The carriage ride back (well, not back, as Leo had instructed Glen to take them to Niccolette’s home and not back to the Attic0 was a silent affair. Niccolette still slept - Leo hoped - on Howie’s shoulder, and Howie stared out of the window, stiff as a board and clearly uncomfortable with the position he had been left in: a galdori woman worn out from exerting her magic resting on his shoulder.
For his part, Leo alternated between looking through the window, trying his best not to fall off the backwards-facing seat as the carriage bumped over every uneven cobblestone, and staring at the woman in question. To say that he was concerned would be a gargantuan understatement.
After what felt like the longest journey in history, the carriage finally pulled to a halt, and Leo turned to look out of the window again. He recognised the façade of Niccolette’s home and turned to Howie. He was under no illusions that Howie was best suited to carrying the woman into her home: Leo was a scrap (no pun intended) of a man compared with the beefy build of the other. “I will hold her up while you exit the carriage, then are you able to carry her into her home?”
The human nodded silently and waited for Leo to get off his seat and keel on the floor of the carriage. Arms outstretched, he gentle eased the sleeping woman off of Howie’s shoulder and held her still as Howie extra aged himself from her and pushed up from his seat and out of the carriage. He then turned, reaching back in with his arms and, in what might in another situation be considered perfect coordination from two men who barely knew each other, Leo gently pushed Niccolette over as Howie scooped and pulled her towards his body.
Once the galdor had been removed, the passive also made his exit, following Glen and Howie up to the front door, which they opened and the three traipsed inside. “Into the room over there,” Leo said, remembering the general layout of the room he had been invited into not long ago. He wasn’t about to search every room of the house looking for the woman’s bedroom, and he certainly didn’t want her waking up on her bed with three men looming over her. No, she had sat well enough in the carriage, so she would be fine in her seat in this living room.
“Put her in that chair, gently man,” Leander knew that Howie was rolling hie eyes, even with his back to the man, but he did as requested nonetheless. “Right, we need to - where are you going?” Now that Niccolette was safely ensconced in her own home, it seemed like the other two men were done. They had both made for the door.
“Our job is done,” Glen responded slowly, as if trying to explain a simple nursery rhyme to a child. “She is home. She will recover in her own time.” Leander blinked, confused. Had they not seen the blood, the shivering? Circle, the woman had passed out cold on the floor, or would have done if Howie hadn’t been there to catch her fall. He said as much to the two men. “Yeah, well... she used magic and she now is unconscious as a result of it. What d’you want us to do? Read to her? Slap her awake? She’ll be fine, lad. Stay if you want, but Howie and me ‘ave other things to do t’day.”
And, with that, Leo was speechless as he wanted the two men take their leave. He stood for a fair while, staring blankly at the door. Eventually, he looked over to the sleeping galdor. He was standing close enough that he could still feel the heat radiating off of her. The passive had no idea if it would help or not but he went to find the kitchen and returned with cloth, now wet and cool with water splashed onto it. The boy dabbed it lightly onto Niccolette’s forehead and exposed areas of her neck.