Celestial Roots

Chapter 15 - Rebirth

Taghna no longer existed. Her consciousness remained inaccessible and her thoughts dissolved before taking shape. Only remained nothingness, an endless abyss deprived of any sensation. Taghna had lost track of time, space and being.

With intense effort, she managed to capture a thread of thought. This flux, as thin as a hair, linked her consciousness to her former personality. Taghna understood that she was cut off from her body. Before she could formulate another thought, the thread broke. Taghna plunged back into total absence. Her existence almost disappeared.

Then the nothingness evolved, it grew into a huge void. The emptiness was now a tenuous impression. Taghna was floating. This feeling was more reassuring than not feeling anything, even if it was barely noticeable. It also proved that she was not dead, because if there was emptiness, there had to be fullness, too.

Only during these fleeting moments did she think she really was Taghna, that she had not ceased to exist. Taghna was convinced that she was living a very strange dream, without beginning or end.

- urarch... séaruln... ? ... Lorgá... erg' archom...

She realized that her body had returned but that she had not yet taken possession of it. She was floating right above it. She was so close to being able to unite with her bodily shell but she had no way of influencing her movements. She was therefore on the verge of becoming herself again, body and soul. After being nothing, she was something.

She was progressing.

Then she felt like tiny hands grabbing her. She was pretty sure these hands didn't belong to people. The fingers that pinched her were inside her. They were gently pulling at her back, belly, chest and even the top of her head and toes.

Taghna thought she had retaken control of her body and mind but she was still powerless. She didn't know how to lift an arm or a leg anymore. She was just an empty shell, tugged from all sides. This confirmed her first idea. It could only be a dream.

She decided to grin and bear it, patiently. She was waiting for the tiny, evanescent hands to leave before trying to move again. Nothing bulged. After a while, she thought she had succeeded, but realized that she was just rolling. The was slipping as if sliding down the slope of a gentle hill. She wanted to find her balance but her limbs were still absent.

She kept falling.

- ... picked up... better than no... but seeing... Ô Lorg...

What were those voices? Taghna could hear them from far away and they were strangely familiar. Contrary to the sensations she had felt until then, these words seemed to be coming from outside. She was making an effort to remember... She had a vague idea of a gathering of people who looked identical to her but she lost track of it and eventually forgot.

The hands had stopped and her continuous fall was also fading to make way for a hard and rough surface. After so many strange sensations, Taghna felt like she was finally touching the ground. She was no longer tossed around on all sides. Her thoughts kept their shape without her putting all her energy into it.

She was able to think more easily.

She wondered where she was. She suspected that she had fainted for a brief moment and would regain consciousness in the middle of the clearing, lying near the stump of the stroïgil. However, the course of events was still unclear and she didn't understand what had happened.

- 'too much time... 'nd help in the other villages... duty is to share... tsss... our mistake, isn't it?

Taghna was finally able to grasp snippets of sentences that came closer to her. She now recognized the authoritative voice of Séabanh, the hissing of Séacas and the tone of Maoïr.