Auria awoke in a nice cozy bed. The sun shined in from the window, almost blinding her, but she felt a sense of nostalgia from it. It was nice.
She slowly began to open her eyes, her vision was blurry at first, her eyes hurt a little and her left arm felt stiff. She yawned and slowly began to sit up, though a sharp pain raced through her abdomen and she laid back down.
She relaxed for a little while, happily keeping to herself until she heard the door to the room open. She looked to the door and saw Senwell!
"Hey there," Auria said, "Miss me?"
"You scared me half to death," Senwell sighed, "What even happened? Ross told us a little bit, but even she didn't know what happened,"
"Well, put simply, I got some money, spent half of it on a staff, got into a fight, broke the staff, destroyed a church, and now we're here!" Auria replied, "And that's that!"
"You make it seem so simple," Senwell said, walking over and sitting on the side of Auria's bed, ��Are you feeling alright? Are you still hurting?"
Auria snickered, "What, you worried about lil' ole me? I'm tough, this isn't something that'll stop me!"
Senwell smirked and gave a small chuckle, "Of course, but do rely on us a bit, me, Ross, even Nicosia, we're here to help,"
"Well, Grenadier, as you can tell, I can do just fine on my own! I mean, I won that battle and all!" Auria proclaimed.
"Yeah, you sure did," Senwell commented, his voice was surprisingly calm and gentle, "Now, get some rest, don't do anything bad to that cast either," Senwell pointed to Auria's arm cast.
"Of course, of course, now get outta here, I wanna nap! Shoo!" Auria exclaimed before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.
Auria was dunked under the water, a certain force kept her from breaching the surface and she felt as though she was running out of breath already.
She soon was pulled out of the water, a vast void of black was laid out in her view, she couldn't see where it ended, or even where it began.
She rubbed her eyes. Once. Twice. Thrice and upon opening her eyes, she was greeted by a small girl, around the same height as Auria.
"Eh?" Auria looked at the girl, and the girl imitated Auria. Each action Auria performed, the girl would do the same.
"What's your name?" Auria asked, "Who are you?"
The girl didn't speak but instead took Auria's hand. She led Auria away, out of the lake, and to a small cabin. Strangely, it felt almost instantaneous, Auria didn't remember walking at all.
The girl continued leading Auria, a seamless transition into the cabin, and then another transition into the kitchen area.
Auria tried to wrap her head around this series of events, not entirely sure if it was her brain or where she was that was making her feel dysfunctional.
Auria looked to the girl that led her from the lake. Auria hadn't noticed it until now, but both of them were completely dry now. The girl pointed somewhere, she was very excited.
Auria followed the girls pointing, leading her to make eye contact with another woman, she had a motherly aura to her. Strangely, she had the same skin complexion as Auria, the same facial structure, even the same eye and hair color as her… She looked like an older version of Auria.
"Auria dear, come over here, won't you?" The woman said, "Let mother get a good look at you,"
Auria looked to the girl, then to the woman, then back at the girl. The girl gave a nod of approval and Auria wandered over to the woman.
"Who… Are you?" Auria asked, "Nobody has told me anything,"
The woman let out a laugh, warm and beautiful, as was she, "I'm your mother, silly girl, it's been so long since I've seen you!"
"M-Mom?" Auria exclaimed, "For real? No joking?"
Auria's mother wrapped her arms around Auria, a warm and loving embrace, "Silly girl, these many years have been so long, and you're becoming an Alchemist… I'm so proud,"
Auria had been feeling tears welling up in her eyes, but the dam finally burst and a river of tears began to flow down her face.
"Oh, my sweet child, your trials await, but you can always come back home, I'll be forever in your heart and soul,"
And with that, Auria's mother disappeared. The warm embrace was now replaced with a cold emptiness. Auria clutched onto whatever she could that remained, but there was nothing.
Auria wiped her eyes and stared at the empty space where her mother once stood. She turned to face the young girl once more. She gave Auria a smile, to which Auria gave a smile back.
Auria awoke, back in her bed. She wiped tears from her eyes and rubbed her fingers against her arm cast, she wasn't exactly used to only having one arm.
Auria decided she had enough of laying around. She sat up and slid out of bed. Her legs felt like jelly, but she slowly made her way to the door. It felt like she had walked a mile already.
Exiting her room, she looked up and down the hall, it was an unfamiliar sight she was greeted with, with at least a dozen doors on either side of her. She wandered around for a while, using the wall as support.
Auria descended a flight of stairs and stumbled across everyone! Nicosia, Ross, and Senwell, all sitting around a table, they were even accompanied by a few Ardenians!
"Hey everyone," Auria said as she wandered over to the group, "Were you guys missing me?"
"Crane!" Ross exclaimed, "Thank the Heavens you're alright…"
"'Course I'm alright, I'm pretty stubborn, that makes me pretty hard to kill," Auria snickered.
Auria scratched at the bandage on her face before taking a seat with everyone else. They had been playing cards.
"Feeling alright?" Senwell asked, "You've been out of it for a while, about a day and a half,"
"Didn't'cha hear me? I'm stubborn, of course I'm fine!" Auria exclaimed, "Anyway, what're you guys playing? I wanna join,"
"Playing Hearts, we're almost done with our game, we'll let you in in the next round," Ross replied.
"We betting anything?" Auria teased, "I got a broken staff I'm willing to bet, I'm also willing to bet Senwell's life, that also works for me,"
Senwell scoffed, "No, we're just playing for fun," He said, "Damn! How'd I end up with all the hearts?" Senwell tossed his cards on the table, "You win again, Nicosia, I swear, I don't know how you manage it every time,"
"It's a uh… Skill I picked up when I got transferred to Central," Nicosia explained, "Some of the officers taught me to play,"
Auria snickered, "Loser, c'mon, let's play! Actually, I got an idea of somethin' to play!"
"What do you want to play, Crane?" Senwell asked, collecting the cards together and handing them to Auria.
"Well, Grenadier, it's called fifty-two, you ever heard of it? It's pretty fun," Auria commented.
"No, I've never…" Senwell started, "How do you play?"
"Well! First off, it's just a two-player game," Auria explained, "So lets me and you play a round real quick,"
"Okay,"
"So, you take all fifty-two cards you have in a deck, and you…" Auria tossed them in the air, "Pick them up!" She snickered.
Senwell, in all his frustration and rage, decided to just comply and pick up all the cards, "You've been awake for ten minutes and already frustrate me,"
Auria blew a raspberry, "Sorry, but I'm not actually that sorry… Anyway, for real, we can play twenty-one, if you're up for losing, that is… My luck is the best around,"
They all played a few rounds, Auria won some and lost some, but overall, it was a whole lot of fun. She finally set down her cards.
"Alright, done with that now, that was fun," Auria said, "Oh, do you guys have the parts of my staff at all?"
"Yes, but why do you need it?" Ross asked, "It's broken, after all,"
"Just give me the parts,"
Ross stood and disappeared upstairs for a while. Once she came back down, she gave Auria the two parts of her staff. Auria took it from her and set it on the ground.
"Grenadier, give me those ashtrays," Auria said, "Gonna do something with them for a second,"
"Yeah, okay then…" Senwell responded, taking the ashtrays and setting them next to Auria, "Not sure what these can really do for you, but go ahead,"
"Ah, where's my…" Auria murmured, "Anyone have any chalk? Need to use it,"
Nicosia finally piped up, taking a small piece of chalk from his pocket, "Here you are… I found it falling out of your trunk,"
Auria took it, ignoring his comment and drew a transmutation circle, then putting her staff in the center of it, "Let's see…" She took the ashtrays and tossed the ash in them in the center of the circle, on top of the staff.
Auria put her only free palm on the transmutation circle and it lit up and flashed. The staff was fixed with a small diamond shielding in the center, where the ashes had been.
"Tadah! Fixed!" Auria proclaimed.