Her eyelids rose as if traveling upwards from a deliberate blink. She was awake, aware. Her mind was blank, and chest unburdened. Lucid, she sat upwards and scanned the room. She could see that the rays of the morning sun flooded the room with a warm and vibrant light. She shifted her position, sitting upright in the bed.
Placing her hands upon the white lining that covered her lap, she began to think. Were they nightmares, or were they dreams? Cyclonis could not make heads or tails of the images that ran through her head as she slept; however, there was one thing that was certain. Her mind was clear.
No longer did she have to attempt to force down the taunting and scathing voices of torment and ridicule that once plagued her mind. She found that they now seemed to no longer exist. There was nothing inside her mind, save her own thoughts. This new realization caused her to close her eyes and shudder, as she exhaled in relief.
She thought that maybe she could find some sort of peace.
"Ah, Master Cyclonis, you are awake," the old merb healer said, as he entered the room with a bow.
Cyclonis slowly opened her eyes, refraining from clutching her sheets in anger. Apparently she would have to wait a bit longer to enjoy her newfound peace of mind.
The old healer made his way towards the young woman's bedside, sitting down as he began to talk. "You gave us quite a scare, Master Cyclonis. You had quite the fever, so much so that we needed to place you in this ward. We weren't exactly sure how to go about helping the fever break. Though, all of that is over now, and by the looks of it…" The old merb reached towards Cyclonis, placing a hand gently upon her forehead, "... we seem to be out of the fire, so to speak". He removed his hand from the girl's forehead and continued to speak. "It's a relief to have you back in a stable condition, Master Cyclonis, for a while none of us were sure what was to become of you."
Master Cyclonis, still not looking at the merb, began to speak in an almost somber tone. "There's no need to call me by that title. Not anymore."
"Title?" The old healer asked, oblivious to what Cyclonis was referencing.
"Master," Cyclonis whispered, looking down at her lap.
"Master… I see. There seems to have been more to your illness than meets the eye. What would you like to go by?"
Cyclonis turned her head and shot the merb a fierce, powerful look, one filled with a murderous intent. Her violet eyes burned with intensity as she fixed her gaze upon the healer. She would not be patronized, not like some mental case, not anymore.
The old merb simply closed his eyes and smiled. "All there, I see. This is good."
Cyclonis broke her gaze, annoyed with the merb's psychological evaluation games. Those too were going to be a thing of the past.
The healer stared at Cyclonis for a couple of moments, studying her condition. "Though, there is something different about you, dear child. An air of calmness surrounds you now. It's been a while, a long while actually, but I've seen such before. Some individuals, when they undergo battles of duality within their being, exhibit physical illness. Fevers, hallucinations, and other manifestations overtake them."
Cyclonis stopped listening at a certain point, leaning back against the headrest of the bed with her eyes closed and brow downturned. However, she seemed to tune in once again to hear the last few words of the merb's droning.
"Whatever you're feeling now is important. I don't know what choices or realizations you've made, but I do have advice. And it's damned good advice, so I'd really appreciate it if you listened," the old merb said with a calm smile as he leaned closer to Cyclonia's fallen master.
Cyclonis cocked her eyebrow, not expecting the healer to be so disarmingly cheeky.
"I say this because I know that now, now you can process it all. You should accept what Atmos has become. You are no longer its ruler. The war is over and you lost your throne. Atmos has taken a different path and it may be time for you to join it, and walk upon that path as well."
Cyclonis blew air at this. She waved her small hand around the room, gesturing to the stone walls imprisoning her. "And yet, here I am."
"And yet, here you are," the old merb repeated with no humor in his voice. "How horrible must it be to live as a young woman who will be catered to for as long as it takes for her to recover, a young woman with a close, dedicated friend who comes to visit her day in and day out, without fail. How horrible."
The sarcasm could be cut with a knife.
Cyclonis let out a quiet laugh, and then craned her neck towards the old merb, allowing her hair to drape partially over her face. "You're quite bold, I'll give you that. Why shouldn't I do to you what I did to the rest of your pathetic people when I obliterated your measly Terra Merbia?"
The merb paused for a moment. Her words cut deep, Cyclonis knew, and she smiled a little at that. To her great disappointment, the merb carried on with his positive attitude. "The fact that you spare me the pleasure shows tremendous progress on your part."
Cyclonis rolled her eyes as she placed her head upon the headboard of the bed once more. "That close friend you mentioned… Piper… We're not close… or friends… But… was she, uh… here? During all of this, I mean," Cyclonis asked as casually as she could pass off.
"Oh, yes. An entire night spent holding your hand. If it weren't for the particular circumstances of the situation, and if it was a different place and time, I would have to comment on it being one of the more heartwarming things that I've seen," the old merb commented.
Cyclonis' eyes rested upon the merb with pure disdain.
Ignoring the girl's displeasure, the healer continued to speak. "Regardless, I do think you should re-evaluate how you treat Miss Piper. Not many people go back to place their hands in the fire after getting burned."
The side of Cyclonis' mouth inadvertently jerked, and a cold feeling trickled down her shoulders and back. She had forgotten. Remembering, through a clouded haze, she recalled the fact that she did indeed injure Piper; almost grievously so. Her dismay transformed into a slight smirk as she found a strange sense of satisfaction in hurting her greatest nemesis and the most powerful crystal mage on Atmos. She turned her head to the side looking away from the old merb, as not to let him see the wicked smile that had forcefully overtaken her face.
"Thinking about all she's done for you, I believe a 'thank you' may be in order."
Cyclonis' smile disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. She could only stare at the merb with a blank expression. "Gratitude?" she asked almost as if responding to an unclear joke.
"I'm of the opinion that an apology should accompany the show of gratitude, but baby steps; one foot in front of the other rather than trying to jump over a smoldering caldera all at once," the merb told her.
"And I'm the one locked in the asylum," Cyclonis said, stabbing the healer with her eyes.
"Is what I'm saying in any way irrational?" the healer asked.
Cyclonis scowled. "It is as if you expect me to apologize to the person who caused all of this. If you believe that, then I do believe you're the one that deserves to be locked in a cage."
The old merb responded to Cyclonis' bitter anger with a placid expression and stoic voice. "It is just something to consider. Also, Miss Piper did convince her superiors to add any amenity that you desired to your room; to a certain extent, of course."
Cyclonis' upper lip curled as she turned away from the healer, sinking back into the bed and raising the sheets over her shoulders. She was done talking about the matter any further.
"Will you be needing anything, dear child?" the old healer asked.
The former master wore a frown as she considered the question she had just been asked. She responded. "Time alone, water, and in a few hours, someone with ink and a scroll."
"It will be done," the merb said to the girl whose back now faced her. "Consider what I said. Miss Piper has a lot of faith in you. It would be a shame for all the time she's invested in you to have been wasted."
With that, the old merb rose and exited the room, leaving Cyclonis to close her eyes and re-enter the dark world from which she had emerged.