Chapter 6: Choices
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Sharta Tarryn watched the happy expression on Anna's face. She and Vayla were sat on one of Nae Shiu's many balconies, being beset by a multitude of small birds that the alurannai woman had called down out of the branches above them.
He turned away.
She grows weaker by the day, though she's good at hiding it from watching eyes. In the quite moments when she thinks no one will see, the pain she suffers clouds her eyes. The Narim needs to make his decision soon, or she'll be too weak to survive... If only it weren't so complicated.
After a full day spent carefully examining Anna and her exsphere, the healers had confirmed Breuntas' suspicion. The exsphere had taken too much of her mana... Without it, she'd die. This wasn't the problem however. As Breuntas himself had said, the merest touch from the mana of one of the Nartana was all the exsphere needed to become a cruxis crystal, after which she would be safe... an angel, but safe from the lingering death she would have otherwise. The problem was where the exsphere was on her body. Placed on a hand, a Cruxis Crystal will kill the wearer, only on the torso would it remain stable... Anna's exsphere was on her hand, and removing it would kill her... but to change it into a cruxis crystal and save her, they would have to move it from her hand to her torso... which meant they had to take it off.
Right now she lives... a painful life yes, but it's still life. He turned and looked back at her smiling face, green eyes filled with joy in this moment as the birds fluttered around her. Any attempt at this could kill her now, taking from her what little time she would have as she is.
"Perhaps you should tell her what it is you consider, the risks, and the consequences if it succeeds or fails... It's her life after all, she should be the one to decide." Tarryn stopped, startled, as Hasran, the youngest of Kratos' crèche mates, stepped into his path. The man regarded him solemnly. "I've spoken to the Narim and he's agreed that if she chooses to take the risk, he'll turn her exsphere into a Cruxis Crystal. I'm on my way to tell her now."
The advisor frowned.
"But we've no way of moving the exsphere without killing her, it can't work... Unless..."
Hasran nodded.
"Yes, we have a... possible... way to counter that. Narim Breuntas is going to summon Lord Krishka and ask him to do his best to sustain her for the few critical moments it will take to move the exsphere. There's no guarantee, but Krishka is the best bet we have since we can't ask for Origin's help."
Tarryn sighed in resignation.
"If only he hadn't had to be sealed, his ability to stop time in small areas would have made this so simple."
Hasran began to walk towards the two women, stopping only for a moment to look back at Sharta Tarryn.
"We can't live dwelling on could-have-beens, we just have to make do with what we've got."
Tarryn began to walk away.
"You're right, Hasran, but that doesn't make this any less difficult..."
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Anna regarded Hasran solemnly as Vayla looked on, waiting for her response.
"So basically this could either cure me and let me live for as long as I want until I eventually decide I've had enough, or it could kill me now..." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. She fell silent, clearly thinking over what she had just been told. "From what I heard the healers saying, I have a few weeks at most if I stay like this." The two alurannai flinched in surprise, they had underestimated her ability at eavesdropping. "A few weeks of guaranteed pain filled life, or a chance of years of pain free life at the cost of maybe dying instantly, but painlessly, since I'll be unconscious... It's not really that difficult a choice... I can either live in pain, or I can take the chance I've been given while I have that chance." She looked Hasran in the eyes. "I'll do it, because I have no real hope otherwise. What point is there in avoiding a chance of dying, when I'm going to die anyway if I don't take it?"
Vayla laughed weakly, not quite able to disguise the distress she felt discussing this topic.
"No point at all. Your choices are to die, or to possibly live, and when it comes down to it your answer was what anyone in the same position would choose." She turned to her crèche mate. "How soon can it be done?"
In answer he pulled a small flask from inside his tunic and pulled the cap off. From the smell, Vayla immediately recognised it as a sleeping draught as he set it down in front of Anna.
"They've already set up everything and Narim Breuntas is ready to summon Krishka. All they're waiting for," he looked at her, "is Anna to make her choice."
Anna herself was staring at the bottle apprehensively. She may not have recognised the smell, but the implications of him bringing a bottle of medicine with him were clear.
"N-Now?" He nodded, and for a moment Anna began to panic. "I-I... B-but..."
She bit her lip, her eyes desperate before she closed them, picturing in her mind the past hour she had spent with Vayla and the birds, the happiest she could remember being in a long time. Holding that memory in her mind, she reached out and took hold the of the flask, downing it's contents in a single rushed gulp. It took effect almost instantly, Vayla taking hold of her as she went limp, drugged into the deepest slumber alurannai medicine could contrive.
She glared at him.
"That was cruel, to ask her to decide then dump it on her ri..."
He cut her off.
"No, it was the kindest thing we could have done. She'd made her choice, and this way she didn't have the time to dwell on it and perhaps have second thoughts. She could have ended up torn between wanting to live, and fear that she would die in the attempt."
Vayla fell silent, looking down at the now sleeping woman.
"She's only been here two days, and we know so little about her life before she was taken, so little about her as a person... And now her life is in our hands."
Hasran gently lifted Anna out of Vayla's lap and began to carry her towards one of the nearby launching areas from which he would fly her to the waiting Narim.
"Let's go..."
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The forest clearing was silent, all words spoken mind-to-mind so as to prevent any possible misunderstanding of an instruction during what they were about to attempt. Anna lay on a simple table, frail in the plain white, sleeveless shift the healers had dressed her in. Rich brown hair pooled around her head like a halo, emerald green eyes hidden for now beneath a veil of dark lashes as she slept on, oblivious to the tensions around her.
Breuntas stepped forward.
"I call upon the Incarnation of the Spirits of the Past. The Guardian of the Hope and Promise of New Life... I summon thee, come Krishka!"
The leaves that floored the clearing swirled in the otherworldly wind that the great dragon's appearance stirred. No words were needed, he could sense what the Narim was asking of him. A single nod of acknowledgement... and they began...
In unison several healers grouped at Anna's sides, resting their hands on her, ready to heal her if it became necessary. On Anna's left, Vayla reached out with a trembling hand for the exsphere, having asked to be the one to do this, as the one who had come to know Anna the best in the two short days she'd been in Nae Shiu. Her hand moved closer, coming to rest on the mottled purple sphere imbedded in the woman's hand. With a single deep breath... she pulled it free.
Anna immediately went into a seizure, the healers and Krishka all throwing their power into holding onto that flickering light was her life-force. In a fluid yet frantic motion Vayla almost slammed the exsphere down on the exposed skin at Anna's neck, the traditional place a Cruxis Crystal was worn. As soon as it was in place, Breuntas moved forward as fast as his aging body would allow, resting a fingertip on the sphere as he set his will and mana forth upon the stone.
A flare of light, the shriek of the exsphere, and a choked gasp from Anna, all seemed to swamp their already adrenaline soaked senses. The silence returned... broken only by the soft steady breaths of the woman on the table.
Barely able to take in the now red crystal at Anna's throat, Vayla dropped to her knees in relief.
"It worked..."
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Soft... It's too soft... It's... wait... have I been here before?
Eyelids parted revealing green eyes, eyes that wandered across the wooden walls and over to the window where one could see why the whole room felt like it was swaying in a treetop...
Anna shot upright in the bed, scrabbling at her hand only to find the exsphere was gone. A minute's exploration found it at her neck, now red instead of the sickly purple it had been before, and now set in a plain yet attractive mounting that resembled a torc.
"I survived... The pain, it's gone... I'm going to live?"
She swung her feet off the bed and onto the floor, smiling as she realised that movement no longer caused her pain. The tearing at her heart had stopped, she was safe... she was going to live. Anna raced over to and out of the door, stopping only when she slammed into one of the walkway railings. From there she drank in the sights and sounds of the forest and the settlement of Nae Shiu, euphoric in the knowledge that she was undeniably alive.
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Alaia Skyhawk: You're no doubt wondering why I saved her so soon, well to answer that I'll only say that there are going to be some significant changes from the original plotline from here on out. Most of it will the same, but some scenes will be very different. This will hold true for Path of Restoration as well, once I get that far.