Anamnesis: Book 1

Chapter 14

Visions faded in and out of his subconscious. Some were an indistinctive haze, with distorted shapes, filtered colors, and muffled voices. Others, still, were vivid. A young woman with fair skin came running across the grassland of his mind's eye. Her face was shrouded by the long, dark locks of her hair, though occasionally he would catch a glimpse of cobalt. Her heeled soles carried her with great haste, with the wind tugging at her apron and the ruffled edge of her slate dress. There was something familiar about her, something that Levi couldn't recall. He had tried calling out to her, but his voice was as weak and distant as her retreating figure.

"Levi..."

Her words were soft and inviting. They had made him want to follow after her, though his feet would not carry him quick enough. His legs felt heavy and slow, and for every step he took, she seemed to take ten more. Once more he could hear the soft voice that called out to him.

"Levi..."

He stopped, something in her voice changing and catching him off guard. It was familiar, somehow comforting in an entirely new way, and no longer did it come from the woman ahead of him. It surrounded him, like a ringing in his ears it echoed through his being and in every direction. He struggled with wanting to follow the woman before him, who had now gained a significant amount of distance, and the voice that called out to him. Both were familiar. Both were significant. Still, he was unsure why. Just as his feet began to move forward again, the voice once more rang out, this time with more desperation.

"Levi!"

He turned his heel mid-step, swinging himself around to run the way in which he came. The call had urged him towards it, and at the last minute, he had decided to follow it. The further he ran, the more the world around him gave way. The trees melted, turning to streaks of green that bled and became one with the dirt. The skies grew dark and abysmal, and all light around him diminished. He was blindly running into the darkness, for something he had yet to remember. His heart thumped wildly in his chest, and his breathing became hollow. But the voice was growing unmistakably closer. The very ground beneath his feet turned an inky muck, which pooled around him. Like quicksand, the earth forbade him to move and began to swallow him whole. The last thing he could feel was a radiant warmth on his shoulders, and the last sound he heard was that of the voice that called out to him in the darkness.

----

His blue eyes fluttered open, the light of his surroundings burning his retinas. At first, he could see nothing but the tan ceiling of the room, until a pair of familiar brown eyes came staring down at him.

"Levi? You're awake?"

Aster was hovering above him, her hands on his shoulders and her eyes fixed on him worriedly. It took Levi a second for his senses to catch up with him before realizing who it was.

"Aster?" His voice was weak and mumbled, the hoarseness in his throat all too apparent now.

Aster let out a deep breath, the relief finding its escape through her pursed lips.

"Where am I? Did we die?" Levi tried to look around the room, but Aster had been blocking his view. At his question, Aster's muscles tensed, her fingers gripping the material of his shirt, and the frown on her face intensified.

"No, we didn't die. Though you came pretty damn close. We're back at the inn. The miners brought you here."

Levi remembered the miner's hard at work at the mine, and how they had been frantically digging through the debris to reach them. Against all odds, they must have made it to them in time. A grateful sigh escaped his lips at hearing this.