Yatro: Worrywarts ~ Present

A month passed by.

A lot of things happened, but compared to the hell they had experienced in Sueño and Medio, the problems of common life felt almost like a blessing.

Nothing brought more calm and happiness to Raz’s heart that finally managing to bring Yke to safety, just as she had hoped from the start. It pained her to think of all the people that died along the way, and the fact that Herm had fallen sleep to probably never wake up again.

But this? At least she managed to do this. Her heart was heartbroken when she thought of all the kids that had no option and simply died in all those villages taken by the water, but knowing that she could do right, at least this once…

A semblance of peace, a respite in the eye of the storm, more like.

For the first weeks, Ases did not want to leave Raz’s side, at all. If he was not accompanying her, he was back in the old home, waiting and talking with Herm about what was happening outside. How the kid he had helped bring into the city had finally started talking with the other kids inside the city, how grateful she was for bringing Raz safely when he was not there.

How sorry he was for being unable to wake him up.

To the surprise of Ases, Mors also had decided to stay in their house. She could now walk with relative normality, but decided to remain in the city, even if that brought her certain anxiety she could not shake off. Ever since she lost track of Todo she went around, trying to find him and following the trail of the telchines in search for him, but it was all for naught.

She initially planned to resume her search, but the Goddess of Wisdom had been quite clear, she would get a sign if she stayed in the city, and as she had no leads at the time, it seemed to be a better opportunity than she would have looking around blindly.

As much as she hated that Goddess, at the very least, he had never lied to them, so she decided to barge in Ases’s home and make a space for herself in it. The fact that she didn’t need to eat to survive and that no one needed to sleep again made the arrangement quite easy, for everyone’s luck.

The days tickled by, but small changes started accumulating, changes they all could notice but didn’t want to intervene in. For example, the enormous crowds there were when they arrived had thinned out, as most of the men had left and now reunited outside in what seemed to be an army. Ases had no idea where they got the weapons and armor for so many people, but again, if the Goddess of Wisdom was behind it, he could not imagine how much preparation she had done beforehand.

Even, he was starting to think she had been preparing even before the beasts first struck, that fateful day so many moons ago.

“Do you trust her?” Asked Ases to Mors, one time he returned home, after his daily talk with Herm. Mors was downstairs, simply looking outside.

On one side, she could see all the kids that had reunited in the orphanage that the city created after the calamity began. On the other, an ever growing army of men were practicing and preparing to fight the inevitable.

The fact that both things had probably been orchestrated by the same person only made them more wary of her.

“Not a single bit. She’s not lying, that I am sure of. But I am also sure that she is not looking out for us.” She said, between her teeth.

Ases looked out too. He felt the necessity to trust her, somewhere deep inside him. That memory of her looking out for him while the other heroes shunned him in the cliff had stuck with him. He wanted to believe that she meant well, even if he didn’t understand her actions.

“Then, who is she looking out for?” He asked, hoping Mors had more of an insight on the whole situation.

“Herself, only herself. If I had to guess, I would think she’s creating a scenario. She puts people in their places like they were pieces, patiently waiting for the moment they all will move however she wants them to move. She knows what people would do, so she schemes around that and then simply lets fate run the course she designed. She is probably reveling in the fact that only she knows what’s gonna happen” She responded, not trying to hide her disdain in the least.

But, isn’t that too harsh? At the very least, Ases could see that Mors hated her, even if he didn’t dare to ask why. Maybe her hate was clouding her judgement.

“You know, she once told me that fate did not exist, that it was only an illusion imagined by those who don’t understand reality.” He pressed on.

“Yeah? Of course she would say something like that. But if she has special knowledge that allows her to move everyone around like we were chess pieces, how is that different from fate existing? Is fate not real if someone schemed it in the first place?”

“I would say so, after all, technically anyone could do that, with enough foresight.”

“Good for her then, being the Goddess with domain over foresight, no wonder she’s the only God who never died” Sentenced Mors, irritated, before leaving the house without even saying goodbye.

The days passed on, so much that they could almost even forget that the world was ending, the ominous warning of the Goddess, and even the imminent threat of a telchine army invading any day. Peace was a luxury, and they all tried to make the most of it while they could.

It all lasted until one day, when Raz and Ases were resting on the bed. Still unable and now unwilling to sleep, but still liking the closeness the situation provided. But then, all hell broke loose, when Raz started screaming out of nowhere at his side. To say that he was terrified would be an understatement, he shot up from the bed ready to fight whoever was attacking them, only to see Raz heaving in the bed. The day had finally arrived, and the baby was about to be born.

In his mind, he jumped from fear, to surprise, to happiness, all the way back to fear, when he realized that he didn’t know what to do. His mind had blanked, and he simply stood there, shocked, until Raz screamed at him again to call the midwife they had contracted precisely for this moment. Once he was out of his stupor, it was a matter of minutes until he arrived back with the woman and all he could do was stand at Raz’s side, waiting for it to be over.

In his foolish mind he thought, and had hoped, that the birth would be a matter of minutes. The midwife would come, the baby would come out, and that would be it. So when half an hour passed, he was worrying a lot, and by the time an hour had passed, he was tapping the ground with his foot, anxiously hoping that Raz’s pain would end soon.

“Dear, you are crushing my hand.” Said Raz, in between her teeth, trying her best not to keep screaming as the contractions went on.

Ases let her hand go, not having noticed the moment he had started squeezing her hand. With his strength, he hadn’t felt as if he was squeezing her at all.

“I fear this still may take a while. The baby is not yet coming out.” Said the midwife, sternly, surely.

For Ases the news felt like the ground was breaking below him. So long had passed, and it would still go on.

“Dear, can you wait outside? I’ll be fine, please don’t worry… I can do this.” Said Raz, again, in between her teeth, more roughly than before.

He wanted to say no, and stay there, and grab her hand again. But if she had forced herself to say that as much as it hurt, he did not want to trample on her wishes. He looked at her eyes to make sure she was sure. And although he could only see her pain, he did not see hesitation.

In a way, that felt even worse. Why? Was he so big of a failure she didn’t want him in the room when it happened? Was it because he had squeezed her hand too much? Was he so pathetic that could not do anything for her, even now?

“I’ll be outside, call me again, if you want to.” He said, closing the door behind him.

Outside, he found Mors, sitting down silently waiting for the news. She looked at Ases’s face and immediately read what was going on through his mind.

“You are looking worse than I imagined. Stop whatever you are thinking right now and listen to me. You are an absolute worrywart, seeing you shake in anxiety would scare anyone who saw you. This kind of thing can take a very long time, and she simply thought that you didn’t have to be there, worrying about her during the entire process.”

“Being here won’t make me stop worrying.” He said, still dejected.

“True, but what else could she do? You can support her, but in the end, this is something that she has to do alone, so put some trust in her, and believe she can do it. I, at the very least, do believe she can.”

Ases hunched down on the ground, at her side, before sitting down, putting his arms on top of his knees and his head between his arms.

Like that, the two of them waited, only hearing muffled groans, hoping for good news at the end of that eternal feeling wait.