Dreamless Sleep
A forest? No, the ground was far too smooth and even. Thick tendrils hung haphazardly across the walls. Vines? Rope? The air sparkled and a low, rolling echo swelled until the breeze burst with it's sound.
"Aisha! Aisha!"
Slowly, Aisha rolled her head to the side. Her name rang out clearly, but she was only just aware of its presence in the air. After a moment, her vision came into focus and the scene around her poured into her eyes and ears. All around, flat, soot covered steel surrounded her. The floor, the walls, the ceilings, and every fixture in sight was strangled by thick cords and bundled wire, each emerging from some unseen opening in the steel and disappearing down a nearby corridor. The air itself brimmed with a crisp, electric energy and small sparks of light flickered throughout the room as though a thousand tiny stars were being born and dying out every second. Wincing as pain shot through her neck, Aisha raised her head and saw Elsword kneeling beside her.
"Ugh..." Aisha pushed her hands into the ground and lifted herself up, resting on her elbows as she fought the heavy fatigue in her bones. "...What happened?"
Shifting his weight and crossing his legs, Elsword glanced aside at the darkened walls around them. "We're trapped, someplace."
Aisha surveyed the room around her, solid steel and dark panels covering every corner, highlighted by the faint iridescence of twisting wires and the sparkling air. Though she was still unable to see clearly, she immediately noticed a distinct absence in the area.
"Where's Rena? Is she okay!?"
"Yup~" Rena's voice called out from around the nearest corner, its melody strangely unsuited to their unearthly surroundings. "I'm just over here, watching after this one."
Aisha finally steadied herself and sat upright, pressing her hands into the floor in an attempt to stand. She faltered on her way up and nearly fell back to the ground, a swift hand reaching out to support her back. Before she could even get her feet beneath her, Elsword was standing and supporting her shoulders. Surprised by her sudden fall and the lack of impact, she blinked and looked up at Elsword's anxious face. He immediately blushed and his voice caught in his throat, averting his eyes as he pulled Aisha up and helped her to her feet.
"Thanks..." She muttered wearily as Elsword turned and walked away. With the dust and drowsiness shaken from her head, Aisha's memory of their fall from the Black Crow returned to her. Once their parachute gave way, Rena gathered them all together, and then...
"Wait... we crashed into the mountain though, didn't we? How did we get trapped?" Aisha coughed as she stepped over a pile of rubble, leaning on a glowing ring of wire for support as her feet wobbled beneath her. Before anyone could answer her, she raised her hand to the nearest wall and felt the sharp, jagged edge of ruptured steel. Beneath her fingers lay the remains of the heavy cannon mounted on the bow of the Black Crow.
"Ah, well... I didn't expect that to happen, but when I used the wind to cushion our fall, it pushed the ship just enough to tip over and block us in here..." Rena's voice was quiet and soothing, its timbre guiding Aisha through the dark. Though Rena had saved them all at the very last minute, there was no trace of sunlight in the air and the massive bulk of broken steel that barred their path would likely take months to move.
Still dazed from her fall, Aisha, pressed her hand against her forehead and took in her surroundings slowly. As she staggered across the dust laden ground, tiny dark spots clouded her vision and her head began to lighten. She tripped over a bundle of cord and caught herself on the remnants of the Black Crow's deck railing, holding herself upright until her dizziness passed.
"Here." Elsword rifled through his pack and offered Aisha a handful of dried fruit and hardtack, still avoiding direct eye contact. Until she saw the dirt covered, crumbled mess of food held out before her, she hadn't realized just how viciously her stomach had been rumbling in the past few minutes. More than a little embarrassed, she accepted the meager rations and did her best to choke them down. After a moment's unease, Aisha regained her composure and followed Elsword over to where Rena sat cradling Raven's head in her hands.
"Are you feeling okay?" Rena tilted her head toward Aisha, her eyes tinted with worry. "You were out a long time..."
"Eh?" Aisha perked up, her eyes widening in surprise. "How long was I asleep?"
The air danced as Rena giggle softly. "Only about seven hours. It should be morning now..."
Placing a hand across her stomach, Aisha realized why she had been so dizzy just moments ago. In fact, it was doubtful that any of them were well nourished and in good condition at this point. Plopping herself down on the most comfortable square of dirt-caked steel she could find, Aisha turned to Rena and then to the still unconscious Raven.
"Is he still..."
"No, he woke up for a little while and was behaving much more like a gentleman." Rena smiled slightly, "Although it seems that good behavior is what makes this thing on his arm shock him, so he passed out not too long after that."
"Rena..." Aisha's voice softened, her concern bleeding through. "Why did you decide to bring him along? Even if he's alright sometimes, he's not stable. What if he turns on us again?"
"You're right, he could..." Rena gazed down at Raven, her eyes swirling with a mixture of bittersweet sorrows. "But you know, when I was talking to him, I really felt like... like he has the potential to do a lot of good for the world, enough to overshadow all the horrible things he's done so far." She smiled lightly at Aisha, "I might be wrong of course, but... I guess I'm just being unreasonable."
Aisha and Elsword remained silent. Though neither was particularly comfortable with Raven's presence, Rena's compassion and optimism won them over. Before they could ponder the matter any further, their stomachs began to grumble once more. Aisha quickly patted herself down, searching for any scrap or remnant of food left in her belongings and finding none. Already operating on a deficit of food and sleep, they were all in dire need of relief. As Aisha scanned the room for any semblance of supplies, her eyes fell upon a trail of lights that led off into a darkened corridor.
"Hey, what's down there?" She pointed toward the flashing row of wires that fled into the shadows. Upon hearing her inquiry, Elsword frowned.
"All I found was more hallways so far. There might be a way out somewhere, but we can't move for now."
Aisha protested. "What? Why not? We need to get moving as soon as we can so we can find food and water."
"That's my fault... sorry..." Rena slowly extended her left leg and held her foot out, revealing a red, slightly swollen ankle. "I twisted it when we fell, and Elsword couldn't carry all three of us..."
Disheartened, Aisha dropped her shoulders and pushed herself up to her feet. Grabbing her wand and her grimoire, she headed over to the only exit and stared down at the stream of flashing wires within.
"I'm going out scouting."
"Wait, you shouldn't go alone." Rena looked up, pleadingly, "Elsword, go with her."
"No way. We're not gonna leave you alone with that guy." Scowling, Elsword glanced sidelong at Raven's sleeping face.
"It's alright... he's asleep right now anyway and we need to find an exit so that we can leave as soon as possible. We won't last more than a couple of days if we're stuck in here." Rena's voice was soft but her words weighed heavily in the air. Both Aisha and Elsword looked to her anxiously and grimaced. After negotiating glances with one another, they gathered up their equipment and headed off into the dark.
Moments waned into minutes as Elsword and Aisha continued their trek down the corridor, plunging deeper into the strange, artificial world of dull, humming lights and flickering wires. Even as the walls opened up, the atmosphere was still stifling. With dust as thick as skin on every surface, it was as though they were delving into an ancient crypt left unattended for hundreds of years. Despite its age, however, the area was filled with the faint glow of El. In fact, the entire area was brimming with energy, so much so that there was no doubt that Ruben's El was still somewhere on the island. That thought, at least, had occurred to everyone and was at least a little reassuring. Aisha, however, was a bit troubled. Of course, it's likely that Ruben's El was still on the island, but if there was no El here before, then there would have been no breeze to carry the dust that drowned the halls. As Aisha continued to ponder, Elsword glanced toward her.
"Hey, Aisha..."
"Huh?" Caught off guard, she nearly tripped over a pile of scrap metal. "What is it?"
Elsword's face was equal parts awkward and annoyed, though Aisha couldn't tell what he was so uncomfortable about until he said it outright. "Why did you come with us? Ah, no, that's not what I mean..." He mumbled to himself as they stepped slowly through the sea of forgotten lights. "You were going somewhere before the El got stolen, right? Why'd you stop just to help us find the El?"
"I guess it's because I haven't really stopped." Aisha hopped over behind Elsword, narrowly avoiding a cloud of grit and grime that poured from the unsettled ceiling. "I really wasn't going anywhere specific, so it didn't matter where I went along the way..."
A bit more comfortable and likewise more confused, Elsword peered back over his shoulder at Aisha. "So you were just going place for no reason?"
"No, not for no reason." She spoke sharply, pouting at the suggestion that she was merely wandering aimlessly. "I just don't know where I need to go..."
"You're not making any sense." Elsword turned and glared at her, clearly aggravated by his own unease and her contradictory response.
"It's just complicated, alright!?" The harsh echo of Aisha's voice scattered throughout the hall and burrowed into the dense clouds of dust and debris. She was immediately frustrated with herself, for being so ill-tempered and for being unable to give a clear answer to such a simple question.
"I'm sorry..." Reluctantly, Aisha conceded. "I wasn't actually traveling... I was exiled from my homeland, and Ruben was just the first place I ended up after being forced out."
More intrigued than confused at this point, Elsword stole a glance at Aisha while they made their way toward a faint light in the distance. "Why the hell'd they kick you out? Even if you're annoying sometimes you're way better than most people."
Aisha's eye twitched and she glared hard at him. "It was because I started complaining about the headmaster at my school. I just did it because he was an arrogant idiot, but then a lot of other girls and teachers joined in, and then..." Aisha was already losing herself in the details and Elsword was long since lost. Breathing in deeply, she searched her memory and traced her steps back to the beginning.
"The country I'm from is far off to the west, in the middle of a huge desert. Without using magic, there would be no food or water anywhere for miles around, so almost everyone who lives there is a mage and all the schools are magic academies."
Elsword struggled to imagine such a place. Although he knew there must be hundreds of normal people who just happened to be able to use magic there, he kept imagining it as a country full of Aishas of all different sizes. He shook his head out and waited for Aisha to continue.
"When everyone turns twelve, we go through an inheritance ceremony. All of the old mages and parents and grandparents come and gave us presents and talked to us about all the awkward things about growing up, and then about how they developed as mages. Most people think it's just a boring, awkward day where we get presents, and it normally is, but mine was the worst thing to ever happen to me..." Aisha paused and for a while she said nothing, her mind fixed on a moment in the distant past. "Nothing really happened for most of the day, since I didn't have any family to lecture me or talk about the future, but then when we all gathered together for our school party, the headmaster came up and gave me a ring."
Elsword immediately recoiled in horror. "Y-You had to marry an old man?"
Aisha had to stop herself from laughing. "No, although that would've been a lot worse, actually." She slowed down as the hall opened into a wide, eerie chamber. All around, the wires and cords that had been twisting and crawling along the walls converged at the base of a large fixture in the middle of the room. While its base was clearly a composite of steel and electric wiring, it was the faintly glowing lid on top that caught Aisha's interest. As she approached to investigate, she noticed Elsword's desperate glare upon her.
"Well, what happened?" He looked as though he had just been denied the ending to a bedtime story. Setting her curiosity aside, Aisha brushed off a small, humming box and sat down.
"All of the gifts you get in the inheritance ceremony are supposed to help make your magic stronger, but that ring was actually just a curse." She scowled fiercely as she recalled that day. "It sealed away almost all of my magic power and then it disappeared!"
"But you got it back, right?" Elsword broached the subject warily as he took note of the venom oozing form Aisha's eyes.
"No, I didn't. That's why I spent the next three years trying to get him fired." She huffed and fumed and soon Elsword was the unfortunate victim of her glowering.
"That sucks but..." He hesitated, unsure of whether what he was about to say would agitate the already boiling Aisha. "I mean, you're already really strong, so it's not that bad, right?"
"You don't get it. I had to start over from nothing... it's one thing to learn all the spells and incantations, but the strength of your magic comes from your will, and they took almost all of that away. I was the strongest mage in the school when I was just ten, and it was the first time a girl was the top of the class, ever! The idiot headmaster didn't want all the boys huddled together and sobbing because they couldn't beat me though, so he used that stupid ring to..." Aisha growled and slammed her fist into the wall, shaking a thick cloud of dust down onto her. Coughing, she waved her hand in front of her face to clear the air and resumed her fuming.
"When I started complaining about it to some of the teachers, they got together and tried to stage a vote to get rid of the headmaster... for a while nothing came of it, but after a couple years, everybody got more and more worked up about it, about girls being cheated and not being allowed to do certain jobs... then, right before they were going to hold a vote, the governor exiled everybody who wanted to vote against the headmaster. After that, I just didn't want to be anywhere near that place, so I went as far away as I could." Aisha leaned back, her eyes fixed on something in the distance that was just out of reach. Her story was far from complete and nowhere near as simple as she had stated it, but for the time she was too exhausted to consider those memories. Now leaning against the glowing fixture nearby, Elsword stared aimlessly into the shadows.
"I-" He began a sentence unsuccessfully and redoubled his efforts. "I didn't expect that. I always thought you were some kind of princess or rich kid or something like that." His mouth twisted up uncomfortably and he turned as far away from her as he could.
"What?" Aisha shook her head out, surprised and befuddled by his image of her. "Where did you get that idea?"
"I don't know! That's just how it seemed to me." Elsword blushed lightly, his voice shifting into a defensive tone. Beginning to blush herself, Aisha brushed herself off and straightened her skirt.
"Really?" She looked around anxiously, uncertain of how to deal with a compliment coming from such a crash boy. After a moment, she had an idea and grinned. "So you really think I'm just like a princess?"
Elsword squirmed, already ill at ease and quickly sliding into an unfavorable position. Though he knew it would be a foolish maneuvre, he decided to bite back rather than admit something unprecedented. Scoffing, her turned and glanced at Aisha over his shoulder. "Yeah, because you always act so spoiled."
Aisha immediately scowled and shot up to her feet. "Do you want me to punch you!?" As she stormed over to confront Elsword, he shifted his weight and pushed off of the dust laden lid next to him. A surge of electricity shot through the air and the strange casket in the midst of the room began to buzz and whirl, its sides emblazoned with glimmering signs and numbers as it sprung to life. With their squabble forgotten, Aisha and Elsword stared warily, the entirety of their attention fixed on the lid of the quivering coffin. As the fixture began to tremble and shake, the dust on its surface scattered and fell revealing the vague outline of a lifeless body.
"Look! There's somebody inside that thing..." Aisha slowly approached the casket, gripping her wand and steadying her breath. Elsword circled around the other side, peering in through the milky, dirt covered glass that separated them from the occupant of this mechanical tomb. Cold mist shot out from all around the lid as it rose and slid off to the side, exposing its captive for what could very well be the first time in centuries. A series of sharp snaps shot through the air as dozens of wires and cables popped out of their sockets and soon the entire room was full of flashing screens and flickering bulbs. A series of monotonous beeps and clicks filled the air as monitors all around the room sprung to life, each of them displaying a single, cryptic phrase: 'Good Morning, Your Majesty'
A pale, delicate hand reached over the edge of the coffin. As the haunting symphony of whirling machines and chirping monitors filled the air, a pair of empty, golden eyes opened and peered out into the luminous world beyond their tomb. With a gentle sigh, a petite, regal young girl arose from her slumber, stretching her arms above her and yawning quietly. From her lips, she issued a calm, measured proclamation.
"Code Eve, Start Up Sequence complete."