Sensitive

It wasn't even a hundredth of a second before she was hit hard by something on the side of the neck. His speed and precision were terrifying, but he managed to pull her out of the thundering waves of impressions with one jerk. She exchanged the shimmer of the images for deep, impenetrable blackness. She quickly passed out. He had hit the spot on her neck where the artery split into a deeper and a more superficial path. The point was very sensitive. When subjected to severe compression, the brain was signaled that the pressure in the carotid arteries was getting too high and that systemic blood pressure needed to be lowered. The result was a sharp slowdown in the heartbeat, most of which led to unconsciousness if the body was upright and you hit hard enough. Viktor wasn't squeamish with her. At least not anymore. 

She wished the dull numbness of fainting had lasted, but the old nightmares soon haunted her again.

Row's bright, warm voice woke her from her daze. She sounded so pleasant that she felt transported to her distant childhood, where it had still seemed that the world might not be safe, but it was okay.

"Are you all right, Aurelia?" This time too she heard her worried, loving tone. She felt Row's weight drop on the cot next to her and opened her eyes. The blonde Elevender watched her pityingly and held out an ice pack.

"Here. Viktor said you might need one. ”Her words brought the throbbing on the side of the neck back to life. At the same time, faint scraps of her latest vision drifted through her tired mind, startling him and pulling him to the surface. She tried to sit up, but the dizziness spread instantly. She must have been pretty taken with the vision. Her limbs lay leaden on her pad and she felt almost paralyzed. The heart stabbed a little again, as if to complain about the strain. This strangeness of her body terrified her. So far he had not shown any noteworthy failure symptoms.

Row noticed that she wasn't completely in control of her muscles, but didn't speak out loud. She usually understood what was going on in others without having to ask more precisely, but she was always discreet, only offered help without a word. As the oldest of three siblings, Rowena had a lot of practice with little ailments. She helped and turned Aurelia with her back to the wall as if she only weighed a few pounds, then she positioned the ice on the back of her neck. The sudden cold made Aurelia shiver, but it numbed the nerve endings reporting the pain. Relieved, she relaxed her neck a little. She deeply hated the feeling of weakness.

Her vision had been more intense than it had ever been before. She could experience firsthand what she would have to go through in this future when her decisions would one day lead her to this brightly flooded place. Was that the death she had seen? How should she survive this pain? Could she prevent it? Because that's exactly what she did every time she took a brief look to protect herself from attackers, or when she suspected the opponent's next step. She made a choice, shaped her own destiny, even if she did not know what the longer-term effects of her actions were.

"How long have I been gone?"

Row gave her an appraising look, but then she replied, "About an hour and a half."

If you hit someone on that particular spot on the neck, they usually woke up after a few seconds. The unconsciousness left the body slack and the blood quickly distributed itself horizontally again, so that the person concerned soon came to. As I said, after a few seconds…. usually.

"Where is Viktor actually?" She asked confused because she couldn't see him anywhere.

“Markus called him. And then he asked me to take care of you until you woke up again! ”Aurelia knew that she liked to do it, it was like a code among them female team members. But the fact that Viktor was with Markus made her sit up and take notice.

 Rowena didn't touch her unnecessarily. She had known them long enough by now. She must have heard why Aurelia had passed out, because she first asked casually about her vision. She had seen this approach several times with Viktor and since he was not there at the moment, she naturally took over his part. She gave her an encouraging smile that softened Aurelia's heart. You could only like Row. Even she did it herself, as much as she could. She had got used to them over the past 60 years or so. The then only 35 year old had integrated seamlessly into the team and everyone soon accepted her as a full member. She didn't even have to do anything special for it. Men in particular were quickly addicted to her, so Aurelia was rarely embarrassed to have to roughly reject someone; it was more than enough to introduce Rowena.

 "How was your first impression? What was the most dominant? "

Aurelia thought for a moment, allowing Row's soft voice to lead her back into this terrible world of thoughts. But with her colleague by her side, it was only half as bad, she had a calming influence.

"Bright. It was so bright. I couldn't see anything at first. "Aurelia mumbled lost in thought.

 "Did you have any clues as to where you were?" Row asked calmly. Aurelia shook her head.

 "People?"

Her composure was blown away and a chaos of emotions took its place. She felt anger, despair, hatred, determination and at the same time a strange familiarity and fear of loss. It all mingled so strongly that she could hardly taste the individual emotional qualities. Her teammate read on her face that something was wrong.

"There was a talented man," she began hesitantly. Everything in her contracted to shut out the strange feelings so that they would not completely take hold of her. “But he was one of the others. At least he was wearing one of their uniforms, the one with the golden inverted triangle. "

Row's expression darkened. "He must have a pretty high rank if he wore them!"

"Or will carry!" Thought Aurelia to herself.

“I think he's one of the top bodyguards! The uniform was admiral blue. And ... he had one of the stones ... He looked very strong. "

Row hissed in a breath. At that moment, she too must have realized what that meant. "Are you sure it will end like this?"

Whether Viktor had already told her about the power of the stones or whether she had figured it out herself at that moment, was not evident from her reaction. Aurelia looked at her with an ironic grin. "What is certain?"

Your counterpart understood. She ran her blond hair thoughtfully and bit her full, well-formed lips. Then she asked: "Anything else?"

Should Aurelia share the attraction and fear of loss? They didn't quite fit into the picture and she couldn't even explain them to herself. If these feelings were really to be related to the figure, what did that mean for their own role in this vision? The disgust of herself seized her again and she decided to keep this small but perhaps important detail to herself. Instead, she described the pain and feeling of being burned from within to her comrade.   

That part of the narrative alarmed Row, however. Despite her delicacy and girlhood, she was well educated and smelled the danger of Aurelia's words. She also knew that it was not common for Aurelia to feel pain while using her gift. She wrinkled her pretty forehead. The rich green of her eyes lit up knowingly. “I think it's time the others found out too!” She said emphatically and stood up. "Can you go?"

Aurelia craned her toes, took stock of her muscles. The feeling in the extremities was back, if not completely. She nodded and got up too. She straightened the black clothes until they completely covered the toned, slim body again.

"You're right! But could you do that At the moment I have absolutely no desire to deal with Markus. I would rather go to work out. Clear your head! "She said succinctly, so that Row wouldn't hear the longing in her voice. She desperately wanted to wash that sticky remnant of the vision that made her feel like shitty out of her head. She missed her strength.

Row gave in, of course. Aurelia did what she wanted anyway. Only Viktor had always had some influence on her.