Sylphiel sat upon a large block that had once been part of the temple she'd studied in as a shrine maiden. A silent memorial for her father's death- for the deaths of so many that had been in Sairaag that night. Sure there was a city to the south of where the Holy Tree had once grown- before Phibrizzo killed it.
Five years after the incident... it still hurt.
She closed her eyes, pulling her knees against her chest, wrapping her new sapphire blue cloak around herself to ward off a chill that wasn't in the air.
"Twenty-one years old now and I still feel like a child," she murmured, "Father, why is that?" Tears stung her eyes as she contemplated the unnatural springs that now left Sairaag's ruins under nearly twelve feet of water in some places- and nearly twenty in the center where the copy of Rezo had stood when he cast that devastating spell. So powerful, even on his own. It made her glad she hadn't had to face the real Rezo. Like Lina and the others had.
The sun stood high in a sky barely touched by clouds, making the light in the water hard to look at, but it was a good excuse for Sylphiel's tears, even if there was no one around to make the excuse to. Not that anyone would blame her from crying either. Still... so many years after it all and she couldn't get over what had happened.
She'd only barely made it back to Sairaag in time for her yearly service of burning incense and prayer, she'd been down in Seyruun for Lina and Gourry's wedding. Her tears escaped her tenuous hold and slid down to her chin.
"Dear Gourry," she whispered, putting her face against her knees. He'd been so sweet, kind, handsome, strong... everything Sylphiel could ask for in a man- she'd tried so hard to catch his eyes, but his simple attitude about life had left him blind to her and her looks and smiles. Lina had hit him in the head with it, becoming so blatantly obvious about her love for him during the fight against Phibrizzo that Gourry had followed her instead. Sylphiel supposed it was her fault, she was tied to Sairaag and Gourry... Gourry wanted the road and that was what Lina had given him.
It had been so utterly heart breaking to watch Lina's desperation and pain back then, but seeing Gourry return it as Lina was taken by the Lord of Nightmares had been the final straw and Sylphiel had only held on to her pain by the thin threads of self control. Now she was alone, with no hope of ever getting his notice. Not even learning the Dragon Slave had turned his eyes towards her.
Swallowing, Sylphiel stood, hands still holding her cloak around herself, though she wasn't the least bit cold.
For the majority of her life, Sylphiel had been dependant- on her father, her mother, cousins, aunt, uncles... But now, most of them were dead and Sylphiel was left to fend for herself. She'd learned though. Living as a wandering healer wasn't that bad of a life, her spells had saved the lives of countless and they loved her when she succeeded.
But when she failed...
Lifting a hand, she dabbed at her tears with the edge of her cloak, sniffling softly. Lifting her head, she stood and carefully stepped across the fallen stones back towards the shore where her fire was ready to be started. She didn't move to tend to that just yet, instead taking some bread and dried meat from her pack and nibbled at it, though she hardly felt hungry. Having a seat where she was, Sylphiel stared out towards the nearly collapsed dome where Phibrizzo had taken over- where Flagoon had once stood, proudly holding up the sky.
Knowing that she was just prodding at old injuries, picking at emotional scabs, Sylphiel stared out towards the structure Lina had destroyed with her Giga Slave. Though the tree had mostly been destroyed by Kopii Rezo, she'd managed to heal it back then, so she mourned its loss on this day as well. She'd loved that tree too- it had always been there, and in her childhood mind, it would always be there. How horrible that she would have to see it destroyed twice in her lifetime. If only she'd been around to revive it the second time.
Closing her eyes, Sylphiel finally looked away, looking down at the lunch she really didn't feel like eating. Forcing as much as she could down, she put the rest away and knelt down to start her fire. Settling down in front of it, she removed her boots and ran her fingers through her hair once before bringing out the rod her father had given to her from her pack, setting it in her lap. Next, she pulled out the small bag of incense, tossing a handful into the awakening flames. A puff of smoke floated upwards, the sweet smell of flowers and spice washed across her face and Sylphiel closed her eyes to savor the smell briefly.
Placing the butt of her scepter into the ground so that it stood on end, the light of her small fire filtering through the globe on the end, she folded her hands together, falling into a light trance.
The ground shook, but only enough to jar Sylphiel from her prayers as her scepter tipped and fell to its side landing with a bell-like ringing sound on a rock. Opening her eyes, Sylphiel looked down at it, then up at the broken dome- the direction her scepter had fallen in. Getting to her feet, she picked up her scepter, swaying slightly from the dizzying effect being startled from trance gave her. Numbly, her bare feet began moving, and she only barely realized that she was walking. Ahead, a light shot upwards, then widened into a soundless explosion of blinding brilliance, the source of which was somewhere within the great pit that Phibrizzo had dug during his occupation of Sairaag. Throwing an arm over her eyes, she winced back from the light, then peeked as it disappeared as suddenly as it had come.
Darkness closed once more, the light having done nothing except nearly blind her. The landscape remained just as it had been. Picking up her scepter from where she'd dropped it, then started out towards the dome, stumbling as her feet encountered rocks and holes in the uneven earth. Walking in the dark wasn't usually a good idea... Lifting a lighting spell, she ran a bit more easily, but still ended up stumbling from time to time in her headlong dash towards the ruin of Phibrizzo's dome, heart pounding in her chest as her mind continued to awaken. What could have caused that light?
As she approached a narrow crack in the wall surrounding the pit, she found a light still glowing faintly inside and she peered through carefully, but could see nothing from that angle. Moving along the wall, Sylphiel found a larger one a bit further away, finally managing to slide herself through though it was a tight fit. Large blocks from the top of the dome littered the ground in the narrow ring around where Hellmaster had blasted a hole deep into the ground and after climbing over one, she peered downwards into the deep hole.
Squinting, she leaned forward, hair falling forward over her shoulders as she did. Down at the very bottom was a faint glow, but she couldn't see the source of it. Gathering her courage, Sylphiel stood, fingers flexing their grip on her scepter and she cast levitation- the only spell she could use while keeping hold of her lighting spell. Stepping off her rock, she started gliding down into the depths of Phibrizzo's temple.
Darkness pressed in from all sides and the shadows cast by her spell moved eerily as she descended. Swallowing, Sylphiel held onto her scepter tighter, knees pressing together in her fear. The glow below became stronger as she neared it- pulsing as if in time with a weak but steady heartbeat.
Narrowing her eyes, Sylphiel tried to get a better look, but all she could make out was something sticking up out of the ground... no... Speeding up a little, she stared down, "A person?" she asked softly of no-one. Still closer she came, finally able to make out what seemed to be branches. Was it a tree then?
At last, she came close enough to see clearly- and her gasp echoed in the darkness eerily, her spells forgotten, Sylphiel dropped to the ground heavily, knees not ready to support her weight.
She had been right on both accounts- it was a person, and a tree. A person held up by the roots of a tree it seemed. His head hung forward on his chest, obscuring most of his face with muddy violet hair, but Sylphiel knew who it was. He still wore the robes he'd died in though they were anything but white. A large tear ran across his chest, blood that had soaked the fabric down to his knees now a rusty brown, the rest stained with mud, and wrapped around him were what looked like dry and brittle roots, thick and thin, supporting him though he was hardly in a position to appreciate it. The light was coming from sparks, much like the healing light Flagoon had once emitted almost like droplets of rain, those sparks pulsed faintly in sync, the whole mass of them as they slowly drifted towards the ground where they disappeared.
Was he dead still? Sylphiel couldn't tell, but the sparks around him continued to grow fainter. Forced to light her own spell once more as the darkness crept in quickly as Flagoon's last burst of magic dimmed, Sylphiel carefully got to her feet, her green eyes wide with fear and shock, "Flagoon?" Sylphiel nearly jumped as her own voice echoed, but swallowed and stepped closer, feeling... yes, Flagoon's energy, but it was fading with every pulse. "No- No!" her pace hurried and she reached out, hand inadvertently coming into contact with the corpse of Rezo's copy. Pulling her hand back, Sylphiel started to wipe it off, then frowned, reaching forward to touch again, finding that the flesh was firm, and slightly warm. His hair moved slightly, as if blown by an exhaled breath. "Flagoon..." she whispered, unable to make sense of the moment. What was she supposed to do!
With tears stinging her eyes, Sylphiel reached out with her scepter, lifting the copy's chin with it instead of her hand. He didn't resist, but her light spell caught the twitch of his brows. She let his head drop back down as she stepped back. Shaking her head, Sylphiel frowned. Yes, he was alive now, but his life was fading at the same rate as Flagoon's was...
"Do... do I have to save you... to save Flagoon?" she asked, then shook her head, "I- I can't!" the tears now overflowed, trailing down her cheeks as she shook her head more, "I c-can't! Flagoon!" Biting her lip, she stepped back several paces and lifted her scepter, angling it back behind her shoulder, ready to lash out physically at the copy of Rezo.
She dearly would have loved to hit him...
Sylphiel squeezed her eyes closed, readying herself, and tears slid out as she felt Flagoon's energy disappearing, only the faintest hint drifted in the air with the fading core buried within the copy of Rezo's body.
Sobbing, Sylphiel shook her head in denial.
"Recovery!"