The call had come from Jahrae, now their only remaining daughter. Saehressa listened to the frantic and grieving Jahrae outline the events of hours earlier. And final word came just moments ago, when she was notified by the government that llhaesa t’yaeli ‘ceased to be’ at 10:20 am. No, the government would not return her body, and on this matter the messenger who called Jahrae was frank “because those above do not wish for llhaesa to be a martyr, inspiring yet another group of radical anarchists.”

As the last few words were transmitted across the 20 kilometres or so between their homes, Saehressa’s hand and arm went limp; the phone slipped from her hand and fell to the floor just milliseconds before Saehressa fell alongside the mechanical but hurting voice of Jahrae.

Mrevan rushed to Saehressa, unknowing. Seeing that she was unconscious, he rushed first down the hall and into the bath for first aid, and quickly returned with spray designed to revive those unconscious from non-serious causes. Within seconds Saehressa stirred, but within a few more seconds memory of what dropped her to the floor came rushing back. Again conscious and touching the intense pain overloading her mind, Saehressa screamed and then burst into tears.

Mrevan, who at this point was kneeling besides the sitting Saehressa, quickly draped his arm around her to provide comfort. An increased sense of foreboding crawled on the greater expanse of his skin, seemingly seeping and sinking down through the pores as if by some transdermal patch fulfilling its medical duty. From there the invisible evil would find its way into Mrevan’s bloodstream, and then make short work of spreading throughout his body. He had been here before, and something very deep inside was saying he was there again.

After a few minutes, Saehressa was able to string a few words together. Mrevan slumped to the floor. In that moment, he was defeated in life.

Years later, Saehressa recalled parts of what unfolded immediately thereafter, obviously unaware of what transpired whilst unconscious. The next few days subsequent to the news were a blur. Family arriving and leaving, each one in turn stunned and looking not only to offer their condolences to Mrevan and Saehressa, but also to seek their own place of comfort, looking to find their own ability to rationalise the irrational. Perhaps the T’yaelis would be the place to find some hidden element heretofore unknown, that would suck the pain out of them, this so they could resume their happy lives.

There was llhaesa’s favourite aunt, who would take the energetic child camping twice a year, just the two of them in the forest. There were second cousins and third cousins, friends and grandparents. As the second day passed into the third, grieving took on a new element amongst the mourners: anger. Anger directed right towards the government, who had just done the unthinkable; Brellian was a murderer, and he had to be stopped.

What Saehressa remembered most of that time was how Mrevan was still functional, yet not quite present in the moment. She thought little of it at the time, for she was lost in her own pain, but in thinking back, clearly pictured in her mind’s eye how Mrevan’s pupil’s were invisible, while his irises ominously carried a warning one could not see, but could feel: they were the gateway to nothingness. Saehressa did not see – she could not see – how could she see? The fatal injury had in fact already been inflicted, and she harboured no ability to stop the inner wheels of destruction from laying claim to her husband.

Within a year of the anniversary of the second T’yaeli horrific tragedy, Mrevan was institutionalised; his will to live lost right along with llhaesa. At the point of institutionalisation, Mrevan was non-responsive to sentient interaction, only to basic stimuli like prodding or heat.

11 months later, Mrevan’s body ignored an infection that medical staff at the institution discovered too late, well into its advanced stage. A subsequent autopsy revealed that his body never even attempted to fend off the infection, though it was a fairly common one.

In his last act of invisible sentience, somewhere deep inside the shell of the man being sacrificed by his own mind, Mrevan willed his body to inaction, right to the cellular level.

For her part, Saehressa made it through, clinging to hope through the lives of those who fought for a better existence. She would seal her pain deep inside, letting only enough escape to channel in positive directions.

And one more way: Saehressa was moving toward a mission. Brellian was going to fall. If she lost her life in the process, well… the price paid was reunion with the three people she loved most in life.