*crack*
I had barely even begun to gather my desire when I heard the ear-piercing, shrill sound of cracking glass right above me. I looked up only to see a fine hairline crack form on the dark void that made up this place’s ceiling. White light flooded through the crack, and I could feel an invisible force pulling me upwards.
First, it was just my hair that got pulled towards the crack, then my dress flew upwards like a broken umbrella. I tried to hold it down, only to lose my footing when my feet got swept up as well, and I began to float up.
Is this how I get out?
I don’t know, but I really hope so. In my previous life, I had a phobia of high places and would rather have died than ride a rollercoaster. Still, now here I am moving faster and faster as the rift’s pull increases. Now I’m flying so fast that my cheeks are starting to be pulled back, and the wind drives tears into my eyes.
When I almost reached the crack, I turned around to take a last look at this strange place. But what I see makes me breathless. It was a small planet? At least it looked like one. The winding labyrinth of corridors went around the entire planet. But that wasn’t what shocked me. There were more than one clearing. And in one of them was a massive green glowing stone. A healing magic stone.
Even from up here, I could see violent waves of mana churn inside.
This place didn’t just host my memories; I was inside myself. The part inside of me I had previously considered to be my magic stone was this place.
But I couldn’t even dwell on this epiphany before everything grew dark again.
When I woke up this time, I found myself in my room, or more specifically, in my bed. Someone must have brought me here and changed… my clothes?
Sigh, let’s just hope it was Rika or one of the maids.
I sit up and lazily wipe the sleep sand out of my eyes. I noticed a trickle of spit that had flown from my mouth, creating a darkened stain on my pillow. And my hair was standing in every direction.
I look outside the window.
It’s the middle of the night outside, so considering that it was close to dusk when I lost consciousness, I only slept for a couple of hours. After that, I gazed through the rest of the room only to see a slightly moving bundle sitting on a comfy armchair in one corner of the room, illuminated by moonlight.
Where had that chair come from?
No way is it more important who is sleeping in that chair?
Is it a stalker? No… maybe I have been asleep for longer than I thought? And that person is supposed to watch me? But when I do a quick check of my insides and the twins, I see no abnormalities. Sure, they are a bit bigger than last time I checked, but they are constantly growing… I couldn’t have possibly been away for that long, right?
The realization dawned on me that I must have been out for quite some time.
I move to the edge of the bed, intending to stand up, only for my legs to give out under me.
“Uweh.”
I almost fell, but I was just able to stop it with my arms. Have my muscles already atrophied, or am I still not fully awake?
However, what really concerned me wasn’t my failing legs but that the pile on the armchair began to move. The blanket it had encased itself with was violently thrown into a different corner, and out of the chair rose none other than Janus.
“Ruby?”
He stared at me first in disbelief, then with tears welling up in his eyes as he hoisted me back onto the bed, embracing me. I try to break free from his tight embrace only to find myself unable to do so.
“Janus, could you please stop hugging me? I can’t breathe.” My voice was so hoarse I almost didn’t recognize it.
But thankfully, he listened, and I could breathe once again. But he immediately embraced me again, but not as tightly as before.
“You are awake! Finally, you are awake!”
“Janus, what is going on? Why are you crying?”
“You have been asleep for the last three weeks.”
“Three…? THREE WEEKS!?”
It felt like just a couple of hours, not at all like three weeks! I may have to reconsider my words about coming back to play. When one quick game of tag took three weeks, then I’m not really comfortable with the implication of playing two games with her.
Finally, Janus stopped his bearhug for good and sat back down in his armchair, but not before dragging the chair across the room so he could sit right next to me.
That’s when I noticed the cold air blowing through the window and began to huddle myself in the still warm blanket.
“Oh, sorry, the fire must have gotten out when I fell asleep.”
Janus promptly stood up, left the door, and later returned with a lit candle, a basket of firewood, and kindling. Soon, the cold, dark room was warmed and brightened by fire and candlelight.
“What happened after I… I mean, what happened when you woke up?”
“Oh well… everyone was thrilled in the beginning, but no one could really celebrate since you wouldn’t wake up.”
Janus threw the stick he had used to light the candles into the brazier before sitting back down in his chair.
For a few moments, no one said anything until I noticed the bags under his eyes in the flickering candlelight. I reach forward, ready to use healing magic to erase his fatigue, but he pulls his hand away.
“Why did you do it?”
“What?”
“Why did you risk your life for me?”
“I didn’t risk…”
“Don’t play with me. You slept for three weeks, and you want to tell me that there was no risk of you dying?”
I wanted to tell him that he was speaking nonsense, but he was right. I could have really died that day, leaving my unborn children and friends behind.
“I’m sorry.”
“It felt like I was in a trance, my thoughts muddled with only rebirth on my mind. That trance was only broken when you took my hand. Even though it was brief, I still remember the desperation in your eyes when you dragged me back down. Only for you to not open your eyes? Do you have any idea of how that made me feel?”
I could see how much it had hurt him and how guilty it made him feel, but there was something beyond in his eyes that I still couldn’t fully grasp.
“I don’t know.”
“They thought you had died. I thought…”
Janus averts his eyes and rests his head in his hands
“Does everyone know what happened? Do they know that you died?”
“No. Dad decided to tweak the story a bit. Rodrick didn’t attack me… he attacked you, and somehow you were in a coma afterwards. We couldn’t possibly tell anyone that you can revive the dead. There would be no way to tell what people would do if they found out.”
After I saw Janus breathe again, this had been my biggest fear. People would fall into a frenzy over me. They would do whatever they could to secure my abilities for them. They wouldn’t hold back on anything. Because the ability to cheat death, the primordial equalizer, was just too daunting.
Actually, this ability is not exclusive to me, and most healing mages could theoretically do the same, but they don’t know that. They could even stop me from teaching it to everyone and instead would imprison me to monopolize me.
“Good… Janus I… I really don’t know why I did what I did; I just knew I had to, no matter what. I felt like if I let you die I would…” I hesitate in disbelief as the epiphany hits me like a truck, “never be happy again? Look, my point is I don’t know why, but in the end it all turned out alright, so could you please stop being mad at me?”
Janus looked back up at me with a hesitant smirk on his face.
“You thought that without me, you would never be happy again?”
“Eh…”
Fuck why did I say that? My pale face grows beet red while I attempt to bury it in my blanket-covered knees. But my swollen belly is in the way, so I use my hand as well to hide my shame.
“And here I thought you didn’t know why Mmh?”
“Shut up.”
“Hehehehe, Hahahaha.”
Suddenly, between his teasing me and myself getting embarrassed, everything between us was just like before Janus went to Aldmoor, before that night.
But like everything, this short moment of laughter also had to come to an end.
