Seraphim

Two

The forest was verdant. Sun filtered through the trees, speckling the ground with spots of light.

Blast the sun, thought Sevalyn. It hurt her eyes where she was laying on the ground.

She had ridden the skimmer all of the previous day -and night, ignoring her thirst and ignoring her exhaustion. But when the skimmer has, at last, approached a line of trees after flying over grasslands for a time, the line of trees had appeared as a solid wall to her dry, sore eyes. Her head had lurched, her concentration had lapsed, and she dimly remembered jerking the wheel of the skimmer just too far.

Now, the pieces of the small craft made a trail from the grassland to where she lay prone.

The tree...must have...hit the drive, she thought. A useless thought. What was useful right now?

Water.

The last drink she had had...the small amount of water stored on the skimmer. Right as she had been leaving the city.

I broke my fast.

No. Must not think about that.

She could hear a rushing sound as she stared up at the canopy of leaves. Was it only the wind in the trees? No...there was more substance to it. It sounded like...water.

She heaved herself to her knees. Convulsively, she drew up the earth beneath her hands to support her, wincing as she felt a plant separate from its roots. Her energy dipped sharply.

I must not use praena. Not enough energy.

The earthen props disintegrated beneath her. She fell flat on her face, then dragged herself with her hands and feet.

"You are not here," she heard Golan say. She almost looked up, his voice was so clear in her head. "You are a part of the praen, Sevalyn. An entity without."

It was as though she watched someone else drag her unwilling body to the edge of the stream. Around her, plants withered and insects dropped out of the air, but she didn't notice. The water. The water was life.

When she touched it, it was as though she were touching the trail of the stars in the sky. Nothing could feel more perfect, more sublime. She dipped her face in and drank.

It was heavenly.

Five hours later, she was curled up in the long grass, retching out whatever was left in her wrung out stomach.

And so I die, she thought as she closed her eyes and withdrew from the pain.