2/23/2020

Haven:

     "It's been 3 days, Aylward! I thought you said he would be awake by now," worry and exhaustion cloud my ability to stay calm any longer.

     "He should be! He shouldn't have been out longer than a day. I have no idea why he is still out. I thought you were here to help in these situations," Aylward speaks to me with a stern voice edged with remorse, worry, and panic.

     "I'm a healer, he is asleep, not injured. I can't heal him taking a really long, magic induced nap," sarcasm shot through my words like arrows toward Aylward. Taking a deep breath, I bring my emotions back under some semblance of control. One of us needs a clear mind so we can try and figure out what went wrong with Amory.

     "I'm sorry, Aylward. I can't heal a someone under a sleeping spell, at least not yet. It hasn't even been a month since I ascended, and my magic isn't strong. I've never even heard of anyone reacting this strongly to a simple sleeping spell. Maybe the stress made its effects last longer?" Pacing the length of the room, I comb through every piece of information I remember on sleeping spells and can not think of anything else to try.

     Aylward is sitting with his head braced in his hands, defeat and despair written in every line of his posture. After another look in his direction I realize he has started crying, silently.

     "I am supposed to protect him, Haven. I am supposed to be the one he is safest with. How could this have happened? I was so close to getting to tell him about Aamirah, getting to know him. I need him to wake up..." Aylward dissolved into a despondent bout of sobbing. No amount of comfort is bringing him out of it. He finally cries himself into an exhausted, if not restful, slumber.

     I go back to my research. I don't know how long I have been reading and searching for an answer. Amory is sleeping on the bed, Aylward is sleeping on the couch in the same room, I'm at the desk with books and papers stacked all around me. I look out the window and realize that it's dawn, the sun is slowly rising. I watch for a while, lost in thought as more and more light filters in through the window.

     "Ughhh." I turn my head towards the sound coming from the bed, waiting to see if I hear anymore or if it was a fluke.

     "Owww.....my head hurts," Amory's voice has a sluggish, dry sound to it. I get up and walk the few steps over to the bed. His eyes look up at me and widen once he sees me.

     "Aylward!" I call for him at not quite a yell. "Aylward, wake up! Amory is awake!" Aylward jumps up in a panic before my words finally settle in his brain. He comes over to the bed and smiles the biggest smile down at Amory.