Manifest: A Shattered Future

Episode Four: The Princess of Swirling Cinders

Adder laughed and answered, "Hey, this isn't my fault! You did all that on your own."

Elena giggled and nodded, but she quickly wandered away from her machine. As she walked toward the desktop computer in the corner of their lab, she listened to the asymmetric patter of her footsteps. The hinge on her leg clacked every time her other knee bent, but she plopped herself down on her computer chair when she arrived. Adder watched with an entertained smile as she opened a browser and cleared her search history.

***

Elena shook herself awake in her infirmary cot, smiling at the dream of a different life. But when she took a moment to glance around the room, she realized that it looked more unfamiliar than usual. Not only did it look nothing like the laboratory in her dream, but it also seemed different than it had when she first fell asleep. Other cots had been moved into her room, and she could hear bustling activity in the background. Romulo crouched at the foot of her bed, unaware that she was awake, and he fiddled through spell cards on the sheet beside her foot. Elena smiled when she saw him, but then she realized that he stared upon the cards with an intense gaze. His tired eyes betrayed his exhaustion.

"Romulo! Why are you awake? It's so early, it's too early! Even the sun isn't awake yet. Did you get any sleep?" Elena asked.

Romulo gazed at her with a gentle smile, but he tiredly answered, "I'm afraid I can't. We're losing territory by the hour, and Altair's the only other person defending this place. Besides, we're getting more patients than the doctors can handle. It's a damn shame. Seems like the Adriatic Empire's raiding the city. If the citizens don't surrender, then they're forced to pay the price. Hate to say it, but this really might be the end of Aegea. We could be days away from being their newest conquest. I can't let that happen."

Though she could sense his terror from a distance, Elena did not yet feel the pressing danger. She closed her eyes momentarily and still saw the laboratory in her dream. For a moment, she felt like she kept one foot in that dream and one foot in this infirmary, and that was the reason why she only had one leg in each reality. But since she knew she had to be strong for her friend, Elena dragged herself out from under the white sheet. She found her prosthetic, pulled it onto the stump of her leg, and then dragged herself out of bed. Romulo tiredly watched as she pressed her leg deeper into the prosthetic's opening.

"I saw a few families leaving here yesterday. Do you think they were trying to escape? I don't really know what it's like outside right now," Elena admitted.

Romulo shook his head and explained, "There aren't many places to go. There's a long road that leads from here to the nearest city-state, but that's about it. Nowhere else to go. If people don't get caught by the raiders, they're usually headed to the monks in the center of the city. It's the safest place to be. But at the same time... that's why me and Altair have to guard this place. A lot of the patients here can't run away on their own. They're stuck in place. Neonia's forces won't stop just because the people here are hurt."

The lights to the infirmary suddenly dimmed, causing many of the patients to gasp. Elena glanced around with concern, but Romulo jolted upright. In the tense silence which followed, Elena overheard the clashes of battle coming from the nearby street. When Romulo heard this as well, he dashed toward the door, and Elena clumsily bounded after him. He ran agilely through the crowd and quickly exited the front door of the infirmary, but Elena struggled to move as easily. She nearly tripped over object obstacles and sleeping people, and by the time she made it outside the door, she saw Altair locked in battle with an enemy conjurer.

Romulo glared through the smoky darkness at another enemy soldier who slowly approached the infirmary, but he glanced aside when he heard the tap of Elena's wooden leg on the doorstep. He opened his mouth as if to protest, but then a fiery glow illuminated the nearby alley. Romulo cursed under his breath and dashed toward the alley, but then he jolted backward without wasting a moment. As soon as he pulled back, a stream of fire shot across the street and illuminated the darkness.