She's one of the few who hasn't seen your missing arm

You call out for Farrah that you are heading out. You do still pause for a moment to check how full the church is but it's mostly empty. Auria and Oriana must have left with their mother and most others have already filtered out. As you walk through the door the few people still there look over at you but you see in their auras a deliberate avoidance of thinking about you. Farrah must have been clear about your role and more importantly your lack of knowledge in one of her unheard remarks.

You leave the church and find the street a lot more populated. People talking about what they'd seen and making friends with a new common interest. You're mostly left alone, you get the odd 'Stud' but those aren't common and don't engage with you when you respond.

Heading to Asune's estate and leaving the church goers behind you find the street largely empty. You do hear a din of commotion from the base of the academy hill. The festival or whatever it is getting into full swing. Maybe you can bring Hanna there ... bad idea actually, she'd been paraded through the streets as the leader of a bandit group might be a bit too recognisable.

Walking into Asune's estate you are greeted with silent nods from the staff. All stop what they are doing to bow at you then return to their work. Through the main doors you aren't stopped or impended so you hurry to Hanna's room.

Her door is closed so you knock and announce your presence.

"What do you want?" Hanna answered. Her mood did not seem to have improved all that much since you'd last seen her.

"Can I come in?" You asked. There is a long pause before she says yes. Opening the door you are a little surprised by the lack of anything new. Bed, side table, wardrobe nothing else. You don't bring the subject up as you walk inside.

Hanna is sitting next to the window leaning her head against it. "Here to fuck me?" She asked lazily.

"No, would you stop assuming I'm going to rape you." You said a bit annoyed. "It makes me really uncomfortable." You explained. Hanna responds by lifting her hands, displaying the metal bands around her wrist limiting her ability to use magic. You awkwardly look away from the rather obvious victory. "What have you been doing?"

"Looking out the window, sleeping, eating." She answers.

"Don't have any books?" You ask concerned. You thought she'd have asked for something to do, just sitting here doing nothing is a torture you were not in any way wanting to inflict.

"Can't read." She answered flatly. "Look can you do whatever you came to do and leave me alone?" She sat up from the window and looked at you. Her eyes immediately drawn to your missing limb.

"Yeah." You lift the stump so give her a clearer look. "Got in a fight." You said with a shrug.

"Who could have done that to you?" Both her voice and aura held concern which threw you for a second. She walked over and took your stump in her hand looking it over.

"Me. I cut it off without thinking much about it." You said. She looked up at you. "I thought it would grow back, it didn't."

Hanna let go of you and looked thoughtful. "There were some healers in my camp who treated missing limbs."

"Any tips on regrowing it?" If it was faster than waiting for Gabrielle you'll be all for it. Her brow wrinkled and she shook her head. "Oh well. I've got alternative to regrowing it, just be missing for a few more weeks." The two of you quieted down and looked at each other. The moment stretched and you started to feel awkward again. "Want to play a game?"

Hanna's face twisted for a moment, anger and fear that she suppressed quickly. She turned away from you and started lifting her shirt, exposing some of the scars on her back.

"No nevermind." You rush out feeling a bit queezy at seeing those scars and remembering how she'd told you she'd gotten them. She lowered her shirt and walked back over to the window. "You said you can't read. Do you want to learn?" Her head perked a little and she looked at you. "I'd be happy to teach you."

She pursed her lip for a moment then nodded. You smile and left the room to ask a staff member if there was a library. You were directed to it and asked for them to have paper, ink and a quill prepared while you went back for Hanna. Together you made your way to there.

The library was a bit underwhelming, two floor to ceiling bookshelves, each about your arms reach wide. But there was a desk with a few chair so you sat Hanna down and looked for a book while she picked at the paper. You found one titled 'The Tales of Lady Feriour.' and brought it back to the table.

"First we will start with letters." Probably an advantage of knowing how to read and write in your own language before you came to this world, you know how to teach someone with existing knowledge the same way you were taught. This should be easier since you speak the same language to start with.

The two of you spent quite a while working on her letters. She knew the shape of letters and had some general idea of what groups of letters might be but that was it. You did manage to get to talk about her time as leader of the rebellion/rebels. Most of them couldn't read so almost all of their communications had to be either memorised or drawn. You asked if she wanted so paint to draw a little on her own you saw a flicker of interest in her aura. You decided to just have a staff member bring her the material after this rather than see if she'd ask on her own.

As the sun started setting you wound the lesson down. Progress had been made but this isn't a quick thing, if you really want to teach her how to read and write it will mean spending a lot of time here. Asune will probably be thrilled but you worry Vatarie will get jealous.

As you are packing up you hear the door open. "Hello Christopher." Kiyo, Asune's mother, said brightly. "And hello Hanna, it is nice to see you out of your room." Hanna didn't answer, she simply kept on packing up. "Still only talking to Christopher?" Kiyo asked walking over. "Hasn't said a word to anyone but you since she arrived."

You looked at Hanna in confusion. When you'd first visited she'd complained about none of the staff talking to her. "I didn't know you weren't talking to anyone?" Hanna pursed her lips but didn't respond. You did not dig any deeper since with Kiyo here you have more important things to talk about. "Thank you for letting her stay here."

"Oh don't be." Kiyo laughed playfully slapping your shoulder. "My house is your house. Just imagine how upset my daughter would be if I didn't let her fiancé keep a slave here."

And now you were uncomfortable for two reasons. "We ..." You trailed off as the implicate meaning hit you. She was letting Hanna stay here because she thought you were Asune's fiancé if you say you aren't she might not be so accommodating. While that seemed out of character for Kiyo, given all your seen of her is a lovely polite and friend beam of sunshine your time around Ana's mother had taught you enough to not just say what pops into your mind. "Right."

"And what is this about?" Kiyo asked walked up to the table and seeing the papers with malformed letter scribbled on it. "Hmm," She pulled a page from Hanna's hands, "are you teaching her to read and write?" She asked. Hanna looked at you for a moment then nodded. "Well you won't learn if you only get a lesson on the weekends. I'll be happy to teach you." Kiyo smiled at Hanna. "I could use a younger woman in my life not criticizing my own writing." She laughed, you joined in, the image of a five year old Asune scolding her mother for poor viscountess contracts fit the two of them so well. Hanna was silent.

"If you want to learn it's a good idea." You offered.

"And it means you'll be of more use to your master." Kiyo said, still brightly. You internally sighed as you felt Hanna withdraw. "No?" Kiyo sighed in disappointment. "Oh well, the offer is open." She gave the page back to Hanna. "Will you be staying for dinner? Asune should be home soon."

That's, probably something you should do, Asune hasn't had a lot of alone time with you for a while, and Vatarie got some personal time today already.