Runesight

14 - Echoball

Eliax blinked slowly at the necromancer in front of her, trying to comprehend the request through the tired haze in her mind. She needed to take a break from memories, maybe it would give her a lull in the nightmares?

Niun watched her expectantly, "Well?"

The tired Tuvei put a hand to her head, wincing as a random wave of headache appeared. Yeah...she should take a break from the deep memory scans. "Sorry, what exactly did you want?"

"Are you going to my brother's game? I heard you're friends."

"Uhhhh...who's your brother?"

He sighed, "Raendus. The Echoball player."

"Right! I don't want to go."

Niun folded his arms, "Eliax, you owe me still for basically ruining my life."

"That was...Illila." She reminded him, yawning.

"That doesn't matter, you have to come with me, I don't want to spend all day alone with Jiuhen."

"Isn't Hivren going?" Eliax muttered.

"No, he has to take an assessment."

"This is why I'm -yawn- not going to school, too much...assessing."

"How much sleep did you get last night?"

Eliax glanced at her hands and held up all eight fingers, then paused and dropped one off, then another...and...another. One. Yes. That's how much sleep she'd gotten. One.

Niun stared at her for a long moment. "Well, I'm going then."

"Huh?"

"Yeah. You need to go back to sleep, the game is tomorrow."

Eliax rested the side of her head on the table, "That's fantastic." She glanced vaguely at the area, which was just Alsen's front room. She wasn't quite sure how Niun had tracked her down, but whatever. She closed her eyes, "I'm going to just...sit here and die for a while."

-

She wasn't sure when he left, but he was gone when she next opened her eyes. In fact, there was a blanket over her and when she looked out the window it was dark outside. Sparks, it had been around noon last she remembered!

She sat up, blinking, feeling odd cramps all over from the weird sleeping position. She glanced to the side when she saw movement and relaxed as she realized it was just Alsen with a book. There was a light spell hovering above her hand, and she was watching Eliax.

"You must've been tired. I think you were out for almost ten hours."

Eliax put a hand to her head, which felt much clearer than before. "I...sorry. I've been having a lot of nightmares lately." She stood up, her feet were shaky, but manageable.

Alsen frowned and closed her book, stepping forward and supporting her, "Eliax. You've been pushing yourself remarkably hard the entire time you've been here. I've seen you studying, going to the library, coming back tired and then studying some more. If you push yourself so hard, how will you continue once you finally do achieve your goal? Life doesn't simply get easier."

Eliax frowned, following Alsen as she started up the stairs. "You're right." She was just so close. It always felt like she was. What would she do once she stored all this out?

Those were the questions that plagued her as she slipped into a real bed and continued her battle against nightmares.

A dragon. I remember serving a dragon.