A Thousand Lives I've Seen

24 - Ask Me Naught

Water.

Frederica's eyes opened slowly, and she found herself in a place she did not recognize... No, that wasn't true. She had been here in some other life. She had been here when the war of Norzelia ended in a different way. The waterfalls at the southern end of Norzelia were familiar to her, and she really wished the opposite was true. She wasn't meant to be here. None of them were. In a different life, they wouldn't have been here. Frederica wasn't certain what had brought her here or what decisions she had made, but the idea left a weight in her chest and a rock in her stomach, both threatening to plunge her beneath the waves.

Water.

Frederica was standing just behind a shaky bridge that swayed gently in the breeze... No, it wasn't wind. It was the billowing of flames. Ahead, there were two people standing at the center of a purple pyre. The bridge was not consumed by the fire, but it would be soon. Frederica wished she could hear what the people were talking about so she could figure out just what she was seeing, but her heart was pounding too loudly in her ears. Her body throbbed with exhaustion. She had just endured a battle, and there was more for her to face even still.

A tear of pain opened in her heart, and Frederica felt herself scream as her throat went hoarse, but she heard nothing come out of her lips. Instead, she watched the purple fire rupture on itself. Others shielded their eyes, but Frederica stared into the inferno as ash started to speckle in her hair. The flame burned the bridge to nothing before a lone figure dropped into the waterfall below. 

Water. 

Frederica was running. 

She took off in a sprint down the grassy cliffs that led to the base of the waterfall, her heart continuing to scream in her ears. She dropped to her knees beside the empty husk of a figure in the water, feeling for a pulse with every desperate bone in her body. She didn't understand how she knew to look. She just knew all of this was wrong. She wasn't supposed to be here, he wasn't supposed to get hurt, they weren't supposed to be alive--

She felt something.

Frederica let out a dry sob as she anchored herself with the pulse of a heartbeat between her shaking fingertips. He was alive. There was still a chance. If they just pressed on, if they just acted quickly enough, then everything would be fine. But who was he? 

As soon as Frederica posed the question to herself, she already knew. 

Serenoa. 

Geela and Medina acted quickly, the former using her healing magic while the latter sifted through her satchel for the necessary materials to stitch a body back together after it was nearly torn in half by a sudden explosion of purple fire. Medina's fingers were swift and experienced, but Frederica still hoped with everything she had that this would be enough. She couldn't bear to think of what would happen if it wasn't enough. She needed Serenoa. She needed him just as much as she needed air. They needed each other.Gods above, they were everything together. They needed to be together. Serenoa please live please I need you please I can't lose you now we've come so far Serenoa--

The water swallowed Frederica before she could force herself to form the words, and she let out a clipped scream if the pain in her throat was any indicator. The ground had abandoned her, but she could still see the hazy outline of Serenoa above her. Medina and Geela were cradling his body, doing everything they could to save him and hoping it would be enough. Frederica hoped too, but above all else, she hurt. She just wanted to understand why something so terrible had happened to Serenoa, her sweet Serenoa, the one who had given her everything when all she had ever known was nothing.