Sakura was only asleep for about four hours. I was on her bedside in one of the inns of Sunset's Point, the fishing village beneath Sunset's Edge.
Her sisters were also in the room. Kazuha and Yunjin were bickering about the new pecking order, Yunjin may be older, but Kazuha is Ascended. It was cute... for the first hour — then they just kept going on for three hours.
Chaewon sat by the window, her gaze fixed on the full moon illuminating the night sky and making Lake Aldaria sparkle. Something bothers her — something aches within her. I have a hunch as to what it is, yet this was not the place to talk to her about it, seeing as her sisters are in the room.
Then — Sakura stirred and Chaewon was first to be on her side. "Are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah. Just... drained." Sakura answered weakly.
"Weird. Kazuha wasn't this tired when she..." Yunjin stopped herself.
"When I what Yunjin?" Kazuha teased.
"I'm not gonna say it." Yunjin said stubbornly.
"Oh stop it both of you before I use a Command." Chaewon scolded her younger sisters, earning a chuckle from Sakura.
"So, you've ascended too, Zuha?" Sakura asked.
Kazuha sat at the foot of the bed and nodded. "I nearly did on Dazkora, so I think all that was needed was to get into that mindset again. Probably explains why I was less drained than you."
"What happened in there?" Yunjin asked.
Sakura sighed. "Do you really want to know?" Yunjin and Kazuha nodded enthusiatically, while Chaewon, the second eldest and the leader, hesitates and Sakura notices this.
"I won't share it if you don't want to." Sakura addresses Chaewon.
Then Chaewon shook her head and she took Sakura's hands in hers as she seemingly made up her mind. "No. It was your fight, that makes it your decision whether to show us or not."
Sakura nodded, and Temporal Vow, now a prismatic crystalline hourglass, spun and glowed. I expected to be shown only the battle from Sakura's perspective — I didn't expect that after a flash of light from the Temporal Vow, we'll actually relive her battle.
We didn't see what Sakura saw, we were Sakura at that moment, we felt what she felt — the pain, shock, exhaustion, hopelessness, darkness. And we were privy to her thoughts at every moment of the battle.
When the visions finished, all angels turned to me. I knew what they were thinking, Sakura's anchor was me. I was the catalyst of her ascension — and tonight will be a reckoning of my relationship with all of them.
"Ask us." Sakura said and I stared at her, already knowing where this is going. "Ask us what you truly wanted to ask me that night when you joined me by the fire."
They were waiting for me, I can sense that, but there was no pressure to talk. I can sit here for eternity and still they will wait for me.
"I..." I began. "I feel like I don't deserve all of you."
"That's not a question, Seren." Chaewon murmured.
"And what are you talking about that you don't deserve..." Kazuha started talking before she was stopped by Yunjin.
Then I breathed... heavily. "Do I... really deserve all of you?" I asked.
"Seren..." Sakura started softly.