The Archress [HOLD]

VI

Armia was an avid dreamer. She would dream while she was asleep, dream while she was awake, dream that she was dreaming in a dream. Most of them were nonsense; little bits of life mixed with some fantasy or the other. But for every one that didn't make sense, there was a vividly real and terrifying vision that would seem like a nightmare, except that they would come true one way or another.

But all she could dream about now was darkness.

She imagined that that was what death felt like: dark and empty and boringly still. It felt like time was frozen, and maybe it was. After all, it wouldn't be the first time that such a thing had happened.

"Shut up, stupid girl," someone snapped.

Armia tossed and turned in a sea of softness. She didn't like not dreaming at all.

"This is the Archress?" The same snotty masculine voice broke Armia out of her un-dreams. "I don't even think she's sane."

"Of course she's sane," someone else replied in a girly, younger voice. "I can feel it."

"And I can feel myself dying of boredom before she wakes up. How long have we even been here? Y'know that if Ryrianne doesn't get the Archress by tomorrow, we're done for. As in done done. Dead, and not from boredom."

"I am perfectly aware that our lives are in the line, Rho," the girl replied. "Maybe I should let go of her."

Rho made a sound that sounded like a cough and a squeal. "Don't do that! Thea, you could be the only thing that's holding her up. Thea..."

All at once, color and light bloomed around Armia's empty mind, like an invisible cork had been popped. Her eyes opened of their own accord and immediately sought out the people who had watched her as she'd slept. A smaller built boy with hair a bright shade of beige, Rho, was lounging in a cushioned chair. Short sleeves showed off light skinned arms, almost completely covered by pink, scarring scratches that ran up and down like a natural sleeve. His face wore a scowl, and his eyes were lightly closed.

The girl, Thea, however was perching on the very edge of Armia's bed. As Armia opened her eyes, Thea's upturned ones immediately found hers, as if she'd been waiting for it. The girl was bland, easy to look over in a boringly perfect way. Her hair was a rusty brown that matched her dull, brown, upturned eyes. There wasn't a flaw on her tan skinned face, except for clusters of strategically placed freckles. She wore a simple white dress that looked more like a glorified nightgown.

Rho's eyes found Armia's and he snorted. "Oh, so you are alive."

"Rhohan!" Thea exclaimed. She rose from the bed and came close enough to Armia that she was practically sitting in her. Curious eyes scanned her face, taking interest in Armia's hair. Gently, Thea reached out and stroked it. "You're a very wild dreamer," she said.

Armia gave the people around her a confused look. Questions about her surroundings began to burst from her mouth. "Who are you? Where am I?And what were you talking about before? What are you talking about now? How long was I asleep for, and where are the others?"

Rho--was it short for Rhohan? She was going to call him Rohan from now on--let out a frustrated huff. "We're in the kingdom of Flendarian, and--"

Armia bolted upright. Flendarian was west of Caos. Far west. She'd have to have traveled over the Karu Mountains, which surrounded almost all of the western land. She knew that it should take weeks to cross the Karu, but there was no way she could have been out that long.