The Beast Within

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

The sun dipped low in the sky, heralding the return of all who had left.

Noelani was plagued with thoughts all day, worried to death about the wellbeing of Tes.

Before she got back to the hut, she went looking for the elderly healer once more, it was clearly not a sickness of the body but of her mind and that was not within the healer's power to try and heal.

But something had to be done nonetheless, they could not sit by while Tes slowly withered away.

By the time she got back to Tes' hut, the children were already back, they were hovered at the entrance to Tes' room, holding whispered conversations with Ceraun.

They immediately dispersed at her presence which made Noelani frown, they weren't planning on attacking the non-Mages now were they?

She knew that her son had gotten stronger and it put her heart at ease because it meant he would fare well at the war front.

She hoped they would not do anything dangerous, The Pillars forbid it, if anything happened to Tes, they would be all that she had left, how was she to go on?

"I appreciate that you would go through the trouble to come here again." Noelani said to the healer, carefully guiding her into the room.

The healer would have simply told them the truth of the matter and it was that they watched over her in the last moments of her life.

Only very powerful Healing Mages could have a chance and she doubted that there were any left alive.

But she understood how fragile the situation was and even though her hip bone hurt with each gentle movement, she slowly lowered herself to the edge of the mat.

Ceraun stepped back, an expectant look in his eyes as he watched the healer push pack the sleeves of her cloak to stretch out her bony hands over his mother's prone form.

That soft green light lit up the dim room one more time and although this should have made Ceraun feel some relief somewhat, a cloying dread caught on the edges of his heart, slowly spreading throughout his limbs to his very fingers and toes.

Something was about to go terribly wrong.

The healer gave him a firm, reassuring smile however, the healing light fading away.

"I have made it so that she would not need to eat but I can not keep that up for very long, eventually she would have to eat." The healer explained, readying to take her leave.

She had also done that when she came in the day before which eased Ceraun somewhat but it was only for so long that one could survive off magic.

He sat still, feeling sickly as Noelani thanked the healer and accompanied her out of the room.

He could not give a name to what he felt but it burnt like vinegar in his guts and made him move closer to his mother, taking one of her ice cold hands in both of his.

He felt like he was drowning in the spiraling emotions swirling in him, why did this seem so nostalgic? Was it because his father just died so the pain of losing one that he loved felt familiar?

Outside, Noelani was being crushed with sorrow, she stood outside the little hut long after the healer had left, putting herself together before walking back in with a small, shaky smile.

She had to get to cooking. The ones who were alive still needed to be nourished.

Once again, without hesitation, Ceraun came out to eat, he looked pale and withdrawn, his long hair tangled because he did not bother to run a brush through it.

He ate his food quietly and quickly as expected, thanked Noelani and disappeared inside the room where his mother lay.

For the past two days, his emotions had been an endless circle of pain and sadness, blending into each other that he could not tell where one began and where the other left off from.

It got dark quickly, the sun running to hide like it did not want to witness his pain.

The moon rose steadily but slowly, taking its time like it bore all of the weight of the world on the smooth, glowing orb.

It gave a surreal light to the town, streaking in through the curtain that Ceraun had kept open.

If he looked at it just right, it reminded him of his mother's blue fire, soothing and comforting.

Noelani could find no sleep, sitting up at the table, she also did not want to intrude on Ceraun and his private grief so she watched from the outside, peeking in every now and then.

Like the children felt it in the atmosphere too, they all stayed up, no one was able to sleep and yet there was no conversation to be heard.

The moon got bigger and brighter, offering comfort even as the night dragged on.

Ceraun fell asleep, he did not mean to but his eyelids refused to stay open.

He fell asleep curled to his side with his mother's hand still held tenderly in his.

He woke up to a cold hand on his face and to the sound of his name.

Groggily, he woke up, shooting to an upright position when he realized what was going on.

"Mother?" He called in a voice that sounded foreign even to his own ears.

Tes tsked, looking him over with the helpful light of the moon. "Why are you sleeping on the cold ground, child?" She asked unhappily, reaching a hand forward to touch his hair.

"And just take a look at your hair, if you just let me cut it…"

Ceraun leaned forward as if in a trance to allow his mother to put her hand on his head.

Tes went quiet at this action, a blinding smile on her face to rival the moonlight.

Ceraun noticed something odd, her hair had gone white, making her look like an apparition in the night but he could still feel the warm and solid skin of her hand which was held in his.

And her hand threading through his hair had weight so he was sure that he was not talking to a ghost.