Issinia kicked her sandals off, sprinting up the stairs just as she heard the footsteps above her disappear into the upper gallery atop the clinic. Every few seconds, her mind fluctuated between clearing itself of all conscious thought and racing through every worst case scenario she could imagine. The stairwell was made of stone but the steps were made of wood, and sound didn't carry particularly well. All the same, she focused on the faint patter in the gallery three stories above, frustrated at her inability to discern how fast Anna was moving.
"Stupid, stupid, careless and stupid!" Issinia hissed at herself as she struggled to hurry up the cramped stairwell. Since it was only an access stairwell for maintenance, it wasn't that wide or high, and she found herself unable to move as swiftly as she wanted. Anna, being noticeably smaller than her, would likely be able to run at a much higher speed inside.
The gallery atop the building was supported by numerous columns and was designed for its view of the orchard; there was only a short railing at the side, leading to a sheer drop down the side of the building. A three story fall wouldn't be life threatening for most night elves, but it wasn't the gallery that worried Issinia; it was the minaret reaching even higher up.
After the loss of immortality, many older night elves had felt they had nothing to live for and there was a spike in the suicide rate for a few years. Nobody spoke of it openly and some denied it had ever occurred, but Issinia had access to the statistics via her position. Taking one's own life was considered a sin by many of them, but a desperate enough individual would no longer be concerned with such matters.
Was Anna that desperate? Issinia had seen the changes in her, and felt the progress the woman had made. She was a remarkable individual, but why else would she run up here of all places?
"Anna!" Issinia called out as she pushed through the door at the top of the stairs.
The gallery was mostly empty aside from a few chairs and a folded up table that Tinalith hadn't found a use for quite yet. It would be a great place to hold parties and gatherings for the people checked in to the clinic, though to date it hadn't yet been used. And considering how hard Issinia's heart was pounding against her chest cavity, she found it a bit difficult to admire what a nice place it was.
Another door swung shut to her left, causing her to jump as she sought the place of the sound. Across the space of the covered gallery, all the way on the opposite end, a door in a stone wall swung back and forth. Bile nearly rose up in Issinia's throat when she realized that it was the door to the minaret. Mental calculations of just how high it was exactly flashed through her mind, causing her to lose her usual agility as she stumbled over toward the door.
"Wait! Anna, wait!" Her voice echoed off the walls of the minaret as she burst through through the door, and she shrieked in frustration when she realized that she'd have to bolt up another set of high, narrow stairs. "Please wait, just one second!"
Issinia's frantic footsteps bounced off the stone of the tower as well, and she couldn't tell if Anna had reached the to or not. There were no sounds of sobs or heavy breathing that she could detect, leaving her clueless as to the woman's emotional state. Issinia slipped on the steps a few times, slowing her down and shocking her by her own sudden loss of coordination.
A drop in air pressure signaled that she'd reached the top of the stairs, and she nearly fell through the opening at the top and into the observation deck at the top. The muscles in her back cramped up from the strain of the shock she received, and her eyes even began to water when she choked on her own saliva.
Anna was standing on the railing of the minaret's observation deck, peering down at the orchard below.
It was like a horror story at the Darnassus Theatre. Anna stood motionless as her green dress flapped in the light breeze, stiff and unmoving as if catatonic. She was so close, and so easy to tackle and restrain at that stage, and yet Issinia found herself grounded by the intense pain in her back muscles, alongside the crushing sense of blame she felt inside. Time stood still and she questioned every step she'd ever taken, every word she'd ever said, every thought she'd ever had about the woman she was supposed to save.
Lifting a single foot off the railing, Anna looked completely serene and at peace with herself. And then she let herself fall.
"No! No! Nooooo!" Issinia screamed as she fought through the strain and crawled over toward the railing. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I wasn't going to leave you!"
Eyes watering even more, Issina fell against the five foot high stone wall and threw her arms over the wooden railing, pulling herself up to watch Anna fall.
Limp like a rag doll, the fallen druidess plummeted five stories toward the ground, neither thrashing nor struggling as she approached certain doom. All Issinia could do was sob open mouthed as she watched her charge rapidly draw near to a violent end through blurry, tear filled eyes. Her vision had become so unclear that she had to wipe her face in order to discern what the silent green explosion was.
"Wha...wha...aaiiieee!"
At the very last moment, Issinia let herself slip back over the side of the railing, narrowly avoiding a collision with a navy blue blob that whizzed right past her. Uneven and unfocused as if it was changing direction, the blob continued to soar up toward he sky, leaving a bright green trail of energy behind it.
Pieces of the blog became detached as grey and navy blue feathers dwindled toward the ground, marking the trail the storm crow blazed through the night sky. Weak, injured, unfocused but still very much capable, the storm crow with faded but still glowing eyes performed loops in the air as it tested its weathered wings. It was not skilled; it was not graceful; it was not quite ready to fly out into the windy world yet; but it was capable in its own way. Alive and capable.
Fluttering wings flapped frantically as it tried to land in the orchard, falling into another chaotic green explosion near the ground. A woman in a green dress rolled into the dirt beneath the residual energy clouds, bracing herself adequately enough not to be hurt but rolling and slumping in the grass as if she were far too dizzy and disoriented to stand.
Issinia had already jumped over the railing herself, though on the other side of the minaret, and slid down a gutter onto the roof of the gallery. On nimble elven feet used to combat, she dropped down onto the gallery deck and then from windowsill to windowsill as she scaled the three story high wall of the rehab clinic's structure and nailed a perfect roll in the grass below. Her heart pounded hard enough to nauseate her as she sprinted toward Anna and scooped the woman up in her arms.
"Anna! How could you do something like that I was so worried!" she cried out while squeezing the woman in a tight hug as if Anna would fall apart if not held together. "You told me you aren't able to shift anymore - I've never been so scared in my entire life!"
Although the hug was meant to be protective, Issinia temporarily forgot that she was half troll and an entire head and half a neck taller than Anna. Her bear hug almost caused Anna's eyes to pop out as her feet kicked in the air with no grounding. "I can't breathe!" she croaked while flapping her arms and legs around in desperation. Issinia released her enough for the woman to stand again, though she still needed help to remain standing upright.
Shock and confusion clashed inside Issinia's mind. Too confused to remember her professional restraint, she babbled instead. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, but I'm not going to Uldum! It's okay!" she gasped, grabbing Anna by the shoulders and shaking her in the process.
"I'm going to throw up! I'm going to throw up!" Anna cried out as if she were being tortured. Wisely, Issinia stopped shaking her and even helped her fan herself as she tried to hold the contents of her stomach down.
"I'm not leaving you, I swear! Oh Anna, why did you do that!"
Despite the confusion that the smaller woman likely shared, she didn't appear to have any trouble figuring out what the problem was. "I wasn't trying to hurt myself!" she gasped.
"Then what were you trying to do!"
"I just had to see!" Anna yelled, not so much angry as anguished. "I'm sorry, I know I need to stop looking in other people's purses, but I just saw that letter and I felt like I had to prove it!"
"Prove what - Anna, I have no way of knowing what that means!"
"I had to prove to myself that if you left me, then I could stand on my own!"
"I'm not leaving you, I swear! I'm not going! I'd never leave you!"
Calmed down somewhat, Anna panted for a few moments while looking at Issinia through equally watery eyes. Her expression was literally the same way a person would look after they'd been hit on the nose and lost their sense of balance. "But...Issa...no, I can't. I can't ask you to take me on as a burden like that."
"Don't say that!" Issinia wiped her eyes again so she could see the druidess of the Talon before her more clearly. "Oh goddess, don't talk like that. You are not a burden, Anna. You're a good, kind person in need of help, and even if it weren't my job, I'd be here for you all the way."
Anna pursed her lips pensively like a thousand year old child. "I know about your goals, though. That letter presents an opportunity for you. How can you..." She let her head hang low, avoiding Issinia's gaze. "How can you choose to stay with me when you could chase your dream? I wouldn't choose me."
"Because I need to help you, Anna. I know you're strong, and eventually you'd be able to pick yourself up again, but it would make things hard on you and that's not what I want to do. If I lose this opportunity in Uldum then forget it, I don't want it!"
Refusing to raise her head up, Anna literally twiddled her thumbs, the first time Issinia had ever seen somebody do that. Her body wasn't shaking or trembling at all, and she actually appeared quite somber. "I feel so stupid," she whined.
"No! Well...I mean, it wasn't the smartest choice to throw yourself off the top of a five story minaret to test your ability to fly for the first time in almost fifty years." Anna's head snapped up and her jaw dropped open in a pained expression at Issinia's words. "Wait, okay! Just let me finish! It wasn't the best way to test if you could stand on your own, but what's done is done, and...Elune be praised, do you realize what you just did?"
Lost and dumbstruck, Anna just blinked a few times while staring slack jawed at her facilitator. Gears began turning and for a few brief seconds, her amber eyes appeared to glow just a little more brightly. "I...I...oh...oh! Oh oh oh I oh!" Anna gasped while covering her mouth with both hands. "I shift! Shift! Shifaaaaa," she stammered, sounding moved beyond words. "I crowed into form shift! I...I shifted into crow form!"
"You shifted into crow form!"
Like two gigantic, giddy children, they grabbed each other's hands and jumped around in a circle. They both looked ridiculous and they didn't give a damn, laughing their heads off at Anna's progress. It was sloppy and foolhardy, but she had shifted nonetheless.
Issinia hugged Anna close, causing her to gag again. "Anna...you are never a burden. I was tempted...Elune forgive me, I was tempted, but deep down in my heart I knew it was wrong. No matter what, you're not alone, and I won't let anything disrupt your progress. I'm here for you, even if I receive more offers, and me, Tinalith, Thandra, Jupiter, everybody, we're all here for you. Nobody is leaving!"
Sappy and touched, Anna looked up at the larger woman in a way that was as cheesy as it was endearing. "Except for that new receptionist. I really don't need her around," Anna laughed out loud. The two of them looked at each other for a quiet moment before they both burst out laughing again.
Guilt continued to prick at Issinia's heart, though much less so once she'd confessed that temptation had fooled her for a period. "I'm sorry for not always being the best helper I could be," she sighed.
"What? You're sorry? No, stop. I'm the one in need here. Issa...there's nothing to apologize for. You helped me get this far, and you're choosing to stay when you don't even have to."
"That's not correct!"
"No, it is correct. Nothing can stop you from leaving. And I will always remember that."
Anna's fledgling monologue was cut off when the doors to the clinic burst open. The receptionist who read trashy novels in public stumbled out, rushing toward them in a state of panic. The woman looked absolutely psycho as she waved her hands at Anna, as if she was suddenly the one who would prevent some great tragedy from occurring.
Ignoring her entirely, the facilitator and client looked back to each other again. "I'm so, so very proud of you," Issinia sighed over the receptionist's insistent questions. "You are going to recover fully, Anna. We're not supposed to make promises about future progress but I'm sure of it this time. You're going to recover...and I will help you the entire way."
That sappy look returned, and Anna smiled warmly even as she stuck one hand in the receptionist's face and shoved her away so she and Issinia could talk. "Thank you, Issa...thank you. I don't even know what to say...but there's nobody else I'd want helping to guide me along the path than you."
By accident, she knocked the receptionist into a bushel of appels, causing the annoying woman to fall against the tree and beneath a rain of disturbed apples. Issinia and Anna didn't even notice, laughing again at their minor episode as they walked back toward the clinic. Although they needed to inform Tinalith of Anna's recovered ability to shift, they would probably leave out the part about her jumping off the top of a five story tower. The fact of her progress was enough...
...she was going to be alright.
