Ch 1.20: Recovery

Elaina faded into consciousness, relishing in the softness of her pillow with her eyes still closed. What time is it? It didn’t really matter; the bell hadn’t rang, and it wasn’t bright yet, so she still had time. Was history her first lesson today? That sounded about right. Her pillow was wonderful, and she was so comfortably warm, but her bed felt hard today. Too hard. She struggled her eyes open, seeing not a pillow underneath her, but two milk-white legs, leading up to a ripped white robe.

Elaina shot up, pushing herself off of Carline as she realized where she was. “The monsters!”

Carline stared at Elaina with wide eyes as she remained kneeling on the ground, then started laughing. “They’re gone, we beat them.”

Elaina looked around the room, finding the monsters’ corpses on opposite walls. It was coming back to her now, how Carline had killed the first one, how Elaina had helped a little to kill the second one. Still, that didn’t explain the massive pool of blood in the middle of the room, or the fact that Elaina’s own leg was caked with dried blood. “Is this… Is this mine?”

Carline frowned and glanced down, a shamed look in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I… Their manes, some of it got inside of you. I had to force it out, and you lost a lot of blood in the process. You really should lie back down, I’m still working on restoring it for you.”

Elaina nodded, looking for someplace to lay down. She did feel woozy, now that Carline mentioned it. “Let me find somewhere that’s not…” The room was empty, save for starhound corpses, blood, and the metal floor. “I’ll lay on the floor, I guess.”

“No!” Carline said, looking horrified. “Lay back down here.” Elaina stared at Carline’s thighs, soft and inviting, and the girl blushed as she realized what she’d just offered. “That’s— I mean, I’m kind of your doctor now, so it wouldn’t be proper for me to ask you to lay down on the hard floor.”

“Okay.” Elaina wasn’t going to argue, and she really did need to get off her feet. She crawled back down, noticing the bandages on Carline as she lied down, this time facing away from the girl to give her some semblance of privacy. So soft. “What about your arm, and your hands?”

“Oh, uhm, they’re just small scrapes. A small scratch on my arm from hitting the floor, and then friction burns on my hands from my own staff, the wood’s kind of rough you know, but nothing to worry about. You were in way worse shape.”

“Huh,” Elaina said. She remembered pain, lying that she was fine, and then darkness. The pain was gone though, and she really was fine now. A little lightheaded, but fine.

“Here, I think I have enough mana to get you to make the rest of the blood you need. Do you mind if I touch you? It makes it easier.”

Touch her? Elaina’s face burned at the thought, that the lap pillow she was on wasn’t enough contact. “Sure, go ahead.”

Soft fingers touched Elaina’s exposed shoulder, and then the flow began. Elaina could feel it, something this big of an effect, and she had the option to resist it if she wanted, just like she could with Waine’s aspect, not that she had any reason to this time. It was a strange, invasive feeling though. Not a physical sensation, a more intangible one, like the newfound presence of her mana pool. Invasive or not, Elaina did trust Carline. Eventually, the feeling faded, and Elaina refocused her thoughts on the physical world, noticing her lightheadedness from before was gone.

“I’m really sorry,” Carline said, running her fingers through Elaina’s hair and sending shivers down her spine. “I thought I could take them both down alone, but I wasn’t strong enough. If I’d been smarter from the start, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.”

“What?” Elaina said, rolling over to face up to Carline, seeing tears coursing down the girls face. “You took one down all on your own, and you kept the second one off me! And then you healed me too!”

Carline shook her head. “If I were smarter I could have stabbed them when you had them stuck outside and killed them then, or at least one of them. See, I’m still being stupid, dividing my aspect between two targets was stupid in the first place, and—”

“Stop!” Elaina shouted, tears running down her own face as she pushed herself up to her own knees. “You did everything, Carline. I wouldn’t have even thought to block off the doorway if it wasn’t for you. I didn’t even touch the first one, and you got up and stopped the second one from tearing me apart without any mana.” She motioned to the staff laying on the floor. “You were amazing with that! Sword, spear, you could have given me anything and I would have been eaten alive before I figured out which way to point it, whatever parts of me they didn’t burn off first.”

Elaina leaned in, placing her hands on Carline’s shoulders and looking down at her. “And then you… I was in so much pain, so much I couldn’t even stay awake, but then I woke up, soft pillow under my head, warm, which I know is still your doing, cause I’m sure as stars not wearing a winter outfit, and I can still see my breath.

“Whatever that stuff was, that smoke... When I was falling down, I said I was fine, cause I didn’t want to worry you. It hurt so much, but I knew you were here, so I wasn’t scared. I told you that I trusted you, because I knew you’d take care of me. And you did. You saved me, every step of the way.”

Carline stared, mouth gaping, tears still welling in her eyes before she leaned in and embraced Elaina. “I’m so glad you're okay.”

Elaina patted the back of Carline’s head, cradling it with her chest, the chest that she was once again aware was far more exposed than normal. “It’s cause of you.”

The two sat there for a while, Carline softly weeping and Elaina sniffling her own tears away. Did they have to move? Couldn’t they just stay like this? Apparently not, because eventually Carline pulled her head out of Elaina’s cleavage, wiping her face.

“I’m sorry,” she said, blushing. “I— I didn’t mean to put my head there, it just sort of happened.”

Elaina turned away, her own face growing red as well. “No, it’s fine. I mean, that’s just sort of how it had to be, with me being taller than you. And you let me have your, uhm, your lap as a pillow, so it’s the least I could do, right?” Really, flirting at a time like this? If you could even call that flirting.

Carline smiled though. “I guess— well, fair is fair I suppose. But really, I think uhm…” She shook her head, covering her face. “Never mind.”

“What is it? I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?” Gods you’re stupid, she’s going to hate you now! She already thinks you’re a pervert.

“Oh, no! I mean, I just…” Carline sighed, biting her lip. “I was gonna say maybe— maybe you still owe me a lap pillow, and I owe you… You know.” She clutched her arms across her chest, looking away. “What you let me do.”

Elaina blinked, trying to make sure she’d heard the words correctly. She had, right? “Well, yeah, fair is fair, like you said…” She looked down at her own leg, still covered in blood, unfortunately. “Uhm, maybe later though. We should— we should probably get going.”

“Right.” Carline stood up, using her sleeve to wipe away her face. “The System is still in danger, after all.”

***

Elaina led the duo through the dungeon halls. After a half hour or so’s walk they emerged from the tunnel into a large… cavern? The metal floor and wall opened up, being overtaken by the stone and rock they’d seen throughout their trek, but this time on an entirely new scale. The room they would have been entering had clearly once been made entirely of the strange metal material, but it was half destroyed, jagged panels of it adorning the area along with equally jagged rocks and boulders. The floor panels were pulling away in parts, covered in snow of all things that was falling in from a giant hole where the room’s ceiling would once have been.

“Was this… some kind of explosion?” Carline said.

“I don’t know,” Elaina said, rubbing her arms, “but I think we found out where the draft in these tunnels has been coming from. Hey, do you think you could warm me up a bit more, if it’s not a big drain?”

“Oh, sure. Uhm, just don’t look back at me, alright? [Unseen Watcher] really boosts my efficiency.”

“No problem,” Elaina said, warmth flowing through her again as she stepped into the large room, what was left of it. There was a huge door on the other side, the obvious destination. “I think something did this from outside. Broke through, somehow.” The thought was almost unbelievable, the thickness of the rock making up the hole in the ceiling making her wonder what could possibly break through so much stone. “And are we on a mountain? In a mountain?”

“I think we have to be. Not terribly high up, or we’d have trouble breathing, but in one regardless.”

Elaina bent down and ran her fingers over the snow, pinching it between her fingers. Cold. Crunchy, but soft. Coming from the north, she’d never actually seen it before. “This is wild. The people back home wouldn’t believe me.”

Carline chuckled. “So the magic crystal lady that gave us classes and teleported us underground would have been believable, but the snowy mountain is too much?”

Elaina smirked, rolling her eyes. “Yeah, I guess you have a point.”

She walked across the room, through remnants of metal furniture. Tables, chairs, even panels of crystal, similar to the one that was in the security office Tira had taken her to, littered the floor in various states of disrepair. “There’s so much crystal in here,” Carline said. “I can’t imagine anyone would just leave this stuff here willingly.”

“I don’t think they did,” Elaina replied, maneuvering over an overturned piece of table, doing her best not to flash herself while also keeping her eyes forward. “Maybe this was one of the battles of the Night Wars, forgotten about?”

“Even then, the victors would have gathered up the crystals, right?”

“I mean—” Elaina’s thought was cut off as she kicked something up out of the snow and jumped back. A skull, and not from an animal. “Fuck, Carline there’s bodies in here!”

Carline ran past, the warmth in Elaina fading a bit as she did. “Stars, I think you're right, this must have been a battle.”

“Yeah,” Elaina said, creeping by, warmth blessedly returning as she entered Carline’s vision again. “Wonder who won.”

“Maybe no one did… It would explain why the crystals are still left here.”

The two moved past more destruction, more ancient bodies, up to the door at the end of the room, one of the last pieces of metal that still stood untouched. It had a spinning handle in the middle, but that was far beyond reach, the entire door itself being as tall as the grand entrance to Endrin.

“How do we open it?” Carline said.

Elaina knew how. It called to her. “You don't feel that?”

“Feel what?”

Elaina reached out with her hand, and then [Restraint]. Beyond the door, to the locking mechanism keeping it shut, the giant chains on the inside.

She pulled.