FULL NOVELXO Chapter 6: Recovery
“Are you alright?” The Aran says slightly shaking Sahara. She feels confused as she comes to and notices she is lying on a bed.
“What just happened?” Sahara asks feeling confused by how she came to be on the floor and what she just had been through. She feels liquid running out of her nose as she reaches up to wipe it away. She sees red blood on her hand just before a loud buzzing sound enters her ears and extreme pain takes over her head. After a moment of her rolling on the bed in agony, she feels a cold metal against her forehead that causes her pain to disappear. As she opens her eyes she sees Verdiwild, the Aran, and the Tari each gathered around her.
“How are you feeling elfie?” The Tari asks touching her forehead.
“I am not sure.” Sahara responds looking around the room wondering how she came to be on the bed.
“He has awoken!” The sound of an ellon enters the room. “The cundu, he is alright.”
The Aran and Tari leave Sahara in haste to run to Brystol’s room.
“What have you done?” Verdiwild asks grimly toward Sahara.
“I…” Sahara is not sure how to answer the question because she cannot distinguish between reality and fiction at the moment. “I don’t know.” Sahara feels puzzled as she recalls just being with Slagwart, but she knows he died months ago.
“Where is Threvoyn?” Sahara asked wondering why she had not seen him yet.
“Why would Threvoyn be here?” Verdiwild asks looking alarmed.
“I am not sure.” Sahara responds wondering if everything she had just witnessed was a dream. “How did I get here?” She asks rubbing her head.
“You appeared when Brystol did three days ago.” Verdiwild’s response causes Sahara to sit up straight in alarm.
“Three days ago!” She yelled.
“You both arrived in the foyer unresponsive. Brystol was wounded badly and was not expected to survive. You just seem to have been sleeping. We thought you were put under a spell. Where were you?” Verdiwild asks handing her a tissue to clean her bloody nose.
“I went to the elders to ask for my bracelet to be removed so that I could teleport Brystol home. I went back to Yetya after teleporting him.” Sahara said rubbing her head in confusion. “Or I thought I did. Then you and the Aran came to see me and asked me to bring Threvoyn.” She notices the confusion on Verdiwild’s face. “You didn’t come to Yetya?” Verdiwild shakes his head in response. Sahara remembers the Aran saying he didn’t want Verdiwild to know how bad Brystol was. “It must have been a dream.” She says lying back on the bed.
“Or a vision. What else happened?” Verdiwild asked.
“Slagwart was in Yetya.” She says feeling sad. “The Aran had asked him to look over me while I was there.”
“Then it must have been a dream.” Verdiwild says, nodding his head in satisfaction. “I am sure you will be better after having food in your stomach. He motions for the elleth that is standing at the door with a tray of food to enter.
Sahara traced her fingers along the chain of her necklace remembering what the Grey Elf had told her. “It seems so real.”
“I must go check on the Cundu, I will be by later.” Verdiwild says bowing to Sahara before leaving her with the elleth that is placing her food on her lap. She realizes that she is extremely hungry.
It wasn’t long after she finished her meal that Brystol entered her room. “Hi.” He says with a smile.
“Hey.” She says in response looking at his side to see if there is any blood, but she sees none. “I guess you are alright.” She says it more as a statement rather than a question.
“They told me to leave you alone, but I snuck out to come see you.” He says smiling as he leans down to kiss her. Sahara isn’t sure why, but she pulls away from his kiss and she sees his confusion.
“Is everything alright?” He asks, seeming hurt by her action.
“Fine.” She says wondering why she feels so annoyed by him. “Sorry. I just had the craziest dream, though I don’t think it was a dream.”
“Was it another vision?”
“I don’t know. Slagwart was there and he took me to his aunt, the Grey Elf….” Sahara barely has the words out before she hears the angry Aran’s voice.
“How do you know the Grey Elf?”
“I don’t. I, or… you sent me to find her.” Sahara replies nervously. The Aran seems frozen for a moment in the doorway, so Sahara decides she should continue. “It was the only way to save Brystol from dark magic.”
“I would never ask such a thing.” The Aran says grimly but still seems frozen in fear looking at Brystol.
“Verdiwild and you came to Yetya and you asked me to bring Threvoyn because you thought he could help save Brystol.” Sahara is really asking the Aran if this ever happened and from his odd expression, she realizes it must not have.
“Brystol, you should be in your room.” The Aran scolds motioning for Brystol to exit the room. “The examiner is here to look at your wounds.”
“They are healed, father.” Brystol raises his shirt showing off his scared side and chest. “I feel great.” Sahara looks closer at his wounds wondering how they healed so fast. It looks as though they had been wounds from years ago.
“Off with you.” He sternly says again motioning for Brystol to leave.
“I will see you soon.” Brystol says kissing Sahara on the forehead and Sahara feels annoyed by his touch, so she does not respond.
After Brystol leaves, the Aran quietly shuts the door so that he is inside with Sahara. Sahara sees him cast a silencing veil around the room before he finally speaks to her. “Did you go to the Grey Elf to save him?” Sahara can’t tell if his tone is from anger or fear.
“How could I have, if I have been here the past three days?” Sahara asks confused herself about what has occurred.
“Verdiwild says you have visions, strong visions. Did you have one in which you spoke with the Grey Elf?”
She tries to consider her words carefully, but decides it is best to start at the beginning. She begins by telling him about how he and Verdiwild came to Yetya and then how they discussed getting the Grey Elf. “And you told me that Slagwart was how I could find the Grey Elf.”
“Slagwart?” The Aran seems further alarmed by her mentioning Slagwart. “He is no longer with us.”
“That is the odd part. I never thought about him being dead during the entire thing, so it couldn’t have been real….right?”
“You found Slagwart?”
“Yes, he was in Yetya because you had told him to watch over me.”
“I told him?” The Aran seems surprised.
“Yes, he said the Aran sent him.”
“Which Aran?” The Aran says darkly.
“What do you mean?” Sahara asks wondering what other Aran there could be.
“The Aran of the Underverse would surely not be interested in keeping her safe.” The Aran seems to be talking to himself and Sahara finds his words unsettling.
“Underverse? You mean that my encounter with Slagwart was real?”
The Aran ignores her question as he asks, “What happened after you found him?”
“I…” She is not sure if she can tell him about how she portaled and took off her necklace. “I asked him to take me to his Aunt Acrista and he had some sort of marble thing to block the powers of my bracelet so that I could teleport us out of the protective walls to find her. So we did. And then I woke up here.” Sahara motions to the bed she is still in.
“What bargain did you make with the Grey Elf?”
“I offered the declure to save Brystol, but she refused and asked for my feelings instead.”
“What feelings?” The Aran asks seeming confused.
Sahara suddenly realizes why she felt annoyed by Brystol kissing her moments ago. “It was not a dream, was it?” She says feeling her heart pick up in speed.
“What feelings did you give her?” The Aran asks trying to get her to focus.
“You had said that you wanted Brystol and I to be apart, so I gave her my feelings for him.” She says trying to calm her heart.
“That is all?” The Aran asks unbelievingly.
“Yes. And then I woke up here.”
“Huh.” The Aran doesn’t sound disappointed in her at all. “Well, that worked out then. You may go see Brystol, then be off to Yetya again.” He seems uncaring as he leaves her alone in the room.
She played with the chain around her neck again knowing that there was one sure way she could tell if it was a dream or real. She quickly removed her necklace. The sudden blast of feeling the atmosphere around her overwhelms her. She can see all the diamond shaped holes glistening and she feels herself panicking as she slides the necklace back on around her neck. “It was real.” She is not sure if she feels happy about it or sad. But one thing she knows she feels is nothing. Nothing for Brystol.