Wildfire Riders

[More. Please more. This is very very good stuff.

I would love to help with in-game Mia RP.]

(( . . . don't be scared of me. I'm fluffy. Like this kitten:



Don't you look at that and think Yva?))

(( Varenna: Rock on! I'm hoping to a decent amount of play time this weekend, so I'll harass you then. ^_^

Yva: ...I plead the fifth... ::hides::

All: Crazy Mia is afraid of no one! ::cue evil laughter::

::shifty look::

Anyways. Glad that y'all have been enjoying reading along. ::smiles:: ))

"The Descent into Madness, Part VIII: Incomprehensible"


The armored gryphon made a smooth landing on the ephemeral grounds of Crystalsong forest. Miahala looked through the crystalline trees as she dismounted, feeling her feet set upon the ground and being glad to be out of the city once again. She craved it at times, but only for so long. After what had happened... before... she felt the need to escape again.

Dorant (the gryphon, who she had named for a childhood friend) nuzzled his armored head against her. Both he and her horse could sense, in the way animals could, that something was wrong. There was only so much an animal can do, of course, but she took comfort in their knowledge and perception.

"Go on," she whispered to him, gesturing to the sky. He didn't move, leaning against her instead. She smiled at him and rested her hands on one of the blank spaces where feathers and fur showed through. "I won't be long. Go on," she said again, waving towards the sky. He stepped forward and turned his eyes to her and she could swear she saw reticence, but he finally took off and lifted into the sky to wait until she summoned him again.

"The last time I was here was with Jol," Mia said quietly as she began walking. The name came and went in her mind. At this moment, the memories were surfacing little by little like the bubbles at the bottom of a pan of boiling water. Starting small, they made escape to the surface one by one in increasing numbers. The hovered at the surface for a moment, letting her see them, before exploding back into apparent non-existence.

There was a dull ache in her wrist from where the thief had grabbed her. Her side was burning, as did the burn spots that were being rubbed against the inside of the bandages while she moved. She hated the pain, and she loved it. As much as she wanted to push it away, she embraced it... in equal terms, she felt it drive her past the edge and yet chain her to the ground.

"I take it that it wasn't a happy memory?" the voice from beside her asked.

"I wouldn't say it was an unhappy memory," Mia replied, although the thought was already fleeing. The memory had her sense of feeling, her emotions, tied to it and dragged them off like something tied to the back of a wagon. "We had work to do."

Jaim walked beside her with his hands behind his back. "Where is he now?" he asked, glancing side-long at her.

She caught his glance out of the corner of her eye, watching him in her peripheral vision. Suspicion was lingering around the edge of her mind, but she was only partially present in her own body then. Mia had yet to return fully since the incident in the underbelly. Lucky for Jaim too, otherwise she might have lit him on fire for asking too many questions.

Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip for a moment and then she shrugged. "I don't know," she replied distantly. Green eyes held a vague expression as they roamed over the beautiful vista. "He is probably still in Stormwind, maybe." Probably in some other woman's bed, a smaller voice said in her mind. It wasn't distant or emotionless. It was venomous. She ignored it.

"You don't seem to mind being up here alone," Jaim commented.

Mia let out a long, quiet breath. "It's not a matter of whether I mind or not," she replied. "There is no other option."

There were several moments of silence. Her mind started to wander, but it only ran into walls like a blind dog. Blind and without sight. Not seeing things. What should be seen, but isn't. The trees were pretty.

"There are options though, aren't there?" Jaim said finally. "You could return to Dalaran and look, or back to Stormwind. You could find him and talk to him."

"No," Mia said quietly. It was just above a whisper. The thought made the emotions try to close back in. They wanted to return, because it was more comforting to feel too much than to feel too little. Subconsciously she preferred the feeling that came when she burnt down the apartment or popped out that eyeball to this utter lack of sensation... but it wasn't a conscious choice. It was just where the mind went on its own accord. "It's not an option."

"Why not?"

Two words, but just because the number was low didn't mean it was inconsequential. Two daggers can still kill. Two fires can still bring down a building. Two wounds can still break a heart. "I don't know what I'll find," she said. Mia had stopped walking, though she didn't realize it as she stared at some invisible marker on the ground, staring fixedly. "I think I'm right. I don't want to know it."

Jaim laughed. It was quiet, but he still laughed. Her head snapped up. He was laughing at her? The laugh faded and he smiled at her. "Haven't you considered the possibility that you're wrong?" he posed.

What if you're wrong?

Her gaze drifted down again as her mind wrestled with the idea. Had it occurred to her before? Maybe... it was hard to be sure of that as to know how much time had passed since she fled Stormwind. If she was wrong, then she had burnt... If she was wrong, then she'd been... If she was wrong, then... Not a single thought would complete.

Recent memories swirled around inside her mind, speeding up into unreadability until disappearing all together, unable to cope.

Mia lifted her head and laughed. "Crystalsong is so beautiful, isn't it?" she asked with a smile.

...To Be Continued...

"The Descent into Madness, Part IX: A Split Path"


Herds of wild mustangs thundered their way through the grassy knolls of the Grizzly Hills. The ground shuddered under their gait and the smaller animals of the wildness made sure to clear their path. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Travelers made their way along the roads, each choosing their ways according to their own needs, as all men, and women, do.

"...but I didn't have any choice. There wasn't any other choice. I couldn't help it. I can't help it." Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Where the road divided, offering travelers their choice, there was a wooden post standing to tell folks where each path led. It was really only things this small in life that offered the choices and told one where their paths would lead... but only the wooden signposts were reliable, most the time.

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

At the bottom of the post was a woman, kneeling with her face towards the post - towards the split roads, although she wasn't looking at either road, because her path had already been chosen...

"What could they expect of me?" Mia said with tears streaming down her cheeks as she feverishly dug in the dirt before the signpost with her hands. Dirt was accumulating in clumps under her fingernails, but the hole wasn't getting deep enough fast enough. "I didn't want to," she whispered tearfully. "What choice... who could... How could..."

Thoughts were not completing only the crippling weight of emotion and the incomprehensible attempt of a mind to reconcile choices.

When she'd dug a decent hole, she pulled forward her bag and upended it over the hole. A bloody, sticky mass of eyes and ears tumbled out and into the hole and she hastily covered it.

Pushing herself to her feet, she looked around to see if anyone had seen her and then hurried back down the path she'd come.

...To Be Continued...

"The Descent into Madness, Part X: Blank Spaces"


Sleep crept its way out of Miahala's mind, at first. As consciousness slowly began its return, green eyes fluttered open and she gained her first recognition of her present state. There was something instantly... wrong about it.

This sense was what brought her fully awake and with great speed.

Miahala was frozen in form but wholly awake. A tightness seized her chest and she forced a deep inhalation through her nose. She picked up an unfamiliar scent and recognized it as that of another person. Turning her head slowly, she saw a male form sprawled out next to her - on his stomach. All she could see from here was that his hair was black. She wanted to scream, but didn't want to wake him and so she swallowed the sound.

Sinking her teeth into her lower lip, she teetered on the edge of crying and laughing. The part of her mind that had been in control most of the time lately wanted control back, because it would be easier to handle this now. She wrestled it. She tried to maintain coherency... but she only felt guilt this way, and a benign sort of horror.

She slipped as carefully as she could from the bed, finding a thin blanket that had ended up on the floor. She pulled it around herself, moving carefully and staring at the body on the bed as she did to watch for any signs of waking. When it seemed safe, she tip-toed around to find her clothing... There were bottles of Dalaran Red everywhere and she had a good idea of how she'd gotten here.

The room looked like a Dalaran room. How had she gotten to Dalaran?

Well, she could figure out how she got there, but she didn't remember doing it. Remnants were in her mind, but no coherent strings. There were images of what happened at that signpost in the Grizzly Hills... Of desperately seeking escape... Of voids and the need to fill them... Of a man... Who? Oh, bloody hell, who...

Mia moved very carefully, stepping on the balls of her feet to step around the end of the bed to the other side and try to spy the face of the man lying there. When she did, she saw it wasn't - as first suspected - Jaim... It was, in fact, someone she didn't recognize at all. She couldn't figure out whether that made it better or worse. (A giggle bubbled up in her throat, but she ignored it. She stuffed it back down.)

"This isn't good," she breathed to herself. She was losing the fight. The giggle returned as she pulled her clothing close to her chest and slipped into them, all the while eying the man on the bed.

He grunted once and rolled over. She froze, fearing that he was waking... but after a moment, he settled back down. Breathing with relief, Mia made a quick escape.

...To Be Continued...

"The Descent into Madness, Part XI: Scales of Unreality"


Miahala sat on the edge of the bed in the Legerdemaine Lounge. Her hair was falling into her eyes, but she wasn't paying it any attention. Just moments before, Varenna Sungale had departed... and it had been a surprising morning for the mage. She was feeling more ground than she had in... many days. She still had no comprehension of the time that had passed up until now, but she had an awareness of now in a way she hadn't before.

...and yet, she was more confused than she had been before.

Could Sungale have spoken the truth? Or was she mistaken, or misinformed? Mia, of course, could not say and that confused her even more.

Something else from the converation had turned her mind in a circle and while she still felt connected to the present time and place, she sought to consider it and examine it. She would try to understand it, while she had the capacity to do so. Already, she felt that her grasp of things was slipping through her fingers, like trying to hold on to sand without closing your fingers.

Memory. It was memory that was tormenting her. Some were clear and some she knew for real, but there was some from the past few days that she didn't know if they'd been real or not.

She had woken up in a bed in a room at the Hero's Welcome. She remembered that now, and she rememered why she had stopped remembering it... until her conversation just a short while ago. But something... something seemed off now, in retrospect. Closing her eyes, she could see the man as he lay on his stomach, but the memories leading to it were vague and strange.

Mia had looked closely at the man, to make sure it wasn't Jaim... and it hadn't been, right?

Suddenly, she was no longer tired.

She dug through her mind, clawed apart each memory, to piece things together. She had woken in Dalaran and had fled the room. Frightened and ashamed, she had gone to the Grizzly Hills... somehow. She didn't remember that. She had been in the Grizzly Hills, at a signpost, and then had... come to Dalaran. But when? She didn't remember that part. She didn't remember returning to the Grizzly Hills, either - just waking up in her bedroll near the Amberpine Lodge.

Hurrying from the room, she returned to the Hero's Welcome, even though she had only just left it a short time before. She kept an eye out for Sungale, not wanting her to see her and worry any more. Their conversation had done much to ground her again, although in being grounded, she only worried more about just how far aflight she was.

"Excuse me," Mia said to the Inn Keeper. "I'm afraid I can't remember which room I was in last night," she said. It was the truth, though she gave the expression and thus the impression it was for reasons other than it had been. Sanity was tenuous and trying to break free, but she held on fiercely. "The name is T-..." Not any more, perhaps... "Sha'hal."

"I'm sorry, Miss, but you weren't here last night," the Inn Keeper replied. "I've a good mind for faces, especially of folks keeping rooms. I haven't seen you in several days, not until this morning when you came through."

Mia stared for a long few moments.

If she hadn't been here last night... or in days... then how had she woken up here? Had she woken up here? At the time, it had seemed so clear... but she had no recollection of going from the Grizzly Hills to Dalaran and back... Could she possibly have never been here at all?

What was happening to her?

She felt her heart begin to beat hard in her chest and her body temperature spiked, she began to sweat but then cooled. She felt clammy. Forcing a smile, she thanked the Inn Keeper and then hurried out into the afternoon light, taking in a deep breath of air and then rushing back to the Legerdemaine... completely unaware of the fact that it was soon to be inhabited by Miss Sungale, and Jolstraer, very shortly.

Once back in her room with the door slammed shut, she let herself drop back on to the edge of the bed and cry. She tried to remember everything and sort out... if one memory was false, what other ones were true? What was unreal? How would she ever know the difference?

"Light, what's happened to me?" she sobbed softly into her hands, alone.


OOC: And now we must begin the slow ascent into semi-sanity, so I can come back to the world of other folks again... ::chuckles:: Don't worry. She won't be totally sane when all is said and done though, and there's some work left to do before we get there. ;)

"The Descent into Madness, Part XII: Long Road Back"


Everything looked different now, in some way. It felt different, too.

Crystalsong was still beautiful, of course. There was no changing that, no matter what her outlook was or her current level of sanity.

Her talk with Varenna Sungale the day before had changed things for her. For one, she now knew that it was the day before and had an account of time again, so she knew that she had spent roughly two and a half hours sobbing hysterically over the state of her life in a room at the Legerdemain Inn, both terrified and hoping that Jol would come find her; that Varenna would have told him.

She had no idea that Sungale had, indeed, told him... and no clue that his reaction had not been what she would have hoped, but in fact was far closer to what she had feared.

With her tears all wept and the extent of all possible emotion expended, she had gone to sleep. In her dreams, she relieved everything that had happened in the past week, just about. She now knew that it had been only a week. It had felt like a month, a year, a day, an hour... The perception of time was still uncertain, but her memory of it was again sound; at least present.

Miahala was now sitting on a long rock, which was part of one of the ruined buildings that lay strewn in some areas of the forest. The forest was beautiful and glistening, glittering in the sunlight of morning. The trees reached up to the sky and through them, she could see Dalaran in the distance. It was a sight that filled her with comfort and with memories that made her feel sad and scared.

Her life had spiraled so drastically out of control in just a single week. How could she ever begin to reclaim what she had lost? Worse yet, she knew that she was not yet entirely herself... at least, she wasn't the woman that she had been before this had all happened. Yet, she could look back and see many things that she had not realized at the time.

She could feel it in her mind, like there was... a presence sitting in her brain, and she wasn't sure that she would ever get rid of it.

"So," Jaim said. He was sitting beside her and looking at her in concern. "Ye have nae idea if it really happened?"

"It seemed very real at the time and then when it came back to me the next day," Mia replied, staring off through the trees as she leaned back on her hands. "After I talked with Miss Sungale, however, everything began to look different. Everything began to feel different and I started sorting through my mind. It's strange, you know? It's strange how you can do that. It was like I was shuffling through parchments and taking notes as to what's going on in my own head. It was so terrifying at the time, to realize how much control I had lost... even over my own mind."

A few moments of silence passed. "It's nae terrifying any more?" he finally asked.

Mia glanced at him with a rueful smile. "Of course it is. I've not felt much fear in my life, but I'm still horrified beyond belief... not from the things I did, or didn't do, but that I could... that I could fall that far." She paused. "Well... some of the things I did. It was for their safety to not be near my daughters during these... days of hell, but I never thought I'd be the sort of mother to abandon my children." Her voice choked a little on impending emotions as her green eyes glistened like the trees and ground around her.

"Ye didn't abandon them," Jaim said quietly, but fervently. "Ye knew what was happening an' ye wanted to make sure they were safe. That was t' responsible thing for ye to do."

"I know," she replied, tears slipping silently down her face. "Yet Jolstraer is never going to forgive me. He's going to hate me for this."

"How can ye be sure?"

Turning her head to look at him again, her expression was wry. "Wouldn't you?" she asked. "If your wife burned down your house, left your children in the care of others and then just vanished?"

Jaim shrugged. "I can't really say," he said. "I never had a wife."

She shook her head and looked out into the forest again. "Light," she said. "I almost wish that I hadn't spoken with Varenna. I'm seeing everything so clearly now and I hate it. It's easier when you don't care, you know? Now I care, but I don't have any inner sense of peace that this is the end. I feel like it's going to continue."

"Only time will tell," Jaim said.

Waiting, she thought that he would say more. When he didn't, she sighed. Was there anything more to say on it? He was right. Only time would tell. It was the only thing that ever truly could.

Mia almost felt as though she could see the past week stretching out in a line before her, each event a link in the chain; the more uncertain moments winding their ways through the trees, sinuous like a serpent that was slithering both towards her and away from her. She wanted to look away because it was frightening and yet she didn't, because you shouldn't take your eyes off a snake, especially one with this much power over you, and its dance was hypnotizing.

"I wonder if anyone will forgive me," Mia said quietly. "Miss Sungale was very kind and very patient. Something about her talk brought me around, and I think I'm grateful," she said with a soft laugh. "I didn't think about it then, as I wasn't thinking about much of anything coherent, but looking back, she seemed like she had experience in this sort of thing." She paused, frowning thoughtfully. "She said something about magic addiction and the Stormrunner girls. I'm not sure if that all has anything to do with it, but whose to say?"

"Ye have a better idea than that of what ye think it is," Jaim said with an underlying confidence that annoyed Mia.

Brushing her hand through her hair, pulling auburn strands away from her face, she shook her head. "I know what I thought, although now... Now I'm not so sure, and that hurts very badly, you know. She said..." Mia's voice trembled and she licked her lips in a rapid, anxious motion. "Miss Sungale, that is, said that Jol was desperate to get into the house and make sure I wasn't in it... and that pulls this terrible ache from my heart that I don't know what to do with." Her voice grew thick again and tears slipped down her cheeks. "But then I think of that house and all that time alone, and the memories that drove this all in the first place and the other things I can look back and see..." She trailed off.

"Like what?" Jaim asked.

Not for the first time, she couldn't help but feel a little irritated at the questions. "I know that this... whatever it is... this loss of sanity didn't start that night. When I look back over the days and weeks leading up to it, I can see it now. I can see it building. I had no idea when it was happening, but there was a darkness stealing over me. I can still feel that darkness inside," she went on quietly as she pressed her hand to her chest, "and I wish I had seen it then. I could have..."

Jaim smiled slightly. Mia could see it from the corner of her eye. "When we look behind, our sight is always t' clearest," he said. "We could all rule t' world if we could move forward, look behind and go back an' change it. Ye can only do t' best ye can with what ye have at a time an' such darkness is nae made t' be seen until it's entirely consumed ye an' begins passing away again, letting in t' light once more so that ye have t' light with which to see t' shadows."

Mia gave a quiet, non-committal sound. "Damn philosophy," she muttered and her irritation came mostly because she knew that he was right.

A quiet came over the two of them then, but it only lasted for a couple breaths before there was a Night Elf walking around from behind. Mia would've been surprised for the fact that she hadn't heard the man coming but that he was coming out of stealth as a cat. She only knew him for a Night Elf once he had shifted into that form. He looked young, but she knew that to be deceiving when it came to the Kaldorei and so she didn't venture to guess. He was staring at her with what she guessed to be concern in his pale shining eyes.

"Are you all right, Miss?" he asked carefully.

Miahala frowned and exchanged a look with Jaim before she turned back to the Night Elf before her. "Yes," she said, since she wasn't about to share her personal life with some stranger. "Why do you ask?"

He paused. "Well, you're sitting in the middle of the forest and having what appears to be a casual conversation with yourself. It isn't really that common."

Blinking at him, she couldn't reply for a moment. Once she could, she stammered softly to say, "Talking to... myself..." It was a thought that didn't complete as she turned her head quickly and looked at Jaim. He just offered her a small smile as she looked at the Night Elf again. "I'm fine," she said breathily, forcing a smile. "It's just been a long few days, you know, and I'm just talking out loud to concentrate and think over things."

The Elf didn't look like he believed her, but he nodded and shifted back into the form of the panther before running off.

Mia inhaled slowly. "Okay, which one of us is crazier?" she asked, turning her head slowly to regard Jaim. He looked like he was sitting there as real as anyone else, as real as that Elf had been or as the trees around them or the stone ruins that the pair of them was sitting on. She knew some of the things she had thought had happened hadn't, but... this?

"Ye didn't honestly believe I was real, did you?" Jaim - her apparent delusion - said with a laugh.

"Light," she breathed, turning away and putting her hands over her face.

Just when she had thought that she had come to terms with the full extent of what had gone wrong... yet more was revealed and more had now become clear. This is why he hadn't been able to keep that shoveltusk off of her and why he hadn't healed her after her injuries. The way he just seemingly showed up and knew things about her that she didn't remember telling him... It made so much more sense now.

Mia found that it making sense didn't make her feel one damn bit better.

"Jaim," she muttered with a sigh. Even the name was seen in a different light.

Through her fingers, she looked at him. He was still just sitting there and smiling at her and it was more annoying than ever. "Now that I know you're there, shouldn't the delusion be breaking or something? I know I'm no Priest and don't know much about how things are supposed to heal, but I would imagine that once the puzzle is solved it'll go away."

Jaim shook his head. "I'm afraid it's nae going to work that way, love," he said. His expression suggested compassion, but she wasn't feeling it... despite the fact that he was apparently in her mind. "Ye are just going to have to deal with me, whether ye like it or nae."

"Could you at least have had a different accent?" she asked weakly, lowering her head and closing her eyes.

"I'm from ye own mind," he said, laughing, "So whatever I have for an accent is entirely from ye."

Lowering her hands, Mia felt the darkness closing in again. It threatened to consume her once more and take her deeper underneath than she had been before, but she fought it. She knew it for what it was now and could look it in the face and say 'no' and make it back down. It wasn't easy, but she did it. The only part that she didn't seem able to clear her mind of was the presence of Jaim beside her.

"Just how far have I fallen?" she asked, looking out into the trees. "I don't know," she answered herself, "but I need to go home. Being alone is only going to make it worse, and I need to go home. Jol might never forgive me. He hasn't tried to find me, if Varenna did tell him, because he didn't come to the Inn and hasn't called the buzz box, and I can now see the girl's cleverness in giving it to me... and he hasn't reached out, so I imagine he hates me."

Her shoulders rose and fell in a sorrowful but resolute sigh. She was now ignoring Jaim, but remained aware of him on her periphery. "Even so, I need to go home."

...To Be Continued...

"The Descent into Madness, Part XIII: Full Circle"


Just at the base of the steps, the hooded figure hesitated and looked up towards the door. Evening had settled although the light hesitated in the reddish grey of the in-between - sunset was still a visible memory but the sunlight had fled. There was a warm glow radiating from around the edges of the shut door and the dull murmur of children's voices came from within.

Miahala took a deep breath and pulled her hood back from her face, dropping it as she stared at the door.

"It's a little scary, isn't it?" Jaim asked, standing beside her. She knew that he wasn't really there, but he wouldn't go away. At the moment, she didn't so much care, because he was as right as he was annoyingly present.

"It is," she agreed with a sigh. "I have to do it, though."

They say that the first step is always the hardest, but she steeled herself and put her foot on to that bottom step and then the next. There weren't many, but each one to follow was indeed easier than the one before it until she reached the door. She paused again in front of this one, but forced herself to turn the handle and push through.

Inside, the Orphanage's Mistress was cleaning up from the evening meal. She looked surprised to see Mia and the mage couldn't blame her. Mia smiled weakly. "Is Matila here?" she asked. After the other woman nodded, Mia thanked her and pushed past, heading down into the basement room that her sister stayed in. Mia crossed her fingers and knocked on the thin wooden door.

"Enter!" she heard Matila call.

Mia opened the door and stepped inside. Matila was just turning towards the door and saw her, squeaking with surprise. They both froze, eying one another - on wary and the other weary - for a moment before Matila peered closely. "Mia?" she asked.

Smiling weakly again, Mia nodded. "Yeah," she said. "It's me. I'm... better now. And I'm sorry."

Matila moved forward and embraced her sister. Mia swallowed down tears and just clung closely to her sister, thankful for silent forgiveness, knowing that the path to her sanity remained in being around others. She couldn't afford to let go again. She knew that now. Closing her eyes, she just... held on for a while. "I'm sorry," she repeated, whispering into her sister's ear. "I know I must have scared you."

"I was worried," the younger Sha'hal said, then pulled back. "You look... less crazy now," Matila said with her own weak smile. She turned them both and nodded to the bed where Tianna was waking, looking up with sleepy eyes and rubbing them with a chubby fist.

"Mama?" she asked.

Tears began to slip down her cheeks and she couldn't stop these. Behind her, she heard Jaim say, "Go to her," in a quiet voice. She glanced back at him briefly, unaware of Matila's strange look, but nothing more was said or done and so Matila dropped it and let her sister walk over to the cot that Tianna had been sleeping on, just as the little girl lifted her arms.

Mia sat down on the bed and pulled her daughter against her, hugging her close. "I'm so sorry, my sweet girl," she whispered, kissing the top of her head, full of black curls. She looked a lot like her father, Mia couldn't help but think. After a few moments, she pulled back and met her daughter's eyes. They held no accusation, only sleepy joy and some confusion. Her mother brushed some of the curls off her forehead.

"Where mama go?" Tianna asked, one thumb being drawn magnetically to her mouth while the other hand tangled in her hair.

"Mama wasn't feeling very well," Mia explained. "I was feeling kind of... sick, so I had to go away for a little while so I could get better." There was no way to explain what had happened to a four year old.

A look of concentration passed over her face before she asked, "Is mama feelin' better?"

The mage smiled softly. "Yeah," she said. "Mama is feeling better."

...To Be Continued...

"The Descent into Madness, Part XIV: Next Up..."


The sun was shining over Cathedral Square.

Fortunately for Miahala, both of her daughters had been in close proximity of one another at present. Sadiraia was in the city to head into the Cathedral and see to her training and she was surprised on her way down the stairs to see her mother sitting on the bench before the fountain. The young Paladin's mouth had dropped open for a moment before the girl rushed forward to embrace the mage.

All that armor made her look so grown up, but she was still just a young girl at heart. Mia felt blessed for it, though. Even though it had only been just over a week, it had felt like a life time. She was relieved she hadn't missed her daughter's growing up.

"Mother," Sadie said, leaning back on her heels and looking up. Her blue eyes were bright. "I've been so worried! I got your letter, but I was still worried." She frowned delicately - an expression that should have looked out of place, given the plate she was covered in, but it wasn't. "What happened? Are you feeling any better? I mean, are you going to be able to stick around now?"

"All just questions," Jaim chimed in, sitting beside Miahala. The latter didn't spare him a glance now, though.

Mia smiled and nodded. "Aye, I'm going to be staying around now," she agreed warmly. "I'm sorry to have worried you, but there wasn't much for it. It was something that I had to do, but the time away has helped me to clear my mind." Well, that's really a lie since it's just managed to clutter it up, but there's been some clearing out at the same time.

Her daughter smiled and hugged her again. "Good!" she said.

Kissing her daughter's red hair, she then gestured for Sadie to have a seat. She sat through Jaim and Mia found this amusing, despite what she knew, but she kept herself from laughing. There was something that she wanted to ask, but she hesitated to do so. "Have you... seen your father recently?" Mia asked, forcing the words out.

Sadie frowned, shaking her head. "No," she said. "I haven't seen him much lately. We've caught up a little bit, here and there, but nothing much. He's been kind of... scary lately." She paused and then gave a sheepish shrug. "Well, more than usual, at least." Here she paused again. "I think he's been awful worried about you, mom," she ventured.

I kind of doubt that, Mia thought to herself. If he had been so worried, why hadn't he tried to find her? Looking back, she didn't think she would've been that difficult to find, for someone who was truly trying.

"I know, honey," Mia said out loud. She wasn't going to burden her eldest with such thoughts or doubts. Mia brushed some of Sadie's hair behind her ear. "I've worried a lot of people and I wish I hadn't had to, but I'll make it up to people."

Shaking her head, Sadie smiled sheepishly. "You don't have to make anything up to me, mama," she said. "I'm just glad you're okay."

She leaned her head on Mia's shoulder and Mia smiled, leaning her head against Sadie's and taking a quiet breath as she looked around the Square. It felt so good to be back with her daughter's again and to know that her sister didn't hate her, but there was one meeting she was going to have to arrange... somehow... and it was one that she was not looking forward to.

...To Be Continued...