Author's Note: This actually takes place during season one. You can put it just about anywhere. No exact point is given, just that it is late in the season.
Far Away
Umi slipped out of bed carefully, so not to wake the girls sleeping on either side of her. Tip-toeing barefoot across the floor, she made her way to the door of the make shift house. Opening the door, she whispered into the dark.
A fluffy white shadow crept in the gap she'd made.
"Puu." It cooed softly.
Mokona settled into Umi's lap as she leaned against the now closed door. She gathered him into her arms, resting her forehead against the jewel on his head.
"You should be asleep."
The mage's voice burst into her mind combined with the images and emotions associated with telepathic communication. The first time she'd attempted this, the images and such started her so badly, she broke the link.
"Not sleepy."
"You are." His voice sounded tired and felt strained.
"Are you alright?" The worry was etched into her message.
Umi felt the pause and frustration that registered as a sigh.
"Why do you worry about me?"
This was a similar conversation to one they had every night.
"I don't want you to be alone."
"I'm an old man, Umi."
Her fear, sadness, and even a tidbit of hope blended with her words as she sent them. "It doesn't mean you have to die!"
In her mind's eye she saw all the alternatives to dying that the mage had considered a possibility. She knew he might not die. But there were worse things than not dying. Living forever as a stone could make dying seem pleasurable.
"You need to think only of saving this world. I am not worth anything, if this world falls."
"We're trying."
"I know."
"You need sleep."
"I can't."
"You don't try."
Umi thought of how she'd laid quietly waiting for the other girls to fall asleep.
"You must keep your strength, or you shall fall in the final battle and never return home."
"I will make it home."
"I believe you can."
"Then why do you worry about me?" She asked, knowingly repeating his question.
The connection wavered in his pause. It was weakening.
"You are a magic knight. The fate of our world rests on your shoulders."
"I will save you, Clef."
He asserted a negative, as if a mental shaking of the head. "Set Princess Emeraude free. That is what needs to be done."
"but what about you?"
"Sleep. Tomorrow." The words came more as fading images and feelings. The connection was fading. The last emotion she felt as the link severed, was gratitude.
He was thankful that she thought of him.
Umi clung to Mokona as tears trailed down her cheeks, landing on his fur.
Every night the conversations became shorter. He was the reason they would lose the connection. Master Mage Clef was weakening. Slowly at first, but as the days drew on, the decline was accelerating. Soon he would have no strength left.
Then he would be alone.
No one deserved to be alone.
She would fight to fee the Princess and save this world, but she would do it to help Clef. He had done so much for them, even though he had been cursed by Zagato, he still was there to guide them and help them.
He was giving them all he had, to save this world he loved so much.
She would not fail him.