Chapter 61: Black Eyes

Frost pushed himself onto his knees, and she demonstrated where he should place them before having him try again.

It was still difficult, but the movement felt less awkward this time, and he managed a few more before she told him to stop.

They moved through several other exercises, with breaks between them while Ava made notes. She had him hold different positions, lift a pair of modest-looking weights, and balance on one leg before switching to the other.

None of it looked particularly impressive, especially with people lifting far heavier weights a short distance away, but Frost soon discovered that looking easy and being easy were two very different things.

His left leg trembled while he stood on it, and he instinctively reached towards the wall.

"Look ahead," Ava instructed. "You’re watching your foot instead of keeping your balance."

Frost lifted his head, but it didn’t help much. The trembling worsened, and a faint unease tightened in his stomach as he remembered trying to drag himself through the dirt with that leg no longer attached.

Ava caught his elbow before he could stumble.

"Both feet down."

He obeyed, swallowing as he steadied himself. For a moment, the noises of the training hall seemed distant, and he found himself staring at the leg through the black fabric of his trousers.

"Frost."

He looked up.

"Did it hurt?"

"No," he said, though his voice came out quieter than he intended. "It’s fine."

Ava’s gaze lingered on him before she released his elbow.

"Then sit down for a minute."

He almost told her he could continue, but thought better of it. Instead, he sat on the nearby bench and reached for his water, taking a slow drink while she checked something on the plate.

It was frustrating. Gwendolyn had put him back together, and he could see that everything was where it should be, yet his mind kept returning to the moment he had lost it all. He hadn’t even been doing anything dangerous. He was standing on a mat in a training hall, with someone close enough to catch him if he fell.

Apparently, that wasn’t enough to stop him from remembering.

Ava lowered the plate.

"Your body is healed," she said. "That doesn’t mean you’ll trust it immediately."

Frost glanced at her, a little surprised by the lack of an insult.

She noticed.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Then stop looking at me like that."

He looked away, though a faint smile tugged at his mouth. There she was again.

After another short rest, they returned to the exercises, and Ava finished checking his movements before finally declaring that they were done for the morning. Frost got up from the mat with considerably less grace than he had possessed when he first entered the hall, but at least he could still walk.

Ava handed him a cloth to wipe his face.

"Eat properly, and get some rest before you come back after lunch," she said. "We’re going to work on your stance and footwork. Nothing strenuous."

Frost gave her a suspicious look.

"You said the running would be light."

"It was."

"For you."

"For everyone who wasn’t making as much noise as you."

He sighed, deciding that argument was unlikely to go anywhere useful. As he wiped the sweat from his face, his bangs fell over his eyes again, and he pushed them aside before remembering the discovery he had made in the changing room.

"Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask."

Ava folded her arms. "What now?"

"Did my eyes look like this when you found me?"

For the first time that morning, her attention shifted fully to his face.

"Like what?"

"The colour," he said, lowering the cloth. "They used to be hazel."

Ava stepped closer, her brow furrowing as she examined them. Frost held still, watching her expression lose some of its usual impatience.

"They’ve been black since you woke up," she said. "I assumed they were always like that."

"No."

She was quiet for a moment before glancing towards the doors.

"Then you should have mentioned it to Gwendolyn."

"I only noticed when I was changing."

Ava looked back at him, then picked up the information plate.

"Come on."

"What about breakfast?"

"You can eat afterwards," she replied, already walking towards the door. "Let’s find out whether you managed to break something before we even started."

By the time they reached the infirmary, his stomach was making its displeasure known, and although Ava had slowed her pace enough for him to keep up, his legs were still protesting every step.

They found Gwendolyn seated behind a cluttered desk, studying an information plate with one elbow propped beside a cup.

Her ears tilted towards the door before she looked up, and a smile appeared as she recognised them.

"Already? I thought you would last until lunchtime before she brought you back."

"I haven’t broken him," Ava said.

"That’s reassuring. Though I remember you saying the same thing about the last training dummy."

"It was old."

"And apparently very fragile."

Frost stood quietly beside Ava, deciding that he would rather not find out what had happened to the dummy. Gwendolyn set the plate aside and gestured towards an empty chair.

"Sit down, then. What’s wrong?"

"His eyes," Ava replied before Frost could speak. "He says they used to be a different colour."

Gwendolyn’s smile faded slightly, and she leaned forward as Frost sat down.

"Did they?"

"Hazel," he said. "I only noticed the change when I looked in the mirror this morning. I don’t know when it happened."

She moved her chair closer and gently lifted his chin, studying one eye before turning his face to examine the other.

Frost tried to keep still, though having someone stare at him from such a short distance made him increasingly aware of just how much sweat was drying on his face.

"Have you noticed any trouble seeing?"

"No."

"Pain? Headaches? Anything unusual when you look at lights?"

Frost shook his head. "Nothing like that. They just look different."

"Hmm. They were already like this when the boss brought you in," she said. "I assumed it was normal for you."

Frost looked at her more closely. "So it didn’t happen while you were healing me?"

"No. I worked on quite a few things, but changing the colour of your eyes wasn’t one of them."

That ruled out one possibility, at least, though it left him with very little to work with.

He hadn’t spent much time looking at himself before the incident, and he couldn’t even remember the last occasion on which he had properly examined his reflection.

For all he knew, the change might have happened weeks before Daren shoved him towards those creatures.

Gwendolyn raised a hand, and a pale triagram shimmered before her palm. Its faint light settled over Frost’s face as she brought her fingers close to his temple, her gaze moving between his eyes and the shifting sigils.

"Keep looking at me."

Frost obeyed, resisting the urge to follow the inscription instead. There was a mild warmth around his eyes, but nothing more, and after a few moments, Gwendolyn lowered her hand. The triagram faded as she sat back.

"I can’t find any damage," she said. "There’s nothing obvious interfering with your sight either."

"So they’re fine?"

"As far as I can tell, yes. That doesn’t explain the colour, but I don’t see a reason to panic over it."