A beam of blue light blasted a hole in a mountainside. While this in and of itself was unusual, said unusuality was compounded by the fact that the light originated from inside the mountain.
What was even more unusual (though it probably explained the beam of light) was that a young-looking woman appeared from the newly-created hole.
She seemed to be in quite the sorry state. Her knee-length hair was matted with sweat, dirt, and rock dust and her tattered and torn blue dress was hanging off her near-skeletal form. There were scraps of what seemed to be a dirty royal purple fabric tied around various cuts and abrasions. Her skin itself was caked with grime and her nails were split and broken. Her long, pointed right ear was torn, evidently where an earring had been ripped out. The only thing about her that didn't look like it had seen better days was the shiny silver ring that hung on a chain about her neck.
But her brilliant purple eyes held hope.
A wild, desperate, longing hope to be sure, but a hope nonetheless.
It was that hope which drove her to walking despite the bone-weariness she felt. That desperate hope which made her whisper, "Where is he?"
But she shook her head and kept walking, knowing that she would feel where he had been in a short while. But not soon enough to her way of thinking. The only thing that would qualify as 'soon enough' was 'right now'.
"Paitence, Mhai, paitence..." she whispered. "It won't be long now, it can't be long now..."
She bit at her dry, cracked lips as she looked around. Something didn't seem right. Something was... missing. From the sky.
She found what she sought lying on the ground like an uprooted island. Which was, in essence, what it was. The sight was one travellers had since become accustomed to, but the last time she had seen this uprooted island, it had been in the sky.
"Is that... Vane?" she said, shaking her head. But it couldn't be, Vane was supposed to be flying. But why couldn't she see it? Where was it?
That landbound island couldn't be Vane, and she would go there and see, just to prove it to herself.
She was another hour or so walking to the place she couldn't accept as being Vane. The southernmost end seemed close enough to the ground to get up on it.
Eager to prove to herself that this wasn't Vane, she climbed up onto the 'island' and began to wander around the now-ruined city on top.
He had been here, she could feel it. She decided to ignore the nagging similarities that this place had to Vane (it couldn't -actually- be Vane) and follow the feeling to where it was strongest.
That wasn't an easy task, actually, as the feeling of his presence was everywhere. But that large building at the back, she got a strong, strong feeling from it.
So she ran to it.
"I don't like doing this, Nash, and I don't think I ever will..."
Nash shook his head. "I'll be the first to admit that I'm not too crazy about raiding Vane for building materials, but you have to admit that it's better than sending the city into debt... And at least we're not stripping this place bare, this is just filling in a few holes. It's not like before when everyone was living out of tents or the good graces of the people in Meribia."
Mia sighed. "You're right, I suppose, but still..."
"I know, but-- Hey, did you see that?"
Mia looked up. "See what?"
Nash pointed in the general direction of the old Magic Guild building. "I thought I saw something moving back there..."
"What?" Mia said surprisedly. "Nash, we have to go check that out!"
Nash looked behind him. "But... it could just be nothing, and everyone else will be expecting us, and it's dangerous there..."
"But it could be something, too, and if it is, people can take apart the city on their own. And because it's dangerous is all the more reason to go and make sure that nobody's getting trapped in there. Please, Nash..." Mia looked pleadingly at him.
"Oh, all right..." Nash said, and the two of them walked off to the partially collapsed former Magic Guild.
"I found it!" she cried exultantly, only to be answered with several hisses of, "Ssssh."
Muttering curses under her breath, she walked over to a bookshelf, carrying the book in her arms with utmost care, more to keep the page from turning than anything else and stood next to a tall young man who seemed engrossed in reading every title of every book on the bookshelf.
"I have it..." she whispered. "This book has the location of that book... Right here." She pushed the book into his arms, being utterly, completely careful that the page didn't turn.
He raised an eyebrow as he handed the book back. "Mountains southwest of Vane. That really narrows it down a lot."
She dropped the book and threw her arms around his neck. "Stop picking nits, dear," she said with a giggle. "You know where it means just was well as I do,"
"Yes, I do, Mhaiera," he said amicably. "And what I said referred to there, too. There are a lot of mountains directly southwest of Vane."
"So?" Mhaiera said. "Do we have anything better to be doing?"
He shrugged. "There is that," he said. "All right. When do we leave?"
"Do you have any plans for tomorrow, and if you say yes, why didn't you tell me?"
"I don't," he shrugged. "So it seems we do now."
"Yes..." she said softly. "Shall we leave now?" And without waiting for an answer, she took him by the arm and headed for the exit. She definitely didn't want him reading the rest of that book. She couldn't let him know...
They found her in a room she should not have been able to enter.
Mia pushed the door further open with a confused look on her face. "Nash..." she said, a touch hesitantly. "Wasn't this Ghaleon's..."
Nash nodded, looking equally confused. "Yeah."
"And wasn't this room sealed? Strongly enough that absolutely no one's been able to get in?"
"It was sealed," Nash said, stressing the past tense and shaking his head. "I don't know how she managed to get in..."
"I don't suppose it matters..." Mia sighed. "We have to help her."
'Her' being the emaciated young woman lying curled up in a ball on the floor, cradling a large, old-looking book (though that described most of the books liberally distributed throughout the room, shelved or no) in her arms like a child, and her matted hair was covering her like a dirty, silver-blue blanket. She was fast asleep.
"Agreed," Nash said softly. "But how are we going to get her out of here?"
Mia bit her lip. "I suppose we could carry her out... she doesn't look too heavy..."
"But if she's hurt, moving her might do her more harm than good..."
"That's true, too," Mia said. "But she doesn't look like she's hurt--hurt badly, at least. It'd probably be better to chance it. After all, this building could collapse at any minute, and with that in mind..."
Nash nodded and slowly walked around the woman. "All right..." he said. Then, very slowly, very carefully, he picked her up, book and all.
"Do you need any help?" Mia asked.
Nash shook his head. "I think the book weighs more than she does. It'll take a minute or two to get used to carrying her, but I should manage just fine,"
"If you're really sure..." Mia said, then looked around. "Anyways, we probably shouldn't be staying here... we should go."
She did not recognize her surroundings when she awoke. She was lying in a bed in some room unknown to her, though she still clutched... that book to her chest.
Confused, she looked around the room, and found a dark-haired young woman with kind, pleasant eyes looking at her. "Oh, you're awake," she said. "I was wondering when--or even if--you'd wake up..."
"Where am I? How did I get here? And who are you?" Her voice was liquid, flowing, but sad. And she didn't sound like she breathed at all.
"Oh!" The dark-haired woman blushed. "I'm so sorry! You must be so confused, and I don't think having some stranger start talking to you as soon as you wake up would be helping... My name is Mia Ausa. What's yours?"
The woman shook her head. "Where is he?" she asked. "I need him... I have to find him..." With that, she started to stand up, but found that her legs would barely hold her. She put the book down beside her, then tried again, failing.
Mia sat down beside the woman and smiled softly at her. "I know you must be very eager to get back to... whatever it was you were doing, but look at yourself... You can barely stand up as it is, so how can you expect to do much of anything else?"
She shook her head. "You're... you're right, of course... But it doesn't matter. I can manage. I have to find him. I need to find him. If I don't find him..."
Mia's look turned curious. "Who is 'he'?"
She shook her head. "I need him... Without him, I... I... I'm cold... I'm so cold..."
Mia shook her head, trying to follow this woman's train of thought (or speech, rather). "Oh!" she said then, realizing what the woman had said last. "That, I can help you with," she said, then left the room.
Mia returned carrying a large, fluffy quilt in her arms. "Here," she said, giving it to the woman.
She pulled the blanket around herself and looked at Mia curiously. After a good long time of staring, she asked, "Why are you doing this for me?"
Mia paused, then began, "When I saw you lying there like that... I couldn't stand to see you, see anyone in such a state. I don't mean any offense, but you looked more than half dead, and you don't look much better right now. Seeing people like that... just makes me want to help them."
"I see." Her tone made it quite clear that she didn't. She stood up, with a little more success this time. "Well, I appreciate the... 'help'," she said the word like it was a foreign language, "but I really must be going now."
She started to walk away, but a wave of diziness forced her to sit back down on the bed.
Mia gently took her by the arm. "Please, at least promise me that you won't try to go anywhere, not for a while at least. It'd make me feel so much better..."
"And better your peace of mind than that of others, ah?" she said harshly, shaking off Mia's hand.
Mia's eyes went wide as she drew back.
She shook her head. "I'm sorry. It's all a joke, anyways... My peace of mind, ha! At any rate, I cannot promise you anything. Due to the... easily broken nature of the promise, I abstain from making them. Honesty to others, even if the capability to be honest to oneself is not present."
It was Mia's turn to look curious. "What do you mean by that? Are you saying people can't be honest with themselves?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying. People lie to themselves all the time, in every little way. It's the nature of existance. Reality is too harsh for people to deal with, in an unaltered state, so people have to lie to themselves to... treat with their miserable lives. It's perfectly natural, if not desirable--particularly when the lies become truth to you. It's one thing to merely believe a lie, for at the core of belief lies doubt, but when you know something, when you take it as truth, then... Always remember that. With belief comes doubt. Knowledge is absolute."
"That's a disturbing outlook on the world..."
"It's not an outlook. It is the way it always has been. It is the way it is. It is the way it always will be. It is the way it always must be. If it were to change, the status quo would have to be restored. I do not believe this. I know this. There is not the 'But what if...' that comes with belief. This is what I know.
"But, at any rate, you are correct in that I am in no condition to be going anywhere. I shall remain here--for a time."