The sky was clear, and it seemed fully a million stars were out, while the moon cut a curving sliver through the glittering carpet. The wind through the peaks was cold after sunset, and the smoke that rose from the embers of the dying campfire fluttered in the breeze. The breath of air stirred Vita’ya’s hair, and he blinked his silver eyes to clear them. Despite the distant groan of his muscles, he’d stayed awake long after X’shasi had drifted off, staring up at the unblemished night sky. It had been a too-rare sight in his life - hidden behind the fog that rolled from the mountains that towered above Salamund, or the smoke emitted from the machinery at the mines.
The Warrior of Light lay but a few feet from him, their heads a few feet apart as they’d laid their bedrolls by the campfire, and the sky lay open above them, and the mountains of Gyr Abania stretched on in every direction. If it weren’t for the cold on his face and arms, he would have credited it a dream. Eventually, though, the fatigue of the day’s exertions climbing said peaks rose up to claim him, and he slowly shut his eyes.
Smoke blotted out the sky. Fires crackled and roared in every direction. Explosions shook the ground as the fortress slowly collapsed.
Amidst the carnage, a clutch of armed adventures did battle with a single figure, clad in black. He was younger, more pale, his white hair shorter than Vita’ya had seen him wear it, but even behind the glowing crimson sigil he recognized the face of Thancred Waters. The clawed gloves he wore flashed in the firelight as pools of dark magic opened beneath his foes, threatening to mire them and pull them under to their doom.
And there she was, X’shasi Kilntreader, leaping through the air and striking furiously with her foil, forcing the ascian back, barking cries accompanying every thrust and swipe as emotion alike poured from her in a near-tangible wave. The ascian let out a yelp of his own as her sword caught his arm, and he stumbled, growling through clenched teeth. Yet even as he seethed the corners of his mouth turned upwards, and he laughed. “You are strong, Warrior of Light,” he said, tilting his head as if in compliment. “Yet know that if I should perish, so too will the mortal within whose flesh I reside.”
He saw her take a half-step back in shock, liquid glistening in her eyes, an expression of outraged grief slowly giving way to raw fury as she grit her teeth. Thancred - no, Lahabrea, Vita’ya finally remembered the name - straightened and cupped a hand around a churning ball of dark aether. “Now make your choice, and live with it!” he crowed, and Vita’ya heard Shasi’s cry as she leapt once more to the attack, his cackling ringing in her ears.
Vita’ya’s eyes shot open as he gasped in a sharp breath, sitting bolt upright so that the cold night air washed over his shoulders and chest as the bedroll fell away. Despite the chill, he was sweating with the memory of the heat from the Praetorium. He gulped and put his hands to his face, trying to quell the trembling of his fingers as he pushed his matted hair back out of his eyes once more.
A soft moan drew his attention, and he twisted to see X’shasi turning her head back and forth, her eyes still closed as she tried to mouth something. Vita’ya felt his stomach tighten as she realized she, too, was having a vision…and if he’d just seen that moment in her life…what manner of terror was his version of the echo subjecting her to?
He crawled over to her, hesitant, and then swallowed and reached out to touch her face. “It’s okay,” he tried to whisper to her, his voice cracking. “It’s okay, it-”
Her hand shot up and her fingers fisted in his hair as her eyes flew open. He froze, unsure of what to say. She stared as if unseeing for a long moment, only to release her grip as she, too, scrambled to a sitting position, likewise short of breath and damp with sweat. “It’s okay,” he finally managed. “I’m w-”
She spoke at almost the same time he did, her voice likewise cracked. “I’m with you in the dark.”
“Don’t forget,” whispered the voice of his father.
He stared, his hands trembling, and after a few moments she leaned forward to take him in her arms, and both of them squeezed one another breathless as if without that fastness, the mountains might plummet away beneath them and leave the pair stranded in the night sky.
