“I’d rather not have you stumbling and falling after me, we’ll waste time and it would look petching embarrassing. There is no shame in needing assistance when you are sick and have an infection.”
Deep down, Edreina was thankful for the support but still did her best to rely on the wizard as little as possible, using her only as stability. Also, a bit deeper down, she became painfully aware of how easy it would be for her to crush the life from the frail woman in even so sick a state. On top of all of that, though, she was exhausted and fuzzy and just wanted to feel better. Her leg burned and her head was so heavy it threatened to pull her all the way to the floor.
When they reached the stairs, Edreina braced one arm against the wall of the staircase in order to remove more weight from Annalisa as they traversed the treacherous steps. Had she been more lucid, she would have focused her blue eyes and made a point of learning their path step by rickety step. A door closing with a creak sent a breath of cooler air rippling over Edreina and, in the same instant, she overjoyed to be cooled off and shivering as she felt ice in her bones. Everything felt far away if she let her attention slip for even a tick.
“You’ve just seen the run down and aging parts of Sahova. I think you’ll rather like the Palsa Hydrasa, Amaryllis is right to be proud of the place but don’t let her know I said that.”
There was water in her ears, it seemed. Though she heard each one, it was garbled and lazy sounding; ticks passed before the redhead nodded in faint recognition of being spoken to. Being up and moving seemed to be making her worse. Air hissed through her teeth each time her foot touched the ground and a ashy sweat broke across her brow, beneath her breasts and arms, and in the valley of the small of her back.
The place was beautiful, Edreina noted vaguely, and unlike any she had seen before. Bleary blue eyes fixated upon the curve of one of the Palsa's ornamentations, suddenly craving the cool, cleansing salt water of the Suvan. Surely that would make her better... if not, at least she could die upon the water as she was meant to, not on this seven times damned island.
“Small note, if Amaryllis asks you a question omit the ‘mistress’ or ‘ma’am’ from her name when you answer. She tends to be annoyed by such things, simply address her as Amaryllis. Miss Amaryllis if you need some formality.”
Finally, something simple enough for Edreina to grasp without fear of making a mistake. This Amaryllis, it seemed, was a far more reasonable woman than Annalisa. Titles were a silly waste of time, in the Svefra's humble opinion. The only one deserving of a title was a pod's Lia. Despite the obvious beauty of the place, there was a distinct eerie feeling that chilled Edreina even further. This place had the beauty of a far off mountain; it was remote, cold, and without any signs of compassion or humanity in the walls. This place, it seemed, was a dead inside as the Nuits that occupied it were on the outside.
The woman in the room they stopped in, finally, was a surprise to Edreina. The bright colors and feathers reminded the Svefra of her own kin in a roundabout way. It seemed to her as if the woman was trying very hard to look alive in every way despite evidence to the contrary. Perhaps the foreboding feeling of the place was only meant to be a greater contrast to the woman obviously in charge of it. Warmth and a faint trickling of hope moved through the redhead at the sight of her. It did not even cross Edreina's mind that the woman could have been alive; she had been informed how painfully few "Pulsers" existed on Sahova outside of the rank of slave.
There was silence, and Edreina swayed in place, hands trembling faintly as she worried over what was to come. Introductions were made in a span of a tick and, only a moment later, any warmth Edreina had held for the woman named Amaryllis fled before a glacial chill in her soul as she became unnaturally still, hesitating even to breathe. It was as if the woman's cold words and eyes had frozen her but, in truth, it was terror. The adrenaline that started to dance through her veins cleared her mind ever so slightly. She remained still and did her very best to square her shoulders even as the Nuit - For who other than the Nuit moved and spoke in such a way? - examined her. Trembles rushed over her body as being upright for so long started to take its toll and her muscles did their best to remain useful despite every urge to fade from existence and let her collapse in a puddle of jelly.
"She is going to die."
Before she could stop herself, Edreina whispered, "All die, eventually..." Her breath caught with the realization of who she was speaking before. "At least for a few moments..." The redhaired Svefra had not before thought it was possible to speak below a whisper. Had sound even left her lips? Instead of losing heart at the Nuit's words, she felt a fire flare within her, refusing to acknowledge any ounce of truth in them.
"Her wounds are beyond my skills now, and the infection appears to have festered too long. There is nothing that I can do for her. I suggest you begin looking for a replacement as I expect she shall expire before the end of the season, most likely sooner."
The way the woman looked at her, like a dress to be worn beneath her own feathered attire, pushed the sick woman's lips into a thin, determined line. She could not die here... Not here...
Abruptly she was seized by knowledge of her ability to do something, and the desire to try, at the very least. She could not die without putting up a fight. She just had to fight in an intelligent way. Not every problem is solved with your fists nor your steel, my love... She thought in the direction of Razkar's spirit, wherever it may have been.
A warm ocean washed over the redhead's mind as she immersed herself in her Djed, forcing herself to focus only on her purpose, not the physical pain and fuzziness that threatened to disrupt her concentration. An incantation could not be used, this time. Annalisa would surely know what she was up to, then, and she did not plan on making the cruel wizard aware of the extent of her skill, just yet. Like a barnacle on the hull of a ship, she had felt it growing within her each time she practiced. It was an undeniable part of her, as familiar as her finger.
The ebb and flow of energy started to rock through her being as she immersed herself in it entirely. In the span of a tick, she had seized hold of the Djed and started to move it through her body, a process that took nearly a chime with Reimancy.
A trickle, and no more, spread beneath her skin, and its effects were aimed at Annalisa. Deep within the wizard's subconscious, Edreina planted a vague desire outlined to appear somewhere along the lines of keeping Edreina alive and healthy. It was no more than a nudge for the bulk of her work was to be aimed at Amaryllis. The first casting upon Annalisa filled the Svefra with joy and courage, giving her the strength to be sure of the actions she would take next.
Like little golden drops, Edreina poured Djed into her eyes, swirling it and holding it in place as she finished forming her plan. Emotions would not work on Amaryllis... This had to be something that would appeal to a Nuit. If knowing Ignotus had taught her anything in the brief time that she had known him, it was that his kind was self-centered down to their core. Once blessed with endless life, nothing other than their life and their desires mattered. There had to be something here that would benefit Amaryllis.
Instead of bumbling about seeking out that desire and hoping to bring it to the woman's mind, Edreina took a far simpler approach. When the young Hypnotist met the Nuit's eyes again, they flashed with Djed as she slipped into Amaryllis's mind, as lightly as a feather from her attire would fall to the floor, a subliminal realization that there was a certain something about the sick woman before her. What that something was, she would figure out herself. Beneath the sweat and the paleness brought on by her sickness and despite the violet stones about her throat and limbs (or, because of them depending on the Nuit) there was something. Perhaps it was tied to Annalisa in some way, perhaps it was the fire in her eyes, perhaps the mark of Yahal on her back if she had noticed it. Either way, she continued to weave her magic for a moment, allowing the message to morph within the strain between them, that this something was a something that could be of use to Amaryllis, more so than if the woman were to continue to grow sick and eventually die.
At that point, Edreina did not care about the circumstances of her existence, only that she continued to exist. It took everything in her exhausted body to not droop when she cut the filament of magic dancing between their eyes and to ignore the feverish desire to continue working on the Nuit in hopes of success. What little Djed she had left had to be saved in case she needed it.