Rivers of Reverie

8. Choice of Friendship

Liryl had already experienced a similar moment. Her friend, unconscious from the hemorrhage, had been quickly rescued by the inhabitants of Fys Medir. Even if they had acted with surprising discipline, she still remembered vividly their scared faces, their worried whispers. Even their head priestess, despite her expertise, could not conceal her dismay and her concern as Sanya was fighting for her own life.

On the contrary, the atmosphere in Fys Narhal looked calm, almost surreal, despite the gravity of the situation. No group of sisters gathered around the fainted nymph. Even Mhera simply had the nymph brought to her home to heal the head trauma, as if nothing strange occurred at all.

Liryl and Sanya waited outside the priestess's house in silence, until she came out.

"How is she?" Liryl asked, immediately.

"The bleeding has stopped," Mhera commented, before letting out a sigh. "For the rest, I'll take care of her at the end of my round."

Round? The two girls glanced at each other, confused.

"But, what happened to her?" Sanya asked.

The priestess shook her head, then turned towards the other girl.

"Liryl – right? – you were telling me you had some odd dreams, did you not?"

Liryl nodded unsurely and briefly recounted the nightmares which had been tormenting her for the last nights.

"Most of the villagers have been through your same experience," the priestess explained. "Come. See for yourselves."

***

The air inside the house smelled heavy, which in itself was already unusual since most of the places nymphs lived in were open and ventilated. However, Liryl and Sanya soon realized that the house was not empty. A girl, just a bit older than them, was sleeping on a bed. Her breath was irregular, labored, and at times almost imperceptible. Little drops of cold sweat covered her from head to toe, leaving dark stains on her clothes. The priestess sat next to her and drew a vial, then she poured a drop from it into a bowl of water and made her swallow it in small sips.

"She, too ...?" Liryl was about to ask, shocked.

The priestess nodded. "Two months ago, the ground all around Mount Esper quaked for a few seconds. Me and the other priestess felt something wrong, but the spirits revealed nothing about it. At any rate, neither I nor the others could have foreseen what would have happened in the following days.

"In the beginning it was just a few isolated cases. However, over the course of a couple weeks, the majority of the villagers started experiencing nightmares – me included. Many of us did not remember anything after waking up. Those who could recounted things very much like the ones you told me about before. All of us, though, felt exhausted and weakened by these strange dreams.

"We hoped it would be just a temporary situation, but we were wrong. Indeed, with each passing week, more and more nymphs started feeling so weakened that they could no longer attend to their daily work, or even take care of themselves. Many fell asleep, and never woke up again." Mhera shook her head ruefully. "By now, almost half the sisters are resting in their beds. Me and the others are doing our best, but I don't know how longer can we hold out."

"That's terrible," Sanya murmured in dismay. "Why don't you ask for help from Fys Espyr or the other communities?"

"None of us would have the energies to endure such a journey," Mhera replied. "Recently though, a priestess came here from Fys Espyr. She said she wanted to study this phenomenon, and that she would help us however she could. She also said that she would ask for aid in Fys Espyr on our behalf, but nobody has come yet ..."