I sat up with a jolt, my thoughts spinning and a pounding headache threatening my brain. A low, cracking feeling around my temples and the back of my skull.
I stood up and wobbled slightly on my feet. I managed to walk over to the bench and I leaned against it heavily. I remembered how I went to help Hiro up and then—somehow—the Mist transferred half of itself into me. And…then I blacked out?
I wondered absently if this was what that boy—Hiro—dealt with all the time. Headaches, aching all over. The threatening feeling of fainting tinged in the back of my head. I looked up, my vision crossing over as a figure walked into the room.
"Get her undressed and in the bath, thanks Miyoko!" It was Hiro. I stared back down at the bench, where I'd begun to mix a blend of mint leaves from earlier. A root of a foreign tree my Mum used to store away for special treatments only.
I felt Hiro's gaze on my face and I vaguely heard his footsteps come closer. He eventually made his way to the table behind me. I tried my hardest to stand up straight but it didn't work, and soon I found myself slumping slowly to the ground.
"Woah!" Hiro's voice rang through my head, but unlike the way, my Mum's voice used to sting when I got a migraine; his voice was melodic and sweet. "Are you okay…?"
"Archer." I pushed out, trying to find my breath. I was still slightly shocked that the migraines I hadn't had since I was only thirteen were back. Twelve years of peace and it came back now.
"Archer, is there anything I can do to help?" Hiro asked, his hands wrapped gently around my right shoulder and my waist. I couldn't help but lean against him, letting my head flop lazily against his neck. But even with all my weight on him—Hiro didn't stagger in his steps as he helped me into the couch I'd woken up on.
"Make the…drink." I managed to say, the dizziness running circles in my brain got me closing my eyes and hoping I could hear what was going on. I didn't want to black out now.
"Archer, I'm only going to ask this one question," Hiro said, his voice suddenly very near. I managed to open both eyes and saw through the blur of eyelashes his two cyan eyes staring directly into my hazy ones.
"Is this normal for you?" He said. I felt like frowning and shouting at him for assuming I was so weak—but I grimaced and my eyes fell shut. I managed and small head shake that caused me to gasp and curl over myself. Any movement was like stirring up a hurricane of knives inside my head.
"Okay, then."
I spent the next—probably five minutes—which felt like hours lying on the couch. Thinking up different scenarios about my childhood. I was distracted enough from the dizzying pain until Hiro helped me move so I could drink the tea he'd miraculously made.
I moaned and managed at least three sips before I choked and Hiro walked away. I lay there and hoped that consuming those mouthfuls would calm the nightmarish trauma of my childhood. I heard the faintly familiar voice of the pink-haired girl who'd entered as one of Hiro's companions. Her voice was soft and delicate as she whispered. "Is he sick too?"
Hiro responded shortly. "I don't believe he is sick like Jae is—Jae just drank too much…Archer is probably going to take a little more time recovering than her."
I wanted to stand up and push him into a corner, lift him up by the collar of his shirt and ask if I really was as weak as he thought, but I knew if I even moved—I would pass out into black oblivion.
"Well, I think Jae is probably going to sleep for the next thirteen hours, maybe waking up every now and then. I reckon by the looks of Archer's complexion—he should only last a little more than five." She said quietly. I didn't know where she knew her medicinal and observational practices—but I hoped she was wrong. I moaned, I didn't want to spend the next four hours in hell. I didn't want to burn inside my own body. I wanted to walk around and shoot with my bow. To run through fields of green, sprinting through the rain.
I didn't realise Hiro was by my side until I felt his shallow breath and he sat down beside me on the floor. He shifted and I wanted to open my eyes, to tell him he didn't need to watch over me—but I knew it was for the best.
"Succendam latus tuum." He muttered under his breath. I sucked in a breath. How did he know this language that only my family spoke? How did he know the language of the Old World?
"Incendemus domum appello infernum meis communicare." I replied, knowing this language like the back of my hand. But, even though I understood the language—it was as if Hiro breathed it when he spoke as if it became alive when their words were formed on his tongue.
"Wisi enim ad animam." I said, the words slipping over my tongue and rolling out of my mouth before I could stop them. I managed to open my right eye and I met Hiro's shocked gaze.
"Et e novo requiem expergisci." He said quietly, his voice soft and breezy. I felt something inside me unravel as I accidentally tripped into the blackness that beckoned all lost souls.