Intermission #8: Annalina

The roar of her power died down around her. The sound of silence filled her ears as the light of everything she destroyed was absorbed into her. Ann knelt down in the ashes, feeling both her body and the hole within herself being knit back together.

You have been afflicted with Bonding Sickness x396. Time until next phase: 12 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds

She remained there, looking down at dried soil and dust beneath her, hearing and smelling nothing. Not a single sound broke the still of the air around her. She lifted her head and looked around, daring to hope the scar she created on her world was smaller than she knew it to be. But the distance to the edge of desolation was not perceptibly closer than it had been the last fourteen times she had done this.

She leaned forward into her hands, looking at the cracks in the ground once more. She swept her hand across the dense, compacted soil. It crumbled under her touch, and she swept it away, digging down with her hands. Desperately she moved the soil away. “There has to be…” she whispered to herself as the now powdered soil yielded to her efforts. But as deeply as she dug, she found no difference to what she already knew existed on the surface. “It’s barren,” she whispered tearfully to herself.

Her hand stilled, fingers curled into the sterile dirt as her mind replayed her earlier assertion. Barren. It was as if she and the world were engaged in an unfortunate dance, a macabre mirror of cause and effect. She left physical scars on the world in her desperate attempts to survive. In turn, the world scarred her, not with physical wounds, but with emotional ones that cut just as deeply. The loss of her sister, an echo of life that had been vibrant and vital, now snuffed out. One of her sisters was gone, just as the life of this once-vibrant patch of the world was now gone. They had left each other with ashes, emptiness, and loss.

Her suspicion that The Watch had succeeded in killing Vina was put to rest almost immediately by Adir, however. He had reassured her that the bounty was not yet fulfilled, and if Vina still lived he would request immediately for the bounty to be withdrawn upon their return to Randar. But that didn’t mean that Vina had not met some other grisly end in the meantime. She had absolutely no information or knowledge on Etana. Her guilt at losing track of the two most important connections in her life was eating away at her. Knowing that one of them was eternally gone but not knowing definitively which was unbearable.

"Ann?" Adir's voice was a quiet whisper in the encompassing silence.

Startled, she looked up from her futile excavation to find him standing nearby, observing her with a mournful expression. She hadn't heard him approach, but she wasn't surprised. Her energy was drained, her sleep was interrupted, and her focus was consumed by the void in her chest as much as the rumination of her mind.

"I don't want to do this anymore," she confessed, her voice barely above a whisper.

Adir moved closer, gently brushing away the thin layer of ash before sitting down next to her. He was silent for a moment, respecting her despair. "Which part?" he finally asked, his tone light but filled with understanding.

Ann lifted her dirt-streaked hands aimlessly, finally wiping them on her pants. She paused, struggling to articulate the enormity of her feelings. "I...," she began, but the words refused to form. Finally, she admitted, "All of it."

Adir nodded, understanding. "The news about your sister... Everything you’re dealing with and then the world has to add more," he said gently.

She nodded in agreement, her eyes vacant as they stared into the distance, seeing not the barren landscape but a whirl of emotions and memories. After a moment of silence, Adir cleared his throat.

"You know, Ann...," he began hesitantly. "I understand how you're feeling more than you might realize."

She glanced over at him, her eyes questioning. He met her gaze with a sad smile, then looked away, out towards the vast expanse of destruction. "I lost my sister too, to The Darkness. I watched it happen and... it... it shattered my world."

Ann watched Adir in disbelief. “I didn’t know. You never told me. What was her name?”

“Taya. She was younger than me by a few years, but we shared a close birthday in the summer.” Adir said with a smile, still not looking at her. “I grew up not too far from Termily actually. There used to be another city just east and to the south by the ocean.”

Ann’s eyes opened in understanding. “Stralnar?” She asked in shock. She knew the history and legend of the city destroyed by The Watch just twenty years ago. It had been overrun with cultists that pledged loyalty to The Darkness. Not long after, the nearby gloom emptied into the city, killing and capturing everyone inside. With a city now under the control of the Darkness, The Watch’s response was swift to reclaim it, but in doing so they decimated the infrastructure and cult alike. It was rumored that Haco fought The Darkness herself on that day.

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Adir nodded. “I was just twelve years old, working on a farm outside of the city when The Darkness moved to take it. I wasn’t even aware of the cultists at that time.”

“What happened?” Ann asked gently.

Adir looked down at his hands. “Taya and I were slacking off. I was supposed to be feeding the livestock. She was supposed to harvest from the fields on the other side of the farm.” He gestured with a hand. “In the distance we saw a darkened sky and thought it was rain. She rushed to help me finish my chores before we both got soaked, but when we left the barns, the rain we saw were actually dark shadows falling from the sky.”

Adir paused and Ann saw a range of emotions cross his face. His lip trembled as he continued. “Taya, uh, got scared.” He swallowed hard before continuing. “She took off running toward the farmhouse in the distance. A creature was lying in wait for us. She was the first to pass it, and it attacked her before I could do anything.” Adir clenched his hand into a fist and swung it down in front of himself. “I grabbed a hammer and attacked the creature while it was still attacking her. I couldn’t kill it fast enough.”

“Oh Adir…” Ann said softly, reaching out to touch his shoulder. He reached up and took her hand in his own.

“More creatures came. They chased me away… from her,” he said, choking back the last words. He cleared his throat and took a moment to steady himself. “There’s something else I haven’t told you, Ann,” Adir said, releasing a heavy sigh. His gaze shifted to meet hers, a kind of determination gleaming in his eyes. “The Darkness... it took Taya's shadow that day. It uses her to find me. The Darkness thought it could use her to break me. But it did the opposite. Every time I see her, it's a reminder of what I lost... and what I'm fighting for." He gave her a smile despite the pain in his eyes. “Tacey wanted to silence The Darkness for me. She’ll never understand that Taya is the true source of my strength.”

Ann looked at Adir in surprise. “And… all of the twelve know this?”

Adir nodded. “Haco assigned me to work with you because… because of Taya."

Ann could hardly believe what she was hearing. "You still see her shadow?"

“Occasionally," Adir admitted. "Less so since I've joined with you. But every time I do, she strengthens my resolve. It's painful, yes, but it also gives me hope. Hope that one day, I can free her. Hope that you can find out exactly what happened to your sister. Maybe she needs freedom too. The Exemplar once said that the pain we're feeling is not meant to break us, Ann. It's meant to empower us, to make us stronger. We’ve both lost, and it's hard, it's incredibly hard. But we are not alone. We have each other, and we have a purpose."

Adir squeezed her hand gently. "This isn't just about surviving, Ann. It's about fighting. For our sisters, for everyone who's been taken by the Darkness. We carry their hopes, their dreams. And we owe it to them to not just survive but to be victorious."

Adir’s words brought a thought to her mind she hadn't considered. “What if one of my sisters was killed by The Darkness? Trapped just like Taya?” she thought. She nodded slowly in realization at Adir. “I can’t let them be controlled like that.”

“I knew I couldn’t either.” Adir affirmed her.

Ann’s stomach suddenly growled, clear and evident in the silence of the clearing. She covered it, trying to hide what was clearly audible.

“You’re hungry,” Adir declared, letting go of her hand and pointing at her stomach. “You need to eat.”

“We ran out of food yesterday. We have to forage now,” she sighed. Regaining her feet, she began slowly walking to the edge of the clearing. “Only one problem with that.”

Adir stood as well and quickly joined her. “What problem?”

“I sacrificed my forage skill to the bonding sickness back in Halos,” she admitted. “You have the highest foraging skill now.”

“It’s level nine,” Adir groaned as they stepped back into the forest.

Ann found a spot near a tree and sat down. “Good luck. Hopefully it won't go like last time,” she gently teased him.

Adir gave her a sideways glance as his large fingers hovered near a berry on the bush. "You don't have to remind me." A few tense seconds passed as Adir examined the berry on the bush. He bit his lip, took a deep breath, and gently pulled. The berry came loose, and Adir exhaled loudly in relief, holding up his prize between two fingers as if he'd just won a battle, only to have the berry squish between them a moment later.

Ann shook her head. “Try holding your hand under it. Pop the berry off horizontally with two fingers, then drop it into your other hand.”

Adir gave her a considering look. “I hadn’t thought of that before.”

“Yeah. I have all the knowledge, just none of the skill anymore,” she smiled and gave a weak laugh.

Adir smiled back and prepared himself to follow her directions.

Ann looked to the side, seeing a bush without any fruit on it. She activated her aspect and reached out to absorb its life. A light flickered into existence as it flowed into her body. At the same time she heard Adir’s voice.

"I did it!" he exclaimed.

She looked back and saw a small wisp of light rise from the soil and enter Adir’s body. She stared at him dumbfounded. “Do it again,” she said, almost deadpan.

Adir looked at her strangely, but he slowly moved to pry another berry loose from the plant into his outstretched palm.

Once again a light rose from beneath him and entered his body.

Her eyes widened as realization dawned on her. Vibrance wasn't just an abstract concept; it had a tangible energy source. If Adir could absorb vibrance from successfully foraging, there might be other ways to harness this energy. And if they could harness it...

"Adir, I think I might be onto something," she said, her voice full of hope and newfound determination.