Side-effects & Vigilance

Jin

I quietly sat by Erinara’s bed, waiting. My mind kept running in circles, worries of having made Erinara do something beyond her capacities going wild. I realized that I hadn’t even properly considered that she could be overexerted in the first place. She seemed like an indestructible force to me. I decided that I had better double my efforts on understanding magic, clearly I was still severely lacking in comprehending the first thing of her abilities.

After what felt like eternity, I noticed her left index finger twitching ever so slightly.
“Erinara? Are you okay?”, I asked.
Her finger simply twitched some more. I took her hand into mine. Her hand was frigidly cold, just like on the journey.
“What’s the matter? Do I need to get help?”, I asked.
What if overusing magic had other effects I didn’t know of? This time her thumb twitched. It was outstretched, pointing at her face. I was trying to piece together if she was trying to tell me something. I couldn’t see her face after all.

“Oh! Do you want me to remove your hood?”, I asked quizzically.
Her fingers twitched once more.
“I have no idea how to interpret this correctly. How about this, if you want me to remove your hood try to move your fingers once, if you don’t want me to…”, I stopped my sentence halfway as Erinara already grasped her fingers together ever so slightly once.
“Okay, I hope I’m not getting this wrong”, I said.
Carefully placing her hand back on the bed, I reached for her hood and pulled it behind her head.

Two brilliant purple eyes stared right at me.
“How are you feeling?”, I asked.
She looked to the side briefly, before focusing her eyes on my again.
“Ah right, no talking. Similar system as before, one blink yes, two blinks no, does that sound okay?”
Blink.
“Okay perfect. Is there anything I can help you with right now?”
Two blinks.
“Do you want me to leave the room?”
Two blinks.
Her gaze hadn’t left my eyes for even a second. It felt as though she was staring directly into my soul. I wanted nothing more than to help her, but I couldn’t figure out a way to do so.
“Should I tell Ebiron that you’re awake again?”
Erinara seemed to consider my question for a short time, before blinking twice.

After a few minutes, her eyes wandered away from me for a moment, then snapped back to my face.
“Sorry, are you trying to tell me something?”
Blink.
Erinara repeated the motion. She looked down, slightly to the left, near where I was sitting.
It appeared like she was trying to look at…
“Your hand?”, I asked.
Blink.
“Does it hurt?”
She blinked twice. Her gaze switched between her hand and me. Despite her situation, there seemed to be strength behind her eyes.
I reached out, gently touching the back of her hand.
Erinara’s eyes widened for a moment. They darted around briefly before she closed them.
I wasn’t sure if her request was meant to comfort me or herself. I had a suspicion that it was the former.
Whatever the case, I certainly did feel different, more at ease and nervous simultaneously.

We quietly remained like this for some time, until Erinara moved again. This time she was able to slowly, but properly move her fingers.
“Finally”, she said. Despite only uttering one word, it sounded like it took her tremendous effort to do so.
“Are you feeling better?”, I asked.
“Slightly. Can talk a bit now”, she answered.
“You don’t have to strain yourself you know?”
She nodded ever so slightly: “Can talk properly soon.”
After a few minutes, the tensity in her voice vanished and she was able to talk normally.

“Sorry about all this”, she said, “I genuinely didn’t think that spell would use up all of my mana. And thank you for watching over me.”
“Why are you apologizing? You’ve gone above and beyond on making everything happen. I’m the one who’s sorry. I was completely useless, I’ll find a way to make it up to you”, I replied.
“No need to beat yourself up. There are only two warlocks in the entire land that have the correct innate magic type to use shadow teleportation. And you know both of them, lucky you”, she teased.
“I can’t help but feel I should have done something more though”, I said.
“You have the ability to annihilate a stone golem, one of the most physically resistant monsters with a slashing weapon, and consider yourself not powerful? We just have different abilities is all”, Erinara reasoned.
It's true that a stone golem is usually an impassible foe for any soldier. Her words made me feel better again.
I laughed quietly.
“You know, you’re supposed to be the one who gets supported right now. Why are you taking it upon yourself to worry about me?”
“I’d say that we are helping each other out equally. Besides, you’ve made me feel much more comfortable being myself in such a short time. Just how you’ve said you’ve picked up some tricks from being with me, I’ve done the same. If anyone told me I’d freely talk with a crest a couple weeks ago,  I would laugh in their face and call them crazy”, she said. Her voice somehow sounded both warm and tinted with cold logic at the same time.
“Where do you pull all that strength from?”, I asked.
“Maybe that’s just another power of warlocks you don’t know of”, she winked at me followed by a slight chuckle.
“Right, right. Did you know us knights can sprout wings?”, I joked back.
“Now that’d be a sight to see.”
She turned her left hand around slowly, tightening her grip on my hand slightly.

We stayed like this for another half hour, soon Erinara was able to move properly.
“Never thought it’d feel weird to move”, she said.
“Can I assist you somehow?”, I asked.
“No, it’s just something that I’ll have to deal with for a bit. It feels like I have to put extra effort in for every action I try to take, as if running through water that goes to my neck. That being said, I’m also feeling like every movement is getting easier by the second.”

I decided I needed to change to keep up with her.
“Erinara, I want to learn magic properly. Can you help me with that?”
“Certainly, I’d be glad to help. But you are a human, someone with limited affinity to magic in the first place, it will likely be very difficult”, she replied.
“Yeah, you had mentioned that humans take longer than elves. But even so, if nothing else I want to understand you better. I tend to grasp things much better if I’m doing them rather than just listening. With your guidance I’m sure I’ll be able to understand things much more quickly. After all, thanks to you I could understand the basics of rune magic in but one dinner”, I explained.
“I see. In that case, let us work on that when we have time to do so. After attending the conversation with Fyor and Ebiron that is. We shouldn’t keep them waiting too long now that I can move again.”
“Wait, you know that they are waiting for us?”, I asked confused.
Erinara stretched her arms over her head and yawned.
“Yeah, I do. Matter of fact, I’ve been awake the entire time since we teleported”, she laughed ever so quietly, although she also turned her face away from me.

“Oh. Right”, a rush of heat radiated through my face as I recalled how I had carried her, and wanted to hold her hand while I still considered that she was unconscious. Based on her actions regarding the latter, it appears that she had noticed that especially.