When Kalys heard the commotion from Sun's room, he had never moved so fast, flying through the already open door in time to see Mika slit the throat of an intruder while fighting another, and Sun was on top of a third man, beating into his face with her cast arm.
Kalys made quick work of Mika's opponent, spikes of ice piercing his form from all different directions.
He looked at Sun; the man she was beating was still, and when he got closer, he could see that he was likely dead given his head was a pile of mush.
"Sun?"
She didn't seem to hear him. Mika came up beside him, calling her name as well. But Sun continued beating into his face, the sound of his flesh pulverising grating on his ears. He circled round to get a look at her and found her expression blank and her eyes unfocused.
"Sun," he tried again.
Her cast was breaking with the amount of strength she was putting behind her blows, and she was splattered with blood.
"Sun!" He tried more forcefully, taking hold of her wrists and stopping her.
Her eyes met his, but it was like they weren't seeing him; they were still cloudy. But she did stop, and the tension did drain from her as he held her still.
"She seems drunker now than she did when she got home," Mika noted.
He was beginning to suspect alcohol wasn't at fault here.
"Mika, fetch a physician," he ordered.
She nodded, practically flying from the room herself.
"Come with me, Sun," he urged, helping her off the body and off the bed.
Her movements were sluggish, her limbs shaky. Adrenaline might have helped in the beating of her assailant, which had been messy and lacking much of the skill and finesse he knew she had from reading her academy reports and witnessing it during their training. He attributed that to whatever she had been drugged with. He took her from the room, finding their grandfather in the hallway; he must have heard the disturbance as well.
"What's going on?"
"Some men must have broken into Sun's room. They're dead, and I think Sun has been drugged."
"I'll take care of the cleanup," Jinn told him. "You see to Sun."
Kalys nodded. He did not want news of this to spread; he would try and keep this to as few people as possible. The bodies would be carted out and disposed of, though Kalys would like to go over their belongings first to find out who they are, why they were here, and who they might have been working for. They drugged her, rather than killed her outright. He assumed that meant they wanted to take her for whatever reason.
If it were a member of their family, he would assume they would just kill her, quick and clean, then she would be out of the way. He wasn't ruling them out completely, though.
He took Sun into his room, into the adjoining bathroom to clean her, where he ushered her to sit down on the settee. She hadn't said a word and still seemed to be struggling just to keep her eyes open.
"Sun, are you hurt?" He asked softly, crouching down in front of her and cupping the sides of her face, forcing her to look at him.
It took a while for the words to sink in, but she eventually shook her head. Though considering how out of it she was, he wasn't sure if she could even register any injuries she might have.
He was reluctant to strip her and get her into the bath; he would have to wait until Mika returned to take care of it. He knew Sun wouldn't want anyone else helping her either. She wouldn't want anyone helping her at all. But they needed to wash the blood off of her, and she couldn't be left in the water alone.
"Can you tell me what happened?"
She was practically swaying in her seat. "H-he was on me, w-when I... woke up," she replied, slowly and with slurred words.
Her eyes drifted shut a moment, and he stroked her cheek to get her to focus. "Then what happened?"
She slumped forward, and he didn't stop her, letting her forehead rest on his shoulder. He let her face go, stroking her hair instead and letting out a barely perceptible sigh. They stayed that way until he had to turn off the taps lest the bath overflow.
Mika finally returned with the physician who examined Sun first. They had to wipe off some of the blood so he could get a better look in some areas but declared her uninjured. Though her cast needed replacing, he set about doing that.
"What about her mental state?" Kalys asked. "We think she may have been drugged."
"With what?"
"I don't know. She seems... very intoxicated, and she wasn't this bad when she went to bed hours ago. Even her speech is slurred now."
The dumpy little man hummed and hawed a moment before asking a few questions about her evening, how much she ate, how much she drank, and a more detailed analysis of her state at bedtime. Mika chimed in with some of the answers since she'd helped Sun ready herself for bed.
The physician checked her eyes, then opened her mouth and looked inside, tilting her head to the light so he could see as deep as he could.
"She was indeed slipped something, Impetus, I believe. The back of her throat is quite inflamed."
"Impetus?" He asked.
"Hm. I'm seeing more and more of it these days. It does present as mild intoxication initially, but the longer it's in one's system, the more potent it becomes. In the right doses, it's a powerful sedative or a good way to keep someone docile and placid."
"Sun fought back against her attacker," he pointed out.
"A small portion of the population react... abnormally. It can have the opposite effect, even making them quite unpredictable and violent. Or it's just possible that whoever gave it to her didn't give her enough or wait long enough for it to take effect. She seems quite placid now."
Kalys looked at her, and true enough, he wasn't sure she would even realise it if someone tried to drag her out of the window.
"What do we do about it?"
"There's nothing to do; it'll wear off on its own. Just let her sleep. But it does feel like a terrible hangover once it does; keep her hydrated and give her pain relief."
Kalys nodded, folding his arms over his chest as he watched the man replace Sun's cast. When he was done, Kalys saw him to the door while Mika tended to Sun. He thanked the man for coming out so quickly and at such an inconvenient hour before sending him off with more than enough coin for his trouble.
He returned to the upper floor where more of the family had woken at the noise. They were asking questions, but he only gave them the bare bones of the situation before dismissing them.
Though he wanted to get back to Sun and check on her, he went into her room instead. His grandfather was directing the staff while he examined the men's belongings.
"Anything indicating who they are?" He asked, coming to stand beside him.
"No," Jinn replied. "Nor who sent them or how they got in. I intend to interrogate the estate guards after this. How is Sun?"
"Uninjured, but she was drugged. I suspect at the palace. She was behaving... out of sorts. I put it down to alcohol."
He stared intently at the faces of the men on the ground, trying to remember if he'd seen them at the palace. The man Sun had beaten – it was impossible to see what he might have looked like; his face was just a pulpy mass of flesh and bits of plaster from her cast.
He wondered if she would remember doing this or if it would be as if she'd blacked out.
"Do you recall seeing any of them?" He asked Jinn.
Jinn only shook his head.
"Do you think it was one of our own who orchestrated this?"
"I don't know. Anyone unhappy about Sun being here would have likely killed her, though, not attempted to abduct her."
He had thought much the same. Abduction meant they intended to use her for something, ransom, blackmail, or perhaps they just wanted to torture her before ending her.
He clenched his jaw so hard it was a wonder his teeth didn't shatter.
"Return to Sun," Jinn told him, perhaps sensing the direction his thoughts had taken or the rising ire. "I'll take care of things here."
"I shall keep her in my room for the remainder of the night," he told him.
Jinn nodded, and Kalys returned to his room. The bathroom door was closed, but he could hear the sound of water on the other side. Kalys found her something to wear from his own wardrobe, not wishing to return to her room. It was just a robe, but it would do while she slept.
When Mika came out looking for something to put Sun in, he handed her the black robe, which she eyed sceptically, shooting him a look.
A few moments later, Mika led Sun out; she was clean, her hair brushed, but her eyes still glazed and half-lidded. She was practically swimming in the robe he'd loaned her; Mika had had to roll up the sleeves and tie the sash around her waist more than once. It was Kalys who helped Sun into bed, tucking her under the blankets. She was asleep in seconds, or she'd passed out; it was difficult to tell.
Kalys looked to Mika. "Tell me what happened."
"I overheard hushed voices in her room when I came to check on her," she shrugged simply. "I went in; she was struggling against them, so I joined the fight. You came in shortly after."
"Did they say anything?"
"Not to me. And they were too quiet for me to make anything out before I entered the room."
So they had nothing. He eyed her up; she too was covered in blood from the fight.
"Get cleaned up. I'll watch over Sun tonight."
Mika nodded, disappearing from the room. If Mika had not gone to check on Sun, how different would things have been now? Would he wake in the morning to her disappearance? To her murder? The thought made his stomach churn, so he tried to put it from his mind. Sun was here, safe in his rooms where he could ensure no one could lay a hand on her.
He turned out the lights, lighting up a candle for himself and setting it on the table. He knew he would not find sleep tonight, so he would sit and read by candlelight until morning.