by Orr, Krystal
"Grief," Taetylona replied, looking up at Talliea who still stood over them tersely. "You were too upset."
Talliea moved to the top of Arizira's body and knelt down above her. She placed her hands on Arizira's temples and regarded the two older women. "What are you two on about? Notice what, Cynra? Tell me!"
Cynra looked at Talliea for only a moment before her eyes landed on Arizira' chest. She, too, noticed the flawless flesh.
"Where is the arrow that pierced her?" she asked.
Talliea, still looking confused, replied, "I destroyed it with my...w-with my power. I am not sure how. I desired for it to be gone and...and it was."
Cynra caught a cry that tried to escape her throat before smiling. She attempted to keep her hope from bubbling up inside of her, but she could not contain her emotions. Was it possible? Could it be true?
"And, the wound? You closed it, as well?"
Talliea, her fingers running along the smooth underside of Arizira's chin, nodded her head. "Yes. It--the wound--it...i-it disturbed her perfection. Why? Why is all of this important?"
Taetylona sat back, covering Arizira back up as she moved. Cynra remained close, her fingers enjoying the heat coming from her granddaughter's body.
"Because she is warm, child. Her skin burns hot."
Again, Talliea could only look confused. She did not know what either of the older women were on about and all she wished was to be left alone with Arizira for but a few moments. Was that asking so much?
"I-I know," she said slowly. "Is it not common among Arnira?"
"Common?" Cynra gasped "Common? No, child. No, it is not common."
Talliea felt her heart begin to be faster. Her vision began to grow hazy and misty. "What are you saying? she asked hoarsely.
It was Taetylona that spoke up, though instead of offering any answers, she instead placed her head against Arizira's chest. Her ear landed over her heart and she closed her eyes and listened. "I believe I know what afflicts this child," she admitted in soft tones.
"What?" Cynra and Talliea asked in unison.
Iolirthas sat across from the lot of them, her tail wagging almost happily and her ears perked up as she watched their movements. Several long, slow, and agonizing minutes passed before Taetylona finally thought to speak again.
"A fevered sleep, yes. Deep, deep sleep. Everything stopped...all movement and time. Could she have...no, and yet...possibly. The arrow gone, the wound closed. Yes...yes...maybe that is the case..."
Her words were spoken to herself, all the while her eyes remained closed and her ear remained over Arizira's heart. Her voice was difficult to make out even being so close to her companions -- even for Cynra's sharp hearing.
"It is faint...so, so faint. Barely does it sound, but it is there. She must have stopped the transition...healed the body, but neglected the spirit...yes...and the baby..."
Taetylona had learned through Iolirthas on their journey to Li'nas Dei the reasons for Cynra's behavior when she had sent Arizira to find Talliea. The communication had not been conventional by any means. It had come to Taetylona as if a dream and at once she had known of the baby both women had created.
Like Talliea, she had wondered about such a conception, but had not questioned it.
Her hands moved down Arizira's body and landed on her lower stomach. She could feel the eyes of the other occupants focused on her intently. Barely a breath could be heard in the silence around her.
"‘Lona," Talliea called to her using a variation of her name not heard in many long years, "please tell me what is going on."
Taetylona remained silent for another brief moment. She strained to feel what she needed to feel. The abilities bestowed upon her from so long ago came to her call and she smiled when she detected the sensation she had been searching. Sitting back up and looking to her friends, she said, "I believe your lost one is in a fevered sleep."
"S-sleep? N-no. S-she is...she is...are y-you saying that she is..." Talliea's words would not form properly the way she desired. Her mind could not reconcile with whatever Taetylona was proposing. A sleep? A fevered sleep? Arizira did not breathe. She had no heart beat. How could the Sage woman suggest such a thing?
Cynra, having been silent the whole time, reached across to touch Arizira. She placed her hand at her pulse and after a moment, a happy laugh sounded from her old throat. "I can not believe...all this time! H-how did we all miss this? Talliea has been next to her without fail. She has touched her and not noticed these things."
Her words were directed at Taetylona who sat smiling as she watched the shocked and stunned faces around her react to her news.
"Grief," she said again simply.
Arizira was not dead. Her heartbeat was weak -- extremely weak -- and her breathing was so slow as to appear to be nonexistent. She was in a deep and fevered sleep, a state Taetylona had come across only once before. The body went into a such a state after a profound shock. To all others, the person would appear to have passed on while in reality the body attempted to mend itself.
By Taetylona's reckoning, and she was by far not an expert, Talliea had stopped Arizira from passing over when she had commanded time back in the clearing. At the precise moment Arizira had been caught between worlds, Talliea had unwittingly kept her bound to the earthly plane. When she had removed the arrow, the act had taken away that which was slowly claiming Arizira's life, and when she had healed the wound upon her chest, all damage to her body had been reversed.
"The Child of Whispers must experience death if her goddess is to find her way to me," Cynra muttered, reciting words spoken to her from so long ago. "Experience death."
Cynra laughed, tears springing into her purple eyes.
"She is not dead, yet I know not how to bring her back to the living. Her body is mended, but her spirit remains separate," Taetylona said.
Talliea sat back and released a heavy sigh. She did not know what to think. She did not know how to feel. Everything she was hearing made little to no sense to her. Dead was dead, was it not?
Yet, Taetylona was telling her that Arizira was not dead. She was in a fevered sleep, whatever that was. Everything in Talliea wanted to believe what she was hearing. There was nothing she desired more than for Arizira to not be gone, but how could she accept what she was hearing?
What if Taetylona was wrong? What if Talliea got her hopes up only for it to turn out that both Arizira and their child were truly gone? The thought of their baby forced Talliea's voice to come to her rescue.
"The b-baby? What...w-what about the baby?" she asked in tight tones.
Smiling, Taetylona placed her hand back on Arizira's stomach. "The baby's life is attached to the mother's. "
Talliea gasped, or cried, or half sobbed. She was unsure. A smile was insistent on gracing her lips and new tears touched her eyes. Cynra patted her shoulder and the two of them shared a moment.
"I do not understand how any of this is possible."
Taetylona nodded and inhaled before beginning her explanation. She told Talliea about her theory, about how she believed that when time had been stopped, so too had Arizira's passage to the other side. She told her about her belief that Talliea had, basically, saved Arizira's life when she had destroyed the arrow and closed the wound.
Everything made a certain kind of sense to Talliea, yet she still had a hard time understanding how her actions had changed anything. Arizira was still lifeless. She was still unresponsive. She was still not with Talliea in all the ways that mattered.
"Will she wake?" Talliea asked hopefully. Her heart was still sad, but she felt a small amount of comfort in the belief that an end to her suffering was in sight. Anything had to be better than her previous state of being.
At the question, Taetylona hesitated and looked to Cynra who had been unusually quiet throughout.
"I do not know,” she started. “Her body is in a slowed state, but she can not continue on without sustenance. You have healed the damage to her flesh, but it remai
ns to be seen if her spirit will also benefit from such abilities."
Healed? She had healed Arizira? How? When? Talliea could not recall doing such a thing. She remembered removing and the destroying the arrow, but she had not been attempting to heal Arizira when she had done so. She had wished for its presence to be gone. She had not desired to look upon her love and see the one thing that had taken her away. When she had closed the wound, she had not even been trying to do so.
Again, she had only been wishing for such a mark to not disturb the beauty of Arizira when she was laid to her final rest. Taetylona was telling her that such acts had been those of healing and that they had, by her account, healed Arizira's body from the damage she had taken.
Before she could express any of these thoughts, Cynra's voice broke the silence.
"I have been an old fool, a fool who did not wish to believe I was just as much a pawn as any other. Aitla knew of this. She knew the part I was to play. This outcome...I believed it to be an end, a permanence. I have allowed myself to forget one very important truth."
"What is that?" Taetylona asked. Talliea said nothing. Her thoughts collided upon themselves with everything she had just heard.
"These two women share a bond. They are spirit mates."
"And?" Taetylona asked.
Instead of answering, Cynra turned her attention to Talliea who sat unmoving near Arizira's head with glassy eyes and a far off expression.
"You still feel her here, do you not? You feel complete and that confuses you because you believe her to be gone?"
Talliea nodded her head, but her gaze remained unfocused.
"You continue to feel her presence, child, because she is still here."
Talliea shook her head, tears blurring her line of sight. She wanted to believe what she was hearing, but she could not allow herself to feel such elation only for it to be taken away, too. There was cruel and then there was flat out perniciousness.
"No," she whispered in a small voice.
Cynra moved to be closer to her and reached out to grasp her hands. "Yes, child. Yes. We have all been so silly, most of all me. The truth has been right here and we have overlooked it. The two of you share a spirit. So long as one lives, so too does the other. One can not die while the other still draws breath. The only thing to separate the two of you from the other would be a natural death, in which you both would pass together. You hold her spirit inside you because she shares that spirit. You alone can bring her back."
Talliea's breathing came fast and quick while her chest began to rise up and down. She tried to say something. Anything. She tried to form a coherent thought. She tried to force down the sense of joy rising up inside of her, but she could not. She wanted everything Cynra and Taetylona were telling her to be the truth. She needed the things they said to be her reality.
Arizira was alive? She was waiting for Talliea to...to what? Bring her back? Give her back her spirit? What? How was Talliea to do what was being asked of her? She was not even sure how she had healed Arizira. How was she suppose to do what Cynra was telling her?
But...
How could she not at least try? Her love needed her.
“I should have noticed matters sooner,” Cynra continued, “but in my own grief I overlooked the connection you share with Arizira. Your powers, if what I believe to be true, are linked to Arizira and your love for her. You could not retain them if she were no longer on this plane. She is the key! Without her, you are nothing just as she is less without you."
Talliea wiped away at her tears. Her heart was beating so quickly behind her ribs that she believed it was trying to escape the confines of her chest. She released a shaky and ragged breath before leaning over Arizira's face. She kissed her forehead, her nose, and finally her lips.
Taetylona and Cynra moved a ways back to give Talliea whatever space she would desire. The wolf remained close, on Arizira's far side. Talliea scooted until she was sitting at Arizira's right side.
She did not understand anything Cynra or Taetylona had told her. She did not understand the depth of the Doira'Liim connection. Memories of her own seemed to mingle with Arizira's and become lost and muddled.
Certain things were clear and understood while others were elusive and difficult to make out. She felt as if two beings resided inside her body. Coupled with the powers she was struggling to control and Talliea was a mess of emotions, heartache, and uncertainty.
Though she did feel complete, she also felt scattered. Arizira was the only person who could make her feel truly whole. She was the only one who could soothe her chaotic mind.
Talliea leaned down and placed her forehead on Arizira's. Her hand moved under the right side of the cloak covering her love's body and came to rest against her heart. The heat from Arizira's skin made her smile. It was not common.
She breathed deeply and calmly and tried to clear her thoughts of anything distracting. She allowed any and all background noise to fade away. There was no Cynra. There was no Taetylona. There was no wolf or cave or night or day. There was only Arizira. Only her.
Only the two of them.
Time seemed to slow around her and she was unsure if she was the cause or if it was just the state her mind was in . The hand she had resting against Arizira's heart grew warmer. She did not know how she was supposed to help her love. She had no idea what she was doing, but she knew she had to try and so try she did.
A small and very faint reverberation vibrated against her fingertips. It was light and difficult to make out, but Talliea recognized it for what it was.
Arizira's heartbeat!
How had she ever missed it? Not noticed it? It did not matter.
Talliea focused on that feeling and turned her head so that her cheek rested against Arizira's forehead. She released a sigh and continued to concentrate. Unknown to her, her body began to shimmer with a cascade of silver, white, gold and yellow colors. The halo or the aura extended from her own body and wrapped itself around Arizira's. She let her mind focus only on her love.
She pictured Arizira's smile. She heard her laughter. She tasted her lips and her tongue and was assaulted with the woodsy and flowery scent that she had grown to associate with Arizira.
In her mind she saw the two of them walking. She saw them talking and getting to know one another. She experienced her own confusion over her feelings, but also Arizira's emotions and desire to protect her.
The images, the sensory hallucinations, shifted and she saw Arizira practicing with her bow. She saw the two of them bathing and playing in the water.
The light around her grew more intense. The beating beneath her fingers became stronger.
Her mind painted before her a vision of her first kiss with Arizira. The taste of mint exploded across her tongue and she laughed in the silence of the cave. She felt her body and her spirit beginning to stabilize.
Next, her mind allowed her to relive her first sexual experience with Arizira. She felt Arizira's hands on her body and recalled the way they had made her feel. Her skin flushed red. So did Arizira's.
For the first time in a long time, Talliea slowly began to feel alive. She began to feel at peace once again, a peace that had eluded her for nearly two months.
She forgot about the pain Arizira's death had brought about. She did not think about the Esu or the Arnira or about their senseless war. Taetylona became a figment to her, Cynra a dream. Nothing existed for Talliea except Arizira. The deep ache that had taken a hold of her heart released its grasp and left her body. Her chest grew lighter, her breaths became easier to take.
The light around her and Arizira reached its zenith and slowly withdrew back into each of their bodies. Cynra and Taetylona watched mesmerized, their eyes full of hope and awe.
Talliea sighed shakily and slowly leaned away from Arizira so that she could look down into her face. She felt slightly displaced after what had just happened, but her pain from before was gone.
Her eyes scanned Arizira's face while her fingers moved f
rom underneath her cloak to land on her chin. Nothing moved. Nothing so much as breathed.
All was held thrall. All waited eagerly for some sign that Talliea had brought Arizira back, that her act just now had shared their combined spirit and healed Arizira completely.
Talliea kissed the lips so close to her own again and ran her nose across Arizira's.
Arizira blinked. Her eyes moved behind her closed lids. Talliea's heart beat faster. A smile touched her full lips.
"Ahmanae?" she questioned. "Please, please come back to me."
Silence.
Stillness.
"Please, love." Talliea whispered.
And then...
Blue eyes slowly fluttered open. A shy, silver light grew within them. A gasp for air sounded in the cave and...
Arizira awoke.
Talliea gasped, her eyes going wide. She lifted the top half of Arizira's body from off the ground and held her with tender care. She looked down at the groggy and confused face staring back up at her.
"Ari? Ari?" she said over and over again in disbelief. Tears fell down her face while her hands shook with the force of her emotions. She attempted to smile, but her cries kept the gesture from ever being completed.
Her hands wrapped around Arizira's body and lifted her until she was hugging the woman she loved. The cloak covering Arizira's body barely maintained her modesty as Talliea buried her face in her neck and cried against her skin.
"Oh, love, my sweet love. Ari..."
Arizira swallowed thickly and tried to comprehend what was happening. She could not remember what had transpired or how she had come to be with Talliea again.
The thought of her love stopped her musings though.
Talliea.
She was with Talliea?
"Tah-li?" she whispered in a dry and broken voice.
The sound of her name only caused Talliea to cry harder. Arizira's body was half in her lap and half on the floor. The cloak covering her top half fell to her waist and Talliea held her closer as she peppered the side of her face with soft and reverent kisses.
Arizira attempted to touch Talliea. She attempted to reach around her and draw her closer. She managed to bring her hand up to Talliea's hair and tangle her fingers into the thick dark strands.