A Hand-Woven Universe 35 35. Unwoven

With the support of his affinity, Elder Omias – despite his short stature - lifted Trisha's body easily and brought her away from the bathroom to the front of the house. Initially upon pa.s.sing out her complexion had been terrible. It was not a clean black out into darkness. Instead her face was scrunched up and her muscles twitched pain.

Over a few minutes though her face relaxed and her breathing steadied. Whatever she had been going through seemed to have pa.s.sed for the moment. The elder had sat her down on a chair in the front room and waited patiently. He knew that he could not carry her all the way through the city without raising some alarm. The room was oddly silent compared to the chaos occurring in the next room.

Thus, he waited. It was only a couple of minutes before Trisha's eyes fluttered and she slowly regained awareness.

The dim light in the room flickered and Trisha drew in a deep breath. The pain she had been in had pa.s.sed, but she was still left in shock. Whatever had just occurred left an undeniable impression on her. Not only her mind, but her very soul ached from the encounter.

This was to say nothing of her heart. Whatever happened to her husband, she had come to realize that he was dead. Or maybe – after what she just went through – she hoped he was. In a part of her mind and heart, all these thoughts and feelings were being compressed and chained away.

For a moment she simply stared at nothing. The elder did not interrupt either. He was panicked; however, he knew how to suppress it. He had a feeling this is what Trisha was doing in this moment as well. Whether she understood it or not.

Another deep breath and finally her eyes became clear. The turmoil inside of her had been locked away. With it though, she had lost a piece of herself as well.

"Trisha...?" A soft voice floated through her mind, giving her something to focus on.

"Mm." She only nodded her head towards Elder Omias.

"We must go quickly to the Elders Hall. You should get changed out of your bloodied clothes… so we don't draw too much attention moving through the city."

Trisha nodded again. Instead of going to change though, she grabbed a coat which was laying nearby and donned that. It was long enough to cover her all the way down to her ankles. It belonged to Tahmel.

…

A few hours had pa.s.sed, and all the elders were now sat in the Elders Hall. Elder Azelle was there as well, his face was very grim. Not just his, the faces of everyone in the hall were dark and filled with worry.

"Elder Omias, you said that you already had Pride and Porose check out the other people who have developed a cough?"

"Yes, they should be doing that now."

"Mm that's good. Good thinking. It is still too early to say whether or not these things are related." A water attuned elder reminded, his back cool with nervous sweat.

Many of the elders were racking their brains to come up with every possible scenario.

If this was indeed unrelated to the cough that was going around, then this could be considered an isolated incident for the time being. Perhaps Tahmel had come across something cursed in the mines.

The elders debated amongst themselves whether his condition was caused by his seeming loss of his affinity, or if the loss of his affinity was caused by his condition.

When Trisha explained everything that had occurred first hand, the elders did not know how to interpret it. Especially when she described what she saw when she looked into his eyes.

She had spent a long time answering questions and trying to describe it in a way that would make the most sense to the elders who were not attuned to the soul the way she was.

There was another worry that was in the back of the minds of everyone in the hall, especially Elder Azelle. They had been unable to find Liter yet.

Liter had the most comprehensive knowledge of the histories of Tapestry. If there was any precedence for the situation, he would be the one who knew.
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However, despite all attempts to reach Liter, he could not be found. Ultimately though, the elders put this to the side for the moment. Liter had a proficient understanding of the universal laws of knowledge, and as such they trusted him that he would always make the best decisions for Tapestry.

If they could not find him, they a.s.sumed it was because he was already in motion trying to address the issue.

Elder Azelle felt very unnerved by all of this. Something deep in himself was cras.h.i.+ng about – warning him of an oncoming storm.

No matter how wise he was, there was no precedence as far as he knew for what was occurring.

While he was not as read as Liter, he had still lived longer than anyone else in the commune.

There was a knock on the metal doors to the hall. Everyone ceased their conversations and watched as Pride entered the room with a woman in tow.

"Elders." They both stopped and gave greetings to the hall. The young woman with him was quite a bit more timid than he, hanging her head low. Not daring to try and fight against the pressure of so many of the elders in one room.

"Pride," Elder Azelle nodded to him. "I a.s.sume this young woman is also sick?"

"Yes, although she says she is feeling better in the past few days, Porose said that she had developed a cough for about as long as Tahmel had."

When Pride checked back in with Porose, he had told Pride of everyone he knew who he had been giving the medicinal soup to. After checking across the city, Pride was extremely nervous to find another situation like Tommy. However, his worries were unjustified, and it seemed that the rest of the city was on the path to recovery.

Nevertheless, he decided to bring this woman to see Trisha and the elders. Just to be safe.

Trisha recognized the woman as one of the ranchers who worked in the floating fruits garden. She had talked to her on numerous occasions when retrieving food for dinner. The young girl had a pa.s.sion for growing fruits and baking deserts. They had traded recipes on multiple occasions.

"Trisha, please tell us if you can feel any abnormality in her soul. You are more skilled in this than any of us, otherwise…" The rest was left unsaid. After what had occurred with her husband, they would never ask her to do this unless it was the only option. And as it so happened, that was indeed so.

"Of course, elders." Trisha looked at the young girl who was clearly nervous. The girl had managed to piece together a bit of what had occurred from this and what Pride had told her earlier. She knew that if there was something wrong with her, it would mean nothing good.

However, she had full faith in the elders of Tapestry. They would not harm her she trusted.

She took the initiative to step up on the stage so Trisha would not have to come to her. The room seemed to become impossibly silent compared to the number of bodies there as the distance between the two shrunk.

"Trisha, please…" She held her palms out face up in front of her and raised her head to look into Trisha's eyes.

"Don't be nervous, I promise it won't hurt and you will be okay Darra." Trisha smiled at the woman.

"Mm." She gave a nervous smile.

Trisha placed her palms on Darra's, and looked directly into her eyes. Darra's energy was on the weaker side for her age, and incomparable to the energy of the Elders. As such Trisha was able to look through her without any trouble, bypa.s.sing or breaking through any of the defenses inside her soul.

Darra grunted from the pressure. To her, she felt that her whole body ached. However, she did not break eye contact.

Trisha gradually pushed her own energy out from her palms and into Darra. The white lines on her body glowed brighter.

The room looked on silently, not daring to interrupt Trisha.

Eventually, the glow surrounding her lessened significantly and they both let out simultaneous sighs.

Once the young woman got her breath back, she looked up at Trisha.

"So…"

Before she could continue however Trisha had wrapped her arms around the younger woman. Cutting her off from what she was saying.

"I'm sorry Darra. I'm so sorry."

The look on all the elders' faces fell.

"Trisha, what did you feel?" One of the elders asked.

She continued to look at Darra.

"Whatever the sickness is, it seems to be weakening our very souls." Trisha said, voice strangely calm.

Everyone was staring hard now. A sickness that affected the soul? What were they expected to do about that?

"It is not just weakening the soul. It feels like…" She hesitated for a moment finding the right words.

"It feels like your affinity, which is naturally interconnected with your soul from birth, is being disconnected from each other…

Unwoven."

The whole room was so silent you could hear a pin fall.