Hope Released

Inquiry and Healing

     Silence whispered my name.

     T...

     Ta...

     Tas...

     Taseaya...

     Until it erupted in dazzling colours behind my closed eyelids

     Taseaya!

     I choked on my breath and freed my sight from darkness.

     Disoriented and dizzy I tried to focus on any object but my eyes wouldn't adjust.

     "What's going on?" frail and cracking my voice hushed my surroundings like a lullaby. I closed my eyes to still my mind. Someone was holding onto my hand and I felt a soft blanket covering my body. Who it was and where I was... I didn't have the answer to.

    "Tas... you- you wouldn't wake up after the test." A deep inhale that stuttered parted the sentence in two and the voice carried on "We were all so worried. But what matters now is that I won't let that happen to you again and I'll take extra precautions. I even spoke to Flyte-"

     "Skye?" I opened my eyes and attempted to focus on his face but my vision swam in dizzying spells. I closed my eyes and reopened them to no triumph. 

     "Yes, yes! I'm here!" He responded and gripped my hand harder.

     "I can't see straight.." my voice drifted in weakness and It might have been seconds or hours later that my mouth felt cool water flood it and the aching dry feeling.

     "I would have given you water earlier but you have been out for a couple days and there was no way we could know how you were feeling. A lot of the healers have been working on other patients- soldiers of the Sun that were transported here with wounds that needed immediate attention so I'v been trying my best to keep you comfortable." He rambled on with eager concern and guilt in his voice.

     Soon after the fresh hydration met with my body I no longer felt so confused; my vision cleared and I finally opened my eyes to meet Skye's dark blue stare. He continued to talk but all I managed to do was watch his lips move without hearing a word as I sank farther in the mattress I lay upon in relief. No sandpaper dryness or drained mind. I still felt restless but a swim would cure that in seconds if I could only-

     "No no! Don't get up! The nurses who did manage to pass by in a rush informed be that you had to stay bedridden for at least one full day after you awakened before you got back to training!" He said as he tucked the blanket that had shifted out of place back around my shoulders. He sat back down in the chair next to me and let his head fall into his hands as he dragged his lengthening hair back out of his face. He raised his head and I was surprised to see that he had let stubble grow out on his chin and jaw and dark round circles lay beneath his sea gaze.

     "What happened exactly..." I asked in a hushed voice that echoed in the long , stone arched ceiling room that had large ,thin arched windows lining its walls. Several more simple metal beds with beige blankets and pillows and dark wooden side tables filled the empty space. The same dark wood that made up the tables also made up the dividers allowing some privacy between patients. There were only two other people in this room with me. Both asleep farther down the room.

     "Two days ago...nights ago" he corrected "a common test was held that occurs every year for the new trainees of The Sun. From what  I was told Troban has always conducted this test. It's simply an illusion held in every new members mind as they sleep. Everyone remembers it afterwards and it seems very real. The point of it is not only view how the trainees are doing with their training as of that time but mainly to see who each person truly is. Their personality and values." Skye paused as I took this all in. So far I was speechless but it all made sense when I gathered my memories of it all.