Weakness - August 25th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 25
Title: Weakness
Author:
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG:A
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Stargate people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Faith and John are trapped.
Notes: Part 25 of Faith Sheppard - Links Page
Seasons: Post-series/Season 2
Word Count: 2820
Faith paced as she ranted. “Why can’t I do something as normal as hug him?”
“You wanted to?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped.
“Faith,” Susan warned.
“Sorry. I was relieved to see him alive.”
“Have you and John ever hugged?”
“Yeah, but I can’t…I don’t throw him across the room when he hugs me, but I have a hard time initiating.”
“And when you saw him what did you do?”
“I stood in front of him and listened as he told us how he survived. I told him and his team that I was glad they lived and I left.” She flopped down on the couch and stared at the ceiling.
“If it had just been Teyla, if she was the one who you were relieved to see, would you hug her?”
“No. I would do the Athosian greeting.”
“Hands on the shoulders, foreheads touching.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. What if it had been just Ronon?”
“I’d probably slug him in the shoulder and tell him not to do it again.”
“What about Laura? You’re closer with her than Teyla.”
Faith thought about it before shaking her head. “She’d hug me.”
Susan nodded. “She would. What about Dr. Beckett or Zelenka?”
“Carson has hugged me - just once, but he let go quickly as soon as he realized what he had done.” She tilted her head. “Radek is not physical in his relief, he just starts muttering in Czech about whatever I did.”
“Right. So perhaps John - like Carson - is simply…careful. While he can’t always control the need to assure himself that you’re alive, his consideration of your history, of your feelings, is important to him.”
“But shouldn’t I be able to do that?” Faith said in annoyance as she sat up. “After spending hours thinking he was dead - and longer with him missing - shouldn’t walking up to him and hugging him be natural?”
“It’s not that easy. But it means something that you want to.”
“Will I ever be able to…feel something like that?”
“What do you mean?”
Faith’s eyes tracked to Susan’s. “Love.”
“You do, Faith. You may not recognize the feeling because it is not something that you were conditioned to feel or embrace growing up. In a way, love was twisted for you, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have it in the relationships you have now. I believe you just need to pay attention to what you feel. When you talk to John or Haly or Laura, or even just thinking about them.”
88888888
Faith woke in bed behind Haly, listening to her soft snores. She smiled a bit. The girl had crawled into some part of her and attached herself. She followed Susan’s advice and focused on the feelings that welled in her looking at Haly.
Protectiveness was always foremost, she knew that one. She wanted to protect her, keep her safe. The idea that she couldn’t, that she could fail in some way…her throat closed and a white-hot rage suffused her chest.
She tumbled from bed as quietly as she could. She felt a desperate need to escape, to run. It was the worst thing she could do, not be there when Haly woke - or make sure that someone was with her.
The bell at her door chirped quietly. She swiped at it.
The door slid open to reveal Evan.
“That was fast,” he said. “I thought I’d be waking you.”
“What’s going on?”
“John wants you on AR-1’s recon mission today.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” he grinned. “Probably just wants to make sure that someone can bail them out of trouble.”
She rolled her eyes. “If this gets me captured, I’m going to blame you.”
“Me?”
“I can’t very well blame John, it makes my life difficult. But my team lead - for giving me up so easily - easy.”
“He’s my superior.”
“Sure, that’s why I’m so expendable.”
“Loud,” Haly complained from the bed.
“Sorry,” Faith said with a grin. “Looks like I’m going out with John today.”
“In an hour,” Evan said. “Clare offered to watch Haly in the infirmary when I informed Carson.”
“So I’ve got no say in this,” she concluded.
“Now you’re getting it.” He smiled at her before leaving the room.
88888888
He hurt. His entire body was one big ache. Nothing specifically stood out. Just… “Ow.”
“Seconded,” Faith’s voice said from next to him.
“Can you move?”
“Probably,” she replied. “But it hurts too much.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Faith put a hand under his shoulder and gave him a shove, turning him from his stomach to his back.
“Thanks.”
“Any time.”
John stared at the black hollow they had come through. At first they had thought it a shield of some kind. Rodney all excited about the power source and it being Ancient. Faith had been working on removing moss from a wall of writing so that she could start to decipher it. If only he had slowed down - or not volunteered. Faith had tried to grab him, pulling at his arms while Ronon and Teyla had him by the belt. When Rodney had warned them to let go, it had been too late for Faith, her fingers sinking into the strange barrier. Dragging them both in.
He pressed his radio. “I don’t know if you can hear me over the radio, but we’re finally on the other side.” He tilted his head a bit. “Looks just like the pictures. “Hurts pretty bad to move.”
Faith sucked a breath in through her teeth. “Oh that stings.” She had managed to sit up.
“Right?”
“Need a hand?”
“I’ll wait here.”
Faith nodded, not sure she could do more than sit.
88888888
“It’s been four hours,” John complained.
Faith sighed. “It’s not going to be that simple, John.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like Teyla, I recognized a couple of words. Ascension and a standard greeting. But there was also a warning.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I hadn’t been able to translate it before you were being sucked in.”
“What was it?”
She looked at the markings she had made in the dirt to work on the translation. “No exit.”
“What?”
“That’s all I got from it. Whatever it is, this is a single direction.”
“You can’t know that for sure,” he argued.
“No. I can’t.”
“We’ve got about a day of water left.”
“I can scout farther,” she said.
“No, we’re not there yet. If Rodney figures this out we may have only a moment to get through the barrier.”
“Even rationed, our supplies are out in forty-eight hours.”
“I know.” John stomped around, irritated. He took his jacket off and hissed.
“What?”
He shook off his jacket and showed her his arms. There were distinctive bruises on his forearm right at his elbow. Faith’s long fingers had pressed bruises into his skin.
Faith looked at the pitch black of the portal that had deposited them wherever they were. She had tried to stop him from being sucked in.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “This isn’t your fault.”
She shrugged.
He moved back around until he was standing in front of her. “Better you here with me than Rodney.”
“Low bar,” she scoffed.
“Thank you for trying.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t?”
“You’ve been pretty mad for the past for weeks.”
She looked away. “I’m not mad.”
“Distant.”
“I should get firewood,” she said, pushing away from the wall. “Don’t know how cold it’s going to get.”
“Stay within sight of the cave…just in case.”
By the time she returned, a bag of supplies had been sent through. It was not much for the two of them. Rationed, it bought them maybe six days.
88888888
Faith setup a small number of stones next to John’s large arrow pointing the way they would leave before weakness overcame them.
“What is that?” John asked.
“Date and time,” she replied.
He checked his watch. “We have to go.”
“I know.” She hated that her metabolism had hastened the need to leave. While Slayers were big eaters, they could ration…it was extremely dangerous. With only a single bar left, they had decided that they had given the team as much time as they could.
They made their way down out of the cave. The sun on a field of green greeted them.
“Pretty nice,” she noted. She looked at him. “Beard doesn’t look so bad in the light of day.”
He scowled at her.
88888888
“Ow, ow, ow,” Faith complained softly as she came to.
“You’re awake,” a voice said in surprise.
“Am I though?”
“We thought it would be longer still,” the voice continued. “You and your husband are both doing much better.”
Faith frowned. “I’m not married.”
“The man you travel with-”
“John!” She sat up on the small bed. “Where is he?”
“In the next, dwelling. He has only woken once. By the time you had hauled him across the Sanctuary to the Cloister, you collapsed from exhaustion.”
“Sounds like me,” she said as she moved her feet from the bed.
“He must mean a lot to you,” the woman said.
“He’s my brother.”
“Then for saving my brother, I am pleased to help you and yours.” She presented a tray. “It is simple, but it should restore you.”
Hungry and not really at a point to pretend that her weakness was anything but food related, she set the tray on the bed. There was a portion of bread and a green fruit. Unconcerned with look or taste, Faith ate quickly. Then she downed an entire pitcher of water.
“I am Teer,” the woman said.
“Faith.”
Teer smiled.
“He’s awake again!” some shouted from nearby.
Faith got to her feet. However, she was still weak, exhausted, and hungry. She noted her clothes were still the same ones she had been wearing since entering the cave.
Teer immediately put her hand under Faith’s elbow. “Careful.” She did not protest, just assisted Faith out of one little dwelling and into another.
“Faith,” John said, relieved as they entered.
“I am Teer.”
He frowned. “Have we met?”
“When Avrid first brought you here. You were terribly injured from fighting the Beast.”
“And I healed you,” Hedda told him proudly.
Faith sat down on the bed next to John’s knees.
“You okay?” John asked.
“Whopper of an appetite and a bit of a headache,” she said. She looked at Hedda. “Your healing is quite advanced.”
“Hedda is one of the few among us who possesses the healing power,” Teer explained.
“Well, good,” John said, “Thank you.”
“It’s we who should thank you for saving our brother from the Beast.”
“Funny…I don’t remember winning.” He looked at Faith. “You get it?”
“No. Hence the headache, it clobbered me.”
John looked down at himself and then up at Faith. “Which one of you got me out of my clothes and into these?”
“I did,” Teer said, “Is that alright?”
“Yeah, I just usually like to meet a woman before she sees me naked,” he said blithely. “And why is Faith still in her clothes?”
“It was sensed that she would not have the same reaction you did to being cleaned and changed.”
“Damn right,” Faith ground out.
“However, since you are awake now, we can bring fresh water and clothes.”
After a week in the same shirt and pants, she was not going to argue. “Just no dresses.”
88888888
By the last meal of the day, John and Faith were able to move around under their own power.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“Nothing that immediately strikes me as strange,” she replied. “Like most other Pegasus natives we’ve come across.”
“Other than the barrier we crossed to get here?”
She gave a shrug.
“I’m glad you both are feeling better,” Avrid said as he approached. He was the man they had encountered running from the Beast. He was also Hedda and Teer’s brother. “Welcome to your new home.”
“Avrid,” John said as he moved down the stairs. “We’re happy to visit and more than grateful for the healing and food, but, uh, do you know the way out of here?” They stood in the middle of the little village.
“There is no way to leave, John, other than to Ascend.”
“What exactly do you mean by ‘no way?’”
“That is the sole purpose of this place - to meditate upon Ascension and one day join those who created the Sanctuary.”
“Thing is,” John said, “I’ve got other plans.” He looked at Faith, but she did not look at him.
“Then why did you enter the portal?”
“Well, call it mistake,” John continued moving across the little square to a large stone water feature in the middle of the village. “I tried to stop it but the damn thing sucked us in.”
“Those that came before us made certain there could be no indecision,” Avrid explained. “Once you set foot within the Sanctuary, your path was chosen.”
“Not by me!” He gestured to Faith. “Not by her.”
“I did make a decision,” Faith said.
“What?”
“I tried to pull you out.”
Avrid nodded. “Once you cross the threshold, you are committed here for the remainder of your days.”
Faith and John shared a look.
“Excuse us,” John said.
Avrid left with a small smile.
“You don’t seem overly concerned,” he noted.
“Why would I be?” she demanded. “I’ve been working this over in my mind since I translated that phrase.”
“How are you so calm at the prospect of staying here?”
“Because getting hysterical doesn’t get me anywhere,” she snapped. “Nor do these people deserve my temper for decisions and things they had no hand in.”
“They can’t be right,” he said. “There has to be a way out.”
“The Ancients were serious about Ascension, they would have wanted people to have the perfect place to do that.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“No. But something is going on, it took days for a bag to come through and then nothing for the last week. Whatever this is, Atlantis isn’t going to be able to help us.”
He grit his teeth and stormed away from her.
Faith sighed.
“He needs time,” Teer said as she approached.
“Time will not make a difference,” she replied. “He’s stubborn.”
“A trait you share.” Teer gestured to the village. “There is someone I think you should meet.”
“Sure.”
They walked over to another house. An older woman sat on the porch, a type of rocking chair next to her.
“Zal, this is Faith,” Teer introduced. “Faith, this is Zal, she’s always in need of company.”
Faith frowned but Zal smiled. “Please, sit, Faith.”
Faith took the empty rocking chair and almost immediately realized that she could not sit in the way she wanted. She had to completely relax to sit in the chair. She jumped up. “I can just stand.”
Zal nodded. “Then you are not ready to sit.”
88888888
It took more than a week for John to exit his little house. Faith had been ready to barrel in and tell him to get up, but Teer had intervene every time.
It took them a month to fall into a routine. Every morning they would stretch and run. They would break their fast and clean. The afternoon was mostly used to meditate. Faith had tried to do it in the building in the village but had found too many people around prevented her from being able to relax. Instead, she did the same task in the tall grass along the edge of the village.
They helped with the evening meal, did chores as needed, and went to sleep early.
Faith kept her eyes closed as she tried to find the peace that had always eluded her. She really wanted a chance to talk to Susan, it was easier to express herself. More than that she missed Haly. Their first days in the cave had been Haly’s fifth birthday. John being here meant that there was no member of her family to take Haly as a Foundling. Would Teyla or Halling have found someone else? Radek claimed Haly was the only child he liked. Carson would have claimed her…
“It is hard to meditate when your soul is in turmoil,” Zal said as she approached.
“My soul doesn’t know how else to be,” Faith replied.
“Then maybe it is time to clean it out.”
She opened her eyes and turned her head to look at the woman. “What?”
“You think the Slayer is the main reason you are always restless, but you neglect that the woman in you is just as hard to settle.” She opened her hands around them. “If time is all you have, wouldn’t you like to spend it at peace?”
“I’m at peace,” she said. “The restless soul belongs to my brother.”
Zal made a small humming noise in the back of her throat before walking away.
Title: Weakness
Author:
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/SG:A
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Stargate people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Faith and John are trapped.
Notes: Part 25 of Faith Sheppard - Links Page
Seasons: Post-series/Season 2
Word Count: 2820
Faith paced as she ranted. “Why can’t I do something as normal as hug him?”
“You wanted to?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped.
“Faith,” Susan warned.
“Sorry. I was relieved to see him alive.”
“Have you and John ever hugged?”
“Yeah, but I can’t…I don’t throw him across the room when he hugs me, but I have a hard time initiating.”
“And when you saw him what did you do?”
“I stood in front of him and listened as he told us how he survived. I told him and his team that I was glad they lived and I left.” She flopped down on the couch and stared at the ceiling.
“If it had just been Teyla, if she was the one who you were relieved to see, would you hug her?”
“No. I would do the Athosian greeting.”
“Hands on the shoulders, foreheads touching.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. What if it had been just Ronon?”
“I’d probably slug him in the shoulder and tell him not to do it again.”
“What about Laura? You’re closer with her than Teyla.”
Faith thought about it before shaking her head. “She’d hug me.”
Susan nodded. “She would. What about Dr. Beckett or Zelenka?”
“Carson has hugged me - just once, but he let go quickly as soon as he realized what he had done.” She tilted her head. “Radek is not physical in his relief, he just starts muttering in Czech about whatever I did.”
“Right. So perhaps John - like Carson - is simply…careful. While he can’t always control the need to assure himself that you’re alive, his consideration of your history, of your feelings, is important to him.”
“But shouldn’t I be able to do that?” Faith said in annoyance as she sat up. “After spending hours thinking he was dead - and longer with him missing - shouldn’t walking up to him and hugging him be natural?”
“It’s not that easy. But it means something that you want to.”
“Will I ever be able to…feel something like that?”
“What do you mean?”
Faith’s eyes tracked to Susan’s. “Love.”
“You do, Faith. You may not recognize the feeling because it is not something that you were conditioned to feel or embrace growing up. In a way, love was twisted for you, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have it in the relationships you have now. I believe you just need to pay attention to what you feel. When you talk to John or Haly or Laura, or even just thinking about them.”
88888888
Faith woke in bed behind Haly, listening to her soft snores. She smiled a bit. The girl had crawled into some part of her and attached herself. She followed Susan’s advice and focused on the feelings that welled in her looking at Haly.
Protectiveness was always foremost, she knew that one. She wanted to protect her, keep her safe. The idea that she couldn’t, that she could fail in some way…her throat closed and a white-hot rage suffused her chest.
She tumbled from bed as quietly as she could. She felt a desperate need to escape, to run. It was the worst thing she could do, not be there when Haly woke - or make sure that someone was with her.
The bell at her door chirped quietly. She swiped at it.
The door slid open to reveal Evan.
“That was fast,” he said. “I thought I’d be waking you.”
“What’s going on?”
“John wants you on AR-1’s recon mission today.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” he grinned. “Probably just wants to make sure that someone can bail them out of trouble.”
She rolled her eyes. “If this gets me captured, I’m going to blame you.”
“Me?”
“I can’t very well blame John, it makes my life difficult. But my team lead - for giving me up so easily - easy.”
“He’s my superior.”
“Sure, that’s why I’m so expendable.”
“Loud,” Haly complained from the bed.
“Sorry,” Faith said with a grin. “Looks like I’m going out with John today.”
“In an hour,” Evan said. “Clare offered to watch Haly in the infirmary when I informed Carson.”
“So I’ve got no say in this,” she concluded.
“Now you’re getting it.” He smiled at her before leaving the room.
88888888
He hurt. His entire body was one big ache. Nothing specifically stood out. Just… “Ow.”
“Seconded,” Faith’s voice said from next to him.
“Can you move?”
“Probably,” she replied. “But it hurts too much.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Faith put a hand under his shoulder and gave him a shove, turning him from his stomach to his back.
“Thanks.”
“Any time.”
John stared at the black hollow they had come through. At first they had thought it a shield of some kind. Rodney all excited about the power source and it being Ancient. Faith had been working on removing moss from a wall of writing so that she could start to decipher it. If only he had slowed down - or not volunteered. Faith had tried to grab him, pulling at his arms while Ronon and Teyla had him by the belt. When Rodney had warned them to let go, it had been too late for Faith, her fingers sinking into the strange barrier. Dragging them both in.
He pressed his radio. “I don’t know if you can hear me over the radio, but we’re finally on the other side.” He tilted his head a bit. “Looks just like the pictures. “Hurts pretty bad to move.”
Faith sucked a breath in through her teeth. “Oh that stings.” She had managed to sit up.
“Right?”
“Need a hand?”
“I’ll wait here.”
Faith nodded, not sure she could do more than sit.
88888888
“It’s been four hours,” John complained.
Faith sighed. “It’s not going to be that simple, John.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like Teyla, I recognized a couple of words. Ascension and a standard greeting. But there was also a warning.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I hadn’t been able to translate it before you were being sucked in.”
“What was it?”
She looked at the markings she had made in the dirt to work on the translation. “No exit.”
“What?”
“That’s all I got from it. Whatever it is, this is a single direction.”
“You can’t know that for sure,” he argued.
“No. I can’t.”
“We’ve got about a day of water left.”
“I can scout farther,” she said.
“No, we’re not there yet. If Rodney figures this out we may have only a moment to get through the barrier.”
“Even rationed, our supplies are out in forty-eight hours.”
“I know.” John stomped around, irritated. He took his jacket off and hissed.
“What?”
He shook off his jacket and showed her his arms. There were distinctive bruises on his forearm right at his elbow. Faith’s long fingers had pressed bruises into his skin.
Faith looked at the pitch black of the portal that had deposited them wherever they were. She had tried to stop him from being sucked in.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “This isn’t your fault.”
She shrugged.
He moved back around until he was standing in front of her. “Better you here with me than Rodney.”
“Low bar,” she scoffed.
“Thank you for trying.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t?”
“You’ve been pretty mad for the past for weeks.”
She looked away. “I’m not mad.”
“Distant.”
“I should get firewood,” she said, pushing away from the wall. “Don’t know how cold it’s going to get.”
“Stay within sight of the cave…just in case.”
By the time she returned, a bag of supplies had been sent through. It was not much for the two of them. Rationed, it bought them maybe six days.
88888888
Faith setup a small number of stones next to John’s large arrow pointing the way they would leave before weakness overcame them.
“What is that?” John asked.
“Date and time,” she replied.
He checked his watch. “We have to go.”
“I know.” She hated that her metabolism had hastened the need to leave. While Slayers were big eaters, they could ration…it was extremely dangerous. With only a single bar left, they had decided that they had given the team as much time as they could.
They made their way down out of the cave. The sun on a field of green greeted them.
“Pretty nice,” she noted. She looked at him. “Beard doesn’t look so bad in the light of day.”
He scowled at her.
88888888
“Ow, ow, ow,” Faith complained softly as she came to.
“You’re awake,” a voice said in surprise.
“Am I though?”
“We thought it would be longer still,” the voice continued. “You and your husband are both doing much better.”
Faith frowned. “I’m not married.”
“The man you travel with-”
“John!” She sat up on the small bed. “Where is he?”
“In the next, dwelling. He has only woken once. By the time you had hauled him across the Sanctuary to the Cloister, you collapsed from exhaustion.”
“Sounds like me,” she said as she moved her feet from the bed.
“He must mean a lot to you,” the woman said.
“He’s my brother.”
“Then for saving my brother, I am pleased to help you and yours.” She presented a tray. “It is simple, but it should restore you.”
Hungry and not really at a point to pretend that her weakness was anything but food related, she set the tray on the bed. There was a portion of bread and a green fruit. Unconcerned with look or taste, Faith ate quickly. Then she downed an entire pitcher of water.
“I am Teer,” the woman said.
“Faith.”
Teer smiled.
“He’s awake again!” some shouted from nearby.
Faith got to her feet. However, she was still weak, exhausted, and hungry. She noted her clothes were still the same ones she had been wearing since entering the cave.
Teer immediately put her hand under Faith’s elbow. “Careful.” She did not protest, just assisted Faith out of one little dwelling and into another.
“Faith,” John said, relieved as they entered.
“I am Teer.”
He frowned. “Have we met?”
“When Avrid first brought you here. You were terribly injured from fighting the Beast.”
“And I healed you,” Hedda told him proudly.
Faith sat down on the bed next to John’s knees.
“You okay?” John asked.
“Whopper of an appetite and a bit of a headache,” she said. She looked at Hedda. “Your healing is quite advanced.”
“Hedda is one of the few among us who possesses the healing power,” Teer explained.
“Well, good,” John said, “Thank you.”
“It’s we who should thank you for saving our brother from the Beast.”
“Funny…I don’t remember winning.” He looked at Faith. “You get it?”
“No. Hence the headache, it clobbered me.”
John looked down at himself and then up at Faith. “Which one of you got me out of my clothes and into these?”
“I did,” Teer said, “Is that alright?”
“Yeah, I just usually like to meet a woman before she sees me naked,” he said blithely. “And why is Faith still in her clothes?”
“It was sensed that she would not have the same reaction you did to being cleaned and changed.”
“Damn right,” Faith ground out.
“However, since you are awake now, we can bring fresh water and clothes.”
After a week in the same shirt and pants, she was not going to argue. “Just no dresses.”
88888888
By the last meal of the day, John and Faith were able to move around under their own power.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“Nothing that immediately strikes me as strange,” she replied. “Like most other Pegasus natives we’ve come across.”
“Other than the barrier we crossed to get here?”
She gave a shrug.
“I’m glad you both are feeling better,” Avrid said as he approached. He was the man they had encountered running from the Beast. He was also Hedda and Teer’s brother. “Welcome to your new home.”
“Avrid,” John said as he moved down the stairs. “We’re happy to visit and more than grateful for the healing and food, but, uh, do you know the way out of here?” They stood in the middle of the little village.
“There is no way to leave, John, other than to Ascend.”
“What exactly do you mean by ‘no way?’”
“That is the sole purpose of this place - to meditate upon Ascension and one day join those who created the Sanctuary.”
“Thing is,” John said, “I’ve got other plans.” He looked at Faith, but she did not look at him.
“Then why did you enter the portal?”
“Well, call it mistake,” John continued moving across the little square to a large stone water feature in the middle of the village. “I tried to stop it but the damn thing sucked us in.”
“Those that came before us made certain there could be no indecision,” Avrid explained. “Once you set foot within the Sanctuary, your path was chosen.”
“Not by me!” He gestured to Faith. “Not by her.”
“I did make a decision,” Faith said.
“What?”
“I tried to pull you out.”
Avrid nodded. “Once you cross the threshold, you are committed here for the remainder of your days.”
Faith and John shared a look.
“Excuse us,” John said.
Avrid left with a small smile.
“You don’t seem overly concerned,” he noted.
“Why would I be?” she demanded. “I’ve been working this over in my mind since I translated that phrase.”
“How are you so calm at the prospect of staying here?”
“Because getting hysterical doesn’t get me anywhere,” she snapped. “Nor do these people deserve my temper for decisions and things they had no hand in.”
“They can’t be right,” he said. “There has to be a way out.”
“The Ancients were serious about Ascension, they would have wanted people to have the perfect place to do that.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
“No. But something is going on, it took days for a bag to come through and then nothing for the last week. Whatever this is, Atlantis isn’t going to be able to help us.”
He grit his teeth and stormed away from her.
Faith sighed.
“He needs time,” Teer said as she approached.
“Time will not make a difference,” she replied. “He’s stubborn.”
“A trait you share.” Teer gestured to the village. “There is someone I think you should meet.”
“Sure.”
They walked over to another house. An older woman sat on the porch, a type of rocking chair next to her.
“Zal, this is Faith,” Teer introduced. “Faith, this is Zal, she’s always in need of company.”
Faith frowned but Zal smiled. “Please, sit, Faith.”
Faith took the empty rocking chair and almost immediately realized that she could not sit in the way she wanted. She had to completely relax to sit in the chair. She jumped up. “I can just stand.”
Zal nodded. “Then you are not ready to sit.”
88888888
It took more than a week for John to exit his little house. Faith had been ready to barrel in and tell him to get up, but Teer had intervene every time.
It took them a month to fall into a routine. Every morning they would stretch and run. They would break their fast and clean. The afternoon was mostly used to meditate. Faith had tried to do it in the building in the village but had found too many people around prevented her from being able to relax. Instead, she did the same task in the tall grass along the edge of the village.
They helped with the evening meal, did chores as needed, and went to sleep early.
Faith kept her eyes closed as she tried to find the peace that had always eluded her. She really wanted a chance to talk to Susan, it was easier to express herself. More than that she missed Haly. Their first days in the cave had been Haly’s fifth birthday. John being here meant that there was no member of her family to take Haly as a Foundling. Would Teyla or Halling have found someone else? Radek claimed Haly was the only child he liked. Carson would have claimed her…
“It is hard to meditate when your soul is in turmoil,” Zal said as she approached.
“My soul doesn’t know how else to be,” Faith replied.
“Then maybe it is time to clean it out.”
She opened her eyes and turned her head to look at the woman. “What?”
“You think the Slayer is the main reason you are always restless, but you neglect that the woman in you is just as hard to settle.” She opened her hands around them. “If time is all you have, wouldn’t you like to spend it at peace?”
“I’m at peace,” she said. “The restless soul belongs to my brother.”
Zal made a small humming noise in the back of her throat before walking away.