59.5 Waiting
The notifications blink in front of your unseeing eyes as your mind replays the moment over and over.
She looks up.
Her lootbag falls.
She looks up.
Her lootbag falls.
She looks up.
Her lootbag falls.
You're not sure how long it's been. Your eyes sting from the smoke that drifts in the air and imparts a strange, ghostly calm on the scene.
The goblins, the surviving ones, are huddled by the stairs out of the arena. Their village is all but gone, the source of the smoke. Their faces are slack, oddly barren, as they turn things over in their hands – Small bones, some berries, a piece of wood. All that was left in the lootbags of their fallen friends.
The kobolds are no better, sat a third of the way around the sandy ring. Their friend didn't drop anything. You didn't even know Sapphire knew them that well.
Between them sits the gulf of magic that used to be your training pit. Mana unleashed, nearly formless and uncontrolled in the final moments, still sparks and spits in the air.
“How long until we know?” Mercy asks, her voice low and rough. She's been sat with you wince she healed your wings, at the other side of the arena, equidistant from the two grieving groups.
You shrug.
She looks up.
Her lootbag falls.
After a short eternity you manage to speak.
“I don't know. I would have thought it would have – when the adventurers were gone.”
the silence stretches.
“And we won't know if she made it? Unless she... until she respawns?”
You shake your head.
Stupid. Stupid. I should have done something. Kept her safer, or made her go and talk to people. Offer to barmaid at the inn, or made a secret room or -
“Red. Stop.”
Mercy's hand is cool on your shoulder. “It wasn't your fault. She chose to fight. To try and save you. Don't cheapen that with guilt.”
You snort.
“That sounds like a quote.”
She favours you with a wry smile, but doesn't speak again.
She looks up.
Her lootbag falls.
And you sit.
And you wait.
Until the sun comes up.
A huge thank you to my patreons NA, Dem1kles and ByzFan
Hope you enjoyed this sneaky bonus chap!