'Let me out of here! Please let me out!'
"Ah! Runaan!" Ethari cried as he bolted up straight in bed, soaked in sweat.
Panting heavily he looked around himself, finding he was in his bedroom, having just woken up from another nightmare.
"Ugh..." he groaned, leaning over and resting his pounding head in his hands.
He had been having the same nightmare he had for the last two and a half years.
It wasn't every night but often enough that he remembered it clearly.
Nothing but total blackness with the voice of his beloved Runaan crying out from somewhere as if he were trapped.
"Runaan..." Ethari sighed sadly, fighting the urge to cry.
During the last two and a half years the pain of losing his husband was just as strong as the day his lotus went under.
He just didn't understand why he also had to have nightmares about his husband too.
He might have thought they would have meant something since they were often the same but he had no idea what they could mean regarding a dead man.
Sighing he slowly got out of bed, knowing he wouldn't be able to get any sleep anymore.
Figuring he might as well take a walk to clear his head he slowly got dressed in his usual clothes and left his home.
He was planning on mindlessly wondering around a bit when he spotted the lotus pond from the corner of his eye.
He stared at it for a moment, remembering seeing Runaan's lotus slowly sinking under the water as he screamed in anguish.
He wanted to ignore it, wanted to spare himself more pain and yet his body moved on it's own, like he was being pulled towards it.
With another heavy sigh he peaked over the edge to stare at his miserable reflection when something caught his eye again.
A small light was shining in the water.
At first he thought he was just seeing a reflection but looking up be saw nothing but the moon and stars that while bright, weren't as bright as the light in the water.
But that would mean the light was coming from the water itself, right?
He squinted as he leaned closer before jumping back with wide eyes.
The light was coming from Runaan's lotus!
"W-What in the-?!" he gasped, running around the pond to double-check if it wasn't some reflection but again coming to the conclusion the light was coming from the metal lotus.
But why was it glowing?
It should only do so when the elf it was connected to was alive, but it had gone underwater like it was supposed to when that elf died.
Deciding he had to get to the bottom of it and didn't care if someone else woke and saw him when he took his scarf and shirt off and dove into the pool.
He quickly swam down but he soon found that the flower wasn't completely at the bottom like the rest.
Instead it was suspended a couple feet higher.
His natural instincts that would have prevented him from trying to breath underwater seemed to stop working, along with the rest of his brain which caused him to gasp in surprise before realising his mistake and grabbing the lotus to quickly swim to the surface where he gasped and sputtered as he struggled to catch his breath.
After making his way to the enge of the pond and nearly face-planting on the ground he scrambled to sit up, holding the flower up.
It hadn't sunken all the way to the bottom of the pond and it was indeed glowing.
Not as strongly as Rayla's flower but it was glowing.
Could it be...?
"Runaan? Are you alive after all?"