Last edited by 97cweb at 2026-04-13 15:55:44.738738
During the rest of the day, she squirms and fidgets in her sleep as I hold onto her. I gently caress her cheek, and sit beside her, trying to keep her calm and comfortable while her mind processes what has happened.
Suddenly, she bolts upright, screams, and then falls back to sleep instantly. I jump up, ready to catch her, but as soon as I do, she is already out again.
Not wanting her to be hurt, I go around to the foot of the bed and gently place my weight on it, and half crawl, half slide up behind her. Once her head is in line with my chest, I raise my left arm and place it over her and wiggle my right arm under her shoulder, and hold her. Her breathing calms and she snuggles into me involuntarily.
Unable to sleep, I think about what happened. Why is Silvra so anxious all of a sudden? We’re making good progress on the power, and we may even have a breakthrough on plant pairings in the works. But then again, this is Silvra we’re talking about. If it is not flashy, it’s not her. But still...
Lena rolls in her sleep, turning towards me, pinning my right arm under her ribs as she nestles her face into my chest and wraps her arms around me too. Guess I am here for a while.
Over the next few hours, my arm goes numb, but I don’t want to disturb her. I nestle in, trying to comfort her as the sun sinks down. Eventually, I, too fall asleep.
The next day, I wake slowly, squeezing my pillow and nuzzle into it, its warmth and softness comforting me. Settling in to sleep a bit longer, I squeeze it closer to me. And then someone taps my shoulder.
“Can’t...breathe...” Lena chokes out into my chest. I quickly release my arms and roll back away from her, to the foot of the bed, hitting my hand on the wall doing so.
She sits up, her eyes ringed with red and bloodshot from a rough night for her.
“Just...thank you. Thank you for being here. Come back. Hold me.”
I slide around the bed, and sit beside her. She leans her head on my shoulder and we just sit like this for a while.
Thallion knocks on her open door. “Food’s ready,” he says, clearly not wanting to disturb her. Even with the knocking, Lena jumps slightly.
I stand up, and pull her to her feet. Smelling rusty oatmeal, we head out to the table and sit. Thallion places the large pot in front of us all, and I try to grab a scoop. Its thick mass closer to that of wet flour than anything edible.
“I usually don’t cook, but after yesterday...”
Lena looks tense, looks at her brother, and then relaxes. “Just...thank you.”
We sit in silence, eating the glue.
Thallion takes a moment to stop chewing. “This, this is... not good, is it.”
“No, but its food.”
We just stare at our bowls of goo, and munch away at it. Once it is gone, and no one wanted seconds, we just sit.
Thallion stirs, “So, about yesterday...”
“Look, I don’t know what came over me. I was so frustrated with her actions but I-”
“But nothing!” I interject. “You did what was right. That is definitely self defence! I did not know it was possible, but she tried to fireball us! You did nothing wrong!”
“But I could deescalate-”
“No, there was no time for deescalation! We would be burned or dead if it was not for you. You did it right. I have no clue why she did that, but you responded quickly, effectively and correctly!”
Thallion nods. “He’s right. That would have been it.”
“But...why that way, why fireball of all things?! It could have been anything else?”
“I don’t know. We will have to ask her.” Thallion says, after pausing to contemplate.
From that suggestion, Lena visibly winces.
“Where’d she go? I want to check up on her? To make sure she is ok.”
I spin my chair beside her, and look into her eyes. “Do you think that is a good idea right now?”
She stares back, convinced. “Yes, I need to know how much I did to her.”
We get ready, and head over to her shop, the road turned to slush and mush, and the sound of snow melting fills the air.
I knock gently on the door, so I don’t break it too. My heart pounds in my chest, as I hope she is there for Lena to see, but also not there so we don’t have to see her so soon.
Minutes pass, and no answer. I knock again.
Thallion then sees a note stuck to the door, at their eye level. Being in their language, I cannot read it.
“Gone for a few days, be back soon.” He reads.
“Great.” Lena says flatly, sitting on a snow covered bench, holding her head in her hands.
“Let’s go back inside for now, and continue to sort the seeds.” I recommend. She halfheartedly nods and we do so.
Over the next several days, Lena is adrift in her thoughts. We sort the seeds and find a few new groupings that may work, but there is no celebration. Just more work to do come spring. Eldrin checks in saying the generator is nearly done, with more windings this time and will need voltage balancing again. The waterwheel is delivered unceremoniously to Eldrin shortly after.
We get the new parts assembled, with me doing the water work as they would still freeze being in this icy flow.
“Now to balance it.” Thallion says.
Lena looks around. “Still no Silvra though. How are we going to do this without the copper disks?”
“I can match it based on the old generator.” I reply. We quickly set things back up, similar to how it was behind Eldrin’s shop, but we all feel the silent absence in the area.
Tuning is quick, and connecting my phone says it will only take about 8 hours to charge. Still, there is little relief.
Throughout this time, Lena has been wanting me by her through the night, to hold her and keep her from springing up in bed. She has done so a few times, leading to broken sleep for the two of us.
One night, shortly after getting the waterwheel going and as I head towards Lena’s room. I notice a tiny flashing yellow orange light.
“Do you have fireflies here?”
Lena looks up from between the sheets, “Yes? But they should be out after all the snow has melted and the moon is full. Maybe a bit warmer over there?”
“Don’t know, seems pretty close to here, and not down by the water.”
“Huh. We’ll figure it out later. Just...hold me.”
Unable to think of a better solution, I slide in behind her, her bed creaking under my weight, and hold onto her, unsure of what is to come.