by Orr, Krystal
Cries sounded in the nighttime air. Lights came to life. Battle yells cut into the hearts of all who were near. And at the moment when all hope seemed to have died, Talliea Aldis opened her eyes.
Chapter 37: Beautiful Whisper of the Goddess
Talliea felt as if she had been asleep for days, weeks, months. Years. In reality, only a short few hours of time had passed since she had lost consciousness. As her eyes slowly opened and her vision began to clear, she became aware of a myriad amount of things at once, none of which she could even begin to process.
There were sounds. Numerous and various sounds. She could hear voices. She could hear grunts and yells and groans of struggle. She could hear the metal clang of blades kissing, the sound of the wind sighing, and the stomp of feet, uncountable, on the earth.
Her sense of smell overwhelmed her with but a single scent: blood. It overshadowed the smell of sweat and dirt. It absorbed the odor of leaves and flowers and everything living and covered those things instead with a pall of gloom and death.
In the span of seconds, Talliea's senses all informed her of the same things. They informed her of what she already knew: She was in the middle of a war.
Another sensation shivered up and down her spine and pricked at her awareness. She took in a deep breath and when she released it, she became aware of what that sensation was. It was pain. Deep, stabbing, white-hot, exhausted pain. The pain was not her own, however. As she became more and more perceptive of her surroundings, she came to see that the pain she was experiencing was Arizira's.
Without hesitating, Talliea whispered a soft word, the same unassuming word she had uttered when first her powers had manifested. "Stop." The command, though spoken softly, reverberated throughout the forest and drowned out all other sounds. Everything shifted in a single, intense, and defining moment. The many Esu men around Bela'luin and D'jiira were frozen, mid-strike, in their killing blows. D'jiira looked wide-eyed at the double-edged sword less than two inches from her face. She knew immediately, as her body tingled hot, cold, and electrified that Talliea was awake.
She would forever remember what it felt like to be in the grip of her power. Yet unlike before, there was no fear in her heart. This time, D'jiira felt safe, hopeful. A relieved and thankful tear trailed down her cheek. They were saved.
The man with the sword in front of her had a panicked expression on his face as he stood immobile in the stillness. Not a sound could be heard. There were no animal calls, nor insect songs. There were no battle cries or the music and drum of war anywhere in the forest. All was quiet. All was still, as if the very existence of sound and movement had been erased or forgotten.
The only sound that could be heard was that of Talliea's breathing. It was slow, steady; calm. Talliea sat up, only then realizing that another rested beside her. Glancing over her shoulder, her eyes found Arizira's face. Her bruised, cut, and blood-stained face.
A sound of distress and pain escaped her lips and echoed throughout the forest. Power rippled around her, distorting the very air, and her eyes glowed an eerie silver-gold and black. Turning in the travois to face her love, Talliea took in Arizira's body. A purplish discoloration marred her right cheek, a small nick disturbed the perfection of her neck, a cut on her shoulder bled down the front of her chest, and a large wound on the left side of her stomach soaked blood through a make-shift bandage and turned it a furious red.
Talliea noticed Arizira's hand over her stomach, as if she believed the small gesture would somehow protect their baby. Though she knew that she could heal Arizira, the sight of her battered, beaten, and bloodied body was so intense that it brought about a near crippling physical pain for her.
She brushed her fingers lightly through Arizira's hair. "Ahmanae?" she whispered softly. Arizira groaned and her eyes fluttered open. They were hazy and unfocused, but the pain in them lessened a degree when she found Talliea's gaze.
"Failira." Arizira attempted to reach out with her left hand and touch her love. Her blood-stained fingers pressed against Talliea's cheek and colored it red. "I missed you. I p-protected you."
Talliea grabbed Arizira's hand in her own, a smile half gratitude and half despair gracing her lips. "Rest now, my love."
Arizira grasped Talliea's hand more firmly in her own. In her current state, she was barely aware of what was taking place. All she knew was that her Tah-li was with her. She was talking to her and touching her and smiling at her, and she was so beautiful.
The amount of blood she had lost, coupled with her recent physical excursion, had left her scarcely able to hold onto her consciousness. She was not aware of the stillness around her, nor of the near fatal state of her mother and others throughout the forest. For her, only Talliea existed.
"Everything is okay. Just lie still and feel me. I shall make everything as it should be," Talliea said. Around her the world continued to be suspended in time. Men and women remained in their frozen, statue-like poses, while the air around them buzzed with energy and licked at their skin with a frozen heat. Talliea paid them no mind. They could wait. Her only concern was for Arizira. Time was hers. Completely. There was no rush because she owned and controlled everything around her, everything beyond her.
For the first time since realizing her powers, she understood them wholly. The full extent of them, of her abilities, was within her. Everything was known to her. Everything. Her time with Tareya had shown her the vastness of her potential. It was nearly infinite. She knew what she needed to do to stop the war. She knew what was required and what was expected. Yet, that too did not concern her at present.
Everything else could, and would, wait. Talliea's focus was Arizira. Only Arizira. Always Arizira.
She studied Arizira's face and watched her eyes close with the weight of her exhaustion. Her hand in Talliea's went limp. Talliea remained calm. She touched the small scratch on Arizira's neck with her fingertips. They began to glow and when she pulled her hand away, the wound was gone. Talliea moved her hand next to her love's cheek. The skin was dark with bruising and swollen from her ruptured gums.
Talliea's palm covered the purplish mark. Light flared. She gently ran her palm down toward Arizira's chin. Where the bruise had been, now was unmarred flesh. She lovingly stroked Arizira's jaw and watched silver-blue eyes slowly flutter open. "I am sorry for this, love," she said in a voice that seemed to echo in the stillness. "Your pain, your suffering, they were never my desire, but they have served as a message. Still, my heart has cried at the pain loving me has caused you."
At this, Arizira furrowed her brow in confusion. Her breathing was still shallow and the cuts on her stomach and shoulder still bled, but being with Talliea again and feeling her spirit caress her own was a balm immeasurable. She did not understand the meaning behind Talliea's words, but she was too tired to even attempt to.
Talliea looked down at her with her deep and dark eyes and Arizira found peace. Nothing else mattered. She could feel herself drifting just above her own conscious self and fought to keep her eyes open. "There is...nothing I would not s-suffer for you, failira."
Talliea smiled, though this time it was colored by sadness. "You no longer have need to suffer on my behalf, nor do you need to be in this pain, my love." In the hush that held the world, both Talliea's and Arizira's voices were unnaturally loud. Every man, woman, and child heard the words clearly in their minds, no matter their distance. Language also was not a hindrance, as the words spoken were translated by the listener.
Talliea, still turned in the travois and leaning over Arizira, trailed her fingers from her love's chin to her shoulder. Light radiated from her fingers, a silvery-golden luster. She covered the angry cut on Arizira's shoulder and held her eyes as she closed the wound, as the flesh mended and healed.
The pain in Arizira's eyes became less. Talliea ran the back of her fingers across her cheek tenderly. Time continued to not exist. Talliea did not give a care to the many men and women who remained a thrall to her power. Both she, and especially
Arizira, had given so much of themselves to their gods, to destiny, to their peoples and to the world. By Talliea's reckoning, she was to be granted any time she desired with her love. Everything else could come later. The world and its problems could wait. The gods knew, she and Arizira had waited long enough. They had been waiting since before they fell in love.
"Tah-li," Arizira whispered.
"Yes, love?"
Instead of saying anything further, Arizira glanced down at the blood-soaked cloth around her midsection. Tears glistened in her eyes and her hand clung to the spot where she knew her baby rested. Talliea, her face still as calm as a serene sea, reached down and removed the saturated remains of the bandage. Fresh, warm blood oozed from the six inch laceration and Talliea's calm resolve faltered.
She brushed shaky fingers across the wound. Arizira flinched at the gentle touch and studied Talliea's face. Her eyes appeared impossibly dark and glowed with a strange hue. Around her body the air was distorted and shifted while a golden aura seemed to wrap itself over her. Arizira struggled to put together what her senses were telling her, but her blood loss left her feeling light-headed and disoriented. Only Talliea's presence kept her awake and somewhat alert.
"Is she okay, Tah-li?" The pain she was still in kept her from sensing her baby as normally she would. Talliea lifted her face and met Arizira's frightened gaze. She placed her hand, palm down, over Arizira's stomach and focused her abilities on their connection. Her hand glowed with more intensity than before.
Arizira gasped as her back was lifted from the travois. The feeling of Talliea's touch was electrifying, yet undeniably satisfying. She could feel the pain fading from her body. Vigor touched her limbs while her fatigue began to recede.
The cut along her abdomen, the cut that had been delivered unfairly and without honor; the cut that had panicked her as she had never been panicked and nearly cost her unborn child her life; the cut that had kept her from being able to think clearly and properly defend herself, slowly began to close. It stopped bleeding as the skin, muscle, and tissue was healed by Talliea's touch.
Inch by inch, the cut became shorter and shorter until it was no more. Apart from the dried blood, there was no evidence of Arizira's near fatal attack. With the constant pain no longer clouding her senses, Arizira exhaled as her body was lowered back to the travois. She opened her eyes and found Talliea staring back at her. Her hand was still on her stomach and a moment later, before any words could be spoken, a sound entered into the quiet.
It was steady and strong, but considerably fast. The sound of it began softly but soon grew more audible as it became the beat of hope that was soon to touch the heart of the world. Arizira's eyes watered. Her expression changed from one of pain, to one of relief, and finally to one of awe. Talliea watched her and smiled, her hand all the while remaining over her midsection.
"Is that--" Arizira started.
"It is," Talliea finished for her, a smile evident in her tone. In front of them, D'jiira felt tears fall more profusely down her face. She knew what sound she was hearing, though how such a thing was possible she could not guess.
"Her heartbeat?" Arizira asked, wonder struck.
Talliea nodded as the sound of their baby's heartbeat resounded throughout the forest. In the absence of any other sounds, it was emphatic and vociferous. Arizira released a trembling breath and smiled.
The moment stretched between them for several long minutes. When Talliea finally removed her hand from Arizira’s middle, it was only then that their surroundings became apparent to Arizira. No longer in any pain, and no longer worrying over her baby's fate, she now looked away from Talliea and became aware of the state of the forest.
Her eyes widened as she sat up. Her mother stood in front of her, broken arm still cradled against her chest, while her left arm was out by her side. The sword she'd killed Lao'dahn with was barely contained in her grasp. Had Talliea's power not frozen time, the blade would have been in the dirt. A man stood before D'jiira, Arizira saw, his face one of fury and confusion.
A double-edged sword was in his hand and was mere inches from D'jiira's face. Arizira looked away from her mother and farther ahead and noticed Bela'luin. Her fellow huntress was surrounded by six men. Two of them were before her with weapons raised, one was frozen in the air from where he'd been kicked in the groin, Bela's foot still extended, while another man held a ball of light in his hand.
Arizira noticed Bela had one of her sabres and it was currently raised in the air to block an axe attack by a fifth man. As for the sixth, he had dodged away from the strike of the sword in her opposite hand and was in the throes of delivering a fatal wound to Bela'luin's back with his hammer.
Both her mother and her fellow huntress were moments away from death. Talliea's power had saved them. Further ahead in her line of vision, Arizira could see more men. Lights of power hung suspended in the nighttime sky. Explosions of fiery light glowed in the dark. Leaves that had been in the process of being blown by the breeze now wafted in the air unable to move.
Arizira noticed the quiet next. There were no sounds of battle, no sounds of life or struggle or death. There was nothing. It was as if the whole of the world held its breath and prayed for a moment to continue. Arizira was speechless. She looked back over her shoulder and fully realized why Talliea had appeared differently to her.
She was in her power.
Before, when she'd been wounded and in pain, she'd not been able to focus her thoughts and form any sound conclusions. She'd just been happy at being with her love again. Now, however, she saw and she knew. Recent events sped through her mind as she recalled the war being fought between the Esu and Arnira. It had not been a dream, a nightmare, as she had hoped while drifting in and out of consciousness.
It was real. And Talliea now controlled it.
As she sat dumbstruck, Arizira watched Talliea stand to her feet. The power that pulsated around her warped the air and played tricks on the eyes. Talliea's face showed no trepidation. It showed no uncertainty. Where before there had been a shade of doubt, now there was nothing but control and completeness.
Talliea's face was calm. She looked down at Arizira, her eyes completely black and glowing eerily, and stepped away from the travois. Where her feet touched the ground, dirt and pebbles rose into the air. The entire forest was in a state of static shock.
Talliea stepped behind D'jiira and her eyes found the man with the double-edged sword. She turned her head and looked at him, saw the hate in his eyes, the cruelty and the malice. In his heart, there was no redemption. She raised her hand before his face and thrust out her fingers.
The man was flung away from D'jiira. His sword fell toward the ground but was stopped before it landed, as was its owner. The man was a figure of legs and arms as he hung in the air some feet in front of Talliea.
Talliea left him there, forgotten. She turned her attention to D'jiira and stepped toward her right side. "Your heart is pure," she said in an otherworldly voice. "The gods bless you." She placed her hand on D'jiira's broken arm. D'jiira felt a jolt shock her body. She would have gasped had she been able. When Talliea stepped away from her, the pain in her arm was gone.
Talliea had healed her.
Arizira watched her love, the power and control she wielded both stunning and terrifying. Talliea looked back at her and held out her hand. The gesture was so sure, so confident, and utterly welcome. Arizira, still half sitting in the travois, slowly reached out her hand and took Talliea's.
The very moment that she did, her entire body was suffused with energy. Power blasted her insides as it also emanated from within her. So strong was the force that bathed her, she was propelled to her knees. Her head fell back on her shoulders and she looked up at the frozen and starry sky above her. Her arms fell at her sides, though her left hand remained in Talliea's right.
Her entire body was rigid, her eyes were wide, and she had never before known such power, such strength and such overwhelming eminence. As she remained
within the force of Talliea's omnipotence, she realized that the power she was experiencing was not originating from her love, as she had always believed. It was coming from within her.
Arizira could not understand how she knew such a thing to be true. A peculiar breeze, though one not birthed of the wind, surrounded her and Talliea. Their hair was tossed about their shoulders, their clothing was blown around their legs and torsos, and the area in which they occupied grew warm and energized.
Arizira could not speak. She could not move. The power that surrounded her, consumed her, and liberated her was all encompassing. It lived inside of her. It came from within her and extended itself to Talliea. It was calming and satisfying. It was peaceful and strong. In it, Arizira knew wonders she'd never imagined. She knew histories she'd never been told and faces of people who had become shadows in recent memory.
The whole of the forest and everything that lived inside of it, Arizira knew. She saw D'jiira and Bela'luin as though she were standing in front of them. She knew their hearts and their desires. She saw Zy'nilur in front of the Great Gate of her tribe with weapons raised and mouth agape. Dozens of her sisters flashed behind her eyes, each a frozen image in time.
Arizira's vision moved still further out and she beheld Markahn huddled behind a tree. His face looked back over his shoulder in the direction his brothers had marched, and his steely gray eyes were touched with a deep sadness that he had been too late. In an instant, Arizira knew everything about him. She became aware of his nature and saw in him the qualities that would one day mark him as a leader, as a person capable of bringing about and directing change.
No sooner had her mind found Markahn, than everything changed and her sight found Talyn and Cynra. Talyn was yelling at archers on the western parapet and Arizira knew with a certainty that those archers had been tasked with looking for her. In an overwhelming burst of sensation, the motivation behind her people's attack became known and made itself true inside of her.