12. Chapter 12 #2
It doesn't have to be this way, the voice said. You have been given everything you need to make sure it does not come to this. All you must do is listen.
The roots continued to slither towards me, making their way around my legs and up my torso, until they reached my neck, squeezing, tighter and tighter until I couldn't breathe—
I jolted awake with a gasp, my lungs finding the crisp, clean air of the temple Malik and I had fallen asleep in.
I gasped for breath as I examined the surrounding temple, making sure it was the same place I had drifted off, that the forest outside of its door was not up in flame, the roots crumbling beneath it.
All seemed to be how it was when I had drifted to sleep, the only difference a slight misting of rain through the air, the same as it was in my dream.
A soft hissing met my ears, and it wasn't until the feel of something crawling its way up my feet, over my ankles, and up my calves that I realized what it was.
The roots in my dream weren't a figment of my imagination, but real.
Only now, they weren't the frozen, aching roots I was used to, but their rotted counterparts, making their way up my body, caressing me as a lover would, gently and with curiosity.
I looked down to find my hands covered in their sap and dirt, full of their remains, the first sign that whatever had happened in the dream had made its way into this realm as well.
I tried to sit up, but I found that I had been anchored to the ground, the roots multiplying and growing stronger the more I struggled—their soft touches only a ruse.
My heart pounded in my chest and I willed it to slow and my body to relax, hoping that my stillness would cause them to stop moving and allow me to move away, but it was obvious that the roots had a plan of their own.
They continued to climb around me, their movements almost enthusiastic and frenzied, excited to have finally found what they were searching for.
It wasn't long before they made their way up my chest and around my throat, winding their way around and around until they started to squeeze. Not enough to kill me, but enough to stop the airflow, enough to make me panic, a whimper leaving my mouth as they continued to constrict.
Their journey continued, their limbs tightening around every part of my body. I whimpered again, kicking at the ground while thrashing my body, desperate for any sort of escape.
The sound of my fighting against the roots must have awoken Malik, for the next thing I knew, he was above me, frantic as he took me in.
"Allyra?" he asked.
"Help me," I cried, panic now engulfing me as the roots crested over the edge of my jaw and onto my face and over my mouth.
I heard the ring of Malik's sword unsheathing, of his boots on the ground as he made his way towards me.
"Stay still," he said.
I squeezed my eyes shut as my body trembled, fearful of what the roots intended to do if they were attacked, and fearful at the prospect of Malik missing and maiming me, leaving me bleeding out in this abandoned village.
He struck faster than I thought possible, and I jostled as the impact of his sword reverberated through the roots, slicing only hairs away from my skin.
It was like the loosening of a tight top at the end of the day when the roots fell from around me. I gasped, air surging into my lungs after being squeezed out.
And while the roots were now gone, what I had seen in the dream refused to leave me.
I still felt the crawl of them beneath the surface of the earth, could still feel the rot below me, its heavy darkness bogging down my very being, threatening to drag me down with it.
It was there, inside of me, crawling its way within me, a parasite hungry for a host.
My breath continued to come out in shallow bursts as I sat up, my mind dizzy with the lack of oxygen and the panic that had taken home in my chest. I did not know how to calm myself, how to stop the dread that was now spreading through my body.
"Allyra," I heard Malik said next to me, yet it felt as if I was reaching through mud to find him, my mind stuck on the dream I had just seen, the people that could control the rot, the feel of the roots that worked to kill me.
I became aware of everything around me, the stickiness of my skin from the rain, the damp of the ground underneath me, the squish of rotted roots and the crunch of the leaves as the animals skittered over them.
I was aware of everything yet nothing at the same time, lost, suspended midair with nothing to latch onto.
Everything on Yllsora seemed to be screaming, and I heard it all.
I felt Malik pull me into his arms, his warmth through the leather of his clothes anchoring me back down to earth, I clutched onto him without thinking, desperate for some semblance of stability, something to ground me.
I focused on him—the smell of him, the feel of his hands on me, the thump of his own heartbeat beneath my ear.
I burrowed deeper into him, and Malik didn't rush me, allowing me to sit like that for a moment, tucked in his arms and not moving, the steadying strength of his arms bringing me back to myself and reality.
I don't know how much time passed, only that I eventually relaxed in his arms, my grip on him loosening.
"What happened?" he asked.
I inhaled a shaky breath, still unable to make much sense of what I had seen.
I thought of all the ways I could tell Malik what the Divine had just shown me, but each time I began to speak, the words never came, as fear still tightened my throat.
"Lyra, look at me," I heard Malik say.
Malik cupped my cheek with a gloved hand and angled my eyes towards him. He scanned my face, looking at me with such tenderness that I forgot the dream entirely for just a moment.
"Nothing is going to hurt you," he said. "I took care of them. You're safe now. Just breathe," he said in my ear, his breath washing over me, pulling me back to his chest. "Focus on me."
He spoke with such softness that I had to strain my ears to hear his deep, rumbling voice.
And perhaps that was by design, because as I focused on him, everything else started to fade away.
We were connected at every point—our legs intertwined with one another, his hand on my cheek, his other arm wrapped around my waist. His warmth sunk into my skin, heating the part of me that had gone cold.
I don't know how long we sat like that, with nothing but the sound of our breathing between us, my racing mind slowing with each moment that passed.
"If you can," Malik whispered, the scratchiness of his voice so close sending heat through me, "open your eyes and look up."
I did as he said and found the sky dancing in waves of purple, blue, and green, weaving in and out of one another in a coordinated dance, the eir decorating their movements.
I watched as the lights danced, my breath slowing down as I continued to watch, slowly climbing back to the surface I had been dragged under.
"We didn't have this in Uscal, as it is too far south," Malik started. "But on clear nights, you could see all the stars in the sky. I would spend hours looking at them whenever I felt myself missing home."
My eyes flicked to him and found him focused on the stars above, his face the most peaceful I had seen it since he arrived in Sorrel.
"Did you miss home often?" I whispered.
"I did," he said back. "And as I looked at the stars, I often wondered if you were doing the same, looking up at the same sky as I was."
I could not find the words within myself to answer, the final drops of rain dripping off the temple the only sound between us. I could have stayed like that forever, lost in the warmth of Malik, but made myself pull away.
"Thank you," I said to him as I shifted out of his arms.
He let me go easily, staying in his spot against the temple wall, studying me as I settled beside him.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.
I paused, unsure how to answer Malik's question.
How would I begin to tell him that the Divine were still communicating with me, and the things they were showing me?
How did I begin to tell him that it was more than just the dream I had tonight, that it was everything that I had endured over the last ten years finally weighing down on me so heavily that I was ready to succumb to it?
I saw Malik read the exhaustion on my face, saw when he realized that what had just happened went deeper than what he knew and that fatigue weighed heavier on me with every passing moment.
He shook his head, acquiescing to my need for sleep, passing me his cloak to shield from the cold. Malik settled in closer to me this time, yet, as I studied his cloak, I wondered if sleep would find me, unsure if I even wanted it to.