Abyssal Reverie

Chapter 15: Give

"I am granting you more than The debt that I owe."

Days began to pass, and the moments surrounding my every waking moment began to bleed into one another. The guilt of leaving my mother to suffer was eating away at me. The swirling truth of who I was was raking its filthy fingers around my brain.
Something deep inside me knew that whatever Vessel had just found would be the last piece in the puzzle. His frantic movements spoke volumes about what was to come. There was a pit in my stomach that wouldn't go away. This gnawing vibration reverberated off the walls of my mind, a constant reminder that whatever we were looking for... It was looking for us, too.

I didn't know what to do with myself. I was still weak, and the walking motion was causing my whole body to ache. I could feel the adrenaline leave my bloodstream. My heart returned to its normal rhythm, but I still felt something was missing. That part of me was locked away, far from where we were. My mind wandered to thoughts of my mother, how she looked covered in the tentacles of Sleep... I could feel the tears stinging the sides of my eyes, the thoughts of what that Helion of a Deity was doing to her now rampant through my being. I couldn't steady myself; I made myself lie still in my bed while she hovered in the darkest part of the ocean, waiting for me to save her.

~~

The sun was at the highest peak in the sky when I found Simon. He was on all fours scrubbing at the floor in the kitchen. The dark brown sludge left from the prior meals bubbled all around him. His sweet, young face was covered in dark smudges. The sweat curled the beautiful wefts of sunkissed blonde hair around his forehead and neck. At this moment, despite the circumstances that brought him here, he looked young. He looked at peace.

"I suppose I have been shirking my duties." I smiled at him as his eyes widened at the sight of me.
"Selah!" he tossed the scrub brush he was using into the bucket of sudsy water. "You're awake. And... Alone!" He hugged me, and the squeeze of his embrace knocked the wind from me. The aching in my body was still gnawing at my insides. "Gods, it's good to see you walking alone."
"It's good to see you too, Simon." A small laugh escaped my lips as I watched him wipe his hands on his tunic to dry them. "Could you use some help?"
"NO!" He snatched the bucket and brush from the place on the floor before us. "Don't you dare! Vessel would skin me alive if he saw you working right now. You're still too fragile."
"Haven't I been fragile the whole time I've been on this ship? You just now think it wise to stop me from helping?"
"You fought a guardian and lived. You continue to battle the ether in your blood. Selah, your body is healing more than just fractured pieces of the mind. Putting yourself back together physically will take more energy, especially when you undergo the detoxification of ether."
"How long... How long was I out?" I could feel my voice shaking under the weight of the question. "How long were... We... out?" It had felt like just a few days. The ship was functioning as it should have in our absence.
"A week or so... I believe last I checked in with II, he had said you both had made it to 5 days, but I know there were times when you were both lucid enough to fight one another." He smiled, the grin alluding to knowing more than he would speak aloud.
"A week?" The ache of my bones shifted under my weight as I worked to balance myself once more.
"We have all been sick with worry, but they... Wouldn't let us see him. Or let me see you."
"I suppose everyone is a bit upset that I survived the ether." I pushed my hair back behind my ear, the seawater coating every strand, causing it to be sticky.
"They were more upset that Vessel put himself in harm's way to save you. We all knew you were brought here to serve a purpose, but him doing what he did proves... You are worth more than any of us."

Simon's voice drifted off as he walked to put his cleaning supplies away. I watched as he rinsed out his buckets and wiped off each handle he touched, finally turning to me. His eyes were sad, sandy blonde strands falling in just the right place to block his line of sight from me. My heart throbbed in my chest. The saddness creeps into every crevasse with each beat. The tightness is the only thing keeping me grounded to this moment.