After they'd both eaten, and Jenn had fed the patient some of the soup when he woke up, Jenn went out to work in the garden, pulling up weeds while keeping what was supposed to be planted there.
Aeriphea seemed to look like she wanted to help, but seemed like she was afraid she'd get lost in the dense foliage that was supposed to be the garden.
"Would you like me to show you how to care for the garden?" she asked, wondering if she just hadn't been shown how to garden in the first place. Which wouldn't surprise her given how she seemed almost pampered. Like she was used to living a life of luxury where others were the ones who had to do work that she didn't care to do.
While she could be mistaken, she was pretty sure of her assessment. Besides, she'd already looked into the young woman's mind and looked through her thoughts just to make sure that she wasn't a danger to her. As with the feeling she got from the chief healer, she wouldn't have been surprised if that woman had put someone in here with plans to kill her and the patient if she'd managed to successfully treat the patient.
Yet, after looking into the woman's mind, Jenn couldn't help but feel that she could be in just as much danger if the chief healer decided to go that route. As Jenn was well aware of how when some people didn't have things go the way they wanted them to, that they'd lash out at others, just to make themselves feel better.
She'd seen it often enough with bullies when she'd been growing up, that she couldn't help imagining it happening sometimes, despite the fact that it didn't actually happen that way in the end.
"How do you know all this? And why do you do jobs that don't benefit you?" Aeriphea asked, sounding more confused than anything else.
"Huh? Oh, well I used to garden when I lived with my parents. I enjoyed it more than anything else back then. Though, what're you talking about 'jobs that don't benefit me'?"
"You were cleaning earlier," Aeriphea said bluntly, as if that was a problem in and of itself. "You don't benefit from that, so why would you do that?"
"Who says I don't benefit from it? It makes the environment I live in clean, so why wouldn't that be something that should interest me? If you care for the environment you live in, then that helps you feel better about yourself."
Jenn wasn't quite sure if that's how what she recalled being told so long ago she couldn't remember who told her that or if she'd merely come to that conclusion on her own at some point. Though, regardless of where it came from, she felt that it was true. Though, when she was feeling depressed about something, then it did make it hard to care about the environment she lived in. Not that she could quite explain why.
Aeriphea looked at Jenn like she wasn't sure what to make of her, but didn't say anything more. Instead, she knelt down next to Jenn and started pulling the plants that Jenn was. Which Jenn couldn't help but smile at.
With Aeriphea's help, weeding the garden and getting it under control took a lot less time than Jenn had expected that it would.
"Care for some more of that stew?" Jenn asked when they finished. "I made enough that we should be able to get another helping."
"Shouldn't we be rationing our supplies? They're not going to be sending us more, you know? They'd have to send it through the gate and unless we get another patient, they're not going to open that gate until its time to let us out."
"That's if they use the gate," Jenn answered, not sure if she should actually tell her what she was thinking or not. As it was something that she couldn't exactly say if it was something allowed or not. While she couldn't think of a reason for it to be 'outlawed', she couldn't say that it would be allowed either given the fact that it involved sending something into the quarantined area without going through whoever was in charge of this area.
"What're you talking about? What else would someone use to send supplies in here?"
Jenn just smiled, not sure if she should ruin the surprise. Though, at the same time, she wasn't expecting any supplies to be getting sent in in the first place just yet, since she hadn't actually ordered any yet. She was still waiting to see if she'd get visitors to ask for something. If she didn't, then she'd figure out a way to make what supplies they had last. Not that she expected her people to leave her in here without at least checking in on her to see how she was doing.
After a while, Aeriphea merely sighed. "I guess if you don't want to talk about something, you don't plan on talking, do you?"
"Nope, though I've known some people who couldn't keep a secret for their life. They always just have to tell someone, making that secret invariably become common knowledge."
Aeriphea shook her head. "I can't imagine someone like that surviving for very long. The world has a way of eating people like that up. Especially if they can't keep anything to themselves."
Jenn nodded. It would be difficult in this world to be like that, but the people she'd known who were like that largely had been back on Earth. Though, while she had also thought of Beth that way in the past, she'd come to learn differently, which, as she thought about it, might mean that the others who had seemed like that would actually be that way if she got to know them. Although, on the other hand, she knew better than to tell her cousin Ruthie about anything, given how she'd always tell her mother about it, at least.
Yet even she could keep a secret, Jenn now knew, given how she'd been sneaking around with Emily when Ruthie's mother certainly would not be happy to learn what Jenn had accidentally walked in on them doing, despite her eyes being shielded by that blanket that had been over them.
"Why're you so red?" Aeriphea asked, putting her hand on Jenn's forehead. Then to herself, she remarked, "You don't have a fever, so what could it be?" Then with a gasp, she ran into the building, startling Jenn.
"Hey, don't take all the stew!" Jenn called after her, not sure what else she could be thinking.
Though, she knew precisely what had caused her to go red. Thinking of that scene reminded her just how embarrassed she was in that moment. Nor could she think of how to explain why her face had gone all red like that.
However, as Jenn got up, she had to run to stop Aeriphea from throwing out the leftover stew onto the ground outside. "What're you doing!?" Jenn cried, not sure what was going through the young woman's mind, as now that she'd determined she wasn't going to be an enemy, that she should respect her privacy and not peek into her mind like she had already.
"The only explanation is that you were poisoned. Which means we need to get rid of what had to have poisoned you," Aeriphea said, her expression serious, making Jenn wonder what had to have happened in the young woman's life for her to be liked this.
"There wasn't any poison!" Jenn cried back, not sure how she'd explain how she knew that if Aeriphea asked her how she could know. "My face was red because I suddenly remembered something really embarrassing. There wasn't any other reason for what happened!"
Jenn couldn't help but hope no one outside the quarantined area was within earshot, as she really didn't care to have this conversation get out. Even if no one every knew what they were talking about, it still wouldn't be something that Jenn would be happy about becoming common knowledge.
Aeriphea stopped trying to get the pot of stew out of Jenn's grasp. "Wait, that's why your face went red?" she asked, sounding like she hadn't even thought of that as a possibility.
"Yeah. So, don't throw the stew out," Jenn said, not letting her guard down when it came to the stew. "Besides, weren't you the one who said that we need to ration what supplies we have?"
Aeriphea sighed, looking drained all of a sudden. "Maybe I need to sleep," she said, letting go of the pot before turning towards the building. "Maybe that's all I need so I won't do something like that again."
Jenn doubted that it was sleep that was the problem for Aeriphea, but she couldn't think of how to phrase it that wouldn't sound like she was either making excuses for her or that she was holding a grudge over what had just happened.
Besides, if anyone needed more sleep at that moment, it was Jenn herself, since she'd been up since she'd taken over cleaning for Aeriphea, unless that young woman hadn't slept very well lately.
Or maybe she just had overworked herself and this was her body's way of compensating, Jenn mused to herself as she took the pot back in the building, setting it back where she'd left it.
Then Jenn went back outside, hoping that someone from her Silverthorns would come visit with her. As that way she'd be able to request that they bring some supplies over and toss them over the quarantine wall.
Not only would it allow her to have someone to interact with that she wasn't also stuck with, but then she'd be able to help give them more options of things to eat. Even though Jenn would readily admit, simple things like stew or salad was pretty much the limit of her culinary expertise. At least with the tools she had on hand, that is.
While she had taken a Home Ec class, she knew they were missing some vital utensils here to really allow her to use what skills she'd gained from that class. Such as an oven, for one. Even an old woodfire oven would make it so she could try her hand at baking bread, if she could get someone to send her the ingredients for it, though until she actually got used to working with an over whose temperature she couldn't control, she'd probably end up burning most loaves she tried to bake.
The same went for almost anything she'd learned to make in that class. Which Jenn couldn't help but find it a little frustrating. Although, she supposed that merely meant that she'd need to get whoever came to visit her actual bread rather than just the ingredients.
While she also wouldn't mind a frying pan, for the woodfire stove, she doubted that it'd be safe to have that thrown over the wall, as if Aeriphea came at that moment, not paying attention, she could get hurt with it, since Jenn couldn't be absolutely sure that she'd be able to catch it before it hit Aeriphea.
While it was a small chance of that happening, Jenn had a feeling it would be better to avoid taking unnecessary risks like that. After all, she could at least survive without a frying pan for a couple weeks. As it wasn't that vital to her interests in keeping herself and, by extension, the other two that were stuck with her in this quarantined area.
Jenn was about to settle down when she suddenly thought that she should check on the patient. After all, if the treatment was a success, then he'd be waking up eventually and she should probably get some water ready for him to drink, although drawing the water up from the well certainly wasn't going to be a task that Jenn would care for. Not with how heavy water tended to be in addition to then having to carry it away from the well.
The only benefit from having the well in here, Jenn supposed, was the fact that she wouldn't need to ask whoever came to visit her to toss some over the wall, as she could imagine that if she didn't catch whatever container they sent it in, that it'd likely burst and spill the water out or something along those lines. Something that Jenn knew she wouldn't be happy about, regardless of how it turned out.
As Jenn checked on the patient, she could see that the spots didn't show any signs of lingering around and his breathing was deep and even. It seemed like he was going to recover and Jenn figured she really didn't need to give him another treatment, though she had a feeling it wouldn't hurt for her to do that.
Besides, she doubted that the mushroom would last long anyway before it was useless for any treatments. At the very least, she figured she could let Aeriphea watch her closely to see what she did, so as to help spread the knowledge of exactly how she treated the plague, so that others would be able to do that and end the threat of that plague. Especially with how it scared just to have it mentioned, or even whispered about.
Yet, when Jenn turned away from the patient, she felt a wave of fatigue wash over her, making her wonder if she might have misjudged just how tired she was herself.
While she'd rather wait and stay awake for any visitors, she knew that she'd just have to hope that she'd wake up before they came by. It might not be the best way of doing that, but it was clear it was probably going to be the best she had available to her. At least with how tired she felt when she was running out of things to keep herself occupied with.
So, Jenn found a bed, not difficult with how many there were available, and slid under the blanket and closed her eyes.
She didn't have long before she was breathing as deeply as the patient, sleeping peacefully.
_
Embris woke up to a pounding on her door. She wasn't sure what was going on, just that she had been sleeping so peacefully that she wasn't exactly in a good mood for having that sleep interrupted.
However, she kept her temper in check, since she couldn't say that whatever this was about wasn't important. Especially if it was from someone who she needed to be polite to. Such as if it was the captain of the royal guard, Embris doubted that she'd want to make that woman annoyed for any reason.
Let alone upset.
As Embris opened the door, she felt both relieved and annoyed to find Yaelish on the other side of the door.
"Sorry for pounding, but you weren't answering when I knocked."
Embris scowled at her visitor, wondering what this was about and why she had to have been pulled from such a wonderful sleep.
"I was asleep," Embri growled, not sure she shouldn't just slam the door in Yaelish's face.
"In that case, it's good that I woke you up. Pohlea is coming by and we're supposed to meet with her to discuss what our plans for guarding the queen are."
Embris sighed. She wished she could complain about that reason, but she also recognized that it was likely going to be something that she'd have to attend, given she was the third-in-command of the Silverthorns present and with Jenn being quarantined, she certainly wasn't going to be able to attend. Which meant that Embris showing up was likely going to be all that more important.
"I'll get dressed," Embris grumbled, closing her door, not happy about what she now had to do or the fact that she wasn't able to slam the door.
While she technically could have still slammed it, the enjoyment wouldn't be there, given how she knew that Yealish had given her a valid reason for having woken her up. Something she couldn't help but feel even more annoyed at. Though, while she wished that they'd have given her a heads up about that meeting, she had a feeling that she'd have forgotten about that notification as well. Which mean that she'd still have had to have gotten woken up like this.
Besides, she couldn't imagine how she'd have been able to wake up without someone getting her up anyway. Especially since she could see through the small window in her room, that the sun had been up for a while already. The light just didn't shine in her eyes like it she'd grown accustomed to when it came to getting woken up by the sun.
Sighing, Embris started getting changed, putting on a clean tunic and leggings that matched what they'd been given as a uniform. While Embris was pretty sure that the one she'd worn the day before was still useable, she recalled what Jenn had said about important meetings, that they should wear their best, when possible, as that showed respect for the other person, even if they really didn't care to show that respect to them. That it was more about being polite than it was being comfortable.
Eventually Embris walked out of the room she'd been given, wondering if she might be able to find something to eat before the meeting started. While she was getting rather hungry, she had no idea where to go to get a bite to eat, given the layout of the palace was unfamiliar to Embris, which made her doubt that she'd be able to succeed in getting her stomach filled, even partially, before it was time for the meeting to take place.
Though, she still looked around. While she didn't know where things were in the palace, she figured that she could still look around, hoping that she'd get lucky and find somewhere with some food she could eat. At the same time, she at least made sure to keep an eye on Yaelish so she wouldn't lose track of time in her search and be later for the meeting as a result.