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“You go on ahead.”
The plan seemed sensible at the time. Aymeric and Namikka had become fast friends, and there was only one open spot on the train. As much as Eyn’ara adored seeing new lands at Aymeric’s side, she wanted to give him the experience of seeing something new for himself for once. And their journey through Xak Tural had been so leisurely, even by the standards they’d set since arriving in Tuliyollal, that Eyn’ara thought nothing of staying behind and sending her husband into the unknown. She smiled and kissed him as she would if he was leaving for work, secure in the knowledge she’d see him again soon.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
Those words would come to haunt her over the next several hours.
The train pulled away, and Eyn’ara waved at it as it departed, her heart light. Later she would wonder if it had all been a dream.
The first indication anything was wrong was the tremble of the earth beneath rroneek hooves. The shaking intensified, past levels even a full stampede could muster, and Eyn’ara’s first thought was for the train. She was already turning in the direction it had gone when the sky darkened, and levin arced through the air, blinding-bright. She threw up a hand to shield her eyes, and when her sight cleared, all she could see were the villagers staring in horror.
“Gods have mercy,” Wawlika breathed.
Eyn’ara steeled herself and turned, prepared to see smoke, perhaps flames, from the train derailing. Instead, a gigantic dome thrust its head above the hills, directly over the tunnel the train must have passed through. Her heart stopped.
Aymeric!
From out of the forcefield sailed a fleet of ships, the largest as big as cities on the ground. For a moment she and Erenville just stared, dumbstruck, as the fleet advanced.
“What in the world…? Are they heading for Tuliyollal!?”
Eyn’ara was already activating her linkpearl. It rang and rang, and with each ring she felt numbness steal over her. Pick up. Please, love. Pick up.
<Hello?>
Eyn’ara sagged in relief. The signal was faint, but it was unmistakably Aymeric’s voice.
“Love, what’s happened?” she asked. “We just saw a massive dome of levin spring up over the tracks. Are you all right?”
There was a pause. Eyn’ara waited with bated breath, praying the connection hadn’t cut out.
<We’re fine.> The answer came at last, and she relaxed further to hear it.
“Okay.” Her mind raced, instincts screaming at her to run to her husband’s side. But there was no telling what damage the fleet could do when it reached the capital. “They’re headed for Tuliyollal. I need to protect the people. But, Aymeric?”
<Yes, love?>
“I’m coming for you.”
The battle, such as it was, was over. Tuliyollal slowly began to emerge from the rubble to lick its wounds.
“The people… I need to help them.” Wuk Lamat sounded so, so young, and Eyn’ara was once more forcibly reminded that she was less than twenty summers.
“We will assist you in whatever way we can, of course,” Alphinaud offered stoutly.
Eyn’ara shook her head. “I’m going back to the dome,” she said. Everyone turned to look at her.
“But that’s ridiculous!” Erenville exclaimed. “We have no idea what those things even are!”
“I don’t care.” Eyn’ara’s heart had been burning within her ever since she’d hung up on Aymeric, feeling the separation from him like a blade in her chest.
“But surely we must first gather intelligence—” Koana began.
“I don’t care!” Eyn’ara’s voice echoed through the silent hall. “Any intelligence we gather about that dome is going to be rendered useless the moment I blow it up.”
Alphinaud looked briefly thrown, then he began to smile, the selfsame expression that was already gracing his sister’s face.
“B-but what do you plan to do?” Wuk Lamat sounded bewildered. “I know you’re incredibly strong, but that fleet...”
“I defeated the essence of despair at the edge of the universe,” Eyn’ara answered. “Some poxy barrier isn’t going to stop me, and neither are any of you.”
Everyone was startled into silence. Finally Alisaie stepped forward. “What do you need from us?”
“I have an idea,” Eyn’ara said. The madness of said idea was clearly implied. “I could use your help, Ali, if you’re willing.” The girl nodded.
“The rest of you, help the people,” she continued. “Help Lamaty’i. The people need succour. This is just something I have to do.” Everyone nodded. Without another word, Eyn’ara spun on her heel and left the throne room, Alisaie following close behind.
“What’s the plan?” the girl asked as they walked.
“I need one of those enemy soldiers,” Eyn’ara said shortly. Alisaie didn’t ask any further questions.
They found a fallen soldier by the roadside. Eyn’ara immediately bent to examine it.
“Synthetic…” Alisaie mused. “There’s nothing inside, it’s like an automaton.”
“As long as its armour comes off, that’s all that matters,” Eyn’ara muttered, and sure enough, with Alisaie’s help, they were able to retrieve the outer shell, like shucking an oyster. Eyn’ara began pulling it on.
“Well, it won’t stand up to scrutiny,” Alisaie commented, examining the effect.
“It doesn’t have to,” Eyn’ara replied, as Wuk Lamat and the others approached them. “It just has to get me close enough.”
“What are you doing?” Wuk Lamat demanded.
Eyn’ara slid the visor shut as low as it would go and initiated her teleport to Shaaloani. “I’m going to get my fucking husband.”
In the end, it was almost laughably easy, if Eyn’ara was at all inclined to laugh. Almost immediately, she found a patrol and was able to commandeer one of their flying craft. She flew low, weaving between outcroppings, directly for the barrier. Flying the bike was effortless; it almost responded to her thoughts. Even were that not the case, she had her experience flying the G Warrior to fall back on.
Whether due to her disguise holding, or sheer luck, she wasn’t challenged as she approached the massive wall. She wanted to call Aymeric again, hear his voice, but couldn’t afford the distraction. He knew she was coming. Now all that was left was to do what she did best.
A speaker in her ear crackled to life. <G7-1301, what’s your status? Over.> She didn’t answer, gunning the engine to maximum.
<G7-1301, report! 1301, stand down and await further orders! 1301 what are you—!>
At the very last moment, Eyn’ara bailed out, flipping backwards over the tailpipe, using a push of wind magick and a prayer to speed the payload on its way. The bike impacted the wall and detonated, a wave of heat washing over her as she landed heavily several feet away.
When the smoke cleared, the doors were dented, but still holding. Eyn’ara got out her axe. Time for plan B.
She was close enough to the wall now she could hear the alarms blaring from inside. She almost laughed. Might as well get use out of them now, she thought, before reaching deep within herself. The anxiety of her separation from Aymeric beating like a tattoo against her ribs, the fear and terror of the people in Tuliyollal, cut down like beasts in the street, the arrogance of Zoraal Ja — she brought all of it to bear, slamming her axe into the ground with enough force that the earth itself was rent, jutting up in jagged peaks and obliterating the wall keeping her from her husband.
The alarms were louder now, bleating shrilly in the quiet that followed the cataclysm. Eyn’ara allowed a small smile to steal over her face.
The linkpearl in her ear chirped, and her smile widened.
“I hope you don’t mind, I let myself in.” His huff of laughter felt like a reward.
In the background, she could hear various exclamations. What was that!?
<That was my wife,> Aymeric answered, the pride and love in his voice unmistakable. She forced words past the lump in her throat.
“I’ll be there real soon, okay love?”
<I’m waiting. And— Eyn’ara?>
“Yeah?” Some part of her hindbrain sat up and took notice at the shift in Aymeric’s tone.
<Hurry.>
On the weight of that single word, Eyn’ara laid waste to the vanguard’s toy soldiers. She couldn’t put her finger on what felt off about it, even more determined to make it to Aymeric’s side as fast as possible.
It was somewhat reminiscent of the Vault, this business of fighting through ranks of distractions keeping her from Aymeric. The notion wasn’t doing anything for her mood.
He’s fine. He has a linkpearl. He said he was fine.
The only upside to fighting waves of masked soldiers was that it saved her from seeing the look on their faces as she systematically mowed them down, confidence giving way to unease, and then abject fear. Even now, there was aught in her that revelled in it, the way she could only fight when she was by herself, no allies at her back.
It was Estinien who’d called her out on it, once. Why do you hold back? She’d made some quip about leaving things for the others to do, and the dragoon had allowed her the deflection. She thought he might be one of the only ones to understand that she did it so as not to see the same look of unease in the eyes of her friends.
As for those who would choose to put themselves between her and her husband, they do not experience her mercy.
She burst through the door on the other side of the wall to an unexpected sight. A massive tower pierced the sky, illuminated by constant flashes of levin, looming over a world darkened by thick stormclouds. As her eyes adjusted, she saw buildings made of wood and stone of the kind found in Tural, but everywhere there was construction, seemingly to attach more of the mysterious material.
For a moment, she stood blinking dumbly, unable to credit the evidence of her eyes. How could all of this have happened in a matter of hours?
Shaking off her malaise, she noticed that she was surrounded by a gaggle of people, all looking at her with that combination of fear and wonder.
Have to find him, she thought, wildly. Somehow, if she could just see Aymeric again, everything would start making sense. Forcing herself to take a deep breath, to not scare the civilians, she summoned a smile.
“Excuse me,” she said. “I’m looking for my husband. Has anyone seen—”
The crowd gave way before her, and suddenly there he was. His clothes were different, somehow, than the ones she’d sent him off in hours before, but he was there in front of her, whole and hale, and all the air left her body in a moment of impossibly strong relief.
“—Aymeric.”
There was a brief moment where they simply stared, drinking in the sight of each other, then they were in each other’s arms. The clatter her axe made meant she dropped it as Aymeric swept her into an embrace, lifting her fully off the ground in order to hold her closer. Eyn’ara had no objections, wrapping her arms about his neck, feeling herself finally start to settle since the first tremours started.
“Eyn’ara…” Aymeric’s voice broke, and he shuddered, holding her impossibly tighter. Something like unease began to creep back into Eyn’ara’s mind, if such a thing could be possible while being held by her husband.
“It’s all right,” she soothed, her first instinct after returning to him from so many battles. “I’m here. I’m fine. You know nothing could have stopped me.”
He let out a huff, burying his face in her neck without relinquishing her a single iota. She’d hated their unexpected separation as much as he had, but couldn’t shake the feeling that his reaction seemed… disproportionate, in some way. She certainly wasn’t about to object to being held by her husband, but the instinct that had been niggling at her since she heard him answer the linkpearl had become a full on suspicion.
She pulled back the smallest amount necessary to kiss him, and he took control of the kiss immediately, deepening it enough that she melted against him, before remembering that they were surrounded by people.
Fuck ‘em, she decided, and buried her hand in Aymeric’s hair.
When they parted for breath, she discovered she needn’t have worried about their audience, as they’d all made themselves scarce.
“Are you all right?” she asked, running her fingers through his bangs.
His mouth twisted, the lines of his face outlined starkly in the flashes of levin.
“We need to talk,” he said.
He led her to a building, one of the few that weren’t under construction. The interior was sparsely furnished, but she spotted his clothes, the ones he’d been wearing earlier, folded neatly on a dresser. Eyn’ara made a brief call to Alphinaud, assuring him she was still alive and would inform him of the full situation later, before decisively turning off her linkpearl.
Aymeric finished whatever he was doing and turned to look at her. That sense of premonition pinged again, and she moved to take his hands. They were back together again, but…
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked. He’d held her the same way too. Like a vision that he feared would disappear if he looked away. “What happened? All that purple stuff outside…”
“It’s been a year,” he said, bluntly.
“What?” Eyn’ara stumbled back. “That’s… that’s impossible. I called you as soon as… It’s been hours. Hours!”
Aymeric shook his head. “I couldn’t get my linkpearl to work until you called me. When you said the barrier had just—” He sat heavily. “It was six months for me. Everything just appeared. The tower, the wall… I couldn’t reach you. I couldn’t get out. I couldn’t…”
With a low sound, she climbed into his lap. His arms came around her just as tightly as before.
“I’m sorry, love,” she murmured into his neck. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“I missed you,” he said, as Eyn’ara pressed kisses to every inch of skin she could reach. Her heart ached. It was certainly the longest time they’d spent apart since they were wed, and at a time that was supposed to be their fun, relaxing vacation together.
“Would this be a bad time to say I missed you too?”
He let out a wet laugh. “No. No, I appreciate the sentiment.”
