Leous's words echoed as she sprang up from her bed, "Get down!"
No one was there by her side but she also wasn't in some room or tent.
Noria came running from a couple of leagues away. "You are awake!" Her smile showed relief awash with joy. Her clothing was different from the last time Leous remembered.
Her breath caught in her neck, she spoke to Noria. "How…how… how many days… had it been?"
Noria's lips faltered. Her head turned slightly in the direction of where the city of Rigac once stood. They were still not far from the event that destroyed the capital of a nation.
"Its been…5 days."
Leous and Noria got enveloped in unspoken silence. Leous's head too turned left to fathom the danger and death she had escaped.
Heavy fog enveloped a ruined city. Time to time a sudden burst ravaged it. Its center? The castle.
Leous did not know who would keep fighting till now since everybody must have died. She attempted to use her will revelation.
Noria placed her left hand on her shoulder. "Don't." Leous glanced up at her, she did not know when Noria came so close to her.
"You will die trying to do that. I-I don't wish to lose anymore." Her voice cracked.
Leous listening nodded. It was night when she had woken up.
Looking around she as well as others she, Noria and Orna had helped escape the city were all lying on beds made of grass. Unconscious.
Moving her left arm to help prop herself up, she put strength into it. She was rising but her arm slipped.
Splat!
She fell back.
"What? Why?!" She had no idea.
Noria's hands trembled but she didn't grab on her. Why she didn't help her? That was one of Leous's inner thoughts.
'It doesn't matter! I will get up by myself.'
"For I am a knight." Her gritted teeth collided with itself. Grinding.
She fell down again. And Noria's hand moved just far enough to catch her but she immediately pulled back.
"I-I am sorry. I-I can't…not with what I know." Noria's eyes had tears by their ends.
"It's ok," Leous rolled to her right. Her right arm under herself. 'Come on let's try the way babies first sit up.'
Pushing her elbow into the grass bed, she pushed. She had just reached at the near correct angle at which she could be considered sitting upright. Yet, her right arm slipped too.
She put the last of her strength into her left to stop herself. And she succeeded
Leous was upright.
Inhaling heavily, she asked. "Noria, why? Why am I suddenly so weak?"
"Orna's near death." Noria's eyes were hollow. The tears still at the end of the eyes.
Before Leous could say anything more, Noria continued. "Everyone's near death."
Leous's face darkened. She gleamed the possible reasons she had heard of. "Is it only because of the weird fog on Rigac?"
"Yes, and more." Noria nodded.
Continuing, she said. "I shouldn't touch anyone while they are all depleted of their will." Her red priest robe flicked under the starlight.
"Uh…what does will have to do with everyone being near death? People lose their will all the time." Leous's puzzlement grew as she rummaged through her teachings for how is will connected death other than mere religious and faith related lessons she had.
Noria's hollow eyes wept the tears it had held. The tears did not even had the chance to leave her face before it evaporated.
"Will is more than what you think. It is the source that is used to do the magical actions."
A sudden realization struck her. 'If what the power source for the actions are exhausted, the body collapses.' Her eyes widened as she thought of it.
She once again looked at the foggy ruined Rigac city. Now, she was more afraid of the fog than ever before.
Never minding what state she was in, Leous pushed her knee into the ground. Making halfway through to standing up, her other knee collapsed to the ground.
"UHHH!" She punched down at her thigh. When it struck, she realized she was in her nightwear.
"Did you…?"
"Yes, your armour was killing you with its weight."
Agreeing on the truth to the logical conclusion of the situation, Leous adjusted her shirt. "So, what happened to my armour?"
"It is shattered in several places and I have placed it less than a tenth of a league away from you. Oh, right, since everyone's will is depleted to death I had to place every one of you away from each other and anything that uses will passively too. Only light clothes or none should be worn when someone is depleted to this extent." Noria pushed all her strength into those words and took a knee too.
"I am..," a voice came from the depth of the white fog. A voice none of the survivors out of Rigac had heard.
Not realizing who it was, or what they could do Leous chose to act first ask later. She was in the middle of drawing the action of sky when suddenly her left arm started bleeding all over.
Pain.
Pain swept over Leous. She fell back down, but Priest Noria put her hand on her arm. Moving to save her. But it was useless even her own will was about to crumble.
The last few parts swept in a flash through her into Leous's body before Noria could enact it through one of her elements.
Leous's arm however had stopped bleeding due to Noria's actions. A cracked smile slipped onto Noria's face. She felt that she had done what Lady of Repentance wanted her to do with her life.
Noria awaited her death if it meant Leous gets to live.
For Leous, that was unacceptable. She grabbed on Noria with her weak right arm and pulled on her. To embrace her.
Rather than Noria being pulled to her she pulled herself to Noria. It did not stop her. She hugged her.
And then turned to face the one about to come out of the fog. Noria in her lap passed out. Leous felt something slipping out of her into Noria and then back into her as she felt way weaker than when she woke up. It alternated between the two.
The will circulated within them.
The voice repeated again, "I am a Knight!"
A foot crossed the boundary of the fog. Noria and Leous were less than a twentieth of a league away from it.
The voice was as unfamiliar as daring it was. "I am a Knight! From Cleaving! And my oath still stands!"
Castroph stepped through grabbing onto a wooden bar extending in both sides of him. With every step he took, what he pulled became clear. It wasn't just one carriage. There were multiple of them.
What Castroph brought out of the ruined city of Rigac was a caravan of innocent victims.
And Leous could only watch as Noria's eyes fluttered open.