When the throbbing golden waves ceased, Bree gained her senses before the rest of Zhair'lo's squad. She ignored her comrades around and passed the huddled forms of half a dozen sleeping Virgin girls to clamber up the stairs, afraid and as desperately hopeful as anyone over the last several bells. Still, fear or not, she knew her duty lay in finding the man who'd saved them all, and seeing if she could do anything for him.
Peeking her head over the top of the stairway, she found the rooftop peaceful, a faint hint of dawn creeping in on the eastern horizon, lighting up what ashen haze the rains had left behind. She tried to calculate how many bells she'd slept through, but quickly cast the concern aside.
Ahead of her, a leather covered form draped over another body. That body underneath had to be Zhair'lo, though why a Soldier had come up here and fallen on top of him, Bree couldn't imagine.
In the farther distance, splayed over an altar under a triangular pavilion, the naked, golden body of what could only be the new Goddess rested, her bare chest heaving but otherwise immobile. It didn't occur to Bree to check on the former Queen. Goddesses, she surmised, could take care of themselves.
She stepped up onto the roof, her sword at the ready, and scanned in all directions. Aside from the strange pavilion under which the Goddess rested, no obstacle on the roof's surface provided a place for an enemy to lurk. Still, she didn't let her guard down.
As she closed with the Soldier and Zhair'lo, a strange blue aura about them caught her attention. It reminded her of the glow Areese had created, shielding Zhair'lo from projectiles during their approach to the Temple. This, however, had obviously lasted much longer, perhaps through the entire night. When, Bree wondered, had this Soldier come up here? Was she really a Soldier in the first place? Too small to be someone of great magical power, certainly, but Bree didn't know of anyone besides a Second who could generate these auras.
'Then again,' she thought, 'no one told us Seconds could create those shields either.'
Reaching the entwined bodies, she saw Zhair'lo's skin had paled into a sickly greyness despite the blue glow emanating from his entirely nude body. Her heart twisted inside her, seeing the strongest man in her squad reduced to such a state.
She knelt and rolled the armoured woman off of Zhair'lo. She, too, had gone limp, though not nearly as pale as Zhair'lo. It surprised Bree to recognize the Abundance girl who'd tagged along with them, one of the useless hangers-on and observers. She winced. She'd thought the same of the three Seconds until Areese pulled her little trick. Had she been told the girl's name? No. Had this one also had some purpose after all?
With a groan, the girl began to awaken, twitching and taking up Zhair'lo's nearest hand in a death grip.
"What - who - did we make it?"
"You're alive," Bree replied. "It's over."
"Zhair'lo?" the girl fought to sit up but failed completely, thumping her head back down on the wooden roof.
"He looks bad, but alive," Bree looked at her suspiciously as she felt for Zhair'lo's pulse on his free hand. "Who are you, anyway?"
"Talla," the girl inhaled deeply. "I came ... I came here for him."
Bree looked the girl over, guessed her as too young to truly matter in the grand scale of magical powers, and turned her attention away.
"Really," Bree threw the girl a last cynical glare. Zhair'lo's flesh chilled the hand she placed against his forehead. "I'm pretty sure he's our job to watch out for."
"Yeah, sure," Talla replied groggily. "At least I got up here."
"Why are you glowing?"
"It's a thing ... between us. I think it saved him. I think that's what Shanata planned."
"Shanata, someone you came with?"
Talla nodded and sat up slowly, never releasing Zhair'lo's hand. When her grip tightened, the bluish glow strengthened.
"Are you ... are you keeping him alive like that?" Bree's eyes widened as she nodded toward Talla's hand.
"I don't know," she shook her head and looked balefully at Zhair'lo. "He looks like Shen did when he went Catatonic."
"Who?"
"A boy I Served once," Talla explained. "He went Catatonic and they called me in to help wake him back up."
"It worked?" Bree eyed Zhair'lo nervously. "Could you do it again?"
"Maybe," Talla shrugged. "But not here. We need to get him to a bed."
"I'll get the rest of my squad," Bree stood and ran toward the stairway.
---===================----
Emptiness surrounded him.
It also penetrated inside his body, filling his chest with a soothing nothingness.
A bright whiteness pervaded his surroundings, filling his head through his eye sockets without the aid of his eyes.
He'd expected death to be a black emptiness, not a brilliant white one, but the Temple women had always been vague about the afterlife, as if they placed a low importance on ascertaining its existence. The Teachers' axioms had always dealt with how to live and serve, not what to do after death.
Zhair'lo inhaled, found it painful.
Should he still feel pain after dying? He coulddn't pretend to have expertise on the subject, but that didn't seem right.
For the time being, and well into the future, he found the notion of oblivion harmonious with his state of mind.
He could happily rest here for all of eternity.
---===================----
A quarter bell passed before Bree roused enough of her people, improvised a stretcher out of folded blankets, and moved Zhair'lo down to one of the small bedrooms off of the Goddess's chamber. By then, older women had started to wake but, in their rush to get to the rooftop and take care of the golden woman there, entirely disregarded the young Soldiers and their unconscious charge.
By the look of the small bedroom, it had been built for the Goddess's Virgin attendants. Although the floors boasted the same black marble as the rest of the Goddess's inner sanctum, the interior designers had filled the room with white curtains, bed fittings and furniture. Of the three small beds in the room, two had been shoved aside so that one could be placed in the centre of room. From there, its grey-skinned occupant could soak up the thin rays of morning sunlight slanting through a window.
Talla knelt by Zhair'lo's side, having held his hand through the entire process to maintain the blue aura that every one of them now believed kept Zhair'lo alive. Around her, the seven other members of Zhair'lo's squad formed a circle. Every brow creased with worry, wondering if their comrade would survive.
"Can we find a doctor or something?" Kit asked.
