Plight of an Empire

Chapter Thirty Eight: Audriel

Elsewhere

Everything felt… off.

Her skin was numb, yet there was a tickling feeling just beneath the surface.  The world was dark, but it wasn’t.  Light was trying to break through the barrier, but it just wasn’t enough.  And the silence.  The silence was deafening.

But somehow, she was at peace.  She knew she should be concerned, but she wasn’t.  Why should she be?  There was nothing to hurt her.  She merely existed in the perpetual void.  It was a beautiful thing—just existing.  If more people did this, there would be more peace in the world.

And just like that, it was gone.

Bees buzzed around her head.  She wanted to swat them away, but her arms wouldn’t move.  The incessant buzzing increased to a drone.  It flickered in and out.  It was there, and then it wasn’t.  It droned on and on in random intervals.  She wanted nothing more than for it to go away so she could return to that peaceful void.

The droning grew louder until it actually sounded like something.  Something familiar.  Words, maybe?  But what did it say?  She strained her ears to listen pasting the buzzing.  Yes, she heard words.  Inaudible and grumbled up words, but words nonetheless.  She drowned out the buzzing and listened.

“Audriel…”

Her eyes shot open.  Blinding light flashed in front of her.  She recoiled, snorting from the pain.  Her arms and legs were numb and cold, but she could still wildly thrash them about.  Warm grips found their way on her joints, pressing her down.

“Audriel!” she heard again.  “Calm down.  Everything is alright.  I need you to calm down.”

That voice.  She recognized that voice.  Her eyelids cracked open.  A shadowed figure blocked the painful light.  She tried to speak, but a muffled garble came out instead.  Her mouth was a desert.

“Water!” she heard the woman shout.  “Get her water!”

Soon, a ladle appeared in front of her lips.  The cool liquid sloshed about in it as it was put to her lips.  It fell down her throat, ridding her of the prickly dryness.  When the ladle ran empty, she could finally speak.  “More.”

“Another,” the woman said.

Another ladle of water was in her lips.  She brushed it with the tips of her fingers as she drank.  Her strength returned with every swallow.  Empty once more, she managed to push herself up with her weak arms.  They shook as she pressed her weight on them, but she succeeded.  A feat in and of itself.

“Easy,” said the woman.

Audriel blinked back the haze that had shrouded her vision.  The light was harsh no more.  Her head rolled around on her neck as she readied herself.  She set her eyes on the woman before her.  The woman she saw was just a girl.  She had smooth skin and pink cheeks, copper hair braided over her shoulder, and deep blue eyes.  “Adrianne?” she croaked.

The girl smiled.  In her eyes, Audriel saw relief.  “Yes, Your Grace.  It is I.”

“What…” she struggled for the words.  Her vision had cleared, but her mind was still a haze.  “What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later, Your Grace,” she said with a sad smile.  “Right now you need your rest.”

Her heart thumped in her chest like the sounds of galloping horses.  “No, tell me now.  I need to know.  The Behemoths…  Did I…”

Adrianne nodded.  “Most are dead, the rest have fled into the countryside.  King Arkayus has assembled legions of Behemoth hunters to track them down and kill them.”