Raftina sighed and blew at her bangs as she looked around. The sun was setting in Adlehyde and the day drawing to a close. Soon, she would be left alone with nothing but her own mind which...was never a good thing for her. She knew she desperately needed therapy and medication, but those days were long behind her and Filgaia as a whole. It'd been over a thousand years since the First Demon War had ended and most of Filgaia's knowledge with it. The people were barely discovering electricity again. It wasn't even a staple in the capital of Adlehyde yet... Though, with the monsters that now inhabited the planet, it would take centuries until they could begin setting up power grids across the planet. She would need to be at a height of power which didn't exist now. Filgaians lacked the belief in her to make sweeping changes to the planet.

  She closed her book and held up her palm, a small light casting from it. The planet was in such a sorry state at this point. She hated how much damage the demons had done. What had once been the hub of galactic trade now sat a desolate, mangled corpse of a planet bereft of life and covered by vast deserts.

  She made her way out to the stables where Moonspark rested in her stall. The pegasus snorted, her ears going back as the light reached her eyes. "Raftina, go to sleep. You've visited me every night for the past two weeks. You really need some sleep...and so do I." When even the stubborn pegasus was telling her to sleep, she knew she needed to but... She frowned. Sleep just caused nightmares, nightmares of the First and Second Demon Wars and Mother knew what else.

  "All right, I'll let you sleep." She retreated from the barn and fluttered up to the top of it, sighing as she stared at the moons. Life was so empty now. Granted, it hadn't felt fulfilled in millennia, but it just felt so empty and hollow. It was all paperwork and meetings now. Not that that was much different previous to the First War but... At least she'd felt something doing all of that. All she felt now was cold isolation. Nobody understood her. Nobody knew what it was like to be at the crossroads she stood at. Nobody even knew of the Tenno anymore…

  She tried to put the thought out of her head, but it was too late. A few tears rolled down her cheeks but she wiped them away. It had been a rude awakening to see that her people had faded so far into obscurity that not even mythological tales remained of them anymore. The Day of Falling Feathers had been one of the worst days of her life. Pretty much her entire people wiped out in one fell swoop. Few survived. Only those that had been in the land-bound cities instead of the flying ones they so favored had survived... There was still probably Tenno blood in some bloodlines, like the Adlehyde line, but the wings would never come back. Only full- and half-blooded Tenno could have them... After that, they simply resembled humans.

  She laid down on top of the roof, stretching her wings out beneath the moonlight. No, it was not terribly comfortable, laying on shingles like this, but they were warm from the intense sunlight that plagued Filgaia. Without copious amounts of trees, the planet and land couldn't cool itself and left the sunshine extremely difficult to deal with. But the shingles felt good on her battered muscles, sore from sitting in chairs all day and not having done a damn thing other than sit around.

  She eventually did find herself waking up, having dozed a little bit. No nightmares? Well, she certainly wouldn't complain.

  However, her sensitive hearing alerted her to the presence of a person down below. Who would be out in the stables this time of night? Well. Anyone that who wasn't her. Elimna and Garret were asleep and wouldn't let Cecilia out here without them. This was just one person. They made no attempt to hide their presence, openly walking. A soft, relaxed gait, not trying to sneak. Who would be so bold as to come to the royal stables? It definitely wasn't a guard either. Their footfalls had a distinct cadance to them and this was just a normal, relaxed gait...

  A soft laugh reached her ears. "Always the paranoid one, aren't we, Raftina?" The voice was soft, merely a whisper, but it reached her as if the person was speaking to her just a couple feet away. She knew that voice.

  She sat up, then fluttered down to the ground, dusting off her pink dress. "Anna? What brings you here in the middle of the night? I thought you'd be making money downtown. Well. Not that many people are awake this late night but even so..." It was odd.

  The redheaded merchant chuckled and looked at her, eyes bright in the moonlight. "Well, I was looking for you. You were a bit hard to find tonight!" She laughed again, eyes remaining as bright and cheery as ever. Seriously, the Anna family was something else. Somehow always knowing to show up exactly where she was with exactly what they needed. Anna had helped them on their journey during the Second Demon War more than once and, well, she was glad for it... Getting food when Cecilia needed it to help supplement her magic use.

  "And if anyone should be asleep, it should be you. Don't think I can't see those bags beneath your makeup, Raftina. When was the last time you slept? And I don't mean the nap you just took. I mean legitimately slept." with the family even if they could be overbearing and pushy at times.

  Raftina sighed. "I already told you guys that, without proper psychiatric medication, I can't sleep." She needed the nightmare suppressants that had been developed some thousands of years ago. She hadn't always needed them, but with as terrible as her nightmares were, she really did now. But there was no way for her to get them... There were no psychiatrists and psychologists on Filgaia anymore.

  Anna frowned. "It took some digging, but I did find someone that might be able to help you with that... There are a couple Annas that didn't walk the mercantile path. Rare, but I found one that knows all the old Filagain medication." Raftina blinked, head tilting. Seriously? But the ingredients—

  Right.

  Timespace was but a mere suggestion to the Anna family.

  "Well... That certainly would help. Was she trained on Filgaia before everything went to hell? Or timespace shenanigans at play here?" Anna's only response was a cheeky grin. Raftina sighed. What a mess. But that was about what she could expect from the Anna family. What else was she supposed to do? She had learned to give up and just accept their weirdness for what it was. She had long given up on attempting to understand everything that happened with them or how they functioned. She could recognise certain Annas that she'd seen innumerable times, but this one was definitely new to her. She looked younger than many others. Her eyes sparkled more than usual and she had a bit more spring in her step without age lines. She knew they could live long for humans but... She had no idea exactly how long.

  "Want to meet with her tonight? It might take a bit of time to get any prescriptions filled, though. Tracking down the old medications can be a little hard even for us, especially with the heavy-duty ones you're going to need." Raftina nodded and sighed. Yeah, she was gonna need some pretty heavy-duty sleep aides and nightmare suppressants in order to sleep. Usually that meant a week or so, at least in terms of the Anna family. She could survive another week without sleep, unfortunately as it was. Though she knew that, once she did fall asleep, she was going to be out for at least a week as well. When she crashed after a long period like this, she really crashed.

  "That...would be helpful, yes." She hated admitting her weakness, but what else was she supposed to do? She needed the help and she knew it. She wouldn't start truly recovering until she could meet her basic needs which included sleep. The Anna family was at least providing extra food to the royal family to help her regain weight she'd lost over the past several years as well as the duration of the First Demon War. She was only about eighty pounds when she should've been around a hundred twenty, a hundred thirty. It was so frustrating to be grounded but with her massive caloric needs…

  Anna nodded and Raftina followed along with her. They headed into town and Anna slipped around the back alleys, leading her to a more secluded part. It was a place where vagabonds and homeless congregated, so she wasn't sure why…

  Anna.

  They weren't absolutely heartless merchants that took advantage of people. They were fair as long as the people were kind and good. They were the only merchants that these people would be able to afford goods from. Yes, most Annas were merchants, but she supposed it made sense that at least some would walk different paths.

  They made their way into a small tent where people laid about and coughing reached Raftina's ears. She hadn't heard it outside of the tent... Then again, maybe spells were at play here? She could hear for miles upon miles and she hadn't heard anything coming from the tent. This was no merchant's tent, though. This was an infirmary... Makeshift, sure, but one all the same. This Anna was no merchant but a doctor... Well, who better to treat illness than someone with the excessive, expansive knowleged of the Anna family? Raftina was a trained healer herself, having been on the path prior to becoming a warrior. She still kept up on medical knowledge...or at least, she had at one point. Medical knowledge had slid back so far that she couldn't keep up on anything. She was so far ahead of this time that it was painful. she just... It pained her to see these people suffering so when they had nearly eliminated disease on Filgaia at one point…

  She folded a hand on her heart and bowed her head as they headed to the heart of the tent. She was powerful, but she needed to limit her magic use so that way she didn't burn through too much energy. She hated her limits, but she had to try to not overexert herself and be out of commission for working with Cecilia and the Adlehyde court. She wished to do so much more than she was able to do right now. But until the faith of the people of Filgaia returned, she would never be able to do beyond her means. She needed to restore the planet, but that would likely be centuries until the belief returned…

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  A woman sat in a chair and Raftina almost didn't recognise her as an Anna. She bore white hair and amber eyes, a sharp contrast to the usual red hair and eyes that they had. The face was definitely Anna, but the hair and eye color threw her so much. The woman looked up and tilted her head. "Oh, you must be Raftina. I've heard a lot about you. I'm Morgan."

  Raftina looked over at Anna and raised an eyebrow. "Her father had white hair and amber eyes. He ended up with an Anna but he didn't name her such. As such, she can't go into the mercantile business, but she can still do plenty to help otherwise."

  Morgan stood up and nodded, obviously exhausted from the long day of treating people. "I'm from a terrible future... Everything was destroyed by the Fell Dragon. I saw too much death and destruction. I didn't want to be a dealer of death like my father who was a tactician. So I became a healer instead."

  "I see." She didn't understand most of what she said, but she got enough to understand the story. Yeah, tacticians were responsible for the deaths of many... Countless over the centuries and millennia. She was a tactician herself. She understood war all too well. She could see the haunted look in Morgan's eyes. War... She had known far too much war. She couldn't make a guess to her age though... Annas aged differently then normal mortals due to the genetic manipulation they did through carefully selecting people to make sure they mained their uniform appearance. "I'm sorry for your loss."

  Morgan shrugged. "It's in the past now... I went to Etopreth after the Fell Dragon was vanquished." Raftina's eyebrows shot up at that. Etopreth had been one of the finest universities on Filgaia before the First Demon War. But then again, this was the Anna family they were talking about. Time-space was merely a suggestion to them.

  "What all have you studied and at what level?" She couldn't help but be curious about that. Raftina had multiple PhDs due to all the time she'd had to study and learn. Though...most of those planets were gone now. The degrees meant nothing. She did her best to study as much about the culture of other planets as she could in those days. Now... It was just Filgaia. The Metal Demons had been merciless. She hated the fact that she couldn't ever visit old friends again. Some were gods, some were just long-lived races. Now... Most if not all of them again. And Filgaia didn't have the means to build new spaceships. She would be surprised if the people here even knew of galaxies. She hadn't really looked into the astronomy of the era... Not enough time with the political situation in Adlehyde.

  "I'm a general practitioner of medicine and can handle a lot of different things. I'm not specialised in any specific way, but I can handle a lot... Though I am trying to catalogue different diseases right now. But without the ability to use petri dishes and such...it's hard. But I'm a PhD in psychology and psychiatry. I don't have any patients but...if you need to talk, I can fill in both roles for you." Raftina frowned a bit at that. Yes, she was in dire need of therapy but for right now...the main issue was getting her sleep and flashbacks and nightmares dealt with.

  "Maybe in the near future. But not right now. I just want to get my sleep to a baseline level." That felt like the best compromise she could come up with. "How long will you be here?"

  "I've made Filgaia my home, more or less. I just want to try to help the people here... I couldn't stay in my world because of time-travel shenanigans and all of that... I figured I'd be of more use somewhere else." Morgan sighed, obviously exhausted. Raftina wished she could say something, but she knew she had no room to talk. She really didn't. She pushed herself to an unhealthy degree and she knew it. But even so... THen again, healers and doctors tended to make the worst patients themselves. Trying to keep her down was next to impossible. Elaeah had been the only person that could talk her down. Pain stabbed through her heart at the reminder, but she didn't show it.

  "Eveen could probably help but...she's so busy with other things." Raftina shook her head. Eveen had been busy the past few years, digging through old books and ancient servers to see if there was any information that could get them to destroy the monsters in a way that wouldn't harm the rest of the environment. They couldn't afford any further desertification of the planet. The monsters only sucked up precious resources from the planet that animals like pegasi needed to survive... So many species had been wiped out in the wake of the First Demon War. She hated seeing her beloved home planet so destroyed, but there was so little she could do to help right now.

  "Yeah, that's why I don't wanna bother her. I don't know how much time she has between all her research... But still... I want to catalogue these diseases if possible. I don't have magic like you guys that can analyse; I have to rely on traditional methods." Morgan sighed again. Yeah, that had to be infuriating. If she weren't so focused on Adlehyde and such, she would be more concerned about health and wellness and healthcare. But considering the nasty political situation that had been created by the court in the wake of Farrah's death and Justin’s withdrawal from court... The court had seized power and made Justin nothing more than a puppet king. And that system had been attempted to be foisted on Cecilia, but Raftina had foiled those plans at least. But with all the fallout... It was nasty and she had been working on it for the past three or so years.

  "Anyway, enough chitter chatter... We might as well just get to the heart of the matter..." Raftina sighed and rested her cheek in her hand. Yeah, they were stalling enough as was. She at least didn't have to worry about provider/client confidentiality... The Anna family always held her in high regard and would never reveal anything about her. There would be no forms to sign here, but still. She trusted the Anna family beyond anything or anybody else.

  Morgan nodded. "Yeah, we probably should." With that, they set about the appointment with Raftina describing her symptoms and what all she would probably need. She wasn't a trained psychiatrist, but she knew enough about medication and she remembered the ones she'd been on prior along with dosages. That was probably the best way to handle things; use that as a base then build off it.

  It took quite a while, but eventually Morgan pulled out several prescriptions and filled out the forms. "I mean I'll have to convince them in the past to give me these... Nightmare blockers are no joke and neither are tranquilisers... They're not gonna believe they're for you since, well, you already exist there."

  Raftina nodded and sighed. "I do not envy you in your position." She really didn't. Why would a goddess, let alone the one that portrayed herself as beautiful, perfect, and invulnerable, need any sort of psychiatric help? Yeah, she really did not envy Anna. It wasn't like she could travel through time to back up the fact she needed the medications some two thousand years in the future. It really just didn't work like that... Though... "What about Dan Dairam?"

  Morgan blinked. "Actually, that might work... I can't take you back into the past with me, but considering time-space is his domain and he can manipulate it to his heart's content... They'd probably believe him for the shape you're in."

  Raftina nodded. "It's not like it'll be breaking any sort of privilege just for him to go 'yeah she's in rough shape some two thousand years in the future.'" He had seen how she was and the shape she was in. She doubted he'd be spying in on the session right now. He was a nosy bastard, but not so nosy he'd try to peer into someone's doctor's appointments.

  Morgan nodded. "Yeah, I'll go talk to him. Hopefully, relative to when I'm speaking to you now, it should only be a couple of days, but it might take several weeks of fighting to get them to dispense the medications." Yeah, that was going to be a real pain in the ass. But it really was the only way to handle things. SHe hated leaving people to do things but she had no choice here. She couldn't handle this herself.

  "All right. Well, I guess I'll try to go back to the castle and sleep or something..." She rubbed the back of her neck, but she knew that it would likely just come down to work above all else. Yeah, she wasn't going to get any sleep because of how terrible her nightmares were. She desperately needed the blockers. She'd probably be out for a week straight once she got to sleep, but she desperately needed it. She hadn't slept a full night since being reawakened. MOrgan nodded and she could sense the fact she was dismissed. So s got up and left the tent, gazing up at the two moons. Hard to believe one of those had been bustling with life and commerce from different planets around the galaxy at one time... For her, it was just yesterday due to the millennium-long slumber she'd be put under during the tail-end of the First Demon War.

  With a small sigh, she extended her wings and flew back to the castle, going to her room to get back to work.

  Θ

  A couple of days passed and she found herself still in the grips of wakefulness. She could feel her body wanting to sleep, but she couldn't deal with the nightmares. No, she couldn't... The First Demon War tore through her mind like an earthquake while Elaeah's death sat there like a whisper. That trauma never left her, no matter how much she went to therapy for it.

  However, a knock came on her door one night and she answered it, only to see Morgan standing there with a small paper bag with bottles inside. "Here. That was a headache and a half to do. They had other medications on file for you in the system so they didn't want to give me new ones that conflicted with the ones you'd been on for hundreds of years." She dragged her hand down the side of her face.

  Raftina winced. "I can only imagine. But thank you... I truly do appreciate it. I probably won't take them until tomorrow, though. I have to let Cecilia know ahead of time I won't be here to defend her. But with Garret and Elimna around, that should be enough to keep the advisers off her for a week or so." She knew she was going to crash and hard. There wasn't much she could do about that. She hadn't slept in years at this point. The demons waded through her mind like venomous vipers and sat to strike her. Not to mention the entire Lady Harken bit for Elimna... Both thoughts sent a shiver down her spine, but she tried to push them away. She looked at the writing on the bottles and saw these were strictly for sleep rather than PTSD... Well, it was a start, at least.

  "All right. Just come back to me a bit before the 90 day prescription is up. With how heavy-duty those meds are, I'm gonna need to fight to get them each time." Yeah, some medications weren't handed out willy nilly... It was a nightmare. She'd had to fight with the system before it had all collapsed sometimes as well. Even though she desperately needed the medications to keep functioning.

  "I will. Thank you again." She dipped her head to Morgan and bade her farewell before settling the prescriptions on the desk. She was sorely tempted to take them now but she knew Cecilia and the others would need the head's up before she went to sleep for a week. She knew she needed sleep but she had to be realistic with her schedule too. Guh. This was terrible. Then again, what was one more night at this point to be honest?