A New Day
At first there was nothing. No thoughts, no sense, no time. Absolute nothingness.
Then, like a spark in the dark, an inkling of sense returned, and she felt herself floating. Floating and floating, awash in an endless, black sea. Sinking ever deeper; suffocating.
Faint echoes filled the void, crisscrossing and overlapping into an unintelligible choir of white noise. Yet though she did not understand, she could feel them, their intentions. Like a warm caress on cold skin, instilling her with a fleeting whisper of awareness.
Dim in the distance, something flickered, rippling like sunlight through the deepest of oceans. Far away, yet strangely close at the same time. It was calling to her, drawing her in like a moth to a flame.
She began to follow it, swimming against a mighty current that wished to keep her in this warm sea of nothingness. Darkness began to fade as she travelled towards this beacon, until the world turned upside down and she was falling. Falling and falling, ever towards the light.
Her mind was racing. Her heart was pounding. Warmth flooded her body.
S'eni crashed into the light, shattering it into billions of fragments that spread throughout the dark, flooding everything with bright white...
...
...
...and she awoke with a jolt.
With a sharp inhale, her eyes shot open, only to immediately slam shut again at the glaring sunlight that greeted her. A raspy noise made its way up her throat in place of a groan and she tried to raise her arm to shield her face, only for it to fall flat on her chest.
Shit... S'eni thought, managing to open her eyes back up a crack. She was alive. Had to be, because she frankly doubted that the afterlife would welcome her this terribly.
Gods, her throat was dryer than Thanalan, and her entire body felt like a sack of popotoes. Slowly, her eyes began to grow used to the brightness, always opening them up further and waiting a little bit to continue until they were fully open. She looked around.
Where...am I? She wondered, turning her head left and right. The room she was in was moderately large and appeared quite fancy in decor. The bed she was lying in, too, looked relatively extravagant from what she could tell lying in it. Standing on the wall to her right, S'eni saw a desk that was covered in open books.
A sudden sound from the door made her jump, and out of sheer reflex, she snapped her head back and closed her eyes. She immediately felt silly for doing so and wanted to open them back up, when she heard a pair of familiar steps enter the room. They stopped next to the bed, placing something on the nightstand there.
The sloshing of water entered her ears, followed by a cloth being wrung out that was then gently dabbed against her forehead. After a few moments, it moved down to her cheek, caressing her skin in small, soothing motions. It stopped suddenly, and S'eni could feel the intense gaze upon her; scanning her. She heard an almost inaudible exhale.
S'eni felt a hand cup her cheek, stroking it with a soft thumb...then pinched it. The sensation made her flinch, and her eyes shot open to the sight of Y'shtola's silvery-white ones. With a raised brow, as if to say "I know you're awake", she released her and began walking around the bed.
"Shto—" she started to cough, the dryness in her throat rendering her unable to speak. Y'shtola returned to her with a cup in her hand, sitting down on the edge of the bed and helping her up enough to properly guide it to her lips. She drank the contents greedily, and while it was just water, it might as well have been the drink of the gods themselves with how parched she was.
After she was done, she sunk back into the pillow with a satisfied sigh. She cleared her throat to dispel the rest of the dryness in it and sent the other Miqo'te a little smile. "Hey..."
"Good morning to you, too." Y'shtola mirrored her expression and brushed a few stray locks out of S'eni's face. "Well, noon would most likely be more accurate."
"Explains the glaring sun," she said, tongue darting across her lips to spread moisture evenly.
"How are you feeling?" her lover asked, rising up and placing the cup on the nightstand.
"Let's just say I've got a rough idea of how you all felt after returning from the First." S'eni grimaced and raised her arm again. She lasted a couple of seconds before it fell back onto the mattress. "Gods, I don't think I've ever felt this weak."
"That's only to be expected. You have been unconscious for quite a while." Y'shtola walked over to the desk.
"How long?" she asked, closing her eyes momentarily. Silence. "...Shtola?"
Y'shtola flipped the pages of one of the books, then replied with a sigh, "Three moons."
What!? S'eni's eyes shot wide open at that. Three...moons?
She had been out for that long?
The wound she received from Zenos had been grave. If not for the timely healing from her friends, she doubted she would be here at all. But still...
She released a sigh through her nose, glancing over to Y'shtola, who was now pushing the books aside to search for something. A deep frown formed on S'eni's face. "What happened...after I fell unconscious?"
"We arrived back on Etheirys shortly after," Y'shtola replied and grabbed a small flask. "Suffice to say, our heroic return was slightly overshadowed by the condition our hero arrived in. You were out of danger, but neither we nor Sharlayan's most talented healers were able to rouse you. So all we could do was make you comfortable and wait for you to wake up on your own."
"I see..." was all she said, falling silent soon after. The sound of the flask being opened and some of its contents being dripped into a glass went through the room, shortly followed by Y'shtola walking over to the bed again.
"Is there something else apart from feeling weak? Any pain?" the other Miqo'te asked and eyed the small glass in her hand to determine if it was the right amount.
"No. Just feeling weak, and a part of me would honestly like to go right back to sleep." Which made sense, she supposed. What she went through wasn't exactly something she would call sound rest.
"Drink this, then," Y'shtola said, sitting back down on the bed and helping her up to drink from the glass. She grimaced at the bitter taste, but nevertheless swallowed whatever it was that she was given, making a disgusted sound once she was done.
"Urk, what's that?"
"Just a little tincture that Nhidana left with us," her lover replied and put the glass and flask away. "It's not unlike Sharlayan's Archon loaf, filled with all sorts of nourishments. Tastes just as bad, but easier on the stomach to say the least. And it ought to give you a bit of energy for what comes next."
"'What comes next'?" she repeated with an arched brow, watching as Y'shtola walked over to the door.
"You weren't expecting me to not tell everyone you've awoken now, were you?" The other woman glanced over her shoulder, the corners of her lips quirking upwards. "Especially our gracious hosts."
She then stepped outside, leaving S'eni alone to steel herself. Not like there was really much she could do anyway. After a few silent minutes, her ears began to pick up footsteps coming down the hallway, with one set being especially fast. The door burst open again, revealing to her a wide-eyed Alisaie.
"Hello there," she greeted the young woman, managing to raise her hand and wave it a little. "I heard I had an extended nap?"
The Elezen's face twisted for a second and tears began to form in her eyes, but her lips curled upwards. "You godsdamned sure did!"
After saying that, Alisaie practically launched herself at S'eni, gathering her in as much of a hug as was possible given her current position. She chuckled and watched as the rest of the Leveilleurs and Y'shtola came into the room as well, an amused look forming in the latter's eyes while she leaned against the doorframe. Far more composed than his sister, Alphinaud nevertheless was quick to stand by her side.
"S'eni!" he exclaimed with a bright smile. "You are finally awake!"
"That I am. Though you have to excuse me if I don't sit up right now."
"That is only understandable. Rest assured that we shall do everything in our power to aid in your recovery," Fourchenault said. "You have done us, and the entire star, a service none can ever repay you for. It is the least we can do."
"What my dear husband here wants to say—" Ameliance looped her arm around his and sent him a little wink that caused him to look away in thinly veiled embarrassment. "—is that it's good to see you awake. When we saw you being carried off the Ragnarok we were all so worried."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry anyone." She sighed. "I'm going to be saying that a lot, won't I?"
"You will," Y'shtola said, pushing herself away from the door to sit down on the bed. And while her face held a smile, there was a note of sternness in her voice. "It's the price you pay for being so reckless."
Pot meet kettle, S'eni thought dryly, but nevertheless smiled. They were both hypocrites in that regard.
"What happened?" Alisaie asked. "When Meteion came by the Ragnarok, she said you wouldn't be long. And when you finally arrived you were bleeding all over."
"I..." a short pause and her eyes briefly flitted over to Y'shtola. "I had a score to settle with Zenos. We fought...and I won, even if only barely. But it's over now. He's gone."
Just saying it added so much more finality to the fact. He had done horrible things, and death was honestly a deserved punishment for him, but he had also come to her aid and, in his last moments, revealed to her the emptiness that had encompassed his existence. For good or ill, she would never forget him, and perhaps now his soul could find the peace that had been denied to him all his life.
"Excuse me, but what is this about a certain someone being awake again?" a voice pierced the sudden quiet, pulling her back out of her thoughts.
"Thancred!" S'eni's face brightened. But it wasn't just him. Appearing shortly after him in the doorframe were G'raha, Urianger, Estinien, Krile and—
"S'ENIIIIIII!"
—Tataru, who rushed into the room and all but launched herself at her, forcing Alisaie to jump aside. Large eyes, blurry with tears, the Lalafel stared at her to make sure she wasn't imagining this all, before starting to cry in earnest. She buried her face into S'eni's arm.
"Oh, Tataru," she said with warm fondness. Holding a smile reflecting her tone, Urianger stepped up to the bed and offered her a bow.
"Full glad am I to see thou hast awoken at last," he said.
"Hear hear," Estinien added. "I was already wondering if you intended to sleep forever."
"No rest for the righteous, as Cid would say," S'eni said, casting her gaze over everyone gathered. Her face then became serious. "How have things fared in the meantime?"
"Well, thanks to your efforts, the Final Days were averted. And not a moment too soon, since they would have soon reached Sharlayan," Krile explained. "Things are slowly returning to normal. And though there are still isolated cases of transformations, it's nothing that our allies weren't able to deal with themselves. So you can rest easy."
She breathed out a sigh of relief and nodded. Afterwards, her friends and she talked about a few other things, like G'raha informing her that there was a new meal at the Last Stand that she absolutely had to try once she was better, or a new business idea that Tataru was mulling over. But as the minutes went on, she could feel the fatigue slowly creep back into her, and it became harder and harder to keep her eyes open. Something that also didn't slip Y'shtola notice.
"I believe it would be best if we let our dear Warrior get some proper rest for now," the other Miqo'te said while rising to her feet. "There will be more than enough time to talk later."
A round of agreement went through the room, and S'eni offered her lover a grateful little smile, followed by a yawn. Ushering everyone out of the room, Y'shtola remained standing in the doorway for a moment, sending her a warm look before stepping outside and closing the door. No sooner did it shut than her eyes started to droop to the call of sleep.
She followed it.
S'eni awoke to something tickling her face. Even without opening her eyes and the fog still clouding her mind, she could tell that it was the middle of the night. A brief moment passed and she was about to slip back into sleep, when a wave of warmth hit her, mixed with a slightly spicy scent.
With a small groan, she began to open her eyes. She was greeted by the sight of her lover, her face hovering directly next to hers and an arm loosely draped across her body. Fast asleep. The corners of her lips curled upward.
It took a little effort, but she managed to raise her hand and gently place it atop Y'shtola's cheek. She watched her for a few minutes, simply drinking in the sight with a warm swell of happiness within her heart. They had made it. Despite all the odds being stacked against them.
Letting herself be immersed in that feeling, she inched her head closer to rest it against Y'shtola's and, in a matter of seconds, drifted back off into a well-earned rest.
And our heroine is awake again. That'll teach her to sleep on the job!