Nya's eyes burst open, her mouth was dry and her head throbbed, she squinted in the harsh light of the day and slowly made out Bartholomew, and another figure. She slowly took bearing of herself and realized she was being carried by a golem. She turned again to the figure, who she recognized as Faris, but before her mind could begin to question what she saw, her eyes glanced to the figure Faris carried.
"Johnathan!" Nya yelled, she pushed herself off the golem, stumbling to her knees scraping her palms on the sharp stones on the ground. Bartholomew helped her up.
"Easy, easy, you just woke up, you were in some crazy bad shape." Bartholomew's eyes were red and his face slightly wet as he helped Nya up. Nya shook him off, quickly trotting over to Faris and Johnathan.
"Faris! Faris he's alright righ-" She stopped, Johnathan was clean, and his face looked untouched, almost like he was sleeping, but his body was covered in a thick black cloth. "No… gods no, Angvard's Veil…" Her breath caught as she felt tears welling in her eyes again. "This has to be a dream right?!" She backed up. "We're still on our way to that fortress. John just beat me in the spear duel, but I trounced him in the hand to hand. I ended up not eating an agreeable lunch, I'm having a nightmare cause of that right?" She looked around, her speaking was to no one in particular, but she searched for some tell that this was a dream. "Come on, someone tell me this is a dream, I mean, no way, Bartholomew using a normal golem, he hates them, or Faris, back to normal, like nothing's happened. Like he didn't become a monster like the one who killed my mother." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah. A shade killed my mom, like you turned into! It's great this is a dream! I can say all this without caring about who knows what!"
Faris remained silent as they made their way down the cobbled path, entering a building.
"Nya," Bartholemew began gently, "this isn't-"
"SHUT UP!" Nya covered her ears, "don't tell me this isn't a dream! He's dead, because I failed to finish off that green haired monster!" Nya gnashed her teeth. "I'm supposed to be strong! Strong enough to kill monsters with one blow! But I was useless! I gave up! I let her throw her spear and didn't even try to dodge! She killed him because he chose to save my useless self!" She breathed deep, breathless and pained.
"So you gave up…" Faris began.
"Yeah! I did, I gave up on myself! Like I gave up on you right?!" Nya clenched her fist. "But unlike before you've got magic right? You're one of those things now. It's almost funny."
"I'm not laughing." Faris said simply. They walked in silence for a bit. "But don't you dare think you're the only one who's felt powerlessness. Do you think me a demon or god, that I seldom fail, or that I feel nothing?" Silence again filled the hall. "I'm terrified right now Nya, John died, and I failed him, I should have run to help you all. But I didn't want to bring you pain Nya, no, more like I wasn't ready to face a reunion given our split. I thought Bartholomew and Marigold could reach you in time. I thought I understood enough of Gamma's habits and personality that I thought you were the safest group, so I helped Cynthia, Vern, and Manny. Then I waited." Nya was silent. So Faris continued. "John's family is peculiar, their rituals entail that when a warrior of their people die, they must be attended by the first three allies, friends, or family to see their body. It is the duty of those friends or family to clean the body before taking it to be embalmed. But before embalming they must be walked around the embalming house 117 times to represent the trials of battle the fallen must face. And that if we cannot walk before their body begins to rot, their souls take damage and their fight becomes all the more difficult." He looked around, "To tell you the truth, I'm not a very pious person. I wasn't pious before, and none of my parents are or were religious, at least not that I noticed. But even then for his family's ease, and I guess selfishly for the ease of my own soul,
I'm walking around a bloody embalming house." He turned to Nya, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I turned from our friendship. I could have told you all that I was joining the knight squad, but I didn't want to deal with the discomfort of my presence."
Nya nearly stumbled on a loose stone, "no, no don't apologize. I was stupid, I am stupid, I'm treating you like you were the shade that killed my mom, you lost your magic then, you were in such bad shape it was a miracle you lived. I was too pigheaded to even write to you once, everyone else did. Venka did it daily, and you wrote her back, everyone pretended not to notice."
Faris chuckled at that. "Was it that obvious?"
"Yeah, she really likes you. And I'm not so dense I didn't notice." Nya sighed. Silence returned as they made their rounds. "Erm, how many cycles have we made."
Bartholomew piped up, "One hundred and seven, ten left to go."
"Let me hold him… he saved me, and as cousins and comrades-in-arms, I should be the one bearing the weight of his life." Nya approached Faris, who gently helped her bear John in her hands, his body was cold, too cold, and Nya barely kept herself from shivering.
"You are cousins?" Faris asked, standing close by lest her strength failed her, his concerns were ill-found, she may have just awoken, but she was strong, seemingly rejuvenated with this bit of responsibility thrust in her shoulders. Faris looked and could see a few similarities, he smiled sadly, "I should have noticed, this makes my responsibility in the situation wo-"
"Don't apologize more, at least, don't apologize to me." Nya shook her head, "Cynthia, John's parents, Vern, Manny, and his other friends in the academy, we have to apologize to them, before I even think about needing another apology from you Faris." They rounded another lap. "Fights happen, war happens, and people dying, it happens, when it's someone we care about…"
Faris put a hand on her shoulder in comradery, and they finished their remaining laps in silence, turning towards the embalming house….
Afterword:
Next Chapter will be out by this Sunday