Awakening

The girl suddenly opened her eyes with renewed clarity, "I fell," she determined, leaving no room for doubt. "I–" she cut herself off, mind falling back in a jumbled memory.

I plummeted to my death but—I am alive?

How am I still alive?

The girl was still, her face devoid of any emotion, blank in an almost unsettling way. Wherever her mind was right now, it was not here with them, not here in the present.

Nobody moved to do anything, Jay and Alveena unsure how to proceed while Kaida and Ray looked at them for answers.

Jay is the first to move, he was closest to her and the more empathetic one of the group. He slowly put his hand on the girl's shoulder as not to startle her.

She didn't move a muscle.

Alveena muttered something under her breath and retreated to her study with purpose in her steps. Kaida and Ray watched on in disbelief, minds filled with questions.

"Dearie? Hey–" with a gentle shake of his hand Jay tried to get the girl back to her responsive, Ray-punching self.

What just happened?

As if a spell had suddenly been broken, the girl shook out of her stupor. Her face showing all the emotions that hadn't surfaced while in her previous state of being.

Confusion, sadness and modest terror flashing in her eyes, "The figure of stars," she began softly, "the-there was someone underneath I-I broke through and I... I came back?" Wait, came back from where? This didn't make sense.

I died?

For just a moment, that time, that in between—but I broke through to the other side.

Ending up here somehow.

How was she supposed to know what was going on? She had so many questions, but none felt like they could be answered. "I... Did I—" she didn't bother to finish that thought, sighing in frustration.

"You have trouble remembering things yes?" Jay asked her, looking between the girl and his friends who were moving closer.

The girl didn't answer, instead, Ray asked another question, "You do not even recall your own name o-or your spirit?" He could barely even fathom the idea of missing that knowledge.

"I could help with that last one actually," Alveena's voice cut through before she appeared in the archway of her study. She made her way towards the girl, who shrunk back a bit in the windowsill's seat.

None of Alveena's friends dared to say anything, they knew that look.

For others it'd be the same one as she always wore, but to them, her eyes told she had resolve.

She stopped just short of invading the girl's space and before anyone could react she blew some dust towards her startled patient.

The dust quickly spread around her, shimmering a faint green of resemblance to the girl's eye color. The glittery mist of magical dust began to shape into something—revealing an elegant snake, surrounded by stars and sparkling clouds.

The room was quiet.

All but one realized what spell Alveena had just used, it was the same she'd cast upon Kaida a long time ago.

One which revealed people's spirits. Back then, enabling her young, heartbroken friend to see her favorite dragon in person once more. Now, it brought light upon the spirit of an unknown girl, a great and powerful spirit.

"Pretty..." her dazed patient whispered.

Alveena could only stare at the sight before her, "Dear Frôna, the one who bears the great serpent." She locked eyes with the girl. "One of the celestial mages, Ophiuchus," she concluded.

Clearly, she was the only person this made sense to, if the dumb and questioning faces of her friends were anything to go by.

"One of the what-mages?" Jay asked.

Followed up by Ray giving him an annoyed look and asking; "Who?"

Kaida wasn't going to ask anything, her focus had moved to the girl and her spirit. Said girl wasn't shy about asking questions though, "The what? Why are you looking at me weirdly, wait—what was this misty, glowy thing again?"

"Quiet everyone," Alveena sternly demanded.

Her proximity to the girl started to bother her now that there was no need to be this close anymore, so she took a step back before speaking again.

"This is your spirit, your magic in its truest form," she explained while dragging her hand gently though the misty image of a snake. Bartholomew quickly hopped down to her extended hand to try and catch some sparkles with his tongue. "It sounds like that figure you saw– the one I overheard you talking about– was Ophiuchus, the spirit bringing you back from deaths door."

Alveena held out the book she got from her study, along with the magic dust and her notes, "Ophiuchus' spirit, how in the world..." she muttered.

Jay waved at Ray to come closer, when he saw the serious look on Jay's face he reluctantly moved towards the fae.

Jay bent down a bit to whisper into his ear, "Well now we know what that 'something' was Kaida talked about yesterday." They both looked at their friend, who finally directed her attention away from the girl.

"Ain't that one of those stars?" she asked Alveena.

"Constellations Kaida," the witch corrected, keeping her gaze on the slowly fading image of dust instead of the glowing crimson eyes she knew should be directed at her after she spoke.

Jay knew he wouldn't get away with correcting his short-tempered friend like that, even Ray didn't easily lecture or order her around, Alveena however–

Kaida let her irritation show on her face and seep deep into her tone, "Yeah those, weren't they in some really old wife's tale?"

Alveena wasn't phased. "An old prophecy yes, about the origin of blights. Darkness threatened to consume our world but the constellation spirits came down to help."

Wanting to stay grumpy rather than play nice, Kaida pointed her finger upward to halt anyone who'd want to say something before directing it at Alveena's book.

"And then they failed," she countered, her voice sounding irked, eyes still red.

Maybe Kaida didn't succeed in getting a reaction out of Alveena, but she sure got one out of the mystery girl. "T-That sounds really bad?" she worried, the statement turning into more of a question, "What are you talking about?—The world is ending?" the girl's tone got higher and more frantic as panic set in.

Strangely enough, everyone stayed calm, acting like this wasn't a big deal at all.

Now that the oddly content mood had returned– much like it was prior to Alveena's arrival, Kaida plopped down on her favorite chair again. "Not really, not in more danger than usual," she joked, her irises now back to their usual brown color.

"This prophecy is old. Like–really old, it failed to come true decades ago, so I wouldn't be too worried." Kaida squirmed around on the leather chair until she found a comfortable position, which would be her resting upside down.

The girl didn't know what to make of this situation anymore. First that weird and uncanny experience with her falling, presumably dying and coming back. Then the fiasco where she punched one of the people who turned out to have helped her happened– and now this spirit and prophecy stuff?

First things first though, "Wouldn't be too worried about the world ending?" she chided.

Jay piped up, "No no, see normally prophecies are fulfilled  right?" he nodded along with his words, moving to sit next to the girl. She didn't protest, instead looking quite intrigued. "Not this one," he continued as he sat down on the windowsill, the seat was big enough for two anyway.

"The mages defeated the great threat the story talked about, but the evil magic stayed around. Blights are still here, even to this day, but the world isn't dying or anything." His voice was so light, yet the picture she was getting from this prophecy wasn't bright at all.

Even if she didn't really know what 'blights' were.

Maybe she should ask Alveena, she had the book after all– "I don't recall a thirteenth sign ever appearing," the witch muttered before she could ask, "but nobody expected them to– since they don't really belong in the zodiac. I didn't think Ophiuchus would ever come down to our land," she thought out loud.

She turned towards the brunette next to Jay, eyes looking for something more. "Yet here you are. You were entrusted with the spirit of the snake bearer."

This witch somehow had the power to be real intimidating without saying or doing anything threatening.

"So what does this mean? What do I– I mean..." the girl trailed off, words really weren't her strong suit today now where they?

Someone else in the room had a special way with words though, "It means you're over 600 years late," Kaida bluntly stated.

"Kaida!" All others scolded in unison.

She just brushed it off, still hanging her head off of the seat's cushion but now directly looking at the girl. "It may mean nothing, for as long as time itself stars fall down to gift us their spirits of magic. It's nothing new, constellations are very special, but not unheard of. You're in possession of a powerful spirit eh..." she stopped to think a second.

A painfully inconsiderate comment following up, "Sorry what was your name again?" she deadpanned.

Silence settled over the room again.

"Eh?... my name? I don't..." the girl stumbled, she hadn't expected to question to pop up again.

Ray flicked his sister's nose to which she gave an offended grumble. Jay gave Kaida another disapproving look before grabbing a hand of the girl next to him, "We're sorry, she shouldn't ha–"

"Lia."

The name cut though every sound and sentence, the girl looked up with wide eyes. "I think I'm– My name is Lia," she stated another time, as if testing the name out on her lips.

Kaida was the first to recover from that one, moving to sit upright in the leather chair, "Well then Lia, you have the potential to become someone extraordinary," she winked.

"I eh... can I just be normal first?" Lia asked, a new and careful smile decorating her face.

Kaida's smirk slowly formed into fond laughter, "As normal as you'd like Lia, some great spirit will only get ya so far, if you wanna be a boring blacksmith or something, you totally could," the mage chuckled.

That's where Ray stepped in, ever the voice of reason, "I think what she's trying to say is that you should take it easy for now. You just went through something extremely traumatic and your memory is still jumbled up."

Lia barely had time to realize she hadn't yet said sorry to the raven-haired boy for punching him before his sister ignored his words and spoke again.

"Hey– if you're really destined for greatness, remember who saved your ass okay?" she smiled, pointing a finger towards her.

She's rude, but also nice... in a weird way.

"I will Kaida, thank you both for finding me." She made a small bow, imitating what the fea next to her had done earlier. "And you two as well, for saving me." Lia told Alveena and Jay.

The witch and her frog both gave her a simple nod, somehow the gesture was warm and showed enough thanks for Lia to understand. The two siblings gave her an honest smile while the tall fea sitting at her side held her head between his soft palms.

"No need to thank me, while I cannot speak for the others, I merely did what I thought was right," he said. "I am ever so delighted to see you brighten up like this."

Jay's words almost made her eyes water, he's been nothing but nice to her and now he was speaking so happily about her feeling better– Lia thought he was wonderful.

"So what are you gonna do now?" Ray interjected, not caring in the slightest if he ruined the moment.

"I– hm... I don't know. I have nowhere to go, I think. I can't recall any family at all." Lia tugged and twirled a lock of her long hair, "I could just see if... well maybe—but being a 'boring blacksmith or something' doesn't sound too appealing either."

She didn't know what to do from here, everything was still so new and if she was honest it was overwhelming to know so little about her own life and where it was headed.

But a now familiar cackle shot through the cozy shop, "Ha! I like you, why don't you come with me to the big tree for now?" Kaida offered, shooting up to stand on the chair with her arms crossed awaiting her answer.

Cue the very shocked companions, all thinking the same thing...

Had Kaida really just said what they think she did?

But for Lia, whatever that big three entailed sounded way better than being alone in complete uncertainty.

Kaida leaned towards her while still standing on the old leather chair, "If you really don't have a working memory or a clue as to how anything works around here, ór who you're even supposed to be—Then I sure as uffern ain't gonna let you figure this out all on your own!" Kaida proudly declared.

Jay quickly following up with an excited; "Yeah!"

Even if Alveena shook her head, there wasn't any disapproval behind it.

Lia wasn't sure how to react, but seeing Kaida this riled up and with her favorite fae supporting her statement, she couldn't do anything but go for it right?

She was about to answer when Kaida cleared her throat, "This is the part where my lovely brother says he's proud of me and says that this is a wonderful idea..." her shoulders sagged a bit as she realized Ray may not be as enthusiastic about the proposal as she was.

Instead he sighed, "It's not though, your people skills are the worst, you hate almost everyone you cross paths with and now you suddenly not only try to save a random girl, but actually want to invite her to our home?" his sharp gaze was luckily aimed at his sister, but a noticeable tension built between the two.

Okay there was a lot for Lia to unpack, the rude but joyful girl she'd seen today hadn't struck her as someone who's bad with people, let alone hate everyone she came across.

"So?" Kaida challenged, "You got a problem with helping her now?"

Ray looked a bit stunned, he was taken aback, "No." His voice was firm, implying he was sure about his words. "If she wants our help that is..." the sharpness in his gaze was gone, replaced by a curious look in his mismatched eyes.

"Well Lia?" Kaida asked.

She had already made up her mind.

"I'd like that, you guys are weird but you seem very nice and honest about your intentions," she smiled.

With so many things being unclear, Lia decided to follow these odd, kind strangers who helped her feel a little bit more human, just by showing care and being themselves.

"Skut yeah!" Kaida roared with a wide and just slightly crazed smile.

If ancient spirits or some failed prophecy were part of the path she'd follow with these people, then so be it.