Ni'Srilan: The Desert: i didn't want to be free, i just wanted you ;

Water brushes over her skin much like a lover would, and she is comfortable. The water is cool and smells like an ocean should, with salt and that hint of mystery. It is calling to her, reaching out and wrapping around her. It laughs in her ear as it brushes by. It grows and grows, until she stands up to her chest in it, the waves breaking over her head.

She feels like she should be panicking. But Hypatia cannot stop her forward motion. She cannot think of her child, her daughter, that grows in her belly or the promises of her homeland. All there is is the Water. The Water that rises over her head now and pulls her under.

“Don’t go back up.”

It’s so seductive, and she wonders if this is Saphira’s Siren Song and she is being taken under. But Saphira is not here, and the edges of her mind still feel fiery. Why is she so calm?

Suddenly, the image changes. Her body is like a rag-doll, thrown about in every direction under the currents of the sea. She cannot struggle to the top, but she can’t reach the bottom either. She sees someone in the distance, but the waves throw her head erratically. She can’t figure out who it is, but her heart is racing, and her muzzle tries to breathe in air, to remember to breathe, but nothing comes in.

“I love you, Hypatia.”

The Oracle’s eyes flare open under the churning, dark water and before her stands Sterling, as if he were the Water, his mane flowing easily as her body struggled to remain conscious.

“I’m sorry. I just wanted to go back to you.” He smiles, his sweet smile and her heart flutters. But she doesn’t understand. Why would he be sorry? Of course he was asleep right next to her. He promised her would be there.

“forevereverever” the Water hisses, and throw her backwards, away from Sterling, away from his sad eyes and the way his body doesn’t move and his chest doesn’t heave to breathe.

She wakes up panicking.

It was just a dream. Just a dream. But you’re an Oracle. You don’t just have dreams. Some part of her mind reminds herself. That had to be a nightmare, not something real.

He promised her. He promised her.

Her pallid mane clings to her face and neck in strange places, and when she stands, Water pours down all her sides. She had been asleep, lost in her own world for far too long and when she awakes, with no Sterling by her side, she is afraid that the Element is gone, just as she’s afraid it will be.

“Sterling?”

She doesn’t see anyone, and the foal in her stomach moves uncomfortably. It feels heavy and Hypatia isn’t sure she’ll make it through without him there for her. “Sterling?” She tries to run, and Kail helps steady her when she falls. His eyes are sad, but his mental voice is silent. He knows – but he cannot bring that shock to Hypatia.

The desert clings to her legs, making her cumbersome on the dunes. She feels stuck, the Water of the Diadem making the sand cling to her and drag her down. She’s screaming for Sterling, her voice a frantic, high-pitched squeal.

“You promised!”

But she knows that that wasn’t a dream. That couldn’t have been a dream. He was beside her before she slept, and gone when she awoke. Her mind had followed him to his death, witnessed his death.

“Nononononono….”

There are flickers of her people in her mind that go missing, and as she struggles to find them, match them to their mental voice, and tell herself their alright, Sterling is not there. She reaches out, her mental fingers probing Desrael, Andarin, the very limits of her ability. But still there is silence.

Breathe.

She can’t.

The rushing Water sounds like a heart breaking.

Kail mews softly for his Familiar, and Hypatia becomes nothing but Fire. She stands though: for her Vipers, for her child, for Sterling. Just like she always has.

Standing, but alone.