SAGE (under edit)

Chapter Thirty Four - Comradery

It was the silence that woke Sage, if only because her last memory was filled with the sounds of fighting.

Sydney.

Sage lifted a hand to her head, but was caught off-guard by the heaviness of her muscles. She opened her eyes and realised she was back in her tent, and gradually her ears picked up the customary sounds of distant voices that floated through the border camp. She recognised Raidan's voice as well just outside her tent and as she slowly sat up, Sage wasn't surprised to hear Raidan's voice abruptly stop. A moment later, he appeared through the flaps of the tent.

'How long have I been out?' Sage asked, grimacing at the tenderness behind her shoulder. Stab wound, she reminded herself. Poison.

'Half a day,' Raidan answered. She saw him start forward as she stood up, but she waved him back reassuringly. 'Your friend, the medic, said you had been struck by a paralytic poison that Sky Soldiers have been known to use during skirmishes. She flushed it from your system when I brought you back. How are you feeling?'

'Tired,' she admitted, 'but otherwise okay. Did they manage to save Sydney?'

Raidan nodded and Sage felt a weight lift from her chest. 'She's recovering in the medical tent. I'm assuming you will ignore me if I say you need to keep resting?'

'You know me too well,' Sage quipped. She brushed past him, gently laying a hand on his arm to reassure him again. 'I'm all right, I promise. I just want to check on Sydney.'

Raidan didn't protest, but he did decide to accompany her. Toren was outside her tent and he greeted her warmly before she continued on toward the medical tent. Just like the other day, Sage received majority of the attention from the Crest Soldiers loitering between the tents. She was almost too tired to ignore them, but as she walked she noticed something different about the whispers, the looks cast her way.

The disdain wasn't there, nor was the outrage. As her eyes jumped from face to face, Sage tried to gauge what it was she saw in their expressions and felt in the air surrounding them. She didn't want to fool herself into thinking they had changed their opinion of her overnight, but the tension from the other day seemed to have disappeared.

And then one of the Crest Soldiers broke away from the small group she had been speaking with, and just as Sage went to walk around her the Helian reached a hand to stop her.

'Sage Lycrart,' the Helian said, absently tucking a brown lock of her hair behind her ear as she regarded Sage. 'I wanted to... personally thank you.'

'Thank me?' said Sage, surprised. She glanced to a few of the other Crest Soldiers who were listening, half-expecting this to be some kind of trick.

The Helian nodded. 'My name is Ahna Kripten, and my brother Joff was stationed at outskirt-camp three during the ambush last night. I heard you saved the camp.'

'I... I just did what any Crest Soldier would have done,' Sage replied.

'But that's the point,' someone else remarked, and Sage turned around when she recognised the voice as Theo's. She noticed straight away how tired he was, the stress and exhaustion gathering around his eyes in dark circles. 'You're not a Crest Soldier anymore, yet you still acted like one. How are you feeling? I was just trying to visit you when Toren said you were already up and about,' he added, offering a lopsided smile.

Sage glanced back to Ahna but she had already returned to her friends. To Theo she said, 'I'm fine. What about Sydney?'

'She's likely still asleep, but we'll go see her,' Theo said. He fell into step beside Sage, Raidan a silent shadow behind them, and recounted the events that Sage had missed after she passed out. 'The Crest Soldiers you freed managed to fend off the Sky Soldiers until back up arrived, and Raidan brought you back here as soon as the medic on site diagnosed the drug used on you. Sydney was stabilised at the camp, and then brought back here shortly after you. You saved her, Sage.'