The Day My Dream Died

23 - Embroil

— 23 —

Embroil

//\\

"What are you doing?" Fiiso asks, sounding angry. "Isn't she our enemy?"

Lise releases Elineal, and turns to face him. "Not by my will, no. I may have been her enemy, but while I'm not unwilling to fight, I will not harm a person who is not actively trying to harm another. As of now, I bear her no ill will. That said, circumstances are always subject to change..."

"You're not my master." He replies, crossing his arms.

"I don't know what you mean by that."

"Don't talk down on me."

She frowns, "I assure you, I did not mean to give the impression of any such thing."

"Do you always talk like that when confronted?"

"I was not aware I was being confronted."

"You keep talking like that."

"If you have a problem, tell me. I can't have you continuing to act like this."

"Shut up! Stop talking down on me!"

"You don't underst–"

"SHUT UP! STOP SAYING THAT!" He leaps to his feet, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

Lise remains seated, taking a breath to think as he fumes. The deaths are getting to him. This isn't a good sign. "Again, I am not trying to talk down to you. If I was, you would know. I am not subtle about it. I really don't understand what I'm doing to make you angry, and I would stop if I knew."

Fiiso grasps at the air, but finds nothing to grab onto. "I don't know how to say it! You slow your talking like you're talking to a kid!" Although he tries to maintain his fury it begins to falter.

"I see. I tend to do that to allow myself time to think, especially when someone is upset with me for reasons I can't quite reach. I'm trying to understand, not trying to treat you like a child. If my speech sounds slow and overly-analytical, it is only because I'm trying to bridge the gap. 'Caution, for the fall into misunderstanding is deathly,' Akota told me that."

He slumps back to the floor, drained. "...Akota?"

"Yes?" She'd thrown that detail out in hopes it would distract him; still, she is surprised when it does. "Sorry, Akota was my mentor. Then my friend. He was in Opis Luma when... I don't know if he lives."

"You were friends with your mentor? How... old was he?"

Lise chuckles faintly. "I have no idea. He was my mother's friend from when she studied abroad, and that was many nights before I was born. She didn't know his age either, I don't think. He was... strange."

Fiiso rubs his elbow, "If you say he was strange I don't know whether he was normal or just really really strange."

She tilts her head, then grins when she realizes what he meant. "The latter."

"What?"

"The second one. He was very strange, even compared to me. Well... you would've had to meet him. He was a strange kind of strange, if that makes sense..."

As she trails off, Elineal's murmuring becomes audible for the first time. "...child... I treated him..."

And instantly Lise's brief levity is lost. The memory of Akota, mingling with memories of Pelezel, stretches her out over past and present, ever more fearful of her empty future. It's time. It has been for a while now. I can't keep pushing it forward, the abyss is so near, I may push it off the precipice.

"Keep an eye on her. I'm going under..." Already she is beyond the moment; her voice is flat, but not level. "If I don't surface before that candle burns out, leave this room. If you feel the fiends attacking you, run for the forest as fast as you can. Consider me dead. If you don't feel them, return to the room and wait for me to wake."

Fiiso hugs his knees. "Okay, but you will be back, right?"

Lise tries to keep her breathing steady as she lays down. A last tight breath escapes her, "I will be back. I will..."

It is somewhat awkward then, when she doesn't immediately fall asleep. She pushes past it, and after a time of focusing on her breath, she finally manages to slip under...

\\//

Emptiness.