𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 (𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞!𝐚𝐮) 𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐙

Epilogue ~ Waking Up

"Are you done gushing over Sun-Mi yet? Because I'm also trying to say hello." The navigator gets up from where he was sitting and cuts between Captain and I to hug me.

He smiles when he sees me, bending over and hugging me lightly but just enough to reassure me that I'm safe. The hug is suspiciously longer than usual but I let it slide seeing how worried they all were for me.

I kick my legs over the side of the cot and an underlying, buzzing pain in my skin becomes more prominent with that action, causing me to take a sharp breath. In less than a second, I have both Yeosang and Captain at either side of me, steadying me by my arms so that I don't fall over.

My head makes the room spin around me and I lift a hand to clutch my head as I blink away the dark spots that have swirled my vision. I look down at myself to see that I'm dressed in a new set of fresh clothes, but I can't recall ever changing into them. I'm still a little dazed and my memories are foggy. In fact, I don't remember anything after...

"The attack," I mumble, forcing myself to get up from where I was being held by the men, and weakly tumbling forward, even with their help. My legs feel like jello every time I try to walk on them and I was so close to falling on my face but I soon get a hold of myself, at least enough to be able to stand on my own.

"Sun-Mi, I don't think it's a good idea to force yourself, you were in a really bad shape when we found you." Yeosang tries to warn me worriedly, not wanting to let go of my arm. I shake my head, taking another small step forward and getting the hang of it.

"No, we have to... we have to defeat Queen Lee! I was supposed to lead you guys to..." I slur my words and my vision only becomes worse. The next step I take sends a sharp pain into my chest, I don't even get close to the edge of the tent before I'm moved back to my cot.

"You can't be moving around too much in this state. Who knows how much of your magic you used up." Eye-patch pushes me down on the cot against my will so I try to argue with him but it comes up futile.

"But, Dami! She can't go on as Queen of Eohithra."

"Dami? Who's Dami?" I look at both of the men, switching between both of them and looking for my words but end up sputtering nonsense instead.

"Dami, that's Queen Lee's name. She— my mother told me that was her name when I... when I...," I trail off, staring blankly at nothing in specific as both men look at each other worriedly. The empty pieces that were missing in my memories begin to be patched up but I still can't get a hold of the bigger picture.

"What are you talking about?" Yeosang asks, sitting down next to me on the cot while Hongjoong takes a seat on the cot across from me. "You defeated Queen Lee."

Finally, all the jumbled up memories fall into place and I remember every little thing that happened.

The fight was a hectic blur of anger and forgiveness on both parts, I would have completely forgotten about the extra casualties if it wasn't for my full memory of that day coming back to me.

"Wait, what about Uhreia? And Ji-Eun? And my brothers? If I defeated Dami then why became of Eohithra while I was out?" I start to panic again, grabbing on to Yeosang's arm a little too tightly when Captain offers to show me.

"Not everything has settled completely but there have been lots of changes since you were out. Yeosang and I can show you around if you're really that worried." Nodding enthusiastically, I stand up with the help of the navigator next to me and follow behind Eye-patch as he begins the tour.

My heart raced at the thought of stepping outside of the tent I'm in, scared that I might walk out to find a wasteland instead of the Eohithra I was used to. Clutching Yeosang's arm tightly, I feel my heart almost stop when Captain parts the tent's flaps to let in the bright light from the sun outside.