Blur

They had been hunted down and lost everything in the fire. Voah feared that she would lose Gonyaul too. If it was inevitable then she was prepared to go with him.

What had happened tonight was inconceivable… There came a great whirring pandemonium of smoke and dust that clouded the streets and stung the eyes and nostrils. Suddenly, hope appeared in the form of two strong hands. Voah looked up to find the eyes of Alexis, who seemed to have materialized like a battle angel out of the babel and bedlam, urging her to get moving. Alexis took up the body of her lover and together they fled.

Following the mercenary in shock, Voah felt nothing. It was a strange experience… dreamlike… and it was all over in a blur. The next thing she knew, they were passing an inner courtyard pool that reflected the sliver of moon in its placid waters and heading underground.

Voah looked around and slowly came to her senses to discover that they were not alone. Somehow, during their escape, Voah hadn’t looked back to see what became of the cryomancer, hadn’t seen Alcuin disappear, didn’t process that Tarmen was running with them, lugging a young woman over his shoulder. She didn’t even realize that, somehow in the tumult, she grabbed her sword and her own legs had carried her autonomously to the sanctuary under the ruined building.

With the toss of a pack, Alexis gave Voah a silent bidding to help care for a young Ozainae woman and she nodded in obeisance. Voah laid out some bedding for the unconscious girl and dragged her over to it. The poor Kru’ll man was injured as well, passed out against the cavern wall, but at least he looked to be in better shape than the last time she laid eyes in him. Voah put a hand on his cheek and smiled. Had he been conscious, Tarmen would have voiceless understood her touch and expression to mean, ‘It’s so good to see you alive.’

Voah was shivering from the lack of clothing, blood, and adrenaline and she was dreadfully exhausted by the night’s endeavors. There was no room next to Gonyaul who was being generously cared for, so she curled up next to Tarmen just as she had done in the endless dark.

~Deeper than blood~ she thought.

Soon, Voah passed out like a snuffed candle. She slept through most of Alexis’s strong yet tender touch, waking once with a start. Seeing that she was safe in her surroundings and Alexis’s care, Voah calmed.

“Bless you, gatanah.” she whispered to Alexis when she saw that Gonyaul and the others had been already tended to. With patches on her neck, arms, ribs, obliques, and chest, Voah slipped back into a light sleep.

———

When she awoke again, Voah felt the warmth of a fire burning nearby and saw the silhouette of Alexis in a corner.

“What is the hour?” she asked quietly.

Alexis didn’t answer and instead stared at the wall in a daze.

“Oshii en eso? What is it, Greyriver?”