Written April 14th 2021 9:48 PM

A sharp pain in her side woke Ailith from her sleep. “Wh- What?” She peered blearily at Xiv’s form standing above her, silently cursing them – more for waking her from a rare good dream than kicking her to do so.

“Feyra’s gone.”

Any lingering sleep was washed away as cold fear spread through Ailith’s body. “What?” She threw her blankets off, ignoring Talus’s sleep grumbles, pushing past Xiv and out the tent door. Her eyes darted around, taking in Ashrin sitting at the fire alone and the wall of fog surrounding the camp. Feyra was nowhere to be seen. She’s gone. Oh gods, she’s gone.

“Ashrin, where is she?” Ailith recognized that her voice was coming out loud and shrill as she stalked over to Ashrin. Ashrin blinked up at her, clutching a scrap piece of paper in her hand. “Where is she?!” Ailith was shouting now, quickly losing any semblance of control she had on her emotions. This is exactly what she had been afraid of since Feyra had started seeing shadows during her watches. Now she was gone, probably snatched by some demon or devil or other dark creature, and Ailith would never see her again.

Ashrin said nothing, only continued to look up at Ailith with her mouth open, like she was searching for something to say, for some explanation that could make this situation better. Ailith was shaking, her breaths coming hard and fast as her mind created visions of Feyra’s broken body lying in a cavern somewhere, her soul gone forever. She was only half aware of Xiv coming up to her, hand outstretched like they were going to try comfort her, a completely out of character movement that would have worried her in any other scenario.

A stirring in the fog behind Ashrin caught Ailith’s attention, focusing her thoughts. A figure emerged, shrouded in shadow, and Ailith dropped into a crouch, fists clenched and ready. Firelight flickered off red hair and Ailith immediately relaxed, taking a step forward almost unconsciously.

“Feyra.” The name came out on a sigh, Ailith’s nerves tingling with the aftershock of all her imagined scenarios. Feyra avoided Ailith and Xiv’s eyes, instead walking over to Ashrin and taking the piece of paper out of her hand. She tossed it in the fire without a second glance, glancing sheepishly at Ailith as she did. “Where did you go? What happened?” Ailith struggled to keep her voice steady, not wanting to be angry at Feyra for disappearing when really all she wanted to do was grab her and prevent her from going anywhere ever again.

“There were shadows and… and I went to them.” Feyra sat at the fire, looking into it as she spoke. Ailith glanced at Xiv before sitting as well, keeping a safe distance away from Feyra. “They led me to a door,” Feyra looked to Ailith now, probably remembering the promise she made to Ailith only a couple of night ago. Don’t go through any shadow doors without me. Promise me. “They led me to a door and I went through it,” Feyra continued. “There was a man named Jack who knew me, knew all of us, but I have never seen him before. Oh!” Feyra reached into her bag and pulled out a sphere with four metal rods coming out of it. “Xiv, he said you would need this. He said ‘you’ll need this in the coming fight. Ace must bless the vial before extraction for it to work.'” Feyra shrugged then, handing the device over to Xiv.

Xiv inspected it for a moment, holding it up to one of their eyes before muttering, “Huh. Interesting,” and sitting down on the log next to Ailith, engrossed in the device. Ashrin cleared her throat, mumbling something about relieving herself as she stood and walked to the edge of the camp, leaving Ailith and Feyra in relative privacy with only Xiv’s mutterings filling the silence. Ailith kept her gaze on Feyra, waiting for the other woman to explain herself, knowing she would when she was ready.

Feyra sighed. “I’m sorry. I know I promised I wouldn’t go anywhere alone, but I felt like they were calling for me and only me and I just… I needed to know I wasn’t going crazy. I didn’t mean to scare you. Can you forgive me?” The redhead looked beseechingly at Ailith and any remaining anger dissolved the minute Feyra looked into Ailith’s eyes.

“There’s nothing to forgive, I would’ve done the same thing.” Feyra smiled at the words, nodding her head. “But,” Ailith continued, tone stern, “just because this shadow door wasn’t dangerous, doesn’t mean other ones won’t be. Please be careful.” Ailith put her hand out towards Feyra, setting it on the log in between them. Feyra did the same and for a moment Ailith could pretend that the warm wood beneath her palm was Feyra’s hand. They sat in silence for a long moment before Ashrin wandered back.

“Feyra’s watch is basically over and Xiv is already out here, why don’t you two just head to bed?” Ailith had never had a mom, but in that moment Ashrin’s tone sounded like what she imagined a mother trying to give her daughter and her daughter’s girlfriend some privacy might sound like. Ailith flushed and got to her feet, muttering goodnights to Ashrin and Xiv, the latter of whom promptly ignored her. Feyra followed close behind, and removed her armour before the two of them climbed into their adjacent sleeping bags, careful not to disturb Ace and Talus who were snoring peacefully across the tent.

Ailith pressed her index and middle fingers to her lips, smiling when Feyra returned the gesture. “Goodnight,” Ailith murmured.

“Goodnight,” came the soft reply.

Ailith’s dreams that night were pleasantly peaceful, no shadows lingering at the peripheries for the first time in weeks.