Chapter 35: Bleeding Through

Alena’s long ears perked up at the sound of shuffling and grinding growing closer. Curious, she looked up from her notes and over to the med bay door that she left open for air flow. The Raven’s Revenge was an impressive vessel, despite its current condition, but it remained quite stuffy. Unfortunately, she couldn’t just open a window. All of her notes, books, and everything else not nailed down would likely be sucked right out. She would probably be victim to the sudden change in air pressure and get pulled right out along with everything else. That was something she wanted to avoid, so leaving the med bay door open would have to do.

“We need some help!” A rough and desperate voice yelled from outside the room. Nienna’s father squeezed himself through the doorway with Nienna in his arms. The look of terror on his face was accentuated even more so by the harsh cover of ice covering most of his face. He looked down at his daughter and tried giving her a little shake, but she didn’t respond.

“What in Alchemy happened?” Alena’s eyes went wide.

“I don’t know. She just passed out and won’t wake up,” he replied. “And there’s all this black on her body.”

“Lay her down there so I can have a look at her,” Alena said, pointing to the table in the middle of the room. She hopped down off her stool and dragged it over to the side of the table. She climbed up and reached for Nienna’s hand, noting the full coverage of black that had taken over her extremity. Placing her little fingers on the underside of her wrist, Alena monitored the woman’s pulse as she took a quick visual of the black lines on the visible parts of her body. “Her pulse is normal. That’s a good sign, but the black has progressed more than I anticipated.”

“You knew about this?” Nienna’s father asked.

“What’s going on in here?” Danae shouted as she pushed her way past the others into the med bay to see what everyone was fussing over. She looked down at her red-headed friend unconscious on the table. “What happened?”

“We were talking and she passed out,” Rhrya explained. Her frozen joints crunched as she wrung her hands together nervously. “I should have known something was wrong. There was all that black, and she had been coughing so much. It happened so fast. We were just so happy to see her, and she said she would be fine. We didn’t press the issue.” She bowed her head and offered prayers to Grenth under her breath. A green aura enveloped her frozen body and spilled out onto the floor all around her.

“What is this? What’s going on there?” Danae said quietly to Alena while gesturing in Rhrya’s general direction.

“You were friends with Nienna for years. Surely, you’ve seen her use her magic,” Alena replied in kind.

Danae looked back over at Alena and placed her hands firmly on her hips. “She was more focused on other training back then. Is she going to be all right?”

“That’s hard to say,” the asura said as she carefully pulled open Nienna’s eyelids with her index finger and thumb. The black of her irises had started to bleed into the whites of her eye. Alena gasped and let go of her lids. The stool teetered underneath her, and Danae reached out an arm to steady the asura.

“What is it? What did you see?” Danae asked.

 “H-her eyes,” Alena stammered. Her long ears drooped as she looked up at the airship captain with no other explanation. The truth was, Nienna’s condition was perplexing, and the lack of definitive answers bothered the asura deeply.

Danae reached out and carefully pried open one of Nienna’s lids to see what Alena had seen. She grimaced at seeing Nienna’s eyes. “Do we need to worry about this being contagious?”

“I don’t think so. This started happening when she handled an artifact. We’ve been exposed to her since then, and nothing has happened to us. This is an isolated incident. We should be fine.” Alena said. “We need to keep her stable and try to wake her up somehow. Is this everything you have for your med bay, Captain Morgan?”

Danae nodded. “I’m afraid so. Some of Blake’s…,” she paused. The loss still weighed heavily on her heart, and it hurt to say her name. “Some of her equipment was damaged beyond repair after the crash in Lion’s Arch. We haven’t had time to replace it.”

Alena frowned as she thought for a moment. “Are we still headed to Hoelbrak?”

“Yes, we should be there any moment,” Danae replied.

“Are there any medical facilities or healers there? I can’t recall any asura labs this far north.”

“They must have someone or something there to help her.” Danae reached for the communicator on her belt and pressed the broadcast button. “Harrisson, where’s Nienna’s norn friend?”

“I don’t know. I’m not a babysitter,” a gruff voice replied over the comm.

Danae grumbled under her breath. “Well, you are today. Find her please. She can’t be far.”

An audible grumble crackled over the comm before it went dead. Danae secured it back on her belt. “My pilot will find her northern friend. She may have some insight on where in Hoelbrak we can take Nienna to get some help.”

Reaching over Nienna’s body, Alena gently placed each of the woman’s arms over her stomach and watched it rise and fall slowly. “If your pilot is finding Dee, then who is flying the ship?”

“My engineer is up on the bridge co-piloting. I train all my crew members in basic flying,” the captain explained, “but Harrisson has a relationship with this vessel that is beyond compare. He could land her on the tip of a pin if I asked him to.”

“Impressive,” Alena remarked.

Turning around, Danae raised her eyebrows, realizing she had completely ignored Nienna’s parents who were obviously distressed over the current situation. “I’ve known your daughter for many years. She’s strong. She’ll pull through this,” she tried to assure them. It was all she could manage to say. She wasn’t great at speaking to family members.

Her father nodded and smirked. “She gets that from her mother.”

Ignoring his comment, Rhrya shuffled to Nienna’s side, placing her frozen hands on the edge of the table. “Lovey,” she murmured as she reached over and gently stroked her cheek. The frost from her skin, left a frozen film on Nienna’s face that melted almost instantly. “Hang on, we’ll get you out of there.”

“You sound like you might know what’s going on with her,” Alena pointed out.

Rhrya sighed heavily. “I wish I knew for sure—only theories from ancestors. Tell me, this artifact you said she had contact with—was it the blade?”

“How did you-,” Alena started, her brow knitted. “Ah, that’s right. You’re her parents. Of course, you would know about the blade. I want to hear more about what your ancestors thought about this, but later. You should know I took a sample of her blood when we were at the Priory’s headquarters.”

“What did you find?” her mother asked.

“Somehow, the blade’s power has affected your daughter on a molecular level. I don’t really know how, but I think it’s changing her. The blade’s power is merging with her blood cells and not destroying them. Her vitals have been relatively normal, aside from some typical elevations related to distress.”

“Ah, perhaps my grandmother was right,” Rhrya mumbled.

Alena’s ears picked up. “Maybe we should talk about what your ancestors thought right now.”

***

Nienna was in her dream again looking over the fields of Shaemoor towards Divinity’s Reach. What once was green and lush had died and turned brown. Crumbling ruins of farmsteads that once stood tall and proud dotted the land. Above her, the sky had grown dark and took on a sickly green hue. It would have made her feel uneasy before, but now she found comfort in the otherworldly hue. The Underworld was bleeding through into her dreams now.

Looking to the stream, Nienna strolled through the dead fields. She expected to find the god of death waiting for her, but he was nowhere to be found. Of course he’s not here, she thought to herself. He’s leaving. Why would he be here for me again? She sighed and continued down the hill to the stream. Her heart grew heavy at the thought of Grenth leaving. He may have had his reasons, but Nienna couldn’t help but feel abandoned by the god of death. Why now? Why couldn’t he have waited just a little longer to help them see their plans through? Feeling her thoughts start to spiral, she closed her eyes and pulled her focus back onto what was happening in front of her.

It was quiet, and the only things she could hear were the haunting call of the wind and the gentle rushing of the water. There were no voices nor sounds of scales playing in the water. There would be no one waiting for her near the shore this time. Still, she felt compelled to go to the water, like every time before.

Lovey…

Nienna spun around, hearing a distant voice being carried by the breeze. It sounded like her mother. She looked for her up one bank and down another, but she was nowhere to be found. Nienna furrowed her brow, confused, but continued on. She stepped into the shallow water lapping along the bank. It was cool and pleasant. She paused and took a step back. A part of her didn’t want to go further—a part of her who remembered what happens next. The desire to continue on was strong, and she stepped further in until the water reached her knees. She looked around for anyone or anything that might be present with her in this dead world, but she was still alone.

Something grabbed her leg. Panicking, Nienna pulled away and stumbled back as she searched the water to see what grabbed her but nothing was there. Then she felt something grab her other leg. She pulled away again, kicking up murky water everywhere. Looking down, Nienna searched the water for the culprit, but it was hard to see beneath the surface of the swirling, murky stream. Everything in her screamed to get out of the water, but she could not bring herself to do so. Instead, she squared her stance in anticipation of another attack, but the waters suddenly calmed.  

Maybe she had imagined it. Maybe what she felt was nothing more than a piece of long grass that had been carried by the current and brushed against her leg. With no continuing assault, she relaxed a little but still she kept an eye on the water. Something under the surface caught her attention. She crouched down to get a better look. As it rose to the surface, the outline of a face came into view. Its angular features looked severe from the shadows cast by the dreary light above. Nienna’s heart pounded as she recognized the face. It was almost like looking in a mirror. It was her face under the water, but then again, it wasn’t. There were so many similar characteristics: the nose, the cheekbones, the chin, but it didn’t quite match her own face. She didn’t know what to make of the sight.

Suddenly, the face’s eyes snapped open, and their lips parted as they tried to speak. Nienna recoiled and fell back into the stream. Dark, cold water rushed all over her body and into her mouth. She spat it out as she scrambled to her feet. The face in the water continued to speak. She couldn’t hear the words at first, but they eventually broke through the water’s surface.

“Don’t be afraid,” they said. The face cracked a smile as a hand reached for Nienna. Their fingers broke through the surface and reached for her face. “Don’t be afraid.”

Nienna instinctively retreated before this apparition could touch her, but another hand burst out of the water and grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her close. With all her might, she fought against their ice-cold hold, but they were too strong. She mustered all her strength and tried to pull out of their grasp, but her balance failed, and she fell forward. She reached out a hand to steady herself, but the stream was deeper than she thought. Her face plunged into the murky water, and she desperately sought out a rock to brace her hand against. She found one and managed to push herself up out of the water for a moment, but algae had built up on the stone’s surface, and her hand slipped. She plunged back into the water and sought out another stone to gain leverage. She found a larger one this time and pushed herself back up.

Dark water spurted from Nienna’s mouth as she fought to clear her lungs. “Leave me alone!” she cried out as she desperately tried to pry the hands off of her.

The face broke through the water’s surface, their piercing green eyes boring into Nienna’s. “It’s not what you think.”

Before she could take a full breath, they pulled Nienna down into the dark water against her will. Deeper and deeper she sunk until her lungs burned and her consciousness faded into nothing. Everything grew dark. Nienna could feel herself start to float away, as did all her burdens and worries. Just as nothing seemed to matter anymore, she was struck by the sharp sensation of being thrust back into consciousness. She felt someone roll her on her side as she coughed uncontrollably to clear her lungs of the murky water that had filled them.