The Song of Healing

By the time Prishu had escorted them to their cabin, Ui had reached her limit. Her exhaustion and injuries caught up to her, and her emotions were not enough to keep her standing. Yula quickly intervened before her legs gave in, and carried her onto one of the two small, hard crew beds.

“You’re overdoing it, Uisempuli.” Yula gently placed a blanket over her. “Like you always do.”

“What’s the point of doing anything if you’re not going to give it all you got?” Ui smirked towards Yula, who had already started examining their small cabin.

“Don’t try to sound wise when you’re saying something incredibly stupid, Uisempuli.” Yula’s blunt tone stopped Ui from talking, and her silence meant she conceded to Yula. The bed in that room provided no comfort, either, and the blanket was extremely thin.

But Ui smiled when she noticed a small window showing the outside, where they could see stars in the background whenever the rushing clouds weren’t concealing them. “This is amazing, isn’t it?” Ui forgot about her injuries while she gazed at the sky.

Yula scoffed. “It’s all the magicores. The Umans didn’t do anything.” Yula looked back to see a confused Ui. “You don’t feel it?” Ui remained confused, not understanding what Yula was talking about. “Don’t you feel your strength returning to you since we got here?”

Ui, lying down, moved her arms around. While her feelings of pain had only gotten stronger since they got there, she definitely didn’t feel as weakened as she had back on that cliff.

“You don’t know anything, do you Ui?”

Ui shook her head.

Yula sighed. “It’s alright. They don’t teach us any of it, on purpose probably. My theory is that the rocks the Umans call magicores give us our powers.”

“That’s not… what they teach us.”

“Exactly.”

Ui pulled the blanket over her face, trying to hide her feelings and her pain. The only thing that reached through the darkness of that room was the whirring of the airship’s engines.

Suddenly, Ui felt the blanket being pulled away from her, and Yula grabbed her hand instead. “Don’t do that,” said Yula.

Ui, with Yula’s serious face looming over her, unable to hide, tried her best to stop the tears she felt welling inside. When Yula forced her to look at her, all she saw was Yula’s smile coupled with her warm hands holding hers. Ui's feelings froze along with her body, and she couldn’t cry in front of her.

Yula looked directly into Ui’s eyes, not budging for a second. “So, tell me everything.”

“It’s…” Ui sighed. “A lot.”

“Were you planning on sleeping well tonight?”

Ui shook her head. “Not really, this bed is as uncomfortable as Adari’s.” They both shared a laugh.

“Who makes beds out of rocks? It doesn’t matter how much we layer them, they’re still so uncomfortable.”

Ui smiled nostalgically. “Even then I… miss her bed sometimes.”

She told Yula everything she remembered about growing up in the capital, her family, and everything else. Yula followed along, nodding attentively, barely interrupting her. Ui kept talking well into the night.

She talked about the North, the border city, and all of the nobles of the capital. She shared everything that happened, and everything that she had felt. The girls kept talking as the night passed, sharing stories of the childhood they once shared, a childhood that they felt had been lost to time. But despite the distant, pleasant memories Ui had, she couldn’t avoid the bad ones that were mixed in her past. Eventually, through much pain and exhaustion, their stories led them back to the present.

“But, you trust these Umans then?” Yula seemed deep in thought.

Ui nodded, even though she didn’t feel entirely confident. While the Umans had treated her well, and the Udari poorly, she could also easily imagine the situation being reversed. She couldn’t really understand everything. She didn’t know what to feel, either. “The Duke has a pure heart, Yula. I know it.” She couldn’t stop herself from smiling when she mentioned the Duke. Ui felt like she had to firmly hold on to the positive memories she still had.

She stopped herself when she noticed Yula analyzing her expression. “Hmm…” They both remained awkwardly silent for a few seconds before Yula spoke again. “You’re a legend among Udari nowadays but… I forget you’re just a girl in the end.” Ui had a hard time interpreting Yula’s words, and her expression didn’t help either.

“So are you Yula…” said Ui bashfully.

Yula covered Ui’s mouth with her hand gently, stopping her from talking. Yula closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Ui was surprised and didn’t know how to react, but then Yula started humming. It wasn’t a light, bright hum like Ui’s, but a mellower, melancholic one. It was a precise and practical warmup, unlike Ui’s. Once she was done, she started singing in a quiet, controlled voice.

“Surukai melonai

Uruma Tirua

Masai namelosai

Aru Aru…”

The air in the room became warm, and soon, Ui didn’t need a blanket, Yula’s words, or her warmth. The bed felt less firm, and the clouds that had covered her window were soon forgotten as she felt the beauty of the stars closely around them. The cold, cramped cabin and the unforgiving Udari known as Yula had all disappeared, and her heart fluttered with a happiness she didn’t know she could feel. She closed her eyes and felt the stars all around her. Full of joy, she felt like she could reach the skies, and everything else.

Ui basked in that feeling for a few minutes, before everything started catching back up to her. The air went back to being cold and thin, the room turned dark once again, the stars left her reach, and the bed was as hard as it was supposed to be. But her pain was gone, completely. She sat there, shocked. She didn’t know what to say. “Yula…” Ui stood up, hopping around the room, feeling like their fight had never happened. “How?” Her body felt as strong as ever, there were no wounds, and her smile was at full power, too. Unable to contain her energy, Ui punched upwards into the air.

Yula sat down on Ui’s bed. “Do you remember? Every great songmage—”

“Has their own song…” Ui’s words blended with her childhood’s emotions, and she rushed to hug Yula, who, despite not returning the hug, still smiled.

“This one is mine.”