The stay in the dilapidated hut stretched longer than either Aeryn or Rissa had planned, enforced by the aeryn's still deteriorating condition. Aeryn was perpetually chilled, and lethargic, her energy depleted by fight, flight, and fear.
During the initial frantic journey, she had managed to avoid thinking about the core reality: what Sakina had told her about the preceding events of that day when she fell, and the immense fact that she had lost her memory. It was a huge blow. It wasn't that she couldn't consider it; instead it was that she, she was scared, afterall she was just a human. The fundamental changes happening to her body, the persistent exhaustion and the strange gaps in her memory, were terrifying, one she couldn't get her hang on.
As a matter of fact, the casual acceptance of different magics and abilities that people casually honed was misleading. Since ancient times, it was known that any type of magic and ability exacted a toll on the body of the one did it, however small. This was why, over the ages, most people had slowly forgotten or start to forget their lineages and abilities, focusing instead on living ordinary, calm lives, and the imperial city of Sahirra was the only place in the entire world that boasted the presence of some top-notch ancient bloodlines the nobles and elites, and the ones who still carried their abilities to this day.
Interestingly, possessing ability never garnered envy or posed any threat at all, because people never deemed it special; the only thing of importance to them was their lives, which they wanted to spend happily and calmly without any external variable influencing them. So, even the vibrant, dazzling magics enjoyed by some were not really seen as something extraordinary.
But Aeryn was different. She was one of the very few who owned three powers instead of one. Having one was an ability of course; but having three was definitively an abnormality, and this abnormality was something people wanted to root out at all costs, and it was why they feared her. They had only heard about such power, never witnessed it firsthand, which heightened their fear. If they had seen the full extent of her triple abilities the trinity, they would have tried anything to finish her off, despite their fear.
And Aeryn was slowly but constantly understanding this truth day after day, sometimes hearing voices, bloody dreams, uncontrollable power, toll on body, losing conscious and now losing memory. Even now, lying on the rough fur cot in the hut, with Rissa asleep nearby, she shifted her weight, placing her arms under her head as a pillow. She couldn't help but stare up at the sky, visible through a tiny hole in the roof shed, the pinpricks of light seeming impossibly distant and indifferent.
The icy cold of the small room, the scent of pine, and the terrifying silence around them magnified her internal terror. Her mind became a chaotic reel of questions, replaying the symptoms she had desperately ignored:
Why did this happen to me?Why did I vomit blood?Why did I lose my memory?Why did I lose consciousness in the first place?Why is this happening to me?
She traced the cold, hard lines of the answer she already knew, the triple power was killing her. The thought hit her with such force that a small, choked sound escaped her throat. Rissa stirred next to her but settled quickly back into sleep.
Aeryn kept staring at the indifferent stars. Her quiet, desperate thoughts finally broke free of her control, manifesting as a shaky whisper that filled the small, silent hut:
"Am I going to die?"
Then another thing flashed in her head, "forfeit her powers" this thought was more like a voice as if it echoed right in front of her but she was sure it came from her mind.
A moment later, a low murmur broke the silence. Rissa, nestled securely in her furs, began to speak in her sleep.
"I will protect you… hmmm… no one can hurt you…" Rissa mumbled, burrowing deeper into the fur, her voice thick with conviction.
Aeryn looked down at the chaotic, devoted girl. The whispered oath perfectly and unknowingly answered the existential terror Aeryn had just voiced. A small, involuntary chuckle escaped the Queen, the first genuine sound of lightness in days. She shook her head slightly, a faint, almost tender smile touching her lips.
Then, the smile vanished. She turned her face back toward the hole in the roof, looking at the indifferent stars once more, and sighed out loud, the sound heavy with the weight of her abnormality.
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