TBATE- A force to be reckoned with

Halcyon Days

I awoke to darkness, not the natural kind. I felt no pain from the backlash, hell I couldn't even feel my body.

Looking down I noticed an ethereal version of my body fully healed, cloak and all.

"Am I dead?" I whispered to myself, "No, that wasn't nearly enough to kill me."

"Yea you're not dead yet," a voice tinged with cynicism spoke.

I swiveled around, coming face to face with a man who I could only describe as vulpine. "Who the hell are you?" I demanded.

"Nobody of consequence," he dismissed my question casually, making me more suspicious of him, "I'm just here to inform you of something I'm sure you would want to know."

"What is it?" I asked, steeling my face into a glower.

"Ooh, scary!" he exclaimed, snickering, "Just know that your benefactors are hiding something from you, something you have the right to know."

I narrowed my eyes, "Why should I believe you?"

"You shouldn't," he answered immediately, shrugging with his arms in the air. "Or should you?" He turned back to me, smiling deviously.

I didn't give him the satisfaction by reacting, "Say I do believe you, what's your reason for telling me this?"

"I just want to see our tenant gods panic." he chuckled to himself, before halting and looking around, "Seems like I have been noticed. I'll leave the rest to you, transcender."

The man disappeared from my rapidly dimming vision.

Heh, who would have thought you can lose consciousness in a dream.

_______________________

"ARGH!" I cried out in pain, the combined effect of my injuries and the backlash making me writhe in pain.

After a few minutes of clenching my teeth in pain, followed by dry heaving, I finally managed to relax.

"How are you feeling?" I heard the concerned voice of Zeke beside me.

"Like someone ripped out my core and mana pathways and forcefully put them back in." I croaked out, cracking open my eyes.

[Be glad, you were way too reckless there. The backlash almost killed us.]

"It was that bad?" I whispered in shock.

"You tore half of your ligaments and ruptured even more muscles, honestly I'm surprised you can even recover from that," a familiar voice came from my left, making me turn my head slightly.

"What about you? How many bones did you break?" I smirked at him, which he reciprocated.

"Guess?"

I burst out laughing, before immediately regretting it as a bolt of pain racked through my chest.

"Ow. That will take a while to heal." I wheezed out, still wincing from the pain.

"You don't say." Arthur managed to croak out.

It was then that I noticed the two other people in the room. "... How long have they been here?"

"Ever since you two lost consciousness," a young female voice answered.

"And how long is that?" I turned my head ever so slightly, facing the small fox form of Sylvie.

"A bit over a day."

"I'd reckon they'd have more important things to do as princesses." I muttered to myself.

"Technically they aren't princesses any longer. And something tells me, they'd be here even if they were still princesses." Arthur, apparently hearing me, spoke up.