Chapter 17: Amongst the Wreckage
Nienna wanted to look away, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t take her eyes from the immolated wreckage strewn all before her. At some point, she realized her legs felt cold. She looked down at her lap covered in a wash of white snow. Now she knew why, but she couldn’t remember exactly when she had gotten down off the dolyak. Feeling herself slowly drift back into reality, Nienna became aware of something dripping from her eyes. She pulled off one of her gloves and reached a shaking hand up to her face. Her cheeks were wet. She couldn’t remember when she had started crying either.
Getting to her feet proved almost impossible. She tried to stand, but the world seemed to lurch, and her legs shook until she landed back in the snow. A harsh voice from the dark recesses of her mind started spinning its little lies in the wake of her failure. It’s no use.Stop fighting and let the snow bury you. Let them all forget about you. What good are you if you can’t protect your own people? She bowed her head in defeat and held her face in her hands, stifling her sobs.
Somewhere within the rush of the wind, the gentle hush of falling snow, and the crackling of the flames, beat a slow and steady rhythm. It found its way into Nienna’s ears, and it halted her dark thoughts. Curious, she looked around for the source. The dolyak had wandered to a nearby patch of trees behind her and laid down to sleep, tuckered out from carrying Nienna across the valley. He snored softly, his ears twitching as he dreamed. She reached out toward him with her hand and extended her senses, but the beast’s slow and heavy heartbeat did not match the light, faint pounding she heard. She listened again, closing her eyes and sharpening her focus as best she could while pushing aside all other sounds.
Her eyes shot open. It was coming from the wreckage.
Nienna wiped the tears from her cheeks and scrambled to her feet, kicking up a cloud of snow as she did. The possibility of a survivor gave her a newfound hope. She wove her way around pieces of the Byrnes’ airship, shielding her face from the heat of the flames. A curved piece of metal about shin high blocked her path. She grabbed its edge to try to pull it aside, but immediately recoiled from its searing edge. Thankfully, she pulled away before the heat could do any serious damage. Assuming other pieces of wreckage would be in the same state, Nienna looked for something she could use to wrap her hands for protection. She pulled a large section of canvas from under a piece of debris and began tearing strips from the unburnt parts to wrap her hands with.
Honing her senses in on the rhythmic sound led her to a pile of molten metal and framing. One by one, she carefully pulled the pieces of debris away and tossed them aside. The beating grew louder with every layer she removed. She didn’t want to give her hopes up. It was entirely possible the survivor was Lord or Lady Byrne or one of their hired mercenaries or Inquest. Gods, she hoped it wasn’t.
“What in Grenth’s name?” Nienna uttered after she removed the final piece. Expecting to find a body, she instead encountered a rounded shape of metal about the size of a boulder. She examined its curved exterior from side to side. Various panels had fused together, creating a pod. She leaned in close, listening for the beating. Sure enough, it was there and louder than before. There was no doubt in her mind whatever was inside the strange pod was the source.
She carefully felt along the panels for a seam she could use to get some leverage and open it. Even with the wrappings, the metal still felt hot to touch. She searched through the wreckage for something she could use to pry the panels apart. The best thing she could find was a lever from the ship, and wedging the flat edge into the cracks between the panels, Nienna worked to pry them open. Metal whined and creaked as it started to give.
Heat and light spilled out of the small opening she created, and Nienna had to back up to avoid getting burnt. The blaze inside quickly extinguished, allowing her to keep working. She pushed again on the lever until she had created a large enough opening to see into the pod. She leaned over and looked inside, but there wasn’t much to see at first. It was dark inside, and what little light spilling into it from outside revealed only a tangle of wires and canvas.
“Hello? Is someone in there?” Nienna called, but there was no reply nor sound other than the constant beating holding steady in the background of her senses. Suddenly, the rhythm quickened, its beats almost doubling.
She reached down inside to see what she could find, when something rough suddenly gripped her wrist. She let out a shriek and tried to pull her arm away. A hand barked in Caledon green clung to Nienna’s wrist for dear life. Her heart jumped into her throat, and she frantically moved wires and canvas out of the way with her free hand before pulling Salara’s battered and half alive body free from the pod.
“I-I’m so sorry,” the sylvari uttered as Nienna carefully set her down in the snow and propped her up against the metal pod which had cooled. She took note of Salara’s physical injuries that she could see: a few small cuts on her forehead, a bruised shoulder, and a long cut along her arm.
“How did you survive the crash?” Nienna asked, astonished to see she was in better shape than one would expect.
Salara’s eyes rolled back into her head. “I-I’m sorry,” she repeated weakly.
“No, stay with me, Salara. Stay awake, please.” Nienna shook her gently, trying to be careful of her injured body. “Where’s Seren? Was she on the ship when it crashed?”
The sylvari’s eyes closed, and she became unresponsive. Nienna desperately flung her senses back out into the wreckage, but she could not pick up on any other life signs apart from Salara’s and her own. Tears welling up in her eyes, she swallowed hard and covered the sylvari with a ragged piece of canvas to protect her from the cold. She sat back in the snow, staring at Salara. Surely if she was alive, Seren could be too. She wondered if maybe all the wreckage was interfering with her senses. Leaving Salara propped up against the metal pod, Nienna set off to search for Seren. She hoped to the gods at this point she wasn’t just searching for a body.
She methodically went through the wreckage section by section, only stopping for a brief moment to rest or to catch her breath. Some sections were completely consumed by flame and were not searchable. Nienna did uncover a few bodies, and each time her eyes first laid upon them, her heart jumped into her throat for fear it was Seren’s. Thankfully, none of them were her. They all wore the same dark colors the Byrnes’ mercenaries donned. At the end of her search, she firmly planted her hands on her hips while looking out over the mess of metal and flame, her chest heaving and her energy spent. Seren was nowhere to be found. Nienna wanted to be sure and look again in case she missed anything, but her body was tired and she needed to get Salara back for rest and healing. She looked over at the sylvari still propped up against the unusual metal pod. Maybe once she was awake again and stable, she could explain how she survived the crash. Maybe she could tell them where Seren was.
Maybe.
So many maybes and so many questions still yet to be answered. Her whole life felt like a never-ending sea of them, constantly ebbing and flowing without any end in sight. She had managed to get a few small answers, but they were still crumbs in the grand scheme of things. And yet, she wondered if these answers she desperately sought after were all ones she really wanted to know. She already regretted some of the answers gifted to her.
Nienna woke up the dolyak and led him over to Salara. Mustering the last bit of her energy, she hoisted her up in her arms. Despite her petite frame, Salara proved to be heavier than she looked. It took Nienna a few tries to get her up onto the dolyak’s back. Once she did, she covered her with the canvas and tucked the edges under her body so it wouldn’t be blown away by the chilly mountain breeze. The sleet had let up, so their journey back would be a little more pleasant. With a gentle tug on his harness, she ushered the dolyak to walk with her as they made their way back to camp, leaving the wreckage and everything in it behind to burn to ash.
