I spent the next couple of hours with Calida in her room. We let the light in together, pulling the curtains back and opening the windows to let the evening air move through. We tidied up the broken things from the floor, or at least cleared a path through them. I convinced her to take a shower by promising to sit outside the cracked door the entire time so she would know no one could enter without her knowing. It was a small thing, but she accepted it, and that felt like more than small.
Once she was cleaned up she sat on the edge of the bed working a braid through her damp hair while the warm evening light came in through the window and I sat looking out at the garden below. The grounds of the castle looked entirely different in the gold of the late afternoon. Beautiful, actually.
"Thank you," she said quietly.
I turned to look at her. "What for? You did all of this yourself."
