Chapter 36 - highly needed small vacation

High in the sky, a monster was floating. A gigantic black sphere made out of flesh, seemingly rolling amongst the clouds, as if it was crushing the earth under without even touching it.

Large tentacles ending in mouths were devouring everything, before what was left was transformed into powder and flattened, letting barren land behind it.

At one point, a mountain got crushed and, in horror, you could now grasp the scale of this monstrosity.

Hundreds of meters? Kilometres?

No, Tens of kilometres and, under it, the sown devastation extended left and right as far as the eye could see.

Rivers and lakes disappeared like dreams, mountain ranges got crushed like sandcastles, sea and ocean turned dry and lifeless as the thing kept floating forward.

Yet if someone had been there, able to survive, none of this would have mattered.

The true horror lay in the emotions that the black sphere exuded.

Fear. Despair. Sorrow.

Anger. Hate. A vengeful will that literally destroyed everything in its wake, that just wanted to burn it all.

Entropy’s troops had fled a long time ago, the bizarre creature succeeding in planting terror where no emotions should have bloomed.

Entropy had made an error, and they were now paying for the consequences of their actions.

Numerous were those that asked themselves: “Can Entropy feel emotions? Or is the heart of the Swarm as emotionless as their drones?”

This monster gave the definitive answer: Yes, they can.

For the first time forever, Entropy was feeling something, the same emotions taking root in their soldier: A total and absolute horror.

***

I was warm, but not burning. The dreams had been bad, warped puzzles extracted from my very memories. I quickly put them away, unwilling to let those pictures torment me even one more second.

I was good at that. Locking my memories away.

No.

I had been good at that. But since I came here, those locks started rusting, the doors rotting and walls crumbling.

I was scared.

Yet something was rocking me. Wind.

No.

Someone’s breathing. More than just one someone.

Two breaths, not slow nor quick, sleepers’ breaths.

I open my eyes but everywhere I look shadows are flooding. I can’t see anything.

I extend my hand and touch something. A strange squishy thing.

Isn’t it… a… nose? Asked Psaï, her voice weak and unsteady, just like my own mind.

It was a nose indeed and, not long after I touched it, something moved.

A heavy blanket moved and some light of the morning sun spilt over the face.

Noa’s face. Eyes wide open, he looked at me with a worried gaze.

I was still groggy from my fever and nightmares, so I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

I felt the blanket being put back in place, light no longer a hindrance to my rest.

Noa got closer to me, I think, as did the person behind me.

Vi. It was Vi, I’m sure of it.

I woke up again, this time with a clear mind.

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED!

I-I don’t know! I think we overworked our body?

Why haven’t we been warned earlier?

Because we were focused on the Extractor. We have been warned, I was just so enthralled by the work that… that… You could feel tears in her voice.

It’s not your fault, Psaï. I was, too. So our body failed us?

Yes. Overwork coupled with stomachache weakened the body, allowing a pathogen to invade us. A common cold it seems, but enough to put us in a very bad state. And…

...My flashbacks didn’t help, right?

Indeed. The mind has a big impact on the body, and we made our state worse.

We?

I was carried away too.

Fuck, that was one big flashback then.

Yeah.

Just when I was going to say something, my stomach growled loudly.

Urgh. I hate being starved.

Quickly find something to eat.

“Abu?” I said, to test if Vi or Noa were awake.

The blanket moved and, this time, It’s Vi’s gaze that welcomed me.

The light was that of a wintery afternoon sun.

How long did we sleep?

Fourteen hours.

What?

I think Mom dosed us a bit too much.

Uh.

“Hello? You okay?” Asked Vi directly, worry in her eyes.

The twins’ gaze looked strangely the same when they were worried for someone, even when Vi’s eyes were now so alien. The emotion had the same… I don’t know, flavour?

Emotions are common throughout humanoids, but how you express emotion is personal, each person as its own way to do it, and the twins’ way was extremely similar.

It was strange, but in a good way. It gave a bizarre feeling of unity, like two wings of a door maybe? Not the same, but fitting together and standing side by side to hold the gate.

Okay. I answered her.

“Are you hungry? I heard your tummy.”

I nodded once and she woke her brother up. Noa opened his eyes and looked at me just like Vi did.

They had been surrounding me, legs folded into a fetal position, their arms and a bundle of clothes creating a warm, protective cradle for me, and sis’ was now taking me in her arms, moving me as if I was some kind of porcelain doll.

We moved quickly, going to the living room where, beside Crisnée, a familiar face was waiting for us.

“Oh? She’s awake?” Asked Mary, her long blond hair flowing on her shoulders as she turned her head, away from her book and toward us.

“Yes. I think she’s hungry.”

Not far from her, Cris had been exercising her Shi, stopping right when we got here. She went directly to Vi’s side, checking me to see if I was still il or not, and sighing when she saw I was good. She then grabbed Vi’s arm in a supportive manner, and didn’t let go of it.

“Unsurprising. I’ll need to check her before but one of you can already go heat some milk for her.”

Vi stayed here with me as Noa went to do just that, the young boy surprisingly silent compared to his natural demeanour.

Mary took me from Vi’s arms, not without much trouble as my sister reflexively sheltered me. The young apprentice then looked at me, opening my mouth and putting her ear against my stomach, looking in my eyes and other things.

“Okay, she seems healthy enough. We’ll try to feed her and, if she can keep the food down, I’ll go back and report this to Meredith.”

“Okay. Where are Mom and Dad?”

“Hurbert is helping the Wise Women with moving people and useful stuff, like usual. I think your Mom is in her workshop. She fiddled for a long time and couldn’t stop herself going back in there when you were just not waking up.

“Typical Mom. I’ll go show Ayna to her, I think she’ll be happy.”

“Good idea.”

Vi entered Mom’s workshop without knocking, Mary not far behind.

Mom, who was, of course, making potions, stopped dead in her motion.

“She’s awake?” She asked, rushing on us very much like a bird of prey.

“Yes.” Vi answer was short, and Mary felt that she needed to add a bit.

“She’s hungry but seems in good health otherwise. I don’t know why she started spiking a fever.” Added Mary.

Mom took me in her arms and hugged me as strongly as she let herself do it, to not hurt me.

“Abu?” She seemed very worried, and I tried to reassure her with my voice.

She buried her face on my body, kissing me again and again while still hugging me.

Maybe we can use the surprise we were holding back.

Yes, I think it’s a good time.

Mom took her face from my body and looked at me with eyes full of love and worry. I looked at her and, tilting my head a bit for the extra cuteness, I opened my mouth.

“Ma...ma?”

***

Of course, Mom was stunned. To be fair, I think everyone was stunned, and I was happy with their reaction.

“Ma-ma!” I buried my face in her chest, taking in her peculiar smell of herbs and alchemical reagent.

She recovered quickly and hugged me back. Then, processing Mary’s words, she started feeding me, my steady way of drinking her milk reassuring her.

“She’s eating well.” She said with a sigh, caressing my short hair and my cheek turned toward her.

“T-that’s good.” Mary nodded slowly, still stunned by my words. “She r-really is peculiar, right? I never heard of a baby t-talking so young.” She was all flustered.

“Indeed…” Mom’s soft gaze flowed over my body, looking me in the eyes. She smiled in the face of my content expression.

Drinking breast milk was the best!

As a side note, Cris and Vi were drying their tears, since I seemed in good health indeed, and they have had difficulties hiding their smug smiles.

I think they loved sharing a secret with me, and were maybe a bit proud of me? After all, the first shock processed, having a baby sibling as cool as I was, well, cool, right?

Noa came back at this time, a baby bottle of warm milk in his hands.

He stopped, seeing me in Mom’s arms.

“Oh.” You really saw his expression turn into a self-deprecating smile. There was a bit of sadness, too.

“Sorry Noa, I did not know your mom would breastfeed Ayna.” Said Mary apologetically.

“Thanks Noa, you’re a good boy.” Mom’s smile only grew when she saw what Noa had been doing for me, a smile full of love.

She walked by him and put a kiss on his forehead.

“You three really are amazing siblings.”

Now that my state was stable, free from worries toward me, she really was beaming from all the love my siblings were giving me.

***

A lot of emotions had been stacked up in a short period of time and, when Ophelia learned what happened, she basically forbade the trio from training for two days, giving them forced vacations. After all, I wasn’t the only one tired and burdened, the children were clearly burning themselves out by training too much.

There was only so much time in a day and, besides that one time the trio helped Dad to cook, they had been training, be it alone, when eating, or in the barracks, with Ophelia.

Mom and Dad took some more time to take care of us. We bathed with them each of the two days, which was quite the luxury since it ate a lot of wood. Though they seemed to not have that much of a wood problem. Maybe there was a tree easy to harvest and efficient for heating in the forest not far? Who knows, with the new essence of trees I was given, I started doubting my knowledge in this domain, a domain that was already veeeeeery far from my field of expertise.

Wood was lame, after all, right? Well, not so much anymore, it seemed.

Vivianne cried here and there because her perceived guilt toward me was just the last straw over the already fragile edifice that was her mind. During the bath, during dinner, Mom and Dad comforted her, and Dad admitted that giving me some Tartiflette to eat hadn’t been his best move.

“She’s so calm and well-behaved, I often forget she’s still extremely young. I think she just had difficulties digesting it, and she was a bit vulnerable when you took her with you. We should have kept both of you at home.” Said Dad with a sincere contrite tone.

“It’s not your fault. We are your parents, we should have seen Ayna was too tired. But now everything is good, okay? We’re here, in the bath, all is calm and easy. Just relax and enjoy.”

This happened one or two more times but, in the end, Vi gathered her wits.

I think Cris helped her a lot, the two of them sleeping hugging each other.

I was happy seeing them like that, and for once Noa had me all for himself to hug and sleep, which made him happy.

I must say, that had been a good call from Ophelia’s side as, after those two days, everyone, including me, was refreshed and ready to go all out again.

Not too much all-out, though, please. I don’t want that happening again.

We’ll be more careful next time. It was reckless of us to try and join the Void and Reactor through the Extractor with a diminished body.

We were too eager to finish Vi’s gift.

Yes.