Eternity

Enyé

I was 99% certain that I was dead.

Silensunus had fought for as long and as valiantly as she could, but even she could not defeat what ended up as ten attackers, all at once. She was on her knees, still fighting, when I felt something cold in my back and I faded into unconsciousness.

The wound I had received, a knife in the back, would have killed me once. But I was a silens, and no knife can kill a silens. At least, that was what I had been taught.

So why did I think I was dead?

Perhaps it was the feeling of failure. Silensunus and Oratus had been in the community for hundreds of years. I had joined it merely days ago. Yet I was still prepared to go on a quest that would most likely get me killed, all in order to save my brother. It was like a part of Terra, my ancestor, within me. All of our group had a part of our ancestor within them. And they were all prepared to join me on this hopeless quest. I respected that.

And what of my ancestor? Terra? I think she would be disappointed in me. Here I am, gifted with the greatest gift, an element, and I was just lying on the floor, believing I was dead? I am Presul. I am better than this.

Finally, I broke into consciousness. I was lying on a stone floor. The walls were bare and grey. A door that looked about a meter thick was in the centre of the wall opposite me. Silensunus lay beside me, and I could tell that someone was on my other side.

“Good,” murmured Oratus, “You’re awake.”

“Where are we?” I asked, “Who was that in the forest?”

“I don’t know, I’ve only just woken up. And I’m more concerned about Silensunus than that right now.”

He was right. Silensunus was covered in wounds of varying degrees of seriousness, including the knife which was still sticking out of her back.

“Well,” I said, “From the feel of it, we survived knives in the back as well, so hopefully she will have done.”

It was impressive. Silensunus had really refused to submit, until she was taken prisoner. In some ways, I was glad she was still unconscious. I knew, as soon as she was able, she would be fighting again.

As I thought this, her eyelids flickered.

Relief washed through me, though I groaned inwardly.

“Oww,” she moaned, “That one stung.”

I walked over to her. “You’ve got a knife in your back,” I pointed out.

“That would explain why it hurts so much. Presul, would you mind...”

“Not at all,” I replied, yanking the knife out of her back.

“Hey!” Silensunus cried, “That’s my knife! Well that’s...that’s just cheating!”

“Looks like you went down with a fight, then.”

“Hell yeah,” she replied, leaning against the wall.

At that moment, there was a noise from the hall outside and the door creaked open. A woman entered. She was tall, graceful and beautiful. She could quite easily have been a silens. My psychic abilities told me that she also had enhanced senses, strength and speed. However, there was one thing that made her different.

She had a pair of black, feathered wings protruding from her back.

When she saw that we were all awake she smiled.

“You may want to have your injuries looked at,” she said to Silensunus, “You can ask any one of us. We are all healers. Just like you are all psychics.”