Lyra Karant
The Storm’s Aftermath
Three days had passed since Lyra Karant's fateful encounter in Magnolia with the tornado; that day, under the guise of protecting an elderly couple's home from an extremely damaging storm, Lyra had dug in to the depths of her power and performed a miracle that she had never previously attempted and used her slayer powers to consume the entire tornado. In hindsight, that had not been a good idea; a mage of her experience and training was not properly prepared to consume what was nothing short of a natural disaster. Yes, in theory she had the raw ability to do so, which had clearly worked. However, without more training and the ability to handle it and redirect its energies properly, it had taken a toll on her that nobody had really foreseen.
In fact, Lyra had spent the last three days unconscious from the over-exertion that her body had suffered. She had performed something that could easily be considered a miracle. She had lived up to her promise and protected the people under her care. However, the cost that she had paid was far too high for her at this point in time. With the assistance of her guild, Lyra had been brought back to the home of Luminous Rose and brought to her quarters; she had been dressed, looked after, and cared for by well-wishers and fellow guild-mates. It was nice to know that she did in fact have friends within Luminous Rose and that her contribution had been considered worthy enough for the assistance of her peers.
Three days. Three whole days, but her body was slowly starting to come to. It was like her blood vessels of mana had expanded and ruptured under all the raw energy that she had consumed. Her body needed time to heal, and it was time that she had no choice but to give it. The people around her were worried, of course; nobody really knew what had happened up on that roof, and she was not in a condition to tell them. However, undoubtedly, it would heal. The sheer force of will that Lyra had in her body meant that she was going to recover from this.
It really did take three days, but on the edges of her consciousness, there was a faint light.
Well, you can hear me. Hey, kid.
R... Rhett. Hi. What... happened? Normally she could speak out loud and respond to him, but it didn't seem to be working. It was nothing but a thought at the edge of the infinite sea of her mind.
A sensation of warmth spread over her body, followed by the sharp prick of pins and needles in her fingers and toes. Everything was coming back online, slowly. Piece by piece her body was going to have to turn itself back on after it had all shut down in self-defence mode.
So... you ate a whole tornado. Remember the old couple whose house you were helping to fix? Well, you absolutely blasted the storm. Good job.
Storm... storm... tornado-
Suddenly, Lyra jolted up in her bed; she could almost feel the pangs of sharp wind against her flesh as the sensation of fighting mother nature came back to her. It was the last thing that she remembered, which was enough to make her flash back to the insane fight that she had overcome in order to protect those she had sworn to defend. She could feel the drops of rain on her body, the way it all stung her eyes and forced her to squint as she stared down her ersatz enemy head-on-
No. No, none of that was real. Lyra looked down. She was tucked in under her blankets, dressed, dry and clean, with a meal on a small table next to her bed. She was in her room. Was she already back at Sakuramori? Whatever had happened? How did she get here, given how far she'd travelled? Where had she gone, what had happened? Had someone done something to her? Her head started swimming with a million thoughts that raced through as they spread like wildfire, threatening to consume every fibre of her being just as the power that she was now suddenly starting to remember had eaten away at her psyche, clawing, biting, scratching, drowning, destroying, annihilating-
Hey, hey, calm down. Stay with me, Lyra! You're okay!
Tears welled in her eyes as she breathed out. Whatever had happened... it had absolutely rocked her to the core. Her breath came ragged, short, sharp, as she tried to tug on the outer edges of her sanity. Her fingers curled into her blanket, knuckles white under the strain of her grip while her nails dug into the fabric, clinging to whatever she could to maintain a lifeline for whatever was left.
You've pushed really hard lately. Take it easy. You're in your room, you're safe. Okay?
With that, she burst out crying. Her emotions had been stonewalled inside her for so long, but with the absolute drain that had come with pushing her body past mortal limits it was no longer sufficient to fight it all and she could no longer hold back. Lyra Karant, the angel of mercy, wept. She wept long and loud for the power she had grasped for just a moment that she was terrified of becoming for she remembered the thirst for more that it had inspired in her; she cried for the people she had failed to protect and for those she had worried with her moment of weakness. She cried for the fact that she could no longer fight the fact that she had stepped into a world where strength was the only absolute.
Her ghostly other half could not say a single word; what was there to say? This was the mind of a tormented girl who was doing a lot of growing up in a very short amount of time. Rhett had to let her break, so that she could build herself back up again. Wishing he could comfort her, but knew that he could not, the otherworldly being had to sit back and allow her to cry out her tears.
The tears just wouldn’t stop. Like the power that had enveloped her, it was just too much for her to handle right now. It would pass in time, of course. For now, Lyra could only sob uncontrollably for the future that she had asked for herself. This was the price she paid. This was the path she walked. In time, she would find her strength again, hold her head high and protect the people around her. In this moment, though, she did not have any strength left. What would that mean for her when she needed every drop of strength to help people, yet had nothing left? Lyra could not answer that question.
Time would heal this wound, and hopefully bless her with the strength to answer that question.
MEL @ WW
