CH 55: Recovery

Claire woke up with a haze, her body felt heavy as she tried to move. Her head pounded like she was hungover, her eyes were blurry when she opened them and she had a ringing in her ear. She stirred, clutching her head in pain as she tried to sit up. She was gently pushed back down as her body’s strength gave out.

“Claire, relax. You’re still recovering.” Lily’s voice whispered to her, she felt like they were moving. But everything spun when she opened her eyes, so it could have been vertigo.

“Wh-what happened?” Claire asked, her voice cracking and her throat felt dry. She felt fine earlier when she woke up to Elsie’s shenanigans, but now she felt so weak.

“Seems like you caught something while recovering… Or your body thinks it’s sick. You have a fever and have been asleep for two days.” Lily said, her voice calming as Claire focused on it. She nearly shot up when she heard how long she was out, but Lily was quick to keep her down. “Claire, relax. It will pass soon, Ana and I made sure of that.”

Claire’s head spun as she processed what Lily had said to her. How could she have been out for two days? It felt like only a couple hours ago she was holding Elsie’s hand as Jasmine had her way with her. She tried to focus on Lily’s face, but her vision was blurry.

“Claire. Can you check your sheet for us? There might be a status or message that could help us.” Lily said as she moved to grab something. Claire then felt something wet and cold touch her forehead. She tried to nod her head, but she couldn’t move very much.

She opened her sheet and was hit with several notifications. Congrats! You’ve gained followers. Congrats! Your Goddess has gained influence. Both of which sent her mind into a whirlwind, but she pressed on. Status: Weak Healing Fatigue. Healing too much causes your body too much stress. Status: Weak Divine Fatigue. Channeled [Unknown]’s power and caused too much stress on your body.

“Divine… Fatigue?” She got out as she read it. She heard shuffling as another voice broke through.

“D-divine fatigue?!” Ana said with a mix of intrigue and panic. She rested her hand on Claire’s cheek, checking her temperature. “Lily! Did Toni look as pale as she does?”

Claire heard Lily mumble to herself as she recalled the singer from before. He did look incredibly pale and tired the day after. “He did… Claire, did you dream of your Goddess?” Lily asked.

Claire tried to shake her head as she got out between labored breaths. “Gained followers… and influence for Her.”

“Holy Goddess… I was right. Jaz, you did get us followers!” Lily said as she stood up and out of Claire’s view. Ana moved to Claire’s side as she cuddled under her arm.

“W-we theorized about why you glowed in your sleep a couple days ago. I thought you were visited by H-Her again, but Lily thought it was something else.” Ana whispered into her ear. Her voice soothed Claire as her headache slowly faded. “I lost our bet…”

Claire wanted to ask about the bet so badly. She knew what it meant and what the prize probably was. She’d give anything to see the results of the bet. Her body and spirit craved to hear what her lovers would get up to. But her mind slowly faded. She was falling back to sleep as her eyes felt heavy. Ana’s presence and voice soothed her back into slumber.

The night before the rest of her party had a meeting to go over what they had learned. Elsie, who was asleep for a whole day, was filled in with what her sister and Lily had figured out. The three put their heads together and tried to figure out what was wrong with Claire.

“So you can see the healing fatigue but nothing else?” Elsie asked the two. They both could read illnesses and ailments due to their classes, but couldn’t find anything wrong with her.

“No… we can see something, but it’s shrouded…” Lily said, furrowing her brow. She stared at Claire trying to analyze her illness.

“S-shows up as a bunch of random symbols.” Ana said.

“And she’s not poisoned or dying?” Elsie asked, her shoulders tensing. Both shook their heads.

“She’s not losing any mana or health and the symptoms are like a severe case of Healing fatigue. My best guess would be related to her Goddess or her power.” Lily said, rubbing her chin.

“But that’s never happened before.” Elsie retorted. She recalled when the Goddess visited them as the orb and Claire’s dreams. “But… the other times were dreams. And Jasmine…”

“S-she used their conception to manifest. Both didn’t require Claire's direct strength.” Ana said as she recalled her arrival. She spoke to Elsie in her head, ‘She glowed like Jasmine did and apparently like Toni did when he channeled the Goddess.’

‘But wouldn’t Jasmine have had a similar reaction?’ Elsie asked, as Lily watched on in the silence.

‘No, maybe She didn’t use Jasmine’s body or energy. She used Claire and Jasmine’s pregnancy to manifest herself.’ Ana retorted, she had spent quite a bit of time with Lily discussing Claire’s condition. She was leaning towards Lily being right, but her worry was more for their bet.

‘I guess it makes sense.’ Elsie said, conceding to Ana. ‘Did you tell Lily about our telepathy?’ To which Ana nodded. Elsie sighed as she liked having something just between her and her sister. But she’d need to tell Claire and Jasmine about it eventually.

“So Jasmine lied to the villagers about our strength, they believed it, and now Claire has followers?” Elsie said out loud. Recalling what had caused Claire’s worsening condition. “Well that’s one problem partially solved, any idea on rituals or worship?”

Both shook their heads as Elsie let out a sigh. They’d have to find a priestess or something for that. “But, at least we figured out how to gain followers. No thanks to that goddess.” Jasmine said, finally chiming in.

“True… Good job with that by the way.” Elsie said as she eyed Jasmine. She still felt a bit nervous around her since yesterday’s fiasco. “Way to use that northerner.”

“Hey, she didn’t even come back for the corpses. And the villagers hadn’t seen her at all. If she cared, she’d have looted their cave or corpses.” Jasmine said, shrugging.

She couldn’t remember which of her former friends said it, but she said something like, “rumors become facts and facts become legends.” It was when they discussed the Tyrant’s tale and his accomplishments. Some of which seemed impossible and others too unlikely for the strength he had at the time. Her old party member suggested they were fake in the beginning to help his image.

She shook her head, remembering which girl had said that after thinking more on it. The same one who spread rumors about her ex girlfriend and ruined that poor girl’s reputation. She still can’t believe she turned a blind eye to those things back then.

“Whatever… I hope we run into her more. She was so sexy. Her arms nearly put Claire to shame.” Elsie said as she shifted to lay in her sister’s lap. “I’ve got watch in a bit, wake me up when it starts.”

Ana let her sister fall asleep in her lap. They stopped the discussion there and set about preparing for the night. Elsie was awoken later for her shift and the party set out the next day, hoping for Claire to wake up and clarify things.

Claire next woke up feeling much better. Her eyes could focus now and her head wasn’t pounding. Her body was sore, but not weak like last time. She slowly sat up, feeling the blood rush to her head as she did. It looked to be early morning, with Jasmine missing from the bed.

She slowly shifted to the driver’s seat, careful not to wake anyone. Jasmine watched as she shakily climbed to join her. “Claire, thank the Goddess. You actually have color in your face. Are you alright?” She said, relief in her voice.

“Hungry, thirsty, and sore, but I feel much better. The fatigue has finally passed. How long was I out?” Claire asked as she situated herself next to Jasmine. She felt the cold morning air and looked out to the rising sun.

“Only half a day this time…” Jasmine said, watching the girl carefully.

“Anything of note happened since I’ve been out? How’s Elsie and Ana been?” Claire asked.

“They were shaken up, both because of the fight and your condition. Elsie’s been a lot calmer though. Might have to do that more often.” Jasmine said with a bit of a giggle. She wanted to lighten the mood, but it wasn’t her forte.

Thankfully, Claire laughed with her. “Jaz… you nearly sucked the soul out of her. She couldn’t string a word together.” She said with a giggle.

“True! She was so calm and obedient for the past couple days. It was so nice.” Jasmine continued. “We were able to make great time traveling, even with the village celebrating.”

Claire tilted her head at that. “Celebration?”

“Yeah… They wanted to celebrate in your honor that day, but you were out of it. So they celebrated in your honor. Both because that bigger troll apparently has been causing them troubles for a while, and to thank your Goddess.” Jasmine said, rubbing the back of her neck. She wished she had saved some of the food, but they would have spoiled. “Was pretty interesting, mostly just them praising us.”

Claire pursed her lips as her stomach rumbled. She missed out on their generosity and their food. “Ugh, well at least they believed you.” She said, leaning her head on Jasmine’s shoulders.

There was a light pause as the two looked to the rising sun. “Are you doing okay? Like mentally?” Jasmine asked, shifting Claire to her lap. “I know how hard you take these things… That troll was smarter than we expected an-”

“I know. I just fell for it so easily.” Claire said, interrupting her. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.”

“I can’t… I worry you will end up like me.” Jasmine said, her voice breaking a bit. “You know how hard it is for me… and I said it before, lean on me.”

Claire nodded before gently rising to face her. “I know… I’m healing and so is my pride.” She whispered before giving her a kiss. “Thank you. I just need to replace my shield now… I liked that thing.”

Jasmine laughed as Claire tilted her head. “Funny you should mention that.”