#en version

        Her wobbly head hitted a pice of the wall on its right. Waiting was so long… A hundred years? More?

        For which purpose did its master created it and gave it an immortal life, it it only was to put it in their vault and let it rot forever?

         Has it done something wrong? The little mummy tried to stand up in this lightless vault, but it only managed to tremble and fell on the ground, face down. There, all sense of balanced vanished and it feared it would never retrieve it one day.

          No light. No sounds. Only the deep darkness surrounding it. The little mummy circled its bandaged head with its arms and let a warm-sand tear dropped from its eyes.

           While it let itself drawn in melancholy, the only thing ever authorized for a soul trapped in loneliness and boredom for so long, it heard outside noises for the first time.

          It first believed it was but an illusion. The vault should crumble and fall apart and with a bit of misfortune, sand would swallow everything and hide the little mummy further from the outside world.

          Soon though, as the little mummy was about to loose itself in dark thoughts again, it heard the noises intensifying. It even seemed there were fighting sounds. There were several voices.

         Voices … with real words and various tones … It’s been like a lifetime ago it didn’t even think those words.  The little mummy dragged itself to the wall and used it to help it stand on its feet once again. In a ray of hope, it raised its eyes up as if it would unlock at last this place where it was resting.

        The fight lasted almost twenty minutes. The voices were trembling, echoing against the wall, their intensity softened and finally, they would become but whispers.

         The little mummy panicked. A way to this place meant its kingdom, now in ruins since far too long, had finally been discovered. Someone was there. So close.

         It hitted the walls with its tiny fits, mute from dispair. Its sealed lips was silently screaming « Come, take me ! » and its sandy eyes betraying how desperate it was feeling.

        But silence fell back, and the little creature dropped to its knees.          It was over.

         She no longer wanted to wait. Better took her bandages off itself and silently rot here.

         As she was trying to close its eyes to forget its previous ray of hope, a rumbling sound roared above it. It was the closest sound it has ever heard since it was buried here.  

         A light illuminated her yellowed body and it felt a soft warmth warmed its old dried body up. Was it its exit to the afterlife at last ?

               « Hey, I found something guys ! » a young adventurer with feline ears shouted, as two of her partners were heading toward her, eager to find treasures to loot.

               « What’s that? » a beefy Roegadyn asked, weeping its sweaty face. .

               « I don’t know but I hope it’s worth everything we’ve been through ! » answered a very young hyur wearing a damaged armor.

               The Miqo’te took from the big unsealed stone chest  few old but pure gold stuff, bringing hapiness to her mates. She also took an ancient dusty tiara, yet gleaming.  She kept the jewel for her and started to turn her back away from the chest when a moving thing caught her eyes.  

A shiver ran down her spine while, in front of her, a baby-sized mummy tried to stand without making any noises. The ashkin haunting this place has been tracking her and her mates like they were but preys and soon, she drew the dagger hung on her belt, stammering threats to the creature :  

               « B-b-b-baaaack » she screamed, her body stiffening with horror as the mummy turned her big eyes to the three of them and stretched out its arms.

               A second, two then three passed as the miqo’te and the mummy silently stared to each others. Until the little creature put its arms down and backed down, rejected, to sit in the corner of the stone vault, curling up in pain.  

               « I guess it’s not … ill-intentioned.. » the Roe whispered to his still shivereing adventurer mate, who finally lowered her dagger.

               The young Hyur took a step forward and looked upon the little creature, which seemed to go empty of all its sand.

               «  I think it’s crying … »

                The three adventurers go back on their feets and stepped a few ilms away from the stone vault to discuss a little. Pulling out their precious friends, the booty dices, they rolled and the Miqo’te reached out for the little mummy without a word.  

               She coughed a little and climbed onto the stone vault, insecure. Immediately, the creature rose its head and waited, unsure.

               « Err… My nam’s M’hina. Has it .. Errrr, has it been a while since you’re in therrrre ? »

               The mummy stood up and, to the adventurers’ surprise, nodded as a positive answer. The unsteadiness of the mummy on its little bandaged feet soon captured the Miqo’te heart and she stretched out her arms to catch the little  wobbling thing and held it close to her chest.

               Startled, the little mummy finally admired the sunny world around it when M’hina, its new master, took it away from the vault.

               « You must have been verrrry lonely … I’m gonna take care of you now. You have nothing to fear anymore.  » she promised, whispering to the harmless little monster.

              It did not perfectly understand everything the young girl was telling. But it knew when its bandages held the Miqo’te back. It would no more be locked in the dark. Never again would it rest in this vault.

               The Miqo’te did not sigh and didn’t express anything when the young girl turned her head to stare at the sky.

               Since her accidental arrival in this odd and different world from the one she was born in, Nixyan met more than once this kind of cases. Here, the light was poisoned and unhealthy. Death bringer for a hundred years. The strange man who made her came here did not let her any choice: she was but a mistake in his progress to make the one they wanted to come in their world to them : the Warrior of Light.

She lived three years in Cristarium, far from everything she had ever known, before she could learn who the Exarch was. This discovery was by far the worst curse for her since her teleportation.

               G’Raha Tia. The Miqo’te and here shared a special bond only for a few weeks in their own world. An intense relationship though it had been very short and ended with a sour taste.  When he never came back from this Tower, she never really forgave him.  Then, when he disclosed his true identity and confessed his love for her was still alive, she left.  

               She did not want to open these strange scars left the day he disappeared. She left for Amh Araengh, a place of naught where a sanatorium offered healing for the Light victims.

               Raha promised her she would go back to her world. She asked him if he would follow her but he did not answer. 

               He had chosen this Warrior of Light once. And he would choose them once again. Despite the feelings she once had, and she surely still has seeing him again, she perfectly knew their relationship was over. Duty and adventure would come first.

              Working with people losing both their minds and bodies was a way for her to plunge herself in important matters while hoping to return to her usual life. She was growing old here for three years. Three years in which , as she promised to this much important Elezen, she could not watch over the reckless Keeper who became her friend – or so she hoped. 

               « Miss Shadowclaw ? Could you come over here for a moment please ? »

               The white-haired Miqo’te left the young Dran – as they called them here – and came to one of the sanatorium nurse for counselling her on how one could treat abrasive wounds created on the skin because of sand.

               When she came back to the young girl, she was standing up, gazing again at the vivid sky which flooded the place with light. Given the young healer tiredness, it should have been around midnight, maybe more, yet she would stay with the little girl.

               She was about to die. It was sad though Nixyan perfectly knew it. She had already seen them in this state.

               During the last Sin Eater’s offensive – those disgusting monsters – she had seen new patients coming here. First, the pallor of their skin, then the loss of the ability to speak associated with headaches, blanks, and a sclera growing black with their pupils growing whitish. The skin hardened and finally, one would stare at the light as the sole escape to their own new state.

               The illness would made progress more rapidly with younger people than old ones, but for each individuals, when the final phase would start, the sanatorium nurses gave the final medication to their patient. They favorite food or the nearest seemingly thing they could find, strongly corrupted with a deadly amount of poison to avoid the patient to succumb to their illness and become one of those creatures who were leading this world with fear.

               She stared at the Au’ra and wondered what they would give her tomorrow. This one girl was the type of girl to enjoy sweets – as any kid as old as she was. Realizing this, Nixyan could not refrain tears to point in the side of her eyes.

              She could not do much about this. She left the little girl sides and headed for the dormitories, entrenched in the rocky walls to calm her headache. She first blamed the ambient light, though when her sun tanned skin started to look pale, she resigned herself to make her state known and the answer was irrevocable.

             She was first the healer, now she was the one to be cured. And if, by any chance, her illness were to progress slower than it would with other people and the staff accepted her to stay to look after the other ill people as she was today … Nixyan was lost.

             Most of ill grown-ups would survive for a few months. She would last longer because the world she was from had a lightly different aether and seemed to slow the symptoms. When would she admit she was lost though? Six months ? One year? In more time, maybe less?

               She had no clue. Ra’ha neither. She begged the nurses not to tell him a word.

He did not need to know about her state, to worry and loose time in his research to summon the Warrior of Light here. He already had made progress, she knew since she was not the first one to be summoned and some Scions of the Seventh dawn were dragged in this world years before she was.

               She only regretted not being able to be rescued. She would do her best to though. She would not give up like this young Au’ra did. If nobody was to find a cure, she would.

Lost for lost, it was how she has been taught to live. Even if it was a distant hope, she would not lost it.