The Guardian - The Crystal Cave

The Healing Temple

"Ishtar! Ishtar!" said a voice coming from the dark. Although she didn't know who was calling, it sounded too familiar. Ishtar felt the urge to help the person calling out her name, but she didn't know how.

"Ishtar!" the voice shouted once again, and then Ishtar woke up startled.

She didn't know what had happened. Her consciousness seemed to be returning from somewhere else, as if it had gone far away and now it was finally leading back to her body.

It seemed like her senses were slowly returning to normal. Now Ishtar was able to say she was lying down. The surface where she found herself was quite comfortable. It was probably a bed. Something also seemed to cover her up to the neck. Presumably a blanket.

She felt neither cold nor heat. The temperature was not bothering her, since she was not sweating or shivering. It was quite pleasant, actually. Ishtar tried to move, but her body still wasn't responding. She could feel she was still getting back in control of her senses.

A subtle scent caught her attention. Smell of flowers. It was like she was lying in the middle of a garden. That aroma was really pleasing. Then, sounds started calling her attention. Gradually, she managed to comprehend it was the sound of people talking. The voices seemed to belong to two people, who were talking in a quiet tone, but very close to her. Ishtar could also hear birds singing and other voices in the distance. She couldn't distinguish the words from those nearby. It was as if she was listening to everything in a muffled manner.

Then, she felt her eyes closed. However, the environment should be well enlightened, as she could still recognize there was light.

She was able to distinguish the first words of the conversation between the two people she overheard. The sound was still muffled and she could only understand one sentence.

"She's waking up, go call Asim."

A long, deep breath seemed to give back the control she was missing, and then she managed to open her eyes. First, there was only a white blur and a lot of light, but then things started to take more defined shapes, until the world presented itself to her.

The room was not too big, the walls were white with some details in a blue-green shade, and there were some devices beside her bed that emitted lights of different colors. What caught her eye the most was a monitor in which the outline of a person was drawn, and there was a line in the middle of it. Following the line, there were seven points of light, which went from the base of the column to the top of the head. The first one at the bottom was red, followed by an orange one, then yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, and the last one at the top looked like some kind of purple or lilac with white marks.

Her eyes were finally able to focus, and she noticed that someone was inside the room. She was a tall, black woman with very short hair. She wore small glasses, a greenish-white coat, and two bracelets with a crystal each, just like the one she had seen Asim wearing.

The woman came walking towards her and stopped beside the bed. She raised her right hand in Ishtar's direction and started to speak, but the girl could not understand what the woman was saying. The words still seemed mixed and muffled.

Ishtar wondered if she was a doctor assisting her. The woman held her hand extended and gave Ishtar a very steady look, appearing completely focused on what she was doing. The way she was concentrating made it seem like raising her hands in someone's direction was the most difficult thing in the world, like it took a lot of effort.

A fading blue light started shining from the crystal on her bracelet. The light was very strange, appearing to be alive, since it was moving somehow. Ishtar was completely amazed looking at it. The light came out of the crystal and went all the way through the wrist to the woman's hand, until finally reaching her fingertips. Then, emerged almost like a fluid towards the girl. The light crossed the air, resembling water or dense gas rather than light itself, in the direction of Ishtar's neck.