Chapter Text
"My love, are you alright?"
Alsya blinks heavily as she sits up from her bed, and looks at the woman who's face is still obscured from her vision. Is she Aeldari? Human? She can't tell. "I'm fine," she groans. "Simply tired. I didn't sleep very well last night."
"Is that so?" The mystery woman says. "Nightmares?"
She shakes her head. "No, nothing like that. Not in a long time. Besides, it is not like I did not get any rest."
Then she cups the woman's face. She can feel scars on her cheeks. Perhaps an Aeldari warrior?
Her face starts to reveal itself, starting from the base, revealing a concerned yet beautiful smile. And just as the rest is about to become visible to her-
She jolts awake with a heavy gasp, having been passed out in the rubble and surrounded by the dead. There was an ambush, the Mon-Keigh had found their forward camp. The Seers were being evacuated and she had been one of them, though only a fledgling, but she didn't run.
Well, she had. Towards the fighting. To try and help her people by healing the wounded by offering an extra hand to any living combat medics. Then the explosion came, a bright, golden light overtook her vision, then a deep voice... Now she was here.
Alsya groaned as she stood up, brushing dust and pieces of rubble off of her robes. And that dream. It wasn't the first of it's kind. She'd seen that woman before in other dreams she's had. The same voice, the same scars, the same face hidden from her. Surely she was Aeldari, humans didn't care for her race as much as she wishes otherwise. Yvraine had proved both species could at least work together.
She worked her way through the rubble and wreckage of the battle, stepping over Aeldari and human corpses alike. Someone had to still be among the living, she couldn't be the only one, surely? But as she continued on, looking over corpse after corpse, she began to suspect she was truly alone, at which point she needed to send word to her Craftworld that she still lived.
Then she heard a strangled groan, the shifting of rubble and ruin. Someone lived! Alsya ran towards the sound and found not an Aeldari warrior, but a human one. A woman with stark white hair and clad in a suit of now damaged power armor. "Emperor preserve me..." she hissed. "Though my light may fade, I remain your servant... Grant me the strength to continue on in your Holy name..."
Her voice. Why was her voice so familiar?
No, that could come later. She needed help or she'd die. Alsya stepped forward and made herself known, kneeling in front of the human woman. "Be still," she said gently as she extended her hand. "I can help you-!"
"Foul xeno!" she spat, swatting her hand away weakly. "I will... I will not allow your taint to corrupt my faith!"
The barb would sting under normal circumstances, which these were not. "Insult me all you wish once I've healed you," Alsya said calmly. "For now, save your strength. Is there something I can use?"
The human woman weighed her options for a moment. Then resigned to her help and pointed weakly across from her. "Medpack... Hurry..."
After having stripped her of her power armor, she went to work as soon as the human passed out. And by that, she means healing her the way her people did. By drawing from the Immaterium. It was uncommon for Aeldari to do so, due to the general dangers of the Warp and the ever-present threat of She Who Thirsts. But Alsya wasn't left with much choice. She had no practice in conventional healing methods.
She placed her hand on the human's wound, a deep gash on her stomach, and took a deep breath. Warmth spread through her fingers as she called upon her psychic abilities as a fledgling Seer, and the wound gradually began to heal and close. By the time she was finished, she was mentally exhausted.
Alsya took note of her surroundings. Currently they were within a makeshift shelter that offered adequate protection from the elements, the logs she'd found having referred to it as a 'Gorgon', fit for fifty men. Perfect for two stranded women, one of whom was wounded. Two sleeping bags from the human supplies she'd pillaged, food, water, and other necessities. Alsya collapsed onto the other sleeping bag and stared up at the ceiling of the vehicle as she hit the button that controlled the vehicles ramp, closing it to the elements.
Did she do the right thing, she wondered? Saving the human? What if she tried to kill her when she woke up? Surely not. Alsya posed no threat to her, had even saved her life at great risk to her own through her abilities. Perhaps they could be friends, if fate willed it to be so?
And perhaps such thinking was naive. But Alsya was what one might call radical. She believed the Aeldari and Humanity could come together one day. And if that day was so far off, why not try to expedite it? Other Aeldari would scoff at her naivety, and she in turn would scoff at their old and dogmatic hatred, even if in the back of her mind, she knew they might be right.
Perhaps the woman would be talkative come morning, even if it would come with degrading insults and curses laced with venom. Better that than a bolter round to the head.
So, exhausted, Alsya allowed herself to drift into a guarded sleep, not knowing the horrors that would await them both, and the relic that would bring them here.