I realized that somewhere in the writing of this, I changed Arrkun's name. It was originally Arrluk. I don't know what one I like better, but I would like to make it consistent. Which one do you as readers like best?
Chapter 2
Eona
Fire Nation palace, two weeks after Firelord Kimiko's coronation
Eona leaned against one of the many pillars in the silent throne room, staring at the empty throne. She couldn't help but feel a spark of irritation, and a small sense of loss looking at it. She would just get to the point where she felt she was over losing her thrown to her sister, and then she'd see her, or she'd be stupid and go into the throne room alone, and all the raging emotions she had felt over the past few days would come back. She was starting to feel caged inside the palace. The people outside the walls had easily accepted the switch in future leaders, assuming the two twins couldn't be that much different, but inside the walls of the palace, everyone either treated her with pity, or with hatred. She couldn't stand being treated that way. Just two weeks and a day ago, she had been respected, maybe even feared, by the members of the royal court. Now she was just the princess that would never amount to anything.
For the most part, sense her sister's coronation, Eona and Kimiko had ignored each other, only seeing each other in public. Eona had managed to hold her tongue while in her sister's presence in public, but she knew if she was alone with her, she wouldn't be able to. She wasn't sure how long she could keep it up. On top of everything, she hadn't dared firebend, now that everyone knew, and the longing for the natural outlet was driving her insane.
As she stared at the throne, she kept telling herself she really didn't want it, trying to keep her emotions in check. She knew she should leave the throne room, instead of tormenting herself by staring at it and thinking about all the lost possibilities, but she just couldn't tare her eyes away. Now that it was gone, she was starting to realize just how much she had wanted her birthright. Who's been cheated now? She thought angrily.
Just then, the silk curtains behind her parted, allowing her sister to enter the room. Eona ignored her, even though she knew she was being disrespectful by not acknowledging her Firelord's presence. She didn't care. By her standards, Kimiko still hadn't earned any respect, and wouldn't get it until then. "You've been sulking around these halls for the past two weeks like somebody died. Really now Eona, would it kill you to at least acknowledge my position, and move on with your life?" Kimiko said as she approached. Eona continued to stare doggedly at the empty throne, not saying a word. "You realize you're only making life worse for you, right?" Kimiko said cheerfully, but the threat in her words was obvious. The young Firelord did not like being ignored, even if it was her twin sister doing the ignoring.
"Come now, Kimiko, would it hurt you to stop gloating every time you see me?" Eona asked, finally breaking the silence by using her sister's words. "Then I could at least try to act like I don't care that you completely stole my life from me. "
"Don't let your jealousy get the better of you, Eona. It's not my fault that you destroyed your chance at being Firelord-" Kimiko started, but Eona cut her off mid-sentence.
"No. I did not ruin my chances. Father took it from me. Why? Because I was born a bender. That's not something I could control! It's not my fault, or any other bender's fault that him and all the other world leaders couldn't cope with the spirits! Why do we have to be blamed for it?! We've been persecuted and hated for a war that wasn't our fault, for months now! Why don't you just end the torment and kill us all, like you so badly want to!" She was yelling now, and was no longer paying attention to what she was saying. Without her realizing it, the flames flickering in front of the empty throne had responded to her emotions, leaping upwards, licking at the marble ceiling. They turned a deep blue, her anger making them burn hotter.
"That, right there, is exactly why benders like you should be destroyed, or at least locked up! You can't control your power, or your emotions, making you a threat to yourselves and everyone around you," Kimiko seethed, pointing at the raging fire. "Stop it, now," she demanded.
Eona reluctantly obeyed, even though she'd much rather let her anger pour into the flames, let them consume her and everyone else around her. She turned to the flames and forced them to shrink back to their original size, and then turned back to her sister. "Is that really how you feel about me? About a good percentage of your citizens? That we're monsters, and should be locked up, or worse, hunted down and slaughtered like animals?" Eona demanded. Before her sister got a chance to answer, she said, "I knew you were jealous of me, Kimiko, but I didn't realize just how much you loathed me."
"If it meant finding peace, and finally allowing the world to heal from the war, then I would happily do so," Kimiko yelled, losing her temper.
Eona shook her head, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, small smoke trails lifting from them, hinting at the fact that she was barely keeping them from erupting in flames. Her whole body shook with rage. "I can't believe you would actually do that. You'd have to have a reason. Just locking up half the nation without a real reason is too cruel, even for you."
"Don't tempt me," Kimiko said, suddenly becoming strangely calm. "I'm Firelord, remember? I can do what I want." Eona met her sister's gaze, golden eyes staring into her sister's brown ones. The determination that burned there, and something about the way her sister had said 'don't tempt me', suddenly made Eona stop and think about what they were saying for a minute.
Not once had her sister denied that she hated the benders, or that she planned to get rid of them. "You're serious. You actually plan on trying to purge the fire nation of benders," Eona stated bluntly, her anger dissipating, replaced by appalled uneasiness.
Kimiko smiled cruelly, a look that Eona had never seen on her sister. "It was your idea," she said, almost sweetly. "And I'm going to start with you. Guards! Arrest her!"
Suddenly the room was swarming with soldiers. Eona's eyes widened in fear and shock as she eyed them, not sure she could fight all of them. She must have had this planned, Eona thought, horrified that her sister actually intended to try to destroy the benders. Kimiko slunk back to slowly make her way around the group to her throne, a dark, smug smile on her face. She would never take part in something as messy as a fight. Part of Eona wished her sister would have stayed so she could blast that smug grin off of her.
The soldiers closed on her, preparing for a fight. "Eona, don't make this hard on yourself," one of them said. "Just come quietly. We don't want to fight you."
Knowing there was no way she was going to let herself be locked up in a prison, Eona slipped into a defensive stance, allowing fire to leap to her fingers. "Your mistake," she said. She thrust her hands forward and an arc of fire escaped from her fingertips, shooting towards a soldier. The man screamed as it burnt him, and she winced slightly. Never had she used her power to actually hurt somebody. She didn't have long to think about it, before another moved towards her, swiping at her with a fist. She blocked the attack with her forearm, and then swiped his feet from underneath him easily. She slowly stopped acknowledging what she was doing to the soldiers and just fought, her thoughts becoming cold and precise. She became the destructive warrior she had trained so long and hard to be, leaving the princess behind.
She hadn't fought long when she saw her opening –or rather, she was given an opening; one soldier, as she turned towards him, stepped out-of-the-way, leaving a clear path to the door. Weather it was an act of cowardice, or the man was actually trying to give her a way out, she didn't know, but she didn't stay long enough to find out. She dashed through the whole in the wall of soldiers, and rushed out of the room. Turning, she threw a punch at the silk curtains she had just passed through, and fire shot from her hand, eating at the silk quickly. The only entrance to the throne room quickly became a raging fire. It would take them a minute to figure out how to get around it, hopefully buying her some time.
She hurried down one of the corridors, running to its end, and then she passed under an archway out into the main inner courtyard of the palace. She quickly ran across the young grass, around the pond, and back inside the palace. As she ran, she couldn't help but feel grateful for the practical tunic, pants, and boots she had chosen to wear today. She couldn't have imagined fighting all those soldiers in her formal robes, or worse, a dress.
Continuing through the corridors, Eona headed for her room, going the roundabout way. She had to stop there; if she was going to be running for a while, she would need money, food, clothes. She figured she could grab some stuff before her pursuers caught up. They had no clue where she was going, and her room was pretty close to the throne room. They wouldn't expect her to go back there. Even if they did discover her there, there were many exits from the room, making it easy for her to escape again.
She burst into the dark room, grabbing some money and stuffing it into a bag. Throwing open the doors to her wardrobe, she quickly realized all her clothes but the tunic she used for practicing and a simple dress were too fancy. Their elegant appearance screamed royalty, or at least nobility, and would stand out in a crowd. Shrugging, she grabbed the dress and tunic, shoved them in the bag, threw the bag's single strap over her shoulder, and then turned out of the room.
She quickly made her way through the palace, only running into guards a few times. It wasn't hard for her to quickly remove them from her path, and continue on. She was realizing that since she had spent so much time practicing at night and had learned to compensate for the lack of the sun, now that she was fighting with it, she was even more powerful than she would have expected.
Once out of the palace, she didn't slow her pace. She burst down the grand stairs leading up to the palace, across the outer courtyard, and into the city below, where she allowed herself to be swallowed up by the crowd. Royal guards poured from the palace, joined by more forces from the army. She knew she had to leave the city. She was too well-known here, and she wouldn't be able to avoid them for very long. She headed for the outskirts of the city, and slowly climbed the surrounding rocky cliff, following the well-worn path that merchants used to get in and out. At the top, she paused, glancing back at her home once more, before slipping down the other side of the rocks.
The docks were below. Eona made her way towards them, glancing over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed. When she was sure she wasn't, she approached one ship. It was heavily loaded with cargo, and there were a few people on deck, but nobody was paying attention to the dock below. She quickly and silently climbed the ramp, and then slipped below, searching for a quiet place to sit near the back of the crammed hold.
She forced herself up into a small gap between two large crates stacked on top of others. The gap was just big enough that if she pressed her back against the hull of the ship and kept her knees bent, she could fit without anyone seeing her. She pulled the pack out from underneath her, and, lighting a tiny flame nobody but her could see, pulled out the bag and counted how much money she had grabbed. She had actually grabbed herself a lot, which was good. She still had no food, and would need money for that. Plus, she didn't plan on stowing away on ships for forever. Eventually she would make it out of the Fire Nation, and then she would be safe to relax a little.
Then she paused, and realized she had no clue where the ship she was on was heading. If it goes to the Earth Kingdom, I still won't be able to bend, she thought, and immediately she wished she had grabbed a weapon. Oh well. I'll find one wherever I'm going.
She let her head rest against the curved side of the ship, closing her eyes. She focused on the gentle rocking of the boat, waiting for the feeling of it leaving the port, hoping it would before her pursuers realized she wasn't in the city. Once she felt the ship begin to pick up speed and pull away from the docks, she relaxed a bit, feeling safe for the first time in a while. I'm surprised I got away so easily, she mused. Deciding to try to sleep, she tried to ship to get more comfortable, but realized that wasn't going to happen, so she opened her eyes and looked around the dark hold of the ship. Slowly, as the ship pulled farther away from her home and the only world she had ever known, the adrenaline started to wear off and the reality of her situation began to sink in.
That morning, she had woken up as a princess of the Fire Nation, second only to her sister, the Firelord, and her father. She had more clothes in her closet than most girls dreamed about seeing, she had free access to servants galore, and all the food and entertainment than a girl could ever want. In seconds, her sister had taken all that away. Now, she was fugitive of the Fire Nation, with just the things in her pack, nowhere to call home, and not a single real friend in the world.
She squeezed her eyes shut, feeling tears coming, refusing to let them fall. She couldn't hold them in though, and silently she began to cry, mourning all she had lost in the past two weeks.
Avani
Nearing the outskirts of Ba Sing Se's ruins
Avani stared at the huge, dilapidated wall in front of her, her shock forcing her silent. She glanced at Arrkun, her green eyes wide with surprise. "This used to be Ba Sing Se?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Yeah, at one point. During the war, large chucks of land at the northern shore beyond the city broke away, leaving the city directly exposed the ocean. Soon after that, the spirits caused a tsunami. Even with the city's huge wall to protect it, half of the city flooded. Mostly the lower ring. They've been trying to get the water out… but most people have given up. Benders could do it, but the Earth King has refused to allow bending so…" He shrugged.
"So that's why the king moved the capital to Omashu, once the city was rebuilt," Avani mused.
"Yeah," Arrkun agreed. "Did he not tell you guys why he moved?"
"No. Our glorious king hardly tells us anything." She rolled her eyes, showing she really didn't feel like he was glorious. She stared up at the massive wall for a few minutes more, and then got a mischievous grin. "Want to go inside?" she asked.
"Why would I want to go into a half flooded, abandoned city?" he asked warily.
"Why not? It would be fun," she said with a shrug.
He paused, not sure what to say. "I'm not sure what we'll find in there," he pointed out. "The city might be completely ruined."
"If it is, we'll leave," she replied.
"How do you plan on getting in?" he asked.
"Well, I'm an earthbender, am I not?" she said, as if that explained everything.
He sighed and shook his head. "Okay, if you think you can get us in, let's go check it out. It won't hurt anything," he said, giving in.
She grinned, and then, looking at the wall, debated the best way to get up there. Glancing at the ground around them, she muttered a quick, "Hold on," and then closed her eyes. She could feel the earth underneath her clearer this way.
She heard him mutter a small, "Hold on to what?" but she ignored him, focusing on the task at hand. With a few quick motions, she separated the chunk of land they were standing on from the surrounding land, and started bending it upwards to the top of the wall. With a shudder, the rock shot upwards, bending to her control.
Arrkun stumbled, and then moved fearfully away from the edge. With a small smirk, she asked, "Afraid of heights?"
"Maybe a little," Arrkun replied, sounding defensive. She smiled. They continued up the rock surface at a decent pace. About halfway up, Avani found herself wishing Arrkun was an earthbender. She was tiring, and could have used the help of a second earthbender. She allowed a little of the rock to shed away, falling back down to the ground below, lightening the load a little.
Eventually, they reached the top of the wall, and the two quickly moved to the top of it. Once they were both safely on the wall, Avani allowed the rock to fall back to the ground below. She then took a moment to catch her breath, her eyes closed and her back turned to the city. After a few seconds, she muttered, "Hey, you never told me what you bend."
"Oh… water. I bend water…" Arrkun said, seeming only halfway paying attention.
"You okay?" Avani asked, turning to him, and then she stopped, when she saw the large expanse of water beyond the wall. "Oh wow…" she muttered, staring in awe. The water was almost more breathtaking that the wall holding it in place. When the tsunami had rushed over the wall, it had filled the space up inside, creating a huge, raised, salty lake. The water lapped only a few feet below the top of the wall. She figured if the lake ever became agitated, it wouldn't take much for it to spill over.
Off in the distance, Avani could just make out what looked like the rim of another wall, identical to the one they were standing on. "From what I've heard, the city has many walls… this area used to be farms… Beyond that wall, in the distance, was the actual city."
"It doesn't look like there's water beyond that wall to me… maybe we could get across, see what's left of the city," Arrkun suggested.
"Well, do you have a boat?" Avani asked. "Because I don't really like the idea of swimming across." They both knew it wouldn't be possible to swim the distance.
"I just told you I'm a waterbender, didn't I?" Arrkun said. "And you're an earthbender. You make us a boat, and I'll get us across."
Placing her chin in her hand, Avari debated it for a minute. "It just might work… but if I take rock from the wall, the water might spill over."
"Take it from there," Arrkun suggested, pointing at what looked like an old watch tower.
Avani moved towards it. The building had an open archway that led inside. She stepped through, looking around a dusty room. Light poured in from two open windows. A single table leaned precariously on three legs, it's fourth side supported by the chair that accompanied it. On the table laid a map. Looking at the map, it took Avari a minute to realize it was a map from before the war. "Wow. I guess I didn't realize just how much things have changed since then."
"Yeah. It's kind of sad, seeing just what we did to our world," Arrkun said, moving up behind her. He rolled up the map, tucking it into the pack he carried with him. "Come on, let's get to work."
She nodded, stepping back outside. "Keep back, alright?" she asked him. He stepped back a few paces, giving her some room. Once again, she closed her eyes, reaching out for the rock in front of her. With an upward thrust, she broke the roof from the walls. It hovered in the air for a minute, and then as she moved her hands, it slowly hovered out over the water, turning as it went. She rested it down in the water, point first. When she let it go, she stared at it for a minute, hoping it would float. When it didn't sink, she smiled. Then, turning on the wall, she forced a small piece off, flattened it, and laid it between them and the makeshift raft. "One earthboat, ready for departure to Ba Sing Se, leaving immediately," she said, gesturing to the stone triumphantly.
"Alright," Arrkun said with a huge grin. "Now it's my turn." The two walked down the ramp to their makeshift boat. Avani pushed the ramp back up on to the wall, and then sat cross-legged near the center of the earthboat. Arrkun moved to the back of the boat, and lifting his arms up and down, created a wave that pushed them away from the wall. Then, as he begun to spin his arms, they began picking up speed. In no time, they were shooting across the lake, heading for the distant wall.
Avani leaned back, spreading her legs out in front of her, and stared up at the blue sky, her head resting on her arms. The sun made its way across the sky as they sped across the lake. It seemed like forever before Arrkun said, "We made it."
Avani sat up to see that he had expertly maneuvered the boat up against the second rock wall. "Sweet," she said as she stood. She quickly created another ramp to let them off again, and the two benders climbed up to the second massive wall.
Looking down, Avani could make out another two walls in the distance, just like the one she was standing on now, but slightly smaller, and closer than the previous wall. Below was more water, but much more shallow this time. She could see buildings poking out from the water's surface; a tiled roof here, the upper floors of an apartment building there. "Not much is left of the lower ring," she said, stating the obvious.
"Let's keep moving. This is kind of depressing, seeing all those people's homes underwater. Who knows where they ended up," Arrkun said softly. Neither wanted to state what they were both thinking, so Avani said it to herself; If they didn't end up dead, first.
"How do we get down?" she asked, glancing around the wall. "Trains used to allow people in and out of the city, but that's underwater now."
"Same way we got up and over the first wall?" Arrkun suggested.
"Yeah, that might work," Avani agreed. She glanced around, then shrugged, pulling the boat up and over the wall. She rested it against the wall, and then held it there. Once again, the two stepped on, Avani careful to not let it slip. Then, she let it drop, at a decent pace. It was a lot easier going down than up, and it didn't take as long to reach the watery city below. The rock rested on the water's surface. "Why don't you push us across like you did last time?" she suggested.
Arrkun shrugged, and then began pushing the water the same way as before to get them to the other wall, careful to avoid the rooftops jutting out of the water. Once across, Avani lifted them back to the top. By the time they reached the top of the wall, the sun was getting close to setting. "Wow. It took us a while to get over here," Arrkun remarked.
"Uh huh. The city's huge," Avani agreed. She let their boat slide down carefully to the water below again, and then turned her attention to the city below. Buildings spanned in front of her, some crumbling a bit, and all with an abandoned feeling. She could tell this had once been a nice city, but now it looked lonely and rundown. Near the wall was a small lake, which she was sure hadn't been there before. "I bet the water's getting in through holes in the wall. It would be easy to get it to go back out, with your skills, and then I could close the whole up. We might even be able to empty the lower ring the same way."
"Wait, who said anything about fixing the city?" Arrkun asked, sounding surprised. "I thought we had just come to see what it was like."
"I wasn't planning on it either…," she admitted, "but I stare at this place, and I can't help but imagine it like it used to be, twelve years ago, before the war; bustling with life, no random water, happy. I imagine it like that, and I can't help but want to fix it. Return it to the way it was before."
"Have you seen the city before?" Arrkun asked.
"Not that I can remember. I would have been four. That's how old I was, when the war started. Just old enough to know something bad was happening but with no clue what to do," she replied.
"I was five," he stated. She nodded. So he's a year older than me. He seemed to get lost in thought for a moment, staring out on the city's remains. "Your right, the people are what make the city. This is just a shell of one. We should fix it. Maybe the people would come back."
Then a thought occurred to her. "Well, if I am the avatar like your dad thinks I am, that's my job, right? Fix the world? Might as well start somewhere."
"Well, we still don't know if that's true… but I guess you're right." He shrugged, and then pointed at the water near the wall, "Alright, let's start with that water there. I honestly don't know how much we'll be able to do just the two of us, but we can try, right?"
She smiled at him, and then stared along the wall. "Look, stairs. We can climb down to the city from there," she pointed out. Together they headed for the staircase, and started down. By the time they reached the bottom, the sun was setting beyond the city's walls. The wall cast long shadows across the western half of the city, swathing it in shadow. "Maybe we should find a place to stay, and start tomorrow," Avani suggested.
"Actually, it might be better to work through the night, if you're alright with that. My waterbending's stronger at night," Arrkun told her.
She shrugged. "Alright, but that just means I'll be sleeping all day long tomorrow. I hate missing my sleep."
He chuckled softly, and then said, "That's fine with me. Let's get to work." They moved to the water's edge. It was pretty shallow, spread out over a ways, but the water seemed to be expanding. "This water seems to just have gotten here," Arrkun pointed out.
"Yeah, like it's leaking through. Maybe through the train tunnel. Maybe it was already closed up before hand, but whatever they did to close it off is failing," Avani agreed.
"Let me go check it out," Arrkun said, and then moved closer to the wall, staying near the water's edge. It was deeper here, so they ended up walking through the water. "Wait here," he instructed. She nodded, backing away to dry ground. He parted the water, and stepped in. The closer he got to the wall, the deeper it got, and eventually his head disappeared under the wall of water. Abruptly it closed over his head, and she panicked, before noticed just under the surface he had created a bubble of air around himself and was moving closer to the wall. She followed his progress until a combination of the waning light and his depth made it impossible for her to see him. She plopped down on the ground with a huge sigh, hoping he wouldn't take too long.
The moon had just poked over the wall when the surface stirred. Avani hadn't realized she had dozed, but the sound of rippling water stirred her. She rubbed her eyes, hoping it didn't look like she had fallen asleep. The warm mark on her cheek from her palm made her worry she had a giant red mark there, and rubbed at it self-consciously. Wait, when did I become so self-conscious? She wondered, and forced her hand back into her lap.
The surface broke, parting like it had before, and then Arrkun appeared between it. When he stepped out of the water completely, he turned to her and said, "It looks like they boarded it up to keep people out, not water. It's effectively slowed the water down, but it won't keep it out. I removed the blockage, and then froze over the whole. It's going to melt in a few minutes, so we better be ready to control the water."
"Correction, you better be ready. I've just got to get down there and close up the whole once you get the water through. Are you going to be able to bend all this water and once?" she asked.
"You doubting me?" he asked with a playful smile.
"No, no. Just wondering," she said hastily.
He laughed. "Of course I'll be able to bend it all. Are you going to be able to close that whole up without collapsing the wall?"
"Now you doubt me!" she said, and then laughed. "I'm sure I can. I've never come across a problem I couldn't fix yet."
"Well then, we make the perfect team, then, because neither have I," he replied with a small smirk. Just then a strange cracking sound was heard from the wall, and the water level suddenly started to rise. "Here we go," she heard him mutter, before he stepped out into the water again.
Using a similar motion like he had to create the waves that started the boat across the lake, Arrkun began creating a wave, but this one was much, much bigger. It lifted above both their heads, taking almost all the water with it. Near the wall appeared what looked to be a train tunnel. Water rushed through it, but was quickly caught up in Arrkun's wave. "That's it," he grunted. "Get ready to close it."
"Right," she muttered, and then turned and started pulling roofs off of buildings nearby. Sorry whoever these used to belong to, she thought as she pulled another off. One by one, she forced the slab of earth to round out, into the shape of the tunnel. "Ready!" she called.
He nodded once, and then shifted his stance, allowing the water to flow with his hands. The giant wave followed his motions as is arms pulled back, becoming a huge stream of water. He turned and shoved the water forward, forcing it back into the tunnel. He kept pushing, until the water was just outside the tunnel, leaving only small puddles behind. "Now!" he yelled.
Knowing she had to work quickly, Avani moved to stand with her hand on the rock wall, and then slammed one of the slabs into the tunnel whole. She continued to slide the slab into the tunnel until she felt it line up with the outer edge of the wall. Then, she smoothed the edges between the wall and the slab, making it one. Grabbing another one, she pushed the next one into place, repeating the process with this one. She kept going until the tunnel was halfway filled up. "Alright, you can let the water go," she told Arrkun. She heard him sigh with relief, but she continued to work, filling the tunnel completely.
By the time she finished, she was drenched in sweat and completely exhausted. She was breathing heavily too. She turned to Arrkun, who was equally exhausted, and drenched. He was grinning wickedly, obviously feeling very accomplished. "That… was amazing," she told him in between gasps.
"Why thank you," Arrkun said, with a dramatic bow.
Smirking she said, "Actually, I was talking about my part, but your part was pretty cool too. Just not as cool." She tried to keep a straight face, but then he started pouting dramatically, and she burst out laughing. He joined in, which made her laugh harder. They laughed at each other, with each other, all at once, until Avani's sides hurt.
"You know what sounds really good right now?" he said once the laughing subsided.
"A bed?" Avani guessed.
"Yes. But food first, bed later," Arrkun said.
Avani slapped her forehead. "I forgot to buy food while I was in town," she said, explaining her random forehead slap.
"Don't worry, I've got enough for the both of us. I always pack extra," he told her.
She smiled. "Thanks Arrkun." They moved away from the wall, farther in to town, and ended up making camp on somebody's porch. They had debated going inside, but thought it would be too weird, so they had stayed outside. They ate, and then set up their sleeping bags. Sleep quickly overcame Avani as she gave into her exhaustion.