Sequoia hummed sleepily, craning her neck to paste a kiss onto Aniña's cheek. She was still too sleepy to really process what was going on, but Aniña was just talking to her. What could go wrong? She snuggled her face into Aniña's chest, feeling warm and happy and kind of amazing. There was no way she was leaving this bed.
Aniña growled and pushed Sequoia off the bed with all her might, wincing a little since her arm was still a little sore, “What are you doing in my room?” She asked again, glaring down at Sequoia who now lay on the floor.
Sequoia blinked sleepily. There went that happy buzz. She tried to process what Aniña had said and was left kind of… puzzled. Maybe Aniña was trying to joke around? That didn't explain the growl. A dark thought hit Sequoia. What if Aniña wasn't kidding around? What if she was being serious? "What do you mean, Habibi?" Her voice wavered subtly.
“I mean what I said, why are you in my room?” Aniña glared at her from her place on the bed. She rubbed at her head. Her mind was all fuzzy and it was like she had forgotten something really important but couldn’t put her finger on what it was.
Sequoia stared up at her with big doe eyes. Fuck. What if she really had forgotten? She'd gotten the tiniest bit used to Aniña. Got as close as she could to the girl. And now she was angry. And mean. And had thrown her off the bed. "I slept here. Don't you remember?" Her eyes were just the tiniest bit watery and her throat felt all clogged up. Shit. She couldn't cry.
Aniña shook her head, “No, I don’t remember. I remember signing those stupid marriage papers and arriving here. Other then that… nothing.” She sighed and frowned again. How long had they been here? Why couldn’t she remember anything?
(I'm beat, I'm heading to bed. Goodnight.)
"You don't remember… the woods?" Fuck. Sequoia's throat was congested and her words were practically dripping in sorrow. She wiped at her eyes furiously, keeping any tears from dripping down her face. No more kisses? No more hugs? No telling each other random myths and snuggling when they got too sad?
(Night)
Aniña shook her head again, “No. I don’t remember. Why do you care? You hate me.” She shrugged a shoulder. Sequoia looked… sad. Aniña could tell and some distant part of her want to hug her and kiss her and tell her everything would be okay. But Aniña pushed them away, confused as to why she was thinking like that.
Wow. Okay. Sequoia radically shifted her mindset. She had to hate Aniña again. At the very least… she couldn't love her anymore. How to cover the whole incident, though? How could she play this off in a way that wouldn't make Aniña angry? She took a deep breath and dried her tears for the moment. "You went hunting and got attacked in the woods. You got healed. Watch your left shoulder."
Once she was finished speaking she rushed from the room. The couch beckoned her so she collapsed onto it, sobbing quietly into the pillows. Just when life was going well- going perfectly- The Creator had decided to take everything away.
Aniña shook her head as she watched Sequoia go. There was something else that she wasn’t telling her, she knew it but couldn’t be bothered to push. God did her head pound. Something was wrong with her mind, she was missing something important. With a sigh, she headed to go have a wash and change into something more comfortable.
Sequoia stayed on the couch for as long as she could without any servants running into her. That would put the cherry of disgustingness on top of this horrible day. She decided to take a bath. The heat would make her feel better. She could use something soothing right now.
Once Aniña had changed, she didn’t bother drying her hair and let it fall in wet strands down her back and front as she walked out her room. Her head still hurt for some reason and she tried racking her brain for missing information but… Nothing. Still nothing came to mind. When headed to the library for something to do.
After her bath Sequoia poured over her encyclopedias, searching and scanning for any signs of what could've caused the memory loss. Was it the poison? The antidote? She didn't know, but she was determined to find out. Sadly, she didn't have the resources she needed. A trek to the library was in order. There were definitely a few books on poison and antidotes packed inside.
Aniña strolled lazily round the rows and rows of books, trying to find one to read, one to distract herself from everything. She ran her hand over the spines of the books, picking one out a random and putting it back a second later and grabbing another. With a sigh, she headed back to the main part of the library.
Sequoia all but kicked the door to the library in, bustling her way over to the encyclopedia section and searching through every bo for something that might prove useful. She didn't even realize Aniña was in there with her, too focused on her goal. Every so often she'd pull out a book she thought might be useful and plopped down beside her.
Aniña frowned when she heard Sequoia come in. It wasn’t hard since she made a lot of noise as she did but curiosity got the better of her and she slowly made her way over to where she was. Once there, she coughed to get her attention.
“You know, a library is supposed to be quiet. You’re not supposed to break the door down on entry.”
Sequoia squeaked and spun around, holding a book tightly to her chest. Had Aniña been here the whole time? "You shouldn't sneak up on people, you know! Most people would consider it rude." She dropped the book in her stack, taking deep calming breaths. Her heart fluttered like the wings of a hummingbird.
Aniña rolled her eyes with a snort, “Eh, who cares. So… what are you looking for?” Her eyes flicked to the pile of books before she took a few steps towards it. What was Sequoia looking at? It didn’t surprise her when she noticed encyclopaedias in the pile.
"I care! What if I accidentally smashed a book into your nose because you surprised me?" It would be a shame, Aniña had a very pretty face. Sequoia used her question as an excuse to step in front of her book pile and shield it from her wife's prying eyes. This felt oddly private.
“It would heal, no big deal,” Aniña tried to look round her to see the books she was hiding, “What are you looking for again?” She was curious, and felt like Sequoia was hiding something from her.
"Oh! I'm researching poisons." You always needed to wrap your lies in truth to make them more believable. It was something Sequoia had figured out long before her marriage. "You never know when you might need to kill someone." She wriggled her fingers in a way she hoped seemed spooky and picked up a couple of her books. With any luck, Aniña wouldn't snoop through them and realize that they were focused on one poison in particular.
Aniña shook her head and sighed, bringing uninterested in what Sequoia was doing, “Just kill them with a sword or something. Anyway, have fun with your research!” She called over her shoulder as she began to walk away from her.
(I'm feeling really gross and HEadachey, so I'm heading to bed. Goodnight.)
(Night, hope you feel better soon)
(Thanks! Took a couple advils right after school so I feel a lot better now)
"Okay, have fun… doing whatever it is you people do." Sequoia picked up as many books as she could, hustling hem into her room. She dropped a couple in her haste but was too busy ripping the ones that had made their way to her room open to think about that. Her notebook was on the bed beside her, occasional notes being pressed into it's pages.
(That's good. I probably won't be on for much longer as I have to go to a musical soon)
Aniña noticed the books dropped on the ground and being the person she was, had to go have a look at what Sequoia was looking at. She picked up the book and flicked through the pages, frowning a little, "Night Stalkers…" She muttered to herself before heading upstairs to Sequoia's room, knocking with a frown.
Sequoia pulled herself out of her research headspace, not bothering to leave the bed or shut her books. It was probably just a servant. Even if it was Aniña, Sequoia wasn't coming up. She wanted to be alone and work until she could finish everything and get back a wife who loved her. "LEAVE ME ALONE! I'M VERY BUSY! LOTS OF IMPORTANT RESEARCH"
"Well, you're missing a couple books. You dropped them while you were running out to do whatever 'important research' you're doing." Aniña rolled her eyes and dropped the books on the floor with a bang, "Have fun research about the Night Stalkers!" She called before heading down the hall with a frown.
"I will! Sequoia shouted, opening the door just far enough to snatch up the books and plop them down on the bed. She was lucky he was a fast reader because she had a lot of shit to cover. By dinner, she hadn't found anything at all related to memory loss. Even the books on antidotes hadn't listed anything. She snuck out into the dining room, resigning herself to a long dinner during which she wouldn't be able to do anything.
Aniña was humming quietly to herself as she headed to the dining room for some food. She was entirely hungry but she new she had to eat at least a little. With a sigh, she grabbed a couple pieces of bread and buttered them before sitting down. She picked at the food, even though she was feeling slightly hungry she didn't want to eat. Something was wrong with her and she didn't know what.