Essentia Animus

36-Commanding Uncertainty

Riyxia waited patiently as the others rested and recovered, worrying about how much more they would need to go through in order to make it back safely. With how long they had been gone, it would probably be rather late in the afternoon, people would have started worrying about them.

She was plenty worried as things stood, even though the girls were recovering quickly enough. She had been applying her gift to them casually in their rest, trying to ensure that any yet undiscovered injuries had also been healed away, giving them a better chance to fully recover. Once again, she hadn't been enough to ensure they stayed safe, only being able to occasionally help them in a sparse few moments. If it wasn't for their own individual resolve, that would have ended up much worse. She couldn't handle everything by herself, and probably never would. There was no help for it, something had to be done so that all of them had as much control over this stuff as she did. That had her wondering though, how did she pull this off in the first place? If she needed to help both of the others in achieving the same, it would be important to understand what had made the difference in the first place.

Nothing, she had nothing. Some of her first uses of such rage had probably been gradually climbing ever since that one fight she had been in alone with the pack of beasts. Being gradual would have made it easier to control, but even that didn't help, she had no idea why it was so gradual. If she had exposed herself to such rage at that point, she might have been prepared for it already even before that time, but that gave her nothing to work with either. She pondered the idea, going over every detail she could remember, with no success even by the time Vwyx started to awaken. Once awake, Vwyx took up the responsibility in making sure Riyxia's wounds were finally dealt with as well. Vwyx turned considerations to any injuries she still had, ending any further progress in her previous considerations. Around when most of Riyxia's injuries had been repaired, Sryine woke up as well.

"Now that everyone is awake, maybe we should consider stopping for dinner? Do we even have anything left that is usable for food?" "I might have a few bars left over, so I hope that would do." Vwyx looked at the bars hungrily and accepted one in offer, leaving Sryine to giggle softly. Riyxia cringed at this exchange, but neither of the other two commented. Sryine passed another bar to Riyxia, sitting to chew on her own while waiting for Vwyx to finish up on repairs. There was a sombre tone set over everything, leaving Riyxia to worry if everything was alright. Things probably weren't, even with all the rest and recovery completed. Both of the girls were still suffering from their own circumstances, keenly aware of exactly what situation they were in. Things wouldn't be alright until those circumstances changed. She still had no idea how to fix this problem for them, but at least getting back to safety would prove a good way to start things off.

"So, I got a pretty good look at our options out of here earlier, almost every path here leads upwards. I have no certainty in anything being the right answer, but picking a direction might at least be better than doing nothing. Why don't we try that path over there, and see where it might take us, huh?" Ryxia indicated a path of choice, a generally nondescript path in every way, much like all of the others. The others got up at this prompting, with Ryxia leading the way once more. At this point, it was only her lamp that was providing light, the other lamps having been put away while both girls had rested. She doubted either girl would be up to much looking around, they were barely putting one foot before the other, so they really only needed the one lamp. Ryxia guided them along that tunnel, then made a quick decision at the first split in the path, guiding them along the new tunnel.

This continued for a while more, turns and walking, turns and walking. After several more repeats, Ryixia arrived at another crossroad. She turned down one way, noting it proceed much like all of the rest, and then turned to face the alternative. She almost dropped her lamp in that moment, the sky faintly visible at the end of the passage beyond. It was finally a way out. Riyxia led them towards this small opening, nothing more than a crack in the rock wall, and out into the open sky and fresh air. They were free, at last! Vwyx got her phone out and made use of its mapping feature to figure out where they were. The map Riyxia had been using had been lost in water damage, but fortunately the cells seemed a bit more resilient. Making use of such a resource, they managed to plot a route back to the Hunter's shelter, arriving at dusk.