Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Eleven: Cryai

The next morning, the first thing Jay noticed was how absolutely terrible she felt. 

Her eyes fluttered open slowly, and she stared up at the ceiling for a moment, knowing that she had to get up to explore her surroundings but not having the energy to actually get it done. She stared at the patterns on the upper segment of the room, but she couldn't use them to force herself out of bed. Jay had always been an early riser, and on most occasions, she was able to get going in the morning without too many issues. It was only on her worst days that she found herself stuck in bed for far longer than she should have been. 

This most certainly qualified as one of her worst days. In fact, it somehow seemed to be even worse than her worst days. Jay's entire body felt like it was a creaky mess, and moving was too great a task for her to accomplish on her own. All of her limbs felt like they were made of lead, and her torso seemed to be pressed down against the bed by some invisible force even stronger than gravity. Even looking over at the other two people in the room seemed to be too much for her. 

As soon as Jay was able to force herself to stare at Lana and Arian, she almost wished that she had never done it. Arian looked absolutely awful, and it seemed that he was feeling just as nasty as Jay was. His eyes were tired, and his body seemed to be collapsing in on itself. He was standing up and stretching, but he barely seemed to be registering what was happening around him. 

Then there was Lana. Her eyes were wide with panic, and she was pacing around the space at the bottom of the bed. Judging by how tense her shoulders were, something had gone very wrong, and Jay didn't think that she was going to be able to relax for quite some time. She hated to see Lana so stressed out, but it wasn't as if there was anything that she could do to change it. 

Jay's movements were slow and heavy when she finally managed to get herself to sit up. Her body was constantly threatening her with crumbling once again, and even just staring across the room was exhausting to her for reasons she couldn't describe. Her vision was fuzzy, and she could barely force herself to concentrate on much of anything. It was as if everything existed on the other side of a censor that was keeping her from seeing the rest of the world, and she had no idea how to pull herself out of it. 

"What's going on?" Jay questioned, but she was barely able to get the words out. As soon as she had spoken, she found herself feeling tired again, and her eyes were drooping enough to make her want to lean back against the bed and fall back asleep. Maybe she would feel better after getting a bit more rest. She couldn't think of any other reasons for her sudden and dreadful exhaustion. 

"Something happened last night," Lana answered. She still didn't stop pacing, and Jay could only see the outline of Lana's figure given how fuzzy her vision was. Jay tried to will her eyes into focus, but it didn't work. She let out a sigh and wound up leaning back against the bed when she couldn't keep herself upright anymore. It was tempting to slip back into slumber when she pressed her face against the pillow, but she couldn't allow herself to do that. Everyone was counting on her to stay awake for the coming series of events, and she couldn't give in to her own exhaustion quite yet. 

Jay was attempting to rationalize her own sleepiness when Lana suddenly sat down beside her. All sense of coherent thought disappeared as she concentrated on the space between Lana's torso and left arm. Lana wasn't facing Jay, instead choosing to watch Arian's movements with narrowed, scrutinizing eyes. Jay didn't think there was much of anything particularly odd about Arian, but she found herself watching him as well. Sure, he was tired just like she was, but that didn't seem to be a problem for just them. 

In fact, Lana seemed to be tired as well. She was hiding it far better, but she was absolutely exhausted. The skin beneath her eyes was dark, and her eyes were wide with stress. Jay could see it when Lana glanced over her shoulder to ensure that she had the other girl's attention. Jay responded by cringing, but she found that the action hurt her far more than she would have expected, so she made a mental note to stay as still as possible from then on out.