It had been several days now, and there had yet to be any sign of what had happened to Zosi. By now Phaedra was alternating between despair that she had not received a proper burial, and hope that perhaps, by some miracle, that Zosi was still alive out there somewhere. If she was still out there somewhere, maybe she was hurt or scared. No, the Zosi she knew would never be scared, no matter where she found herself. It was all probably pointless, she had seen the injuries Zosi had sustained. If she had managed to find her way off the battlefield somehow, it was unlikely that she was still alive now.



Phaedra wished she had more to do than to be left alone here with the thoughts swirling in her head. That the healers had managed to keep her in bed for this long, was a minor miracle, aided only by the fact that she physically couldn’t walk away from this, and aided by the painkilling drugs that she had finally accepted from the healers once it became clear that Zosime wasn’t about to turn up at any moment. She hated the fuzzy feeling they gave her, but at the same time, it was better than sitting here with nothing to think about other than the pain in her leg, and the possibility of her second in command’s suffering.



The day’s battles had started to come to some conclusion as best as Phaedra could tell. The rush of casualties that came as it became safe to check the battlefield for death or injuries had already happened and the gradual dimming of the light as day faded into night indicated another day of battle done. The routine becoming as regular as anything did when a war dragged on. Soon enough, she would expect that the rush of critical injuries would abate, and soon those who had less serious injuries would appear, to be patched up and sent back to fight another day.



Maybe if she was lucky, she’d have a visit from some of her soldiers or one of her other friends from within the army. Hell, at this point she was bored enough that she’d even take another visit from Silanos. Anything to save her from the monotony of staring at the canvas ceiling of the tent for another moment. Luckily for her, that evening she was to receive a visit from a familiar face.