Storm
The fight was over.
Ada and Eli were alone, standing among the wreckage of the fight. Empty shells, husks of the enemy soldiers, littered the ground around them. Ada’s sword had long since pierced the chest of the Mirror Queen, and her broken, lifeless corpse was slumped on the floor of the arena. Her last words had been a gurgle, what she had wanted to say lost in her own blood.
The world was safe, and Ada was crying.
Her tears softly spattered the ash-covered earth, rain gently falling from the stormwracked skies. Their battle with the Queen had summoned up a fierce storm, and now that the energy to sustain it was gone, so too was the storm vanishing, dissipating into the wind - but not fully. Ada, steady Ada, shield maiden Ada, wished it to stay, and in this place of wishes, it did.
Eli was cradled in Ada’s arms, her chest fluttering, her breathing shallow as blood continued to drip from her wounds, stained the water-soaked earth red. The Mirror Queen’s final, desperate gambit had failed, but not before she had run Eli through. Eli, who had charged in, damn the consequences. Eli, who had taken the assault and kept on going with Ada’s sword, the only weapon strong enough to pierce the Queen’s shield. Eli, who had done what needed to be done.
Eli, who was dying.
Ada’s sobs wracked her small, stained, bruised frame. Her armor, once shining, was marred with smears of red and gray. Her ice blue eyes were closed, locked behind salty tears and refusing to open, to accept what was happening. Her lover, her soulmate, her best friend, her other half, fading in her arms. She was powerless to stop it. She was drained, her abilities spent, her soul exhausted, and this magic was simply too strong.
Ada, the unbreakable shield, could not protect Eli from death.
Eli coughed, rivulets of blood running down her lips as she lifted her head with great effort. She caught sight of Ada, of the hot tears running down her soulmate’s face, and she smiled weakly. “Ada, did we win?”
“Y-yeah, Eli,” Ada managed. “We won. You did it. You beat her.”
With a soft “woo!” and a slow raising of her fist, Eli celebrated their victory for a brief second before coughing and going limp in Ada’s arms. Ada couldn’t hold it anymore, and she broke down sobbing, holding Eli close to her, desperately trying to delay the inevitable.
“Hey,” Eli whispered softly, straining to lift her arms and encircle Ada. “Hey, Ada, we won. Don’t cry, okay? We did it. We won. We’re going home now, right?”
Ada was beyond words as the crying shook her body, as a deep pain she had never felt before blossomed within her chest, a pain that she detested with every fiber of her being. Eli simply hugged her tighter, as tight as her draining strength could manage.
“Listen, Ada, I...I know I never got to...saying it, but-” Eli’s words faltered as she coughed, hacking coughs that spattered more blood over her and Ada. Ada didn’t care. “But I love you, you know.”
Ada’s weeping was cut in with laughter, a painful laughter that mixed with her crying in a strange way, and it only served to make that pain worse. “I know, Eli. You’ve told me so six times today, and now...now you…” She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t pretend and joke like Eli could, she couldn’t, not when she was about to lose her forever.
“Then...that’s seven, Ada. Seven times. I love you. Eight.” A sputtering giggle. “...and I always will, Ada. In every life, in every incarnation, I will never not love you. I’m leaving now, but I’ll find you again.”
“No!” Ada finally shouted. “No, no, no no no no no NO! NO!” She squeezed tighter, hoping against hope that her grasp would keep death’s embrace away. “No! You can’t leave me! You promised! You promised, Eli!”
“I’m...gonna have...to break that promise, Ada,” Eli grunted. She was pale, very pale, and getting colder now. “But I’ll make it up to you, I swear. A new promise. I promise, Ada.” She took in a deep breath, a rasping, rattling, wheezing breath. “I promise...I’ll...see…”
She stopped. Ada felt the breath leave her, and there was no more.
The rain was falling still, and Ada was crying, beyond the consolation that anyone or anything could get her. A part of her soul was gone now, the familiar entwined feeling, the feeling of being loved across time and space, of knowing that there was someone there for her, was gone.
For the first time in her life, Ada felt truly alone.
It pierced her chest, penetrating deep into her core and chilling her from the inside. She shivered violently as she cradled Eli’s still body in her arms, tears falling freely on the body of her fallen soulmate.
How long she sat there, she didn’t know.
How many tears she cried, she couldn’t tell.
But when she picked up her sword, when she placed it over her heart, and when she took a deep breath, she knew just what she was thinking. She knew what she was doing.
She was going away to the same place Eli was. Where that was, she didn’t know.
If Eli was not where Ada went, Ada would keep looking. She would look, and look, and look everywhere for her lost love, until her soul was taken and placed back into a body on earth.
She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t scared, despite going into the unknown. She didn’t know what lay beyond the veil of death, but it had to be better than here.
Eli was gone, and that made this hell.
