The evening had ended early for all of them, with the next day beginning in earnest. The coming of night had changed little for them, but a new day brought new opportunities.
For some, morning had came before the dawn. Mhyl, having slept much earlier than normal, was also awake much earlier than normal. Thanrie and Lwyn were both still asleep, having had need of the extra hours. Mhyl then got up to check on Qheria. She arrived at the room to find Rhyde and Yuxzn already there.
"Ah, perfect, or wait. Yuxzn, need a hand here." Rhyde had been expecting many things from Yuxzn in the past, but a casual translator still felt like a weak use of Yuxzn's own abilities. He still settled into the role regardless, considering both the circumstances and the people involved. The four girls weren't exactly low-key individuals anymore.
"You've been fairly close to Qheria though all of this, so I wanted to hear from you as well. Zyuixqs' reports have been highly insufficient from a .. psychological profile perspective. It's one reason I had approached her myself to get a gauge on how she was actually doing. However, I know that she takes my statements as a .. personal challenge. I had warned her about how her hesitation could get her friends hurt, but.. I didn't expect her to pull something like this." Rhyde's concern flooded his face, worried what his own words might have caused. Mhyl let him continue silently.
"I harp on her so much so that she might gain own experience, but.. this is something I have no experience in myself. I've put myself on the line to make sure everything succeeds, but I've never faced death in the teeth and gone down for someone else. Always, I have Yuxzn pull us out before any such sacrifice is even warranted. I worry I might have been pushing her too hard, pushing her too far, and so now pushing more risk onto her than even I'm willing to take myself." Rhyde wasn't even watching her or much of anything while talking, the dark roof proving interesting enough in his own self-reflection.
Mhyl shook her head. "I think this is just more how close we are, it's a lesson we've put on each other. You weren't the only one putting expectations on Qheria, you should have seen some of the stuff we told her as well. We even beat her in her favourite game, which I guess wouldn't have done wonders for her self-esteem. She was doing very well, and it was very close, but she kinda broke down afterwards. Still, it's so obvious she looks up to you like a perfect role model, the sort of leader she herself aspires to be. When she falls, you're always willing to lend her helpful encouragement, lessons only a skilled leader could offer. Personally, I thank you so much for looking after Qheria as much as you have been. Please keep being her beacon of hope, so that she can continue to grow and improve as she has been." Mhyl bowed formally her appreciation, catching both of them off guard.
Rhyde went a bit bashful at this remark, honestly intimidated at this degree of responsibility. Mhyl giggled, reflecting that Qheria was just one of many of his responsibilities, but Qheria herself seemed to have an additional impact to Rhyde. Rhyde usually behaved so much more mature than typical for his age, but sometimes he couldn't help but let his true age shine through. Rhyde was thus even more at a loss for words.
Yuxzn then continued the conversation without him, interested in further details. "How are the other two doing? I had heard they were fine medically.. physically, but.. that they were taking things fairly hard." "Oh, yeah, Lwyn is actually taking things pretty badly. Thanrie might believe that she had actually caused this whole problem, but Lwyn seems to be crumpling under the weight that she was herself saved from suffering at the cost of Qheria. I really don't know a good way to help her, she's always thought so lowly of herself because of her.. bloodline. Hearing that her mother was actually the daughter of two really important people hasn't even been enough to impact that, as far as I can tell. The farther along we go, the worse her plastic smile seems to get..." Yuxzn nodded in understanding, not even realizing that Mhyl had known where the focus of his concern had resided.
Qheria started coughing softly, so Mhyl ran to check up on her. She quickly discovered that Qheria was still deeply unconscious, Qheria's own body just naturally trying to deal with its own struggles. Rhyde checked to make sure that the room was still getting proper ventilation. Yuxzn made sure that Wardens returned to complete a more in-depth diagnosis. At some point of these proceedings, Lwyn herself had shown up.
"Hey Mhyl, Thanrie is still sleeping, but I guess you couldn't help but be up early." Lwyn passed Mhyl that plastic smile that had grown more and more artificial overtime. She then turned to Qheria, looking worried. "Is Qheria doing okay?" "We both know she'll be fine, especially with all of this care. Qheria is a tough woman, no way she would let this keep her down for long, right?" "Oh, yeah, of course!" Lwyn's ability to stay positive was starting to pale beside Mhyl's meager attempts at emulating Lwyn's strengths. They both started watching the wardens work for a while, silently in contemplation.
Xyithy showed up eventually, having been scheduled to return from a patrol this morning. She would thus have only just learned what had happened to her daughter. She was dragging Rhyde around, getting all of the details from him, as Yuxzn followed along as always. "So you mean to tell me that my daughter had almost died, simply because of the recklessness of a Wyxiri, all to save the life of some skimp of a half-elf? This is absurd, my daughter's life is worth far more than that of someone who is just some half-elf." Xyithy was fuming with irrational irritation. Lwyn had gone stark pale.
"Your daughter is still only someone who is 'just some human', I fail to see how there is any kind of difference here. You let your rivalry with the Wyxiri cloud your judgement of others far too frequently." Yuxzn's dagger-filled words caught Xyithy off guard, she stumbled to construct some kind of reply. "The nerve, I'd have you know my daughter is a very established and important individual." "So is that 'just some half-elf' you were talking about. A circle elf plus the heir to the arch-magus. I hear either of those titles by itself bear a lot of weight on the other side of the great mountain, let alone both together. I hear your own reputation was gained because you had saved a royal family in an act of heroism, how is your own daughter's actions any different, then? Lwyn is herself a kind of royalty." Xyithy was caught completely without words, realizing that any retort she gave Yuxzn now would look poorly on her daughter. Xyithy stormed off to find Aelyiq and get a more medical report, trying to compose herself along the way.
Lwyn's pale tone was flush with a touch of red, having watched Yuxzn pour so much importance into her, in her own defense. She started to get dizzy, so Mhyl guided her to a nearby bed. Tears fell from Lwyn's face, silently in frustration. Mhyl found a seat nearby to wait in. Eventually, Thanrie showed up, her hair an absolute mess. Mhyl sighed, compelled Thanrie to make use of the spot she had found for herself, and went off to find that brush again.
"So, how is Qheria doing?" "Oh, uh.. ah! Obviously she's going to be awesome, right?" Thanrie shrugged at Lwyn's attempt to cloud over the doubt she herself couldn't shed. Thanrie herself looked down at her hands once again, a chill of fear passing through her spine. Both of them sat silently in self-reflection, and were still doing so when Mhyl returned. Mhyl didn't even break the silence, unsure on the right things to say. Instead, she just started tending to Thanrie's hair. This did however have Thanrie start to feel even more helpless and dependant.
Mhyl finished tending to Thanrie's hair and pocketed the brush in a pouch, for her to return later. "Feeling better?" "No, not really, only more helpless." "Oh, then do you want to tend to my hair then?" Thanrie looked down at the small brush Mhyl offered her. Clearly, Mhyl came surprisingly prepared. Thanrie reached out to pick up the brush, and then with shaking hands dropped it on the table in front of her. "I... I can't.." Thanrie kept shaking, as she considered what her own hands might do to Mhyl. Mhyl frowned, her plans foiled.
"Just because we keep getting blessed with good luck doesn't mean we should start feeling uptight about finding the other side of luck step on us. The only thing that matters is how we work with it." Mhyl's quote had Thanrie freeze. Thanrie remembered giving this exact same advice to Qheria, not that long ago. They had said that using the gift to help was an act of good fortune, she had agreed, and this may or may not have been an act of simple ill fortune, but that almost didn't matter. Things might have gone wrong, she might even be to blame for it, but she herself was dwelling in what had gone wrong more than working to fix it. She couldn't pick up that brush because, in the time since that accident, nothing had changed. She had fixed nothing, she had not improved at all.
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Thanrie got up, the wheels in her head spinning. If she was still a danger, doing nothing was only making the problem worse. She had to hurry and... She quickly realized that it wasn't just the wheels spinning in her head, so was her entire head. She sat back down, a dizzy spell passing over her. She looked back at the brush in front of her, and recalled the last time Mhyl had brushed her hair. She had also been pushing herself way too hard, Mhyl telling her it would have her make more mistakes. She wasn't wrong either, that's exactly how things had turned out.
She then thought back further, to Qheria's analysis on why Thanrie's gift was so far away. Qheria had said that Thanrie's mind was unfocused, almost unstable. Yesterday, they had seen that even Ehryinae's gift did not have the greatest degree of self-control, controlling the gift was very difficult even for people with the best of training. Being scatter-brained and unfocused was only making things worse. Thanrie took a deep breath, trying to relax.
Mhyl watched the proceedings, really uncertain what was going on inside Thanrie. She couldn't tell if Thanrie was going to be okay or no. Lwyn herself watched silently, unwilling to do more. Suddenly, Thanrie got up, gradually instead of quickly, and took another deep breath. "Okay, first things first, we have no idea how much longer Qheria is going to be, but not taking care of ourselves is just going to make things harder for our leader after she wakes up. No one has even had breakfast, right? I thought so. We should start with that. Mhyl, I'm sorry, but we've been pushing the fitness thing a bit hard, today is a break day. We can maybe resume tomorrow, if everyone is up to it. With some luck, Qheria might even be joining us, right? We still have to worry about that jet-stream project that was put on ice, but otherwise we should actually take breaks for a break. Sit down, maybe read over some reports, simple and easy, right?" Thanrie went to encourage Lwyn and Mhyl to stand up as well, driving them to keep going.
Thanrie passed Mhyl's brush back to her. "When our first break comes, remind me about this. Maybe I'll be more composed by then and we can see if I can be of any help. Your own hair looks really well done, so I doubt there is much more I can do for it, but that's probably not the point, right?" Thanrie's faint smile made Mhyl grin. She had no idea how things had just worked out so well, but they had.
Mhyl turned to Lwyn to help her as well, though Lwyn looked even more withdrawn. Mhyl's grin was then replaced with concern once again. Thanrie was doing better, but clearly Lwyn was going to need something else.
Qheria was still lost within her own slumber, and there she was also lost within her own dreams. She was walking along a trail, feeling relaxed. She turned to look behind her, seeing an expanse of houses and homes for people, people she felt the need to look out for. For that reason, she had to keep going. She turned back to the trail and it's expanse before her. She trudged on, keeping to the trail, determined to reach whatever destination was on the way.
As she kept going, the trail itself reformed, as the scene before her starting going upwards instead of just a flat forwards. She continued forwards, struggling against the slope of the path, one step at a time. Her pace slowed down dramatically, the height of her path was dramatic indeed. As she kept going forwards, the green pastures became replaced by snow-filled valleys, as snow begun to fall. A wind picked up, chilling her considerably, not being properly dressed for weather this cold. Frost took to everything, making the trail even more difficult to get proper footing. Soon though, even the frost was covered in snow.
She looked back behind her, to the valley of green grass and brown houses. They were still fine, they were beyond all of this, and so she needed to keep going. She took one gruesome step after the other, shivering every step of the way. She felt mostly frozen herself, but she still kept going. Arms and legs growing numb from the cold, she still pressed on-wards, as the sky itself became nothing more than a sheet of white.
Looking upwards, she saw a small tiny ball of snow bouncing down the hill towards her. Out of instinct, she lunged for the ball but missed. The ball bounced past her, not growing any smaller as it bounded down into the distance. It made it to the base of the hill and rolled into one of the homes, smashing in it as a giant boulder. Snow covered the area struck, and ice rapidly formed over the area affected, until it was frozen solid.
Another ball was forming before her, bouncing towards her without a thought or care in the world. She reached this one and lashed out with her feet, striking it away with as much force as she could muster. Instead, the ball passed through her feet, like they weren't even there. The snowball rolled past her, tore through the frozen homes, tearing it to pieces, before crashing into a new unfrozen home, and spreading more ice and destruction.
Two more balls appeared, both at once, and neither of them even recognized her existence. The things behind her were being destroyed with utter neglect, regardless of what she tried to do. She kept pressing onward, desperate to find a way to end the senseless destruction. The wind started to pick up, pressing her backwards with an intent and vigor. The path sloped even further upwards, becoming increasingly slippery. At one point, she had to grasp with her hands in order to climb any further. The snow had painted herself in a canvas of white and blue, clinging to her like an overcoat made of pure cold.
Time itself seemed to slow down, in an effort to keep her farther from her goal, with the hands of time itself starting to freeze over. And yet, she would not stop. She climbed up onto a rocky rampart, and found a plateau of pure, flat stone. Snow covered everything all around, but had no ability to touch this part. A snowball formed from the sky itself, came down, and bounced across the plateau, reaching for the decent behind her. She reached out for the ball, and again missed, leaving the ball to bounce towards its undesirable destination.
Qheria crossed the plateau and reached the other side, her vision completely obscured by snowfall. At the other end was a tree, mostly battered and broken. Filled with holes, shards of wood scattered everywhere, it had been trying to hold out for as long as it could, but it was almost broken. However, in this flurry of snow, not a branch was white, it's black leaves a pure defiance of the fate given onto it. As she approached it, another snowball came crashing through it, shattering branches and throwing splinters everywhere as it bounded gleefully towards its target.
Qheria reached out for the tree, as the tree collapsed, unable to take any more. A single branch, without any tatters or tears itself, fell before her and landed at her feet. She picked it up, looking at it. It wrapped around her hands, feeling warm, until the branch looked more like a spiral of leaves and thorns. She carried the branch back to the middle of the plateau, looking at it in wonder. Once there, another snowball appeared, challenging her once again. It rushed towards her, and she held out the branch in defense. The ball smashed into the branch, but it was her own arms that drew blood. Striking the branch, the snowball vanished in a sprinkle of white powder.
Qheria took her position, knowing what she had to do. More snowballs appeared, and she blocked each in turn. As each snowball struck, the branch held strong, but it was herself that was torn. The gray of the plateau was being painted red with her blood, which itself froze into a betraying blue. With even less footing, Qheria continued to block the oncoming destruction.
Almost as if realizing their obstacle, the snowballs came in growing numbers and frequency, until it became an onrush of white flurry rapidly slamming against her. And yet still, she continued to give herself, in order that no one else may suffer. She fell to one knee, barely able to keep going, herself almost ready to break.
The rocks below her started to move and reshape, as if motivated by her own will. Multiple snowballs came crashing down on the rocky face, splintering stone fragments as the ground itself suffered in defense. And yet, even still, Qheria held her ground, starting in turn to defend the rocky forms that were trying to simply defend her. The entire mountain started to bristle in her defense, spires of stone shooting up into the very skies. The spires parted the very clouds themselves, tearing through the harsh snow falling onto them, and the sky was forced clear. The ground cusped around her, carrying her to safety.
Eventually, battered and bleeding, she reached the grassy ground below, the snow clearing up already. She placed the branch into the ground, which instantly grew into a blossoming tree beside her, her own wounds disappearing as well. She stepped forwards, through an archway of stone before her, heading onward to wherever her next destination was.
Qheria blinked awake for a moment, still unsure what was real and what was not. Her dream had felt so vivid, so.. real. However, she recognized where she was, the bed she was in. No one nearby seemed aware she had woken up yet, though she was still hardly considered awake. She still fell sore and worn, and decided that she could relax a little while longer. She could face the real world once again, once the real world came back to her.
Mhyl would show up with her lunch not long after, shocked and happy to see Qheria awake. With Qheria safely back in her friend's hands, Rhyde finally left silently to tend to his own lunch.