KChan

What?

First Katryn spent most of the conversation glossing over his attempts to lighten the conversation, and now this? What in the world was she doing? Giving him a hard time for leaving, sure, but why the flirting? Getting back into practice, maybe? He'd flirted with her a little before she married into the family, sure, but he'd backed off immediately once she was in a committed relationship. Sure she had flirted back, but that was a long time ago, and he'd dedicated his efforts since to being a good friend and cousin to her, with no romantic or flirtatious gestures on his part.

But she clearly wanted to get back into the game and leave her mourning behind, and he couldn't really blame her for that. And surely it would be frightening, getting back out there, especially in a new place - and especially when that new place was Luthadel. It certainly couldn't hurt to get a little practice in with someone she knew wouldn't respond poorly to her attempts.

Besides, she looked to be having fun with it. And if it made her smile and helped her move on, surely there was no harm in it, right? So he gave her his most charming smile and gently snatched her hand up for a quick kiss.

"Me? Forget about you? Impossible." He winked, released her hand, and shifted back in his chair. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Daeric shaking his head, Frederin rubbing his temples, and Winchester rolling his eyes, but he ignored them.

"I'm just happy you didn't forget about me. To think, that having arrived in the center of the world, you still have time for this silly runaway. I do agree, though, that colorful gowns suit your far better than black crepe." He extended his hand to her again, palm up. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to show it off a little?"

Celia nodded. "Of course they do." What had Aaron meant by the struggle to play music beyond your abilities? Did he think her playing poor, or the music too complicated? No, probably not. Had those words come from Daerra, she wouldn't have had any doubts about their true intent, but Aaron didn't speak in veiled barbs like that. More likely, he was trying to sympathize with her frustration and happened to choose words that were less than ideal.

But that didn't mean she hadn't noticed, or that the unintended implication was that far off the mark. Piano was her secondary instrument, and she practiced it far less than she practiced the cello. Perhaps her technique was inferior, whether he thought it so or not. Perhaps she could shut herself in the music room with a piano for the next week, burying herself in practice until this whole troublesome business blew over.

Of course, she wouldn't be allowed to actually do that, no matter how badly she wanted to. So instead, she played a few bars of another piece - a playful and innocent tune, simple and catchy. Lesmille's Children's March.

"Ever since that night, everyone in this keep has been treating me differently. Like I'm somehow a completely different person with different capabilities and different feelings, for all I had nothing to do with anything that happened. They're doing it to you too, aren't they? In different ways, of course. Ways that are arguably worse than what they're doing to me, but it's still infuriating."

"A little. I'm no doctor, or even a nurse, but incidents happen on the job, and I've got to know how to keep myself or those under me alive long enough to get to a doctor." As she spoke, she began unrolling another of the bandage rolls a little, then cut the unwound portion off and folded it up.

Did Caden sound a little on edge, she wondered as she worked? It was difficult to tell for sure - he was always so good at keeping in control of himself - but she thought he might. Well, she couldn't blame him, really, given their current situation. It was probably best not to point it out, though, and instead reassure him with her own calm and confidence. Thankfully, she was back in her element now, navigating the oddly comforting and familiar waters of peril and uncertainty. Earlier, she might have wondered if he would think it strange that she was so in command of herself here but so out of sorts in a ballroom, but now, she was grateful for it. He had supported her when she was trying to navigate unknown territory, and now it was her turn.

"Here." She handed the folded up pad of cloth to Caden. "Press that against the wound, then take the bandages you've got and wind them around his head to keep it on. Nice and firm, but not too tight; you need pressure to stop the bleeding, but you don't want to cut off circulation. It doesn't have to be pretty, and it only has to stay on long enough to get us home. The first thing the doctor is going to do is take it back off again to examine the wound, but it needs to hold properly until then."

She took a moment to look around then, surveying the tools they had at their disposal. She considered keeping quiet and just letting him work, but if he really was starting to feel uncertain or on edge, it was probably best to give him something to focus on. An unfocused mind could fall into a panic alarmingly quickly in situations like this, but Caden was quickly proving to be a man of action. Talking through their next steps together would not only give him something to focus on and think about, but it would also help him feel in control again and quell any rising anxiety.

"I'm guessing we'll need to leave the carriage behind. If you knew how to drive it, you wouldn't have asked me, and I unless either of us wants to learn on the fly at this particular moment, it's just a liability at this point. We'll need a way to get Dennison home that also keeps his head and shoulders elevated. We might be able to tie him onto one of these horses, or we could try to construct something with what we have on hand to pull him behind one of them. Drag him on a blanket or something. Neither one would be comfortable, but our first priority is keeping him alive. There are plenty of people who can make him comfortable when we get home; Lord Ruler knows he's earned it.

"You honestly have the most going for you when it comes to getting out of here, since you can ride and are, you know, conscious. As long as you can ride bareback, you'll have no problem getting home. I'll have to either ride double with you or just walk beside. Which would take forever, but it's better than sitting here hoping the right people will find us. And without a saddle or more appropriate clothes, I'd just fall right off if you tried to stick me up there by myself."

"Once we decide whether we're riding or walking, we set a course. We can either head for a canal and hope to find a boat, from which point I can row us home, or we set out for home. I doubt we'll run across any carriages for hire; they're probably all busy bringing people home from the ball, and then they'll be heading home for the night. Fathvell might send out a search party if we take long enough, but there's no guarantee they'll cover enough of the city to find us in any reasonable amount of time. So whichever route we choose, it needs to be the one we're most confident will get us all the way there."

Malcolm sounds adorable. I can't wait to interact with him! Approved!

Eliza, for a split second, was somewhat startled when Caden jumped up all of a sudden, mentioning something about the driver and hurrying out of the carriage. Of course! Poor Dennison would have been caught in all this too! And while celebrating their success was all well and good, they weren't out of the riptide yet, and she shouldn't have needed to be reminded of that. She quickly leapt up to follow, and had almost reached the front when Caden called out to her about Dennison, and about getting them home.

"I'm afraid not," she said, coming up behind him to get a look at Dennison herself. Ouch. That wound looked nasty, but at least he was alive. "Are there any canals nearby? If we could find a conveniently unguarded boat, I could row us home, but coach driving and horsemanship aren't really in high demand on the Islands. I'd have better luck pushing the carriage than driving it."

She paused, frowning in thought as she assessed their situation. Dennison was hurt, so she and Caden couldn't simply up and start walking back to the keep while hoping someone would notice they had gone missing and start a search. Leaving him unattended was as good as killing him themselves. They could carry him between them maybe, but how far would they be able to walk like that? And even then, being encumbered with an unconscious person would only make them attractive targets for the unsavory sorts of skaa who were sure to be out at this time of night. Caden probably didn't know how to drive a coach either, or he wouldn't be asking her.

But she was getting ahead of herself. Dennison was hurt. First, they needed to take care of him, and then take stock of their options for getting home. If only they had some antiseptic, or some bandages, or...

... Or some scrap fabric.

"I have an idea," she said. "Not for getting home yet, but for taking care of him. It's not exactly appropriate, but given the circumstances, it's the best we've got. I'll be right back."

Still with the knife in hand, she hurried to the back of the carriage, where their things were kept. When they'd purchased their Islands clothing, the shop owner had packed up the clothes they'd changed out of and Dennison had stowed them away - and now, just maybe, that change of clothes was going to keep him from bleeding out. It took her a couple hurried tries to find the right box, but before too long she'd bundled her ridiculous Luthadel petticoat with her into the carriage, where she had both light and shelter from the ash. Like she'd told Caden, it wasn't entirely appropriate, but it was the best they had. Women's clothing had more volume so they'd be able to get more bandages out of it, and the petticoat was by far more sanitary than her gown, which had been exposed to the ashy Luthadel air. The Mistborn's knife cut easily into the soft fabric, letting her rip it into strips, which she rolled loosely around a hand before returning to Caden and Dennison.

"Alright, let's try this," she suggested, holding a roll out to Caden. "I made us some bandages. Once we've patched him up, we can figure out how to get us all home."