brow creased in concern. She wanted to move into the bedroom to check that Aglayka wasn’t doing something stupid (again), but was stopped before she even moved as her mother patted her shoulder and began providing new instructions for her. A quizzical expression appeared as Nastya tried to focus on Alyona’s face. Feed Bronislav?  “Okay.” She could do that, she supposed. She was too fatigued for it to dawn on her that she should fight what her mother was saying, that Alyona was clearly figuring out what she was trying to hide. Sitting on the sofa seemed like a great idea to her at that moment.

She was about to push herself away from the wall, when Nastya noticed in her periphery that Alyona had turned back towards her, and her slightly glassy eyes flitted back up to meet her mother. “You won’t train tomorrow.”  “No!” Nastya scowled, her free hand balled into a fist. “You need to rest.”  “But I…” Anastasiya tried to protest, angry that Alyona had apparently seen straight through her yet again. It was frustrating that the healer somehow always knew when she was hiding something. “Don’t even try to fool me.”  “But… the gala…” Nastya argued to an empty corridor, as Alyona had already turned into the bedroom.

Well, there was no point in pretending she was fine anymore then. Nastya huffed before finally pushing herself off the wall, slowly making her way down the staircase to be met with Bronislav wagging his tail in her face. Right, she had to feed him. “Come, Slava,” Anastasiya beckoned him weakly, and they walked into the kitchen together as Nastya withdrew her wand. She summoned his food and bowl, pouring just enough in, and bending down to give it to Bronislav as she put her wand away. She had to use both hands to push herself back off the kitchen floor, panting from the effort.

Upon making it to the living room, Nastya decided the sofa she was supposed to sit on was too far away, and so she sat down on the floor pushing her back against the wall, curling her knees up and resting her elbows on them with one hand holding up her head, automatically glaring at the staircase as she heard footsteps, still unwilling to rest with the gala soon approaching.

[out]