I woke up slowly, clawing my way back to consciousness. The first sensation assaulting me was pain. I felt as if someone had opened a construction-side, complete with jackhammers and heavy machinery in my head and now they were working away, trying to dig a tunnel from my forehead to my spine. For some time, that was the only thing that I felt, my whole being dominated by pain. Finally, I managed to get a bit of a grip on the pain, managing to subdue it a little, allowing me to notice the sounds that were tickling my ears. I internally smiled, it was progress, even if I had no strength to open my eyes, I was able to hear.

“Will she be alright?” it was Sigmir’s voice, nearby and she sounded stressed, maybe even a little defeated.

“I think so. I’m no great shakes as a healer, I mainly managed to channel some Astral Power into her, hopefully where it would help. But without any idea what she’s done now, I have no idea where even to begin to treat her.” a second voice, Adra’s, responded, sounding tired.

“It has been hours!” Sigmir’s voice snarled, almost scolding. “Why isn’t she waking up?!”

“I just don’t know.” Adra answered.

“Peace, Sigmir. Snapping at your friends won’t help. I can feel Lenore in there, but she too, seems to be unconscious.” a barking sound answered but I could understand it. It had to be Ylva, talking to Sigmir, who would be the only one able to understand, other than me, thanks to Lenore’s ability. The sound woke up a second sense, my sense of touch, thanks to the rumbling vibrations from the cushion I had been lying on. Only that it wasn’t a cushion, it was Ylva in all her furry glory.

Things got silent after that and I hung there on the edge of consciousness, resting for a bit before I resumed my struggle to get awake. After some time, I felt a ticking somewhere in the back of my mind, where there was no pain and I reached out to it, soon feeling the familiar sensation of my mental connection with Lenore establish itself. The first thing coming over the connection was a pained caw, but just knowing that she was there filled me with new strength and I started to fight again, drawing strength from her while sending strength back.

“Something’s happening.” I heard Ylva bark, giving me even more motivation.

“What are you doing?!” Adra’s voice sounded panicked and suddenly, I felt something flow into me from the outside, a raw and unbridled energy. As it was flowing into me, I felt as if someone had mistaken my body with a plug and stuck me into an electric outlet, an itching, burning sensation spreading out all over me, making me move. I felt my eyes open, almost bugging out of my skull and, for a moment, I took in my surroundings. I was in the igloo, with Ylva laying against the circular wall while Adra and Rai hovered nearby. Then, my vision was cut off when a heavy body slumped onto me, almost burying me.

I panicked for a split-second until I realised it was Sigmir. I tried moving, my limbs still burning with the energy that had been poured into me, until I noticed that Sigmir was completely limp, her breathing shallow. Now, the panic was back in force. My mind was still too raw to use my magic, but Adra and Rai must have noticed that something was wrong turning Sigmir to her side, allowing me some room to move. As I did, I realised that my arms were encased in the same crimson energy that flowed around Sigmir when she was seriously fighting. I tried to keep still, but felt myself shake with energy, urging me to move, to battle. Battle what? That I didn’t know, something, anything.

“What happened?!” I asked, my voice coming far faster than normal.

“Sigmir - she did something.” Rai answered and I felt a sudden surge of anger at the useless answer. Even I could see that she had done ‘something’ but that didn’t help me. I just managed to tamp down on my anger before I could do something I would regret later, like gutting Rai for his useless answer and heard a noise in the back of my mind.

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“Control yourself!” It was Lenore, calling from her Hallow and she managed to get through the red fog in my head. “Don’t you see that Sigmir needs you?”

Her question cleared the remaining for out in a hurry and I focused on my Sigmir, pushing all distractions away. My magic seemed far away, almost out of reach, so I simply reached out with my hand, feeling her pulse. What I felt caused my blood to run cold, fear suddenly heavy in my stomach. Her pulse was rapid but I couldn’t make out a rhythm, it was pure chaos. Her colour was pale, making her look like a ghost.

I had no real idea what was wrong with her, but just from the symptoms I was afraid. Afraid that she was dying because she had tried to help me, after I had done something stupid.

I needed more access to her, so I pushed her onto her back, reaching out with my hand again, trying to remember what to do when someone had a heart attack. Not that I truly knew what I was doing, but unless I managed to reach my magic, I was helpless. Again, I reached for my magic, trying to get at it despite the fog that had settled back in my mind, heightening my emotions and making me almost hysteric.

I needed something to focus on, something physical that allowed me to work, despite the distractions. Before I had finished that thought, I had my athame in hand and rammed it into my other hand, the suppen spike of pain causing me to curse, but allowing me to focus. Before that feeling of clarity faded, I pulled the blade from my wound, knowing that blood was an effective medium to transfer magic and placed my hand on Sigmir’s skin, in this case simply grabbing her throat, as it gave me the maximum skin-contact.

From there, i sent my magic into her body, feeling her heart beat, feeling her blood race but it was not right. The heart was beating too fast and the chaotic rhythm made it all wrong. It was like someone was playing a song, only that half the band had started too late and was now trying to play it as normal, shattering the harmonies, turning music into pure noise. Just that the music in this case was Sigmir’s life and the noise would soon cause complete failure.

And that was not acceptable! If Death wanted to have her, he could damn well get in line, she was mine and I would not give her up, neither to Death nor to Gods or her Ancestors.

I felt Lenore push through the haze that I barely managed to keep from my mind, push on despite the pain, and I welcomed her help with open arms. Our thoughts merged and once again, the line between us blurred.

We had the idea to use our own pulse, the pulse of our physical body, as a metronome to bring order to the chaos. Part of our attention was split off, to ensure that the problematic elements in our joined magic, the Ice-Element from Morgana and the Death-Element from Lenore, would not harm her, while we were trying to help her.

Our magic surged into Sigmir, flowing from my bloody hand into her skin, from her skin into her blood and with the blood to her heart. Lenore and I felt our pulse and focused on the idea to synchronize Sigmir’s beat with ours. There was a bit of resistance, as if her heart was trying to resist the beat but then, as if something between us broke, our hearts synchronised. Literally.

It was a strange sensation, reminding me of the soul-merge we had performed with the Grandmother’s assistance to heal Sigmir. And it was not just magic that surged, the magic carried something else with it. For a split-second, barely enough to understand what I was seeing, I was back in Sigmir’s soul, only that there was not just the mountain, there was more. In that moment, I saw the moon in the sky, felt a cold wind blowing around us.

Then the world lurched and I was back in the normal world, my Avatar-state forcibly ended. I felt Lenore leave her Hallow, looking ruffled but far more important was that Sigmir’s eyes fluttered open, causing not just a stone but a whole avalanche to drop from my heart.

“Thank the stars…” I muttered, feeling exhaustion settle around me.

But there was something far more important than sleep could ever be.

“Don’t ever try to leave me again!” I softly told Sigmir before pressing a kiss to her lips.