Three days had passed after Sera had recovered enough to leave her bed, nearly two weeks in total since her encounter with the Nest Mother. As per Cabrin and Akane’s advice, she spent those days eating and training to get herself back into a healthy state.
Her body felt better, her wounds fully healed, but Sera still had nightmares about that hellish night. Every night as she slept, she would find herself face to face with the Nest Mother. Every night she would feel her legs snap as it bit down on her, her ribcage collapsing, driving the air from her crushed lungs as she was pulled deep within the monsters gnashing maw. At the moment that the mouth would close over her, shutting out the light, that’s when she would wake twisted in her sheets. Some nights, she would just curl up into a ball,sobbing into her knees.
On those nights Akane would wander into her room and lay with her, singing an Asunese lullaby to her as she drifted back to sleep. Sera never understood the meaning of the words whispered musically as she wept, but they calmed her all the same. It was ridiculous, she thought. All the world depended on her and there she would lay, being sung to as if she were a small child.
That was why she was so eager to reach Bastion. If she was going to bear the mantle of Celeste returned, she needed to find Celeste within her. Even if she had no idea how to make that happen, the people of the College would.
It was a bright sunny day as they marched down the street, escorted by the City Guard as people cheered, blessing Sera and her companions on their journey to Bastion. She smiled warmly to the crowds as they walked. In her mind, she felt undeserving of the praise, but she wanted these people to have a hope that they could cling to, now that they knew that their home wasn’t invulnerable to the horrors of Sephra’s children.
Since the liberation of Volknest, many of the surviving residents had returned to their homes and had begun rebuilding their lives. Shop owners had presented Sera with generous offerings in thanks for what she had done for them. Though she had resisted, at first, Sera hadn’t been able to decline offers of clothing as hers had been left ruined after her fight against the Nest Mother.
She now wore a pair of long leather boots with cushioned insoles for the long journey. A white shawl with tufted fabric on one side resembling an angel’s wing was bound at the neck and flowed over a legless padded blue bodysuit over which she wore a pair of white cotton breeches.
Even Cabrin and Akane, who marched on either side of her were approached with gifts from a shop which catered to the many foreigners who frequented the city for trade. Cabrin was now dressed in a checkered brown and black kimono and white hakama while Akane skipped along in her a scarlet red hakama under which she wore her new white kimono which bore a swirling pattern of black and gold lines.
Behind them, Chilse, John, and Captain Argus followed as they made their way out the main gate. Sera offered Chilse a sad smile as they shared a departing embrace. During the infestation it had been rumored that the king and the rest of the royal family had been slain. In the aftermath of the events at the final battle in the Chimeras’ Nest, those rumors were confirmed, leaving Volknest without any clear leadership. Chilse and John had decided that they would stay along with the other surviving volunteers to help and restore order in the city.
As they left, Sera wondered if she would ever see her friend again. She wondered if she would see any of the faces that she had left behind along her journey.
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Sera had been reluctant to take on the role that she had been presented with, in the beginning, but as her journey went on, she had begun to become more confident in accepting the idea. Between her triumphs and her progression in her training, Sera had begun to feel like she was ready to face the trials that lay before her. Her night in the cave alone with the Nest Mother had shown her how wrong she was. She had barely survived that night and if she was going to continue to survive, she needed to change. But if ever she were able to return to her friends and loved ones, Sera wondered if they would even recognize the woman she was to become.
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The days that followed their departure from Volknest all started with rigorous training before setting off to continue their trek and ended just the same. Sera had been left sore and fatigued at the beginning, but as their journey went on, her body had begun to become accustomed to the physical demand that was imposed upon it.
Nearly a week after setting off from Volknest, Sera had little trouble as they climbed the mountain beyond which the road to Bastion continued. Sera stood in awe once they reached the summit from where the famed city could be seen in clear view.
As they rested, Cabrin pointed out the central structure where the College of Antiquity was shared with Bastion’s governing Council within a massive stone wall for which the city was named. Outside of that was the sprawling city which had sprung up around it in the centuries since the original fortress’ construction.
The setting sun signaled the ending of another day on the long road as they stopped for the night halfway down the mountainside. After a meager meal of dried venison and a round of flat bread after another grueling session of practice and drills, Sera had retreated to bathe in a nearby mountain spring.
Sera stepped into the pool, concentrating her magic into the water. Steam began to rise as she eased herself into the heated water. It was an ability that she had discovered during her travel, along with the light that illuminated the small secluded area in a warm glow.
Her arms barely ached anymore, her body being quite used to the training she had endured. They only had a day or two left before they would reach Bastion, she was glad to have become more physically ready for whatever laid before her after that.
Sera sank up to her eyes in the warm water and bubbled absentmindedly as she pondered on that. She hadn't given much thought to what would follow her time in Bastion. Getting there in the first place was the first priority, but now that they were so close, uncertainty was all that she was left with.
She wished that Akane was there, but She and Cabrin had decided to spend that night together. Sera felt a little guilty on that point. They weren't the kind to openly display their relationship in public as was common with their people and she felt like she was in the way during their only time away from prying eyes.
Feeling refreshed after her bath, Sera made her way back to the camp, passing by Cabrin and Akane. Sera would most likely be fast asleep by the time they returned, so she bade them goodnight as they went to the spring, eager to take advantage of the warm water while it remained so.
As she rolled out her mat and laid down to sleep, Sera wondered about what the next few days had in store for her. She wondered what the scholars would think when she was introduced. She speculated on where her journey would take her next after that. Whatever the future brought, Sera was just glad to know that the first leg of her journey was finally coming to an end.
Perhaps then, could her worries be put to rest. For a time, at least. A faint smile formed on her face at the thought as she drifted off to sleep. It was the first night that she slept without the Nest Mother haunting her dreams.