Her memory came in fragments after the incident. Headless voices spoke to her when the lights went off, some of them terrifying and others not so much. There were times when she heard herself talk, full of laughter and mirth as her friends replied or questioned her during the war. Some of her conversations were light hearted, she and Nowi throwing rocks at snakes and smiling like goofballs, and then there were a few –disturbing conversations between her and the shepherds. Henry, a Plegian dark mage, once waved a dismembered risen hand in front of her face. Noella remembered the how her breakfast nearly spewed out her mouth when Henry said he wanted to 'study' it – to learn how the risen functioned and see if he could control them.
She quickly tried to divert his attention towards thing that didn't require the study of body parts. The mage pouted and whined, but complied with her wishes and went to talk to… maggots and… more dead things. The white haired man was a lost cause with his undying fascination for the undead and... puns.
A faint smile graced Noella's lips as she remembered that fateful day they met the smiling, deadly mage. He appeared in a cloud of crows, laughing and making fun of a very serious situation. She distinctively remembered Chrom wanted to gut the poor mage the first time they met.
Her newfound knowledge had her leaping for joy at first, both figuratively and literally. Morgan, Chrom, Yen'fay, and Lissa gave her strange looks when she happily skipped down the halls, a smile forever plastered on her features. Faintly she heard Lissa whispering to her brother, "You think Noella is plotting something? Maybe she's planning on getting even because you called her 'unlady' like?"
Chrom gulped loudly, shifting nervously in his armor at the thought. As tempting as it was, Noella wasn't planning on getting even –she was merely expressing the joy bursting from within her chest.
Before she was a lost lamb, blindly stumbling around in the dark without a clue as to who she was or where she was. With the help of her… friends –this wasn't a problem any longer. She knew who she was thanks to Chrom, Lissa, Frederick, and through fuzzy memories that lingered in the deepest recesses of her mind.
There were gaps in her memory, bits and pieces that didn't make sense or were withheld from her. Libra and Mirabelle told her this would come to pass, seeing as she was very slowly recovering on her own.
Noella came to a halt, finally realizing how heavy and painful her steel boots actually were when her toes and the soles of her feet cried out. They weren't appreciative of her boundless energy and recklessness. Without medicine or salves, nothing could be done for her sore aching feet.
So she continued to walk uncomfortably down the hallway, silently cursing the architects for making it so long.
She tried to find something to distract her from the pain, things like dust in the crevices or the flashy painting hanging on the walls. Dust proved to be unhelpful so she opted to mindlessly shoot a glance at a nearby painting. Each painting told a story within their colorful paint; a hero battling the forces of evil, a tranquil landscape with pretty fish swimmingly mindlessly in a pond, two star crossed lovers meeting in a secluded forest. Very rarely did she see portraits of nobles, a state of vanity and ego. Perhaps those of hailing from Ylisse's lineage didn't dwell on fanciful things, material goods which could be there one minute – and gone the next.
Sparing a glance at a red colored moon overlooking a beautiful, but deadly, cliff Noella wondered if that was indeed true. These painting could be a way of showing power through wealth. To show the nobles they couldn't compare to the Ylisse lineage.
She snorted loudly, listening to the sound bounce off the walls. Chrom wasn't like that. He was a sweet, courageous, and aloof man. Status and birth meant very little to him. Loyalty and honor meant far more than being a 'blue' blood, as Gauis commonly referred to nobles and Chrom while he stayed here in the castle with his wife Sumia.
A chuckle escaped her lips when she recalled how clumsy that woman was. She was a shepherd who couldn't walk through camp without crashing into someone, tripping over nothing, or dropping a crate of weapons all over the place. One time she even managed to toss a beehive into the middle of camp. No one knew how she managed that, but she did.
A sharp pain ran up her leg, quickly ending her train of thought. Noella took a deep breath and quelled the desire to take off her boots and rub her rebelling feet in the middle of the hallway, acutely aware if she were to someone was bound to pop up out of nowhere and see her in such an undignified position.
She didn't care what people said about her. But she cared if they somehow used her to hurt her friends in some way. So Noella ignored the pain and continued onward and prayed she didn't accidently stub her toe or crash into someone. If her feet hurt now, she didn't dare think how badly they would hurt after going through either of those two scenarios.
As luck would have it she didn't stub her toe or crash into anyone as she darted around a corner and walked into another hallway, a surprisingly vacant one.
Just like the first she didn't see a soul walking between the two highly decorated halls. A chill ran up her spine. It was only one in the afternoon… surely the castle would be bustling with life. Right?
Steel boots moved on their own, acting on signals her brain sent out. Brown eyes darted to and fro, eyeing every nook and cranny for a possible ambush. After all, wouldn't a deserted hallway be perfect for such a thing? No one would hear you scream and the assailant could run away after the deed was done without anyone noticing.
And just like that, Noella felt herself change as different scenarios played in her mind. A closed door represented an unknown, a possible entry point for a lingering assailant or assassin. The white marble floors could have traps laid out in inconspicuous places, lying in wait for her to trigger them. Carefully she mapped out possible escape routes. She knew the door two feet behind her led to another room where she could access the gardens if she so desired. If someone came from behind, she could run to the far end of the hallway and dart around the corner. Although there was a chance the assailant had a bow and could shoot her from a distance seeing as she would be running in a straight line; a death trap.
"Awaken… cursed one." A haunting voice echoed from behind, bouncing off the walls as if to disguise the gender of the speaker.
Instinctually Noella whirled around with a sword and tome in hand. Brown eyes met emptiness as she saw no one standing where she heard the voice come from.
"Come out where I can see you!" She hissed, keeping her guard up even as doubt began to fill her mind. Oh how she wished Yen'fay was here. He was better at wielding a sword than she was. When she used a sword… it was like a headless chicken flailing about. Yen'fay tried to teach her how to properly use a sword when they had time but after she accidently hit him in the stomach with the pommel… he suggested she try smaller weapons… like a dagger.
Out of stubbornness she still kept a sword at her side, hoping it would be useful should she engage in close combat. A tome was nice but far useful in long distant fighting.
"Blind."
The same haunting voice echoed back, the speaker still nowhere to be seen. Noella frowned.
"I said come out."
"Foolish."
The genderless voice boomed, making the ground beneath her feet shake and quiver. The paintings wildly clattered against the wall, some detached and fell to the ground in a heap of splintered wood and painted canvas. Pots shattered as they fell off their pedestals, joining their colorful friends in a mess of clay shards.
Noella's sword dropped to the ground as she tried to steady herself, the loud clang of metal drowned out by the sounds of shattering pottery and falling paintings.
The amnesiac could only hold onto her thunder tome and try keep herself from falling to the ground as the tremors grew wilder and unpredictable.
"Fell blood!" The voice became deafening as the words swirled inside her skull. Fell blood. Fell blood. What did that mean? Did the voice mean her? Or was the voice referring to another person?
All the muscles in the body tensed up when a hand touched her shoulder. The tome in her hand lit up, the pages magically moving as glyphs and sigils encased her in a ball of yellow light. The hand retracted… but not quietly.
"You failed, human."
The tremors stopped soon after those haunting words pierced right through her heart. A chilling feeling ran up her spine and raise gooseflesh all over her body. For whatever reason, those three words cast fear into her heart.
She didn't know why but… she feared the voice which left her body shaking in terror. Her tome fizzled out, the magic fading as the yellow sphere around her fell apart like a rock shattering a window. For whatever reason her tome refused to work as the tremors ceased.
Noella felt like she was trapped in one of her nightmares, completely helpless as she was forced to watch things she did not want to see. She thought she was getting better when the gore, death, and blood no longer affected her sleeping habits.
It seems she was wrong.
Once again she tried to use her magic, but it failed. She tried to call forth the magic verbally –only to find a lump in her throat prevented her from doing so.
A pair of hands gripped her shoulders, violently shaking her as if she were some rag doll. Noella violently jerked away, gaining her a few seconds of freedom which she took full advantage of. Her legs managed to get her a few feet away before something grabbed her arm and spun her around like a wheel on a ship.
Disorientated and afraid she tried to pull her arm out of the person's or creature's grasp. But she could not.
"Noella! Calm yourself!" A familiar voice forced to stop and look up at her assailant. White hair flashed in front of her face. The feeling of safety swept away the underlying terror lingering in her heart, leaving behind stillness where chaos once ruled.
Without a noise she embraced her husband, shivering and shaking like a leaf against him just as if she awoke from a nightmare.
Yen'fay rubbed her back and waited for her to calm down; for he knew that she wouldn't be able to speak in such a state. And he would never pressure her to speak if she did not wish to.
Her husband understood everyone had demons and that sometimes, people did not wish to speak of their greatest fears.
"Noella, speak to me. What ails you?" His voice betrayed concern and fear for her wellbeing. And rightly so. It wasn't like her to cling to him in the middle of day. Only at night did she embrace him out of fear due to her nightmares.
To do so in broad daylight meant something was seriously wrong.
Noella pressed her face against Yen'fay's chest, hiding her face from his view because she wasn't sure what else do to. She was scared and she didn't want him to see her face right now.
She didn't want to startle him with what she heard or saw.
He had gone through enough.
You failed, human.
Noella's knuckles turned white as her fingers continued to grip onto Yen'fay's shirt, fear dripping into her heart as she remembered those three words. Something deep down inside her allowed this fear to take root, to spread and to grow as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, staining her husband's dusky purple shirt in the process.
Something told her she failed to undo the damage she had created. What that was… she did not know.
All she knew was whatever she failed to stop wasn't going to stay buried forever.
Distraught and confused, Yen'fay led her back to their room so she could regain her senses. Her husband had no idea how to handle her in her present state. But he tried to comfort her the best way her could, by being there when she needed someone.
The walk back to their room was a quick one, or a long one –Noella couldn't remember being in an unstable state of mind. All she remembered was Yen'fay taking her by the hand and leading down the hallway. Everything else was a blur up until she heard Yen'fay's voice calling her name through the chaos and by then, they were in their room and she was under the covers without her boots on. How had she missed the door squeaking as it closed or being moved into bed?
She looked at her husband standing beside the bed. He looked as though he was ready to leave, to grab Lissa or an available healer to help her where he could not. The harsh lines on his face said it all.
Before he could turn and leave her all alone, she grabbed his sleeve and kept him rooted in place inside their room.
"Don't go." She whimpered like a wounded animal.
Yen'fay tried to smile even though he was greatly worried. "I will not leave this room, Noella."
With a smile Noella feel prey to the beckoning call of darkness as it overtook her mind and forced her to let go of Yen'fay's sleeve.
AN: Thank you for all your reviews! I hope you'll forgive any errors you may find in this chapter because I wanted to deliver something to all of you who were waiting for this story to be updated. I rushed this one but I am pleased with how it turned out. I'll try and upload a cleaner, less crappy version later on since it five in the morning and I've been working on this chapter from twelve at night till now.
Hope you enjoyed!