47 All I Am (1/2)
Isilla frowned at the strange play in front of her. A man spoke to a giant lizard over a cup of tea. A bird sounded in the distance, sweet chirps in between their nonsense chatter. She was sure that the dream was not a nightmare, the energy flowed like light but it confused her all the same. She enjoyed these strange places though, they made her trips more exciting.
The days since Arren had taken Elixabete as a consort passed in a haze of fever. The outing had cost her health dearly. Her body, weakened from the cold air clung to life weakly. She barely regained consciousness throughout the days and nights. When she woke there was Haribit's worried face begging her to eat. In her dreams she could feel Arren's fingers brushing back her hair, his lips brushing against her forehead but she never saw him while she was awake.
The world began to shimmer and she stood, beckoning Ilun to follow her out of the space, into the next dream. He followed obediently.
Ah, this is a nightmare, she thought as she stepped through into a room covered with strangely colored stones. It smelled of a market but they were inside. She walked, stepping between boxes, taking in the strange place but letting the energy remain, holding back her light.
”Hello, Isilla,” Mireia called hopping down from a pile of boxes. In her element, the energy flowing freely she didn't look as frail. Her hair twisted about her body and even the rags she wore seemed somehow mysterious and powerful.
”Hello, Mireia. Are you making this?” she asked.
The girl shook her head, ”Not really. I'm only twisting it a little. Is that alright?”
”Why are you asking me?” Isilla responded, curious.
”Because you're in charge of us now,” the girl answered simply.
”What?” she pulled her eyebrows together, her face twisting in confusion.
”That's what Asier says. That you're in change of us,” she explained looking up at the ceiling. Something crawled along it, just in the shadows. Isilla turned away from it, resisting the urge to change it.
”I am not!” Isilla replied. ”We are connected but I don't rule over you at all. Please don't think of me that way.”
”You're a princess though. You would rule over us even if you had never met us,” the girl's tone matter of fact.
”I suppose you can look at it like that but I'm not really that sort of person. I don't have any duties or power over people. I'm just a normal woman,” Isilla explained.
Mireia laughed, the sound clear and strong in the strange room. ”You think that? You tied us all to you. If that's not power, I don't know what is!”
Embarrassed, Isilla stared down at her hands, ”I am very sorry about that. It's just I needed you all to save my life. I didn't think before I acted. I hope that you can forgive me someday.”
”No one's mad at you,” the girl said wistfully, soaking in the essence of the nightmare around her.
”Really?” Isilla asked hopefully.
She nodded, ”Even Asier is alright now. It's hard to stay mad, you're so nice! But do you really think you can get us outside?”
Mireia's face looked at her expectantly, her copper eyes bright with hope, a dangerous emotion for something of nightmares.
Isilla smiled, ”Of course. As soon as I can leave my bed, I will find you.”
The young girl smiled wide revealing her beauty to Isilla.
”I should go now,” Isilla said, ”Too much longer and I'll be changing things here.”
Mireia smiled and nodded, waving her goodbyes as Isilla and Ilun slipped around a corner and back into her courtyard.
She sighed at the air, it shimmered and sparked around her, just subtly, the work of the darktellers in redirecting the energy no longer enough. I'm running out of time, she thought. I shouldn't feel so troubled by binding with Arren, he is my Prince, he wrote me but now. . . her thoughts trailed off, her mind refusing to fully accept what he had done.
”You sleep long enough,” the shade's familiar voice filled her ears.
She turned to the woman, her fiery eyes, bead covered breasts and wild hair all familiar to Isilla. ”I am not well,” Isilla responded.
The shade motioned to the air around them, ”Can see. When will you bind? When will you finish?”
She shook her head, ”Soon. I don't have a choice. I'm just very sick right now.”
”Sick? Bah!” the shade spit.
”I think you're not telling me many things,” Isilla said touching her chest, the spot where she could feel that extra sense, pulsing and reaching. ”It hurt when he pulled from you, do you remember that?”
The shade looked at her curiously before speaking, ”It means nothing.”
Isilla smiled, ”I think it does. And I wonder why you are so set to have this done.”
”So I can rest,” the woman responded quickly.