Chapter 19 - A Solitary Reign


Siba

Negati Kardenis laid in the hospital bed, her eyes staring upwards blankly. She had been changed into a standard hospital gown and otherwise had nothing with her aside from the dark green gem that used to be her husband's, the cord strung from it now wrapped tightly around her own frail wrist. She held Aphelion in her hand and kept that hand pressed to her upper chest.

Aside from her, Satel was the only other person in the room. He stood by the door, hesitant to speak. Finally, he tried.

"Negati…I'm sorry…"

No response. Negati might not have even known he was there. Since she was taken from the scene above and brought to the hospital, she'd been almost catatonic with grief aside from grasping for Aphelion like it was her only remaining possession when Teana had taken it from the dead man's hand and given it to her. Now, in the hospital room, only the sound of the woman's staggered breathing and various medical equipment answered Satel's call.

The air mage sighed.

"I don't know what else to say. I'm so, so sorry that you and…that you both were ever dragged into this. And I wish I could stay, but I can't. There's too much going on. I hope you understand."

He saw distance in her eyes. She wasn't going to respond. And that was understandable. As Satel still worked to process this all himself, he backed out of the room slowly, grabbing the door handle.

"Let me know if there's anything I can do."

He shut the door, leaving Negati alone. The redheaded woman let several more tears fall from her nearly-dry eyes, lost in a cloud of unknowing. Soon, her body's lack of sleep caught up with her, and she drifted off into a rest she'd been holding out from as long as she could.


A familiar, neutral smell. Outdoors. Nature. The bird calls in the nearby trees affirmed the peace. Nothing frantic. Nothing sudden. Wings flapped hard as a body took off from a branch.

Her eyes were closed. She knew that much. She felt as if on the precipice of a new day, but she imagined it could wait a couple more minutes. She twisted lightly, shifting to a comfier position. But soon, she heard the sound of leaves being scattered and crackling under footsteps. The footsteps came closer to her and then stopped.

"Hey," said a familiar voice.

Negati shifted again and grunted, confused. Something was odd here.

"Negati, wake up."

The voice brought her out of her daze. She opened her eyes slowly and looked up towards where it came from. As she thought, she was in a forest clearing - a medium-sized path between thick autumn tree cover on both sides. Fallen leaves were across the path floor, stacked somewhat thick off the ground below the cover. The sun was low in the sky, and from how the lighting looked, it was actually later in the day now - approaching dusk instead of down. And in front of all that was a man looking down at her with a light smile, who had crouched down and extended his hand out for her to grab. It was Bathory.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Bathory said, "come on. We need to get going."

Negati pushed herself up with one hand, still staring at her partner. Something was so unexpected about this.

"Bathory?" she asked hesitantly.

Her partner laughed quietly.

"Yeah, come on, we're running out of daylight."

Negati looked at Bathory's hand and slowly reached her own hand out to it. Part of her was convinced for some reason that this was all an illusion and she would pass right through him. But when the man reached further and grabbed Negati's hand in his own, a powerful wave of relief came over Negati. She jumped up and hugged her husband tightly, surprising him with her sudden burst of energy.

"Oh…y - yeah, hey," Bathory stuttered. He rubbed Negati's back. "H - hey, I'm here. It's okay."

Negati couldn't explain it, but it was like this answered a fear she only knew she had now. She felt immensely relieved that Bathory was still with her, that he wasn't gone - but why did she feel that relief? When had she worried that he was gone?

What did she lose here?

With the myriad of questions running in her mind, she slowly released her grip on Bathory and her hands fell to her sides. With Negati on her feet now, Bathory turned and pointed down the path at a large tower rising up from the horizon, the top of it sticking out above the leaf-lined path in front of them.

"That's where we need to go," he said. "Come on. We need to get going."

He started walking down the path. Negati hesitated for a moment but then followed, catching up and then matching her partner's pace so she was always just behind him. They walked like that for a while. Negati never felt like speaking up, but Bathory never spoke to her either. It was a quiet, rhythmic motion, walking along the path as the tower slowly rose more above the path left in front of them. The cover of leaves on the ground was thick enough that their feet had to kick against the cover with every step, and there was always a crunch of breaking some leaves when their feet came down. It was like snow cover; not thick enough to make it hard to walk through, but enough so that you never forgot you were currently pushing through the untouched powder.

Negati could never escape a feeling deep down that this was wrong in some way - that something here wasn't right. As much as she tried to dig deeper though and expand on that feeling, she couldn't get any more details out of it.

Eventually, the thick trees on both sides of the path ended and the path came up to a large cliff face. Negati and Bathory stopped at the edge of the cliff and looked out at the land in front of them. The tower stood there, its base on the other side of a small lake that the cliff also bordered. The land on the other side of this lake was all lower elevation than where the two were standing, so they could see out at the natural sight in front of them. Aside from the tower, the landscape was untouched. There didn't even seem to be any roads or man-made path leading to the tower.

A question finally came to Negati.

"Is this it?" she asked.

"Yes," Bathory answered. "I know it is."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. You'll see."

Negati looked around. The cliff continued on at the same height in both directions as far as she could tell. She couldn't see a point where it ever broke or began to slope down.

"How do we get there?" she asked.

Bathory smiled.

"Simple. We fall."

He turned around to face Negati and then took a step back, stopping right at the edge of the cliff. Negati's eyes widened.

"Bathory? What are you-"

"Listen," he said, "It's the only way. And it's not so bad. I'm here with you."

Something didn't feel right to Negati, but again it was that same vague feeling with no concrete answers for it.

"I…I don't know," she said. "Are you sure? We should look around."

"I'm positive. Trust me. Here, let's do this together."

Bathory held his arms out. The intent was obvious - Negati would stand in front of him and he would close his arms around her. Then, they would fall together. But again, Negati felt so unsure about this for some reason.

"I don't know, Bathory, this…this isn't right."

"I am going," he said directly. "You can't change that. But I was hoping you could come with me. Please, Negati. I was hoping we could do this together."

They made eye contact and Negati somehow knew her partner was right. This was not about convincing Bathory not to go. That was going to happen no matter what. Her decision was whether she would join him.

Hesitantly, she took a small step forward.

"Will…will it hurt?" she asked.

"Not at all."

"Are you sure?"

"I know it won't."

She took another small step. If Bathory wanted to, he could reach out and grab her now, but he wasn't doing so. Negati just knew that it was all her decision, and he would only act when she was ready for this. Even when her trembling footsteps got her right in front of him, he still kept his arms out without bringing them in. Her eyes were still wide and unsure, looking directly into her partner's eyes even as their noses almost touched.

"What do I do?" she asked.

"Close your eyes. Hug me. Lean into me. Then I will hold you and we'll go together."

"Is that it?"

"Yes."

Negati's breaths were staggered and tense but her partner didn't seem to even notice. After several unsure seconds, she closed her eyes. Her arms felt so heavy, but she started to raise them.

"Negati!"

She thought she heard something faintly in the distance behind her. She paused, confused.

"What?" she mumbled.

"Don't worry," said Bathory. "I'm with you."

She forced herself to keep lifting her arms, trying to get them around her partner until they did so and she held on to him.

"Very good," said Bathory.

"Negati, please!"

That echoing voice again…it was out of place here, but it was definitely calling for her. Again, she couldn't shake the thought that something was wrong, but now that feeling was rising and growing stronger. She gasped when she felt Bathory's hands clasp around her back.

"Bathory, I…"

"It's all going to be okay. Lean with me as I fall, Negati. We'll do this together."

Negati took a deep breath and followed Bathory's instructions. She slowly began to pitch forward and-

"Negati, wake up!"

Negati's eyes shot open. She felt the sudden sting of the cold night air against her skin. She gasped from the feeling and also from the sight in front of her. This wasn't the ceiling of her room in the hospital. This wasn't even indoors. Negati saw the tops of several buildings stretch along the streets of Siba Capital. Her eyes reluctantly followed the scene down until she realized where she was - standing precariously on the edge of the roof of the hospital, with a long fall just in front of her down to the ground below.

The sight and the fear made her legs start to shake, which only added to her fear. She was frozen in place trying desperately to stay upright. Behind her, the voice that had invaded her dream was now very real. It was Satel Moraine again.

"Negati, I… okay, listen to me, can you hear me?"

Every muscle in his body was tensed up. He was wearing his air forces uniform and hadn't activated his device. He was alone on the rooftop aside from Negati. There hadn't been time to do anything more.

The woman just stood there, still wide eyed and frozen in place.

"Where…how is…" she muttered quietly.

"Aphelion messaged me, told me you were in danger," Satel answered rapidly. "But that's whatever, I just - we're gonna get you out of this, okay?"

Negati held her hand up and looked at the dark green gem that used to be her partner's.

Used to.

The ground mage gasped, remembering everything that got her to this point. Her knees started to tremble even harder now.

"I…I…" she stammered.

"Negati," Satel called out again, "listen to me. Okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to take a step back - just one, okay? We'll go one at a time. Simple. Can you do that?"

Negati clasped her hand tightly around Aphelion and brought it to her chest. She blinked several times and then nodded.

"Y…Yes…"

"Okay, good," Satel replied. "Do that with me now, okay? One-"

Negati lifted one foot off the ground, but that caused her precarious balance to fail and her other knee buckled, making her stumble down and fall off the roof. She cried out as she pitched over the edge. Behind her, Satel's eyes flew open as well.

"NO!"

He raced forward, quickly pushing his magic to activate his barrier jacket and then get himself airborne. He flew over the edge of the roof and then turned downwards while going as fast as he can. He saw Negati falling, and the ground was coming up fast below her. Pushing himself to his absolute limit, he caught up to Negati with just enough time to grab onto her and flip both of them over so he was below her before slamming into the ground and leaving a small crater in the concrete.

With the protection provided by his barrier jacket, Satel was still alive and awake - though he was struggling to keep himself conscious. The world around him spun violently in a wash of blurry colors, but the only thing on his mind was if he'd done what he needed to do.

"N…Negati…" he croaked, "are you okay?"

He pushed lightly on the woman's skin with one of his fingers and felt her flinch. As Negati realized she was on solid ground again, she pushed away from Satel and tried to clutch the pavement under her, attempting to finally get her own bearings back. This answered Satel's question well enough and the air mage tried to crawl out of where they landed, groaning as sharp pain followed everything he did.

"It's good you're alright…we'll get you back inside…" he forced out, "…I just hope they have a hospital bed for me as well!"

He rolled onto his back again. The response to his attempt at lightening the mood was as he expected - no response from either Negati or the ambient noise on the quiet, empty street. Things were always so quiet now if there wasn't a battle. Siba itself always seemed to be holding its breath.


I see distance in your eyes
Bury me to sleep tonight
Your touch divine
I saw distance in your eyes

He came to claim
What was his
And for years you lived
A solitary reign

Amenra - A Solitary Reign