Keldras felt a gentle, rhythmic pressure against his scalp, his cheek resting on something soft and cool.
It was almost as if someone were lightly brushing his hair, massaging his scalp in a way that melted away every trace of tension.
His eyes flickered.
His eyelids felt incredibly heavy as they slowly began to open.
Above him was Saphira.
Her free hand rested in his hair, frozen in place.
She quickly looked away.
“You’re heavy. Can you get off me? I only have one hand. I can hardly move you myself.”
Keldras tried to move.
He managed to lift himself a few inches off her lap before slumping back down.
His whole body felt as though it had been turned to stone.
For a brief moment, he thought he’d seen a soft expression on Saphira’s face.
But when he looked again, it had vanished, replaced by the same icy stare she’d worn the last time they met.
He braced his arms beneath himself and slowly pushed into a sitting position.
While his head was turned away, Saphira looked almost disappointed that he could move on his own, but she quickly composed herself before he looked back.
Keldras glanced around the room.
A raised dais held statues of various faceless gods.
Below it sat rows of damaged pews, some blackened with scorch marks.
The plain stone walls had partially melted, as though exposed to unimaginable heat.
The church looked as if it had been ravaged by an intense fire.
“Where is this place?” he asked absently.
“It’s a church that no longer exists, from a town that was wiped from existence,” Saphira replied cryptically.
Keldras tried to look through one of the windows, but it was useless.
Beyond the glass, all he could see were swirling shadows.
“You look entirely out of place here,” he said flatly.
“I don’t belong here,” she answered after a long pause.
“I was betrayed and imprisoned here. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Her eyes frosted over, and her voice became as cold as ice.
“Well, you’ve helped me, and I seem to be in a position to help you as well,” Keldras said nonchalantly.
“Idiot. It’s not like I told you so you could help me. It’s just more convenient if you know,” she replied, though her voice softened by the end.
Keldras reached toward the chain wrapped around her arm, but Saphira immediately slapped his hand away.
“I may have put you in this situation, but if it weren’t for me, you’d be far worse off. Your body is weak right now, and I don’t want you putting any more strain on it,” she stammered.
“D-Don’t get the wrong idea! I only saved you because you’re my only connection to the outside world.”
Her eyes darted back and forth, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks.
Keldras found Saphira completely incomprehensible.
Everything she did seemed to contradict everything she said.
Even so, he couldn’t help finding her cute.
Infuriating…
but cute.
He let his hand fall back to his side.
He still wasn’t sure how he’d gotten here in the first place.
It had simply happened last time.
“So… how do I get out?” he asked, getting straight to the point.
Saphira looked down at the chains binding her.
“Hmph. Are you stupid? You expect me to know? You’ll probably just snap back like last time, most likely once your body recovers enough energy.”
Keldras sighed and lay back beside her, resting his head on his folded hands.
“I’ll recover faster if I rest,” he muttered, closing his eyes.
Saphira blushed.
“Idiot. You think you’ll get proper rest lying on a cold stone floor?”
“You’re right,” Keldras replied evenly.
He stood, walked over to one of the intact pews, and lay down on it instead.
Saphira’s expression immediately soured.
Why am I like this?
she thought.
Keldras turned away from her, facing the back of the pew, and closed his eyes.
When he finally drifted off, there was only black emptiness.
He thought he heard voices.
Something about shaman training.
Was that Gorra?
Then another sound reached him.
A soft mumble.
Whining.
Self-reproach.
Who is that?
Saphira’s free hand tugged at her hair.
“Why did I do that!? Why can’t I just be normal? Did I make him hate me? I don’t want that! Will he forgive me if I apologize? Can I even apologize?”
She took a deep breath.
“Maybe I should practice.”
Keldras shifted ever so slightly without making a sound and cracked one eye open.
Saphira sat there, pulling at her hair with a miserable expression.
“Okay… okay…”
She took another breath.
“I’m sorry. I just get super nervous when you’re close to me.”
She paused.
“That sounded good, right?”
She looked over.
Their eyes met.
She froze.
“I-I-I-Idiot! W-What are you l-looking at!?”
Her face instantly turned beet red.
A gentle smile spread across Keldras’s face.
Saphira’s blush deepened.
She covered her face with her free hand.
“I wasn’t apologizing!” she insisted.
“I was just clearing my throat!”
Realizing how ridiculous that sounded, she puffed out her cheeks.
“D-Don’t get the wrong idea! I was just preparing for the next time you do something stupid, moron!”
Keldras was completely at a loss.
The situation was so far outside his experience that his mind temporarily shut down.
Unbeknownst to him, his smile grew even wider.
Which only made Saphira more flustered.
Only after a long moment did Keldras realize he was smiling.
“Yes. I get it. You weren’t apologizing to me.”
Saphira narrowed her eyes, unconvinced.
Keldras sighed.
“I know. You weren’t apologizing to me. You were just preparing for the next time I do something stupid.”
He repeated her own words back to her.
Saphira slowly lowered her hand and looked away.
A moment later, she began sneaking glances at him from the corner of her eye.
“Geez…” she muttered.
“You’re reading way too much into things.”
Even so, the corners of her mouth threatened to curl upward before she finally forced herself back into her usual indifferent expression.
Almost done editing and reformatting the first volume, should finish up tomorrow or by wednesday.
Sleep now.