Lea's Liberation

Where it Begins

Where it Begins

That night, Lea had nightmares about an inescapable despair that threatened to consume her yet refused to allow her to die. It crushed down on her, rendering her incapable of calling out for help and helpless to protect herself.

When she finally awoke with a stuttered gasp, tears were burning treks down her temples and into her hair. The sun was lighting up the world through the fabric of the tent and the night bugs had ceased their calls, leaving the area strangely peaceful and a hard contrast to come back to after the darkness of her nightmare.

Addie was still snoozing peacefully next to her as she sat up, the blanket they had been sharing falling away as she wiping away her tears. Her fever was back again.

She was slow to crawl from the tent as the fever was making her dizzy, but when she emerged and stood, the breeze felt good on her face. She let out a long breath as she walked to the single jug of water that Addie had left out of the ship for them this morning. The bag of their depleted rations and, more importantly, her medicine, was resting beside it.

Lea quickly swallowed the bitter powder dissolved in a ladle of the water before filling it again with fresh water and drank that down as well. The fever was leaving her more thirsty than usual and, as she sipped at the ladle, she looked out over the plains that stretched out seemingly infinitely away from the mountains.

The haze of the dream continued to cling to her and, while it was easy to declare it just a fever dream, she knew that wasn't true. The feelings that she had been immersed in were identical to the ones that Laudine had made her feel.

She didn't think that she was still being affected by it. The nightmare was just her own mind reliving the horror of wishing for death for no other reason than to escape the depth of the emotions that were strong enough to strangle her.

How was Laudine able to create such false feelings? Were they just completely manufactured, or-

"Hey."

"Ah!" Lea jumped, surprised, and struck without thinking towards the voice that had snuck up behind her while she had been lost in her thoughts.

Emilien brought up his arm in time to catch her reflexive punch. Her bare hand on his bare arm.

He collapsed to the ground, all the strength sapped out of him in an instant.

Lea cried out in dismay, quickly stroking her hand down across his face, returning the strength she had accidentally stolen.

He let out a quick breath, shaking his head as he got weakly back to his feet, stumbling a bit from the disorientation.

"I'm sorry!" Lea cried, holding her bare hands back to her body. This was exactly why she normally wore long sleeves and gloves at all times.

"It's all right," he smiled, chuckling breathlessly. "My strength that time?"

She nodded mutely.

"Remind me not to sneak up on you," he chuckled, gesturing to the now empty ladle that she had spilled out on the ground in her surprise. "Were you done with that?"

"Er, yes. Here." She quickly thrust it towards him, careful to yank her hand away even though he wasn't even close to touching her when he took it.

"Wha's happenin'?" A bleary eyed Addie asked, poking her head out from inside her tent. She had been woken by Lea's cry. A moment later, Guilbert and Juste were emerging from their tent as well – the latter even holding his sword in hand.

Lea was mortified.

"I'm sorry. I was just-"

"That was my fault." Emilien said over her, waving to them. "Didn't mean to wake you."