Amentia

Chapter 38 - Playful dance

While Nina drank her tea, she explained to the girls what had happened. They were all in awe of her, Meiko most of all, who knew exactly how excruciatingly painful the dark emotions were and how important it was to find the right words to hold on to. She would have never found them on her own like Nina; if she'd been alone, she would've succumbed to the dark like the woman they had seen earlier and maybe she would've taken Anna with her in the process. What Nina had done was nothing short of extraordinary and Meiko made sure to tell her.

In turn, the girls let Nina know that Adam was now in the loop about the general aspects of the situation. The five of them debated for a while on what they should do next, whether they should tell the rest of the troupe about the risk of staying in a town that could ultimately turn into the chaotic inferno that had been the human village. They briefly wondered how the aftermath had been there, if there had been any survivors and, if so, how they had been managing or behaving. How do you rebuild a village after half its population murdered each other? Since they would most likely stay in Ehlevit for the foreseeable future, it made them nervous to think what life would be like in the case the whole place went down in flames like the village.

During this conversation, Nina slowly drifted off to sleep on Nati's shoulder, this time without the weight of nightmares to disturb it. The girls lay her gently on the bed, covered her with a blanket, and left the room. They asked everyone not to wake her up for anything; she needed a good proper rest.

The mood downstairs wasn't particularly cheery. Omylia was especially affected by the death of that couple. She sat in a corner of the room, deep in her thoughts, with her eyes down and her shoulders slouched; the shock was too deep to even be able to cry about it. Meira could only watch from across the room as her friend suffered, not knowing what she could possibly say to make her feel better. She felt guilty for having been in here cooking while Omylia had been out there witnessing something so horrible.

Adam was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, improvising a soft tune on his nahe just to keep his hands busy while his mind processed his conversation with Nati and Zoe along with what had happened in town. He looked more serious than anyone was used to seeing him.

There was some mild chatting between Ruvyn and Az about what play to do the following day, but otherwise it was quiet. It was an uncomfortable setting, given how loud the place usually was. Silence did not belong in this house except at night when everybody was asleep.

Zoe asked Maylin if she could keep teaching her about wood and magic, so they left the living room to go upstairs. Zoe made sure the teaching was only theoretical, as she didn't want to upset Nina's rest with any loud noises. Learning about the properties of the wood of this world was the only comfort Zoe could have in this moment; she was glad to have someone like Maylin living under the same roof, not just because she could teach her but because she understood exactly why she wanted to learn. They were at it without even taking a break until they were called in for dinner.

Nina woke up hours later, feeling like herself for the first time in days. She turned on her lamp and immediately turned it back off when she saw Meiko and Anna sleeping on the same bed on the opposite wall; it was the first time she'd seen them sleeping together, as Meiko was usually a bit shy about it. It seemed Anna had been able to break through her shell, because Meiko was now leisurely holding her by the waist from behind like the protector she was.

Nina realized she must have slept through dinner, so she felt her way to the door and left the room barefoot so as not to make a sound. The clock in the hallway indicated it was one in the morning. She was terribly hungry but only grabbed some fruit, since she couldn't start cooking at this hour without making noise. After eating, she realized sleeping would be pretty much impossible now. Her mind was clear and sharp after so much rest. So she went to her room, grabbed her satchel, and walked downstairs again. She sat on the couch, took out her sketchbook and two pencils, and looked around the room trying to decide what to draw. Her eyes fell on the nahe, the beautiful stringed instrument that Adam played, which was resting solemnly by the wall next to the glowing fireplace in front of her. She felt a connection to it and decided to explore it.