An Absence in the Soul

[Ruby Rose]

I squeaked and yawned as my eyes peeled open to a flickering orange light; candelight sprayed across the rugged walls around me, and I rolled around in the hard yet somewhat comfortable bed I had been laid in. Where was I? What happened? I rolled back over and looked up at the ceiling above me; it was rocky and ramshackle, with wooden squares patching some sections of the roof. My mind wandered to the events that I could recall from before I blacked out... Weiss disappearing, me running away from the restaurant... Wynrel.

"Wynrel!" I squeaked and swung my legs out of bed, attempting to get up, when all of a sudden something hard and pointy pressed against my forehead and pushed me straight back down to the bed. "Morning kiddo." A female voice greeted me, and I craned my neck upwards to see the woman from before, still in her sleeveless black coat, now opened to reveal thin plated body armour. Her pointy ears twitched as she smiled at me and tilted her head in an adoring manner. "Sleep well? You were out for just over half a day. Your friend's givin' you a lot of trouble, hey?" She asked and I puffed out my cheeks and nodded; such a long sleep had really cleared my mind. I was still upset and very angry with this stupid world... but at least I had the state of mind to think about my current situation and about finding Weiss.

"Get your little butt back in bed, I'll bring you some breakfast." She ordered and I nodded, crawling back under the covers.  It was then that I realized it wasn't the bed that was comfortable; the blanket was so snuggly, I hardly noticed the rock hard mattress underneath me.  I dove under the covers up to my nose, peering anxiously at the door as I waited for Wynrel to return.

The woman returned with a large, circular tray in hand laden with a pair of steaming mugs and a bowl from which a fruity scent wafted down to my exposed nose, and I pushed the covers down excitedly and sat back up, slinging my legs over the edge of the bed, watching Wynrel set the tray on the stone table beside the head of my bed.  She picked up one of the mugs with the wispy whiteness flickering out of the top and shoved it into my tiny waiting palms. "Try it." She told me with a soft smile and seated herself with a stool beneath my bed.

My silver eyes flicked down to the purple-hued liquid sloshing inside the rough-edged cup. Refraining from grimacing at the uneasy feeling that sank to my gut from the strangely-coloured beverage, I cautiously brought the mug to my lips and sipped. My eyes went wide. It was comfortably warm, not hot like the steam would suggest, and carried the smoothness of cream. It had a strong, watermelon-like taste, and left a lingering milky flavour. "Woah... what is this?" I asked in a minuscule, awed tone.

"I call it Starlight. The recipe's my own little secret, but I might share it with you if I'm feeling generous." Wynrel explained with a wink and began to sip on her own. "It's amazing..." I mused to no one in particular before knocking back a whole mouthful and, before long, the entire cup. With a toothy, amused grin Wynrel handed me the bowl and a spoon; it was piled with an assortment of what seemed like berries in a range of curious colours. Who had ever seen green or yellow berries before? A syrup of some kind coated the berries, carrying a minty smell, and I dug in, piling a few different berries onto the spoon and into my mouth.

The berries held flavours I couldn't begin to explain. A lemony tang, but pasty and mild like butter, a kick of what tasted like cinnamon but trailed off into a strawberry tang, and the simple minty taste of the syrup meandering between the flavours. I didn't make a single sound as I devoured the contents of the bowl, and eventually sat staring at a clean stone dish. "Good huh? A salad made from a collection of berries in these parts of the Deeps." She explained once more, and I nodded. "Feeling better?"


I had to think about that for a moment. The lingering guilt and pain of losing Weiss still sat like a cold stone in my stomach... but the 'breakfast' Wynrel had brought me lifted the pain from within me and put it in the back of my mind. "The minty syrup I used in the Starlight and the berry salad has calming and cleansing properties." She told me, and I looked up with an incredulous expression. "Now," Wynrel took my bowl and set it back on the tray with our mugs, "tell me about what happened. No more tears this time, let's talk about it like adults."