Legend

“Cro… Have you seen Cro… Croivtat?” Ui desperately shouted through the ship's hallways and decks, grabbing the nearest crew members she could find and pulling them by their clothes slightly too hard and close to her. “I need to find Croivtat!” The crew members who weren’t terrified shrugged at her, and pointed her towards places where someone from the battle could be. She couldn’t find him anywhere.

She ended up on the deck, now fully lit by the sun, and looked downwards at the edge, contemplating how big the jump would be, and if she could find Cro once she made it down to the ground.

“Ui, stop!” Prishu stopped her right when she was about to jump. “I tried to tell you but… Cro is in the dining room, with everyone else from the battle.” Ui dashed past Prishu, who started running behind her too. “He’s fine, you know?” Prishu tried to explain, but that wouldn’t stop Ui until she could see him with her own eyes. Ui skipped through flights of stairs and lightly bumped into walls, and some people, until she reached the dining room.

The dining room was full of people and faces that she could hardly recognize. She scanned their faces one by one, but the multitude of injured mages and their similar attire made it hard to find him. Anxiety and desperation almost took over her completely.

But, in the corner, trying to sit straight with nothing more than a couple of bandages hiding injuries or perhaps cuts, sat Cro. She dashed towards him and hugged him, forgetting his state, and everything else.

The lunging hug almost knocked Cro off his chair. If he hadn’t offered any resistance, they both would’ve hit the floor of the ship. “Ui, please don’t move my arm too much.” Cro’s tone reminded her of the battle that had happened.

She nervously moved away, filled with relief. “I’m so glad… you’re alright.”

Cro scoffed. “It’s almost insulting that you thought those small fry could do anything.”

She gave Cro an angry face. Her whole body was heating up. “Oh yeah? And what are those injuries?” She pointed at his bandages.

“I didn’t want to hurt them, so I had to hold back. They thought they could hurt me with ice… They haven’t learned anything.”

As much as Ui didn’t believe his arrogant words fully, she did understand his proficiency with ice, and couldn’t imagine multiple mages being able to overcome that. She turned her attention towards everyone else, once she knew Cro had minor injuries. The room had a lot more injured people than she expected. She hated it. Why was any of that necessary? The more she looked around, the more she realized the terrifying scale of the battle. The injuries were worse than she imagined, too.

Ui panicked when she realized someone was missing. “Yula, where’s Yula?!” Cro pointed towards Yula, who was already listening to them and nearby, but Ui hadn’t noticed her when she first walked in the room.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking, Ui,” she said with a bitter tone. She seemed unhappy about not being noticed. Ui remedied that by dashing towards her and hugging her just like she did for Cro, fully erasing her disapproving face in the process. “My job is not done though.” Yula pushed Ui away and pointed at the whole room. There were some injuries a lot worse than others, but luckily, fortunately, most of them seemed fine. Ui smiled, and the weight of the past night, ever since that flour cart, was finally starting to lift away from her.

She walked back to hug Cro, and this time, didn’t let him go.

Yula didn’t sit still either; she stood up and walked towards the center of the room, slowly, with a slight limp, yet still healthy.

“Are you sure you’re fine, Yula?” asked Ui over the loud voices in the dining room. Everyone stopped talking as Yula reached the center of the room.

Yula looked towards Ui and Cro. “I’m fine. He’s not the only one that can take a shard of ice or two, you know?” Yula attempted a smile as she stood in the middle of that room. She made eye contact with everyone as she looked around the dining hall. “There are things more important than my pain.” Her smile turned into a serious, deeply focused expression.

Yula closed her eyes and started humming. Ui grinned, already knowing what was coming.

“Surukai melonai

Uruma Tirua

Masai namelosai

Aru Aru…”

Yula sang as she walked around the room, making sure she walked close to each and every person, and stopping for those that seemed more harshly injured. Sometimes, she even touched them with her own hands. She brought the outside warmth of the very early spring into that room for everyone to feel.

Ui smiled as she hugged Cro, but she didn’t allow herself to get fully carried away by Yula’s song. She was deeply focused on Yula's words and techniques as her songmagic permeated into everyone’s wounds. She repeated them to herself as Yula kept singing.

Yula accompanied her songmagic with a smile, and eventually, everyone's wounds slowly started fading away.

Once she was done, all the injured started clapping and cheering. The celebration was so loud it was almost disturbing to the ears, but Ui could share the relief everyone felt. They had won a hard battle, and now they were fully healed and energized by Yula.

“We had Lullaby on our side this whole time, amazing!” Some of the mages started cheering on who they thought was Lullaby, as Yula stood in the center of the room, showing signs of physical and emotional exhaustion. The abundant clapping and happiness could be felt by everyone.

Yula then looked at Ui, who already couldn’t look away. Ui, happy, nodded vigorously, absorbing all of the room’s feelings, trying to help Yula feel proud. Yula’s usual serious expression disappeared completely, and she gave in to the purest smile that Ui had ever seen from her.

But the smile didn’t last long. Yula was struggling to stand, prompting Ui to run towards her and catch her. Ui caught an almost unconscious Yula in her arms. “You did great,” she whispered into her ear. Ui smiled, and carried her away to the quarters that they had shared two nights ago.

Ui lay her down on the bed, covering her with a blanket and stroking her wavy, sky blue hair lightly. She looked at her proudly, hoping she was proud of herself, too. Yula stopped her before she left the room.

“Ui…”

“Huh? You still have energy after all that?” Ui looked at Yula, surprised.

“Barely.” Yula giggled, half asleep. “Is this what it feels like… to be a legend, Ui?”

Ui took a deep breath, and smiled as she got ready to close the door behind her. Ui was afraid her voice would break as she answered, but she knew she had to. “Yes… Yula.”