War Repercussions
Mera's heart thumped abrasively against her chest, trying her best to keep up appearances in this battle going oh-so-wrong. The plan may not have been as sound as others, nor was it fool-proof, but she at least clinged to it at their best shot for squelching the war at its doorstep. What she had not accounted for was the soul-crushing event of having team members defect into the warring houses, whether because they saw a better chance of staying alive in one or decidedly aligning in either's favor. War was messy and terrible, but having to battle some of her own was by far the worst part.
The field was currently getting littered with arrows and javelins from every which way. Mera was trying her best to keep with her dwindling squadron, dancing as hard as she could to buy the others' time as she desperately tried to not think about her blade piercing former classmates. Everything had gone wrong so fast. They were out for her blood, tasked with taking down leaders who either opposed or chose to stay indifferent. There was no seeing peace with either side alive, and Mera, one who opposed the fighting so vehemently, became the number one target as of late.
Mera danced her arms and hands around vigorously, casting off spells to take down the troops descending on her. In a brief moment, a thought came to her; a thought that plagued her time and time again. She wanted to run. She wanted to run away from all of this as far as she could, run from the utter destruction and chaos, but like always the stomach acid of guilt rising up in her took over instead. Of course it would be easy to run, especially with her speed, but that would mean abandoning those she had left and abandoning something she had no choice but to fight for. If they had just listened to her words when she called for the meeting-
That's when it happened. As Mera got lost in her thoughts she faintly heard someone yelling for her. They sounded distant in her mind, but as clarity reached her she found it was too close to her vicinity. Suddenly Elijah was pushing her down and away with all of his strength, and as she was going down she turned her face and watched in horror as a lance pierced right through Elijah's chest. Elijah looked back at her, mirroring the size of her eyes with their own as the enemy pulled out their lance from their body, sending them to the ground next to her.
Mera's voice cracked as she tried to call out Elijah's name, and with it came the pain of a thousand suns as her world turned red, pure fury taking over her and her eyes turning completely into that sickly-pink color, no trace of her former self's purple irises left. She got up in one move and lunged at the enemy, hacking wildly at them until they were felled. Another soldier was coming for her and her mind became dizzy as she blasted off spell after spell at anyone who came within an inch of the bubble of space around her and Elijah. She blasted and cut through so many soldiers, but their numbers were not letting up. Her arms were getting numb from over-exertion, but she didn't care anymore. Too many she loved were gone. Too many had abandoned her, and at this point she couldn't even blame them. If she couldn't protect Elijah how would she have been able to protect the others in these swarming numbers?
A soldier had somehow slipped past her peripheral and was heading toward Elijah on the ground, seemingly about to finish him off. "Get the fuck away from him!!!" Mera screamed out, throwing one of her swords and piercing it through the attacker's skull. They landed with a thud and Mera kicked them away, dropping to her knees next to Elijah when she realized the numbers subsided on this end. Elijah was very weak below her. The lance had definitely gone through vital organs within his chest and she could see the very visible pain in his face as he tried to breathe. Mera slapped her shaking hands together until a blue-white light enveloped them as she hovered them over Elijah's wound. She could see the magic was doing nothing, but she strained herself into it, trying to make a miracle out it. "Come on Elijah! We have to get going! We promised remember? We wouldn't die until we saw this through, until we saw our lives through!" She was crying now, but she wasn't stopping the healing, even as she could feel it literally draining at her life force. "M-Mera… stop…" "I'm not going to stop!! How dare you tell me that. Elijah we have to get married and have our own home and help out our lands when the war ends and everyone is going to be happy and I'm going to be happy with you and I..."
She trails off when Elijah's hand weakly wraps around her wrist. He closes his eyes and holds her hand, not watching as Mera's face scrunches into a familiar agony. "Elijah, you can't go where I can't follow-"
Mera's eyes go wide as a sting goes through her abdomen. She looks down slowly and sees a blade has gone through her abdomen, dripping blood onto Elijah. She turned her head and saw a purple cape flowing out, attached to Reika who was looking down at Mera solemnly. Her mind allowed her to be confused for a split second before the pain of the blade being extracted took over, toppling her over Elijah's body as she bled out.
Mera jolted awake, breathing heavily and finding it hard to swallow her own saliva. She was in her makeshift sleeping bag in a tent of their camp. As her mind came down from the terror-filled adrenaline she could hear the faint sounds of Briar and Vincent speaking softly with Reika outside, most likely by the fire as they performed their watch. She winced at the sound of Reika's voice, but settled after realizing it had all been a terrible nightmare. Another one to log into her dream journal later, if the thing wasn't filled by now with how many nightmares have been plaguing her as of late.
A hand snaked itself under the cover and landed on her hip, stilling Mera's shaking she had not even realized she was doing. Her eyes refocused in front of her to see a familiar color of orange, and she almost began to weep as she saw Elijah's peaceful sleeping face, watching his chest rise and fall with life as he breathed evenly. She curled herself closer to their body, latching onto the front of Elijah's undershirt and leaning her head in. She felt his hand go more toward her back, thumb tracing soothing circles sleepily. She whispered a small "thank you" aloud, unsure if he was awake or not. He hummed in response, tracing more circles on her back. She felt her eyes closing in contentment and started letting herself drift off for the few hours they had left.
Tomorrow will be ok, it has to be.