Dantia/Stories/A Faint Connection

A Faint Connection

In the suspended haze, Dantia had almost forgotten what it felt like to be alive. The timeless void pressed against her, an impenetrable silence that dulled her thoughts. Her body -- unmoving, unreachable -- seemed foreign, more concept than reality.

But there had been tremors in whatever held her. At first, they were so subtle that she might have imagined them. Yet, she had spent many years honing her Empathic skills, and those trained senses could not be so easily bound like her sight and hearing.

There was another tremor, and this time she was ready. She focused everything she had on pushing her Empathic sense through what could only be described as a slight inconsistency in her bindings. She strained with the effort.

There! Just on the edges of awareness. The flicker of life essence. No, four life essences.

Dantia felt immediate recognition. Ayrell, closest to her, strong and steady in her course. Miskton, his presence a mix of curiosity and sharp intellect. Mazrian, one of her dearest friends, whose formidable strength and fierce loyalty steadied her even now. Navesi, the shrewdest of truth finders.

They were here with her.

Though the connection was faint, barely more than the brush of a feeling, it was enough. The weight of isolation lifted just a little, knowing she wasn’t alone. Some of the brightest minds she knew were fighting the same battle, sharing the same space in this endless silence.

Dantia doubled her efforts to think.