Fantasy Wherever the Wind Takes You

[Gary Sue]

"Of course there's not one. Why did I even bother asking.", he grunted once he'd watched this whole fiasco unfold before him. He reached into his pouch hanging by the side of his belt, taking out two gold coins and looking at them silently, clutching them tightly in his hands before rather disrespectfully throwing them at one of the villagers' feet with a half glare in his eyes. The same hand that threw them down quickly made its way on to his sword, drawing it out slightly.

This was more so a necessary warning, than a threat. He wasn't going to get violent or physical with them unless they asked for it, but it was clear that Reeve was already having none of it as he looked left, right and back to try and count how many heads there were all in all. "A literal village of crooks. No wonder there's a graveyard that reeks of dark arts nearby.", he grumbled and let out a deep exhale, thinking back to his encounter with Zel and his goons.

"No, it's not the same. Even if there's more of them, this time I have Laila. And this.", his eyes creeped down on to his shining sword. It wasn't just the cursed sword that took his voice and ability to communicate away. Now it was Reeve's blade, blessed with whatever his companion and her mother could muster, even though they owed him none of their efforts whatsoever. He wasn't going down before the job was done, and this was just an obstacle getting in the way.

He was certain that the way he threw the coins was going to aggravate some folks, so he didn't hesitate and drew his blade, pointing it at the ground and gesturing with his head at he villagers rather assertively to step aside and make way for the two to pass. As he did, his grip tightened with an audible stretch from the leather on the underside of his gauntlets. "This is nothing from my reward, but... if they dare as much as charge at us, they are touching none of it, not even a copper coin from me or her."

 

[Shreb]

He reached into his pouch hanging by the side of his belt, taking out two gold coins and looking at them silently, clutching them tightly in his hands before rather disrespectfully throwing them at one of the villagers' feet with a half glare in his eyes. The same hand that threw them down quickly made its way on to his sword, drawing it out slightly.

"Woah, there, Fido," He said with a rough laugh, "Relax, nothing wrong with paying a little entry fee, eh?"

he same hand that threw them down quickly made its way on to his sword, drawing it out slightly.

This was more so a necessary warning, than a threat. He wasn't going to get violent or physical with them unless they asked for it, but it was clear that Reeve was already having none of it as he looked left, right and back to try and count how many heads there were all in all. "A literal village of crooks. No wonder there's a graveyard that reeks of dark arts nearby.", he grumbled and let out a deep exhale, thinking back to his encounter with Zel and his goons.

Laila was quick to shush Reeve. If they were to draw their blades, the village would unironically see them as a bad sign; well, they already were being seen as a bad sign, but now any chance of them putting hostility forward would only serve to get them out of the village.

Well, not that it mattered, they'd probably be trouble as soon as they come out of the graveyard but still, Laila wanted to make this an easy in-and-out operation, where...They weren't going to slaughter anyone past the graveyard.

Even then, she pressed the blade into her waist, her other hand almost clawing at the handle, the blade beckoning her to act.

He was certain that the way he threw the coins was going to aggravate some folks, so he didn't hesitate and drew his blade, pointing it at the door ground and gesturing with his head at he villagers rather assertively to step aside and make way for the two to pass.

Well, so much for shushing him.

"Aye!" The majority of them withdrew their blades as if an instinctive response. Rapiers, longswords, one of them even carried a gauntlet. Like a circle of sharks they were surrounded.

"Let's keep the sharp things to ourselves, yeah? I know you're feeling a little tense, but we're just telling you the rules! Gotta enforce them somehow, someway, right?"

Of course, people were looking at them, but it was the classic intimidation; no one wanted to help if they were sane enough to know they would just get caught in the crossfire.

"And now that the blades have been drawn, I guess you're fixing for blood, huh? Classic of a knight to be so antsy for it!"

"Hey, don't talk about him like that," Laila replied firmly.

"Lady's finally got something to tell us? Last time, you were silent as a snail and now you want to talk now that you have a knight, hm? And what if I were to just give him a little nick as a warning cut, huh?"

"If you were the wiser, you'd back off," Laila sharply replied back.

"Dogs who speak with swords tend to be less competent than those than the man who speaks without," He gruffly replied, challenging their glares. "You're messing with the wrong Vaquiers, 'friends.'"

"Listen, sir, if you want to mess with two innocent strangers trying to get some errands done, that's fine by me, but if you're trying to suggest you get out of this with your arms unbroken, then you will

Back

OFF."

Pebbles and rocks suddenly rose into the air, surrounding her like she was getting ready to release a shockwave. Water formulated around her, droplets that connected into string-like streams, forcing some of them to waver and even back off. They were very scared that she was about to perform some kind of meteor strike with the way the elements were circling her. And her eyes were glowing with an intense light.

"H-Hey, quit SQUIRMING! Fine, lady, we'll back off!"

"Take. The. Money. And. Go. We have enough business to deal with here and we don't need fodder like you getting in our way. Go!"

One of them scurried off to pick up the coins while some of the others crowded behind the leading grunt. Whatever that little magic thing she did had done, it even got them wanting to leave.

Very efficently, they scrambled off in their own group, disappearing into the alleys of the houses.

Crisis averted.

"...Okay, still work to be done, let's hurry it up. We're bound to attract less gullible guys than that."

 

[Gary Sue]

Comment after comment on him being a dog, they didn't matter. Rather, they hurt, but his pride wasn't what was at stake here- he had to make sure he and Laila got back to her shrine safely, and then he could start worrying about his own image. But the way they talked to Laila, was unforgiveable. He'd have gotten much more assertive than he got to, with how she immediately went into the offensive, intimidating them with what was... curious, to say the least.

Watching them scramble and run off, Reeve huffed and sheathed his sword once again, looking back at her and with a squint in his eyes and an eyebrow raised, he gestured for the two of them to go. Naturally, a hand had made its way on to hers to hold her gently by the wrist, tugging her along with him silently. The rather confused stares he kept shooting her direction though, probably weren't helping keep that much tension off.

"As fancy as that little show of magic was, I have no idea what the hell she just pulled or that she could do this in the first place. If what it takes is 'gullible' people though... I'm assuming it's mostly for show. I'm not sure if wasting our strength with these guys is even worth the effort though...", the knight could only huff as he noticed what seemed to lead out of the village, or in the direction of its outskirts. And just a bit farther away, there was a low wall and a mist, hovering low and ominously over what unmistakably was a graveyard.

He gave her another glance, letting her go and moving a hand back onto his sword rather readily before the two resumed their walking, although slowly and more deliberately towards their destination. Now that they were nearing it, things were getting tense. After all, Reeve really wasn't sure what to expect for all the preparations they'd gotten arranged. Enough arrows to shoot a whole village, Reeve's sword's power was amplified and Laila had one of her own... "Just what are we going to be fighting..?"

 

[Shreb]

Reeve huffed and sheathed his sword once again, looking back at her and with a squint in his eyes and an eyebrow raised, he gestured for the two of them to go. Naturally, a hand had made its way on to hers to hold her gently by the wrist, tugging her along with him silently. The rather confused stares he kept shooting her direction though, probably weren't helping keep that much tension off.

Laila made sure to inform Reeve, though; she definitely could not do what she was bluffing, and it would not help if Reeve was convinced she was some kind of veteran war mage hiding her secrets as the guise of a priestess on the side of a forest.

"Conjure earth, conjure water, levitate, minor illusion, and light."

All names of fairly mundane spells most people would be trained or capable of doing if preparing themselves for a journey ahead. Reeve might not be in that same boat as he wasn't actually a trained magician, but it would make sense that Laila would at least know more than half of those spells under her belt.

"Cast them all in sequence and it's like juggling balls in your mind, pretty easy stuff to cast nonverbally. It also makes for a great indication for when someone's about to cast an earthquake, or a mind break. You being here helps, too; they might be confusing us for high-end soldiers from the capital cities. You'd never see a diverse duo like this unless they were forcibly assigned or they were companions in war-time." Gesturing to the both of them, they were quite disparaging.

And just a bit farther away, there was a low wall and a mist, hovering low and ominously over what unmistakably was a graveyard.

He gave her another glance, letting her go and moving a hand back onto his sword rather readily before the two resumed their walking, although slowly and more deliberately towards their destination. Now that they were nearing it, things were getting tense. After all, Reeve really wasn't sure what to expect for all the preparations they'd gotten arranged. Enough arrows to shoot a whole village, Reeve's sword's power was amplified and Laila had one of her own... "Just what are we going to be fighting..?"

The graveyard was decrepit; tombstones torn in half, graves half-dug and barely maintained; most flowers had long wilted and the pressure was quite intense; like pushing back against water, the entire site had a smog to it that even Laila wasn't expecting.

"Huh...It's gotten worse since the last time. People in this village are definitely feeding this graveyard, wherever their rituals take place. I should note, Reeve...This is the kind of place that entices you."

As mysterious as that question was, it would slowly become clearer as the tombstones shifted in reaction to their presence, garnering the feelings of being watched, propelling the hairs to stand at the ends of their necks. Whispers of a voice that have long since met their due date. They sounded like shadows of elders, wispy, broken, and ushering promises of various kinds. For the most part, they were tossing a hand at very ambiguous ideas; fix your problems, alleviate ailments, break the mold of your family, et cetera.

And then they'd start pushing. Probing into the weapons, the tools at their hands. Instead making promises of more power, wealth...Dispelling curses, supplying blessings of all types of gods. The paranormal, the supernatural, all held within these destroyed fences, were probing and appraising the weapons at the duo's hands. They were far more interested, however, in Reeve's sword and Laila's heirloom, whispering for a deal, to shake the poor sinner's hand.

We will dispel your curse, for we are the deaths of thousands.

Your blade, we can make it more, for we house even the divine.

Repel what you see in front of you, a guise for the truth.

Dead we may be, but our thoughts are beyond those of the rich.

Over and over, they hover over the duo, silhouettes and ghosts almost, though if anyone could see them, it would be Laila specifically. Of course, Laila didn't bat an eye to any of them, but she did hold onto Reeve's wrist, just to ensure that he himself wouldn't get tempted, other hand still tightly clasping her blade by the handle.

 

[Gary Sue]

"That... helps put some things into perspective. Both for the treatment we got, and her sudden mastery of.. well, everything. Hm.", he nodded along with her explanation to show that he'd understood what she was saying, rolling his shoulders and turning back to the graveyard. And as much of a graveyard as it was, it felt even more deserted than what he might have been initially expecting. Reeve looked around, and it was... in bad shape was one way to put it.



"Something is very off about this, and... Where are they? I can sense something is here with us.", he practically glared into nothingness, his eyes shifting from tombstone to tombstone as he could promise he kept hearing voices whisper into his ears. Talks of ridding him of this horrible hand of fate he'd been dealt, making him even stronger than the curse had, showing him the truth of the matter-

He managed to cancel all of this noise out when he felt Laila's hand on his arm again, looking at her and giving her a determined nod as he drew his own sword again. They were here, and something was absolutely up with the graveyard. But... now what do they do? There was nothing he could see around, no enemy to fight or danger in sight other than what he could only attribute as 'magic'. Was somebody nearby controlling this presence looming over them and trying to tempt them, or was this place somehow cursed in and of itself, just like Reeve and his sword had been?

 

[Shreb]

Well, whoever it was, they were decisive...Deciding that temptation and persuasion checks would not work on these two, they would opt for the next best thing.

A shadow looms over them. It expands like a growing mass. Something was coming.

Behind them!



"Don't!" Laila whispered imperatively, still keeping her gaze forward, to the point of even yanking him towards along her. "It's...A trap..."

Of course, it was very threatening, intimidating...But if he followed her order, then it would certainly pose no threat.

"Look...Left..." Laila sharply whispered..."And strike around me...As soon as you do...Strike...The air."

Because the feeling of being watched was coming from their left side. Naturally, she kept her footsteps even and urged him to play normal. As normal as they could manage, anyway.

Will he heed?

Don't look behind you.

 

[Gary Sue]

It was a good thing that Laila whispered when she did, as she was the only thing getting between Reeve and a quick peek over his shoulder. His hand was already tightly gripping his sword, and his instincts were telling him- no, screaming at him, to turn around and slash. His hair was raised, and he could sense that something was there. "You're telling me this is..? How could someone induce this feeling on command?"

Despite his confusion, more instructions followed. He gave her a silent look, biting his lip slightly. The fact he could feel this presence behind him, yet they weren't attacked, proved Laila's educated guess. He regained his composure, tried to silence everything out, and just as he exhaled and let out a long, deep breath... A grunt, followed by a swing from a slash, too rapid for even Reeve to keep track.

He'd turned his head to the left, slashing at the air by her and sending a shockwave of light flying the very same direction his blade had gone swinging towards. The vibration and added speed of his sword made his attack look almost instantaneous, leaving behind little more than an afterimage and a determined knight, squinting and trying to glare right into whatever he thought he hit. "Let's see what you are!"

 

[Shreb]

He'd turned his head to the left, slashing at the air by her and sending a shockwave of light flying the very same direction his blade had gone swinging towards. The vibration and added speed of his sword made his attack look almost instantaneous, leaving behind little more than an afterimage and a determined knight, squinting and trying to glare right into whatever he thought he hit. "Let's see what you are!"

The snarl akin to that of a pig suddenly emerges from the slash; the light revealing a horrid mass of flesh in the form of a skeleton taking on the skin of its presumed corpse; it reeked right as soon as the light interacted with it, its half-head's jaws unhinging as it let out a completely inhuman howl, cleaved in two before collapsing to the dirt in a pile of bones. It burst into flames, incinerated into ashes that would blow away into the dust. Black blood sputters from the sudden combustion, skin peeling away like a snake's molting.

"By the Spirits...They're raising undead," Laila said with an irritated growl. "And they're not doing a very  good job, either."

Her eyes shifted left, then right.

"They're moving the shadow."

That was exactly right; the sudden feeling coming from their rear moved away in a flash...Instead relocating to beneath them, like a ghost of an ominous pressure pushing from underneath the earth.

SILENCE THE WITCH. SHE BEARS WITNESS.

WE WILL CLAIM HER EYES.

"Well, at least they're honest," Laila uttered, "They're gunning for me, but they're expecting one of us to strike."

Her commands were sharp, thumb clicking against the handle just enough for the black metal to shimmer in the soon-moonlight. "Forward slash in front of us. Like shadowsparring. He clashes your blade, you're in a static bind. Push a step forward and slide your blade in under his and thrust."

"Now would be good."

 

[Gary Sue]

This creature that appeared as soon as his hit landed had the knight staring at it in horror, with his eyes open wide. He almost wanted to throw up as he realised this was nothing more than the halfway decayed remains of some poor sod that passed away, probably a good time before now too. The same irritation was reflected in Laila's voice as he looked at her and nodded, watching the black blood spray up and then drop back to the ground, almost getting absorbed into it.

"These monsters... Is this why Laila was so wary of Ruina?", he almost lost himself in thought before he felt the presence shift from behind, to under... Sweat started to form on the back of his neck and his breathing got rather shaky, as he wanted to lower his head and look down at it. But from what he'd picked up, that should be the last thing he should be doing. "If I look at it, it's going to attack me. So I need to..."

And almost in perfect sync with Laila, she began to break down the instructions for the next part. Instructions that were... So, so, so specific... Was she seeing something he couldn't? He looked forwards, trying to focus his eyes as he looked into what looked like the far, far horizon through the misty fog that had taken over the graveyard. With a deep exhale, he composed himself as best as he could and put his blind trust into her. Now was too late to go having any doubts either way.

With her mark, he slashed forwards, feeling his sword hit something in the air and come to a halt for no apparent reason. Although this felt unreal, like his eyes didn't match what was happening before him, he kept pushing and took a step forwards, letting his sword drop to the side until it was under what he visualized his opponent's blade to look like. And then, another groan before he thrust forwards, a beam of light shooting forwards and searing whatever it came in contact with as Reeve's eyes almost shone a bright brown for a moment, just as his gem did.

For how Reeve's power appeared to pour out, along with all that light from the blade, it was very antithetical that his sword began to stench of that same 'cursed' feeling once more. But this time, it was a bit softer, almost somber. All of this unaware to the knight, who kept his eyes intent on whatever appeared before him, as if to make his target reveal themselves out of sheer willpower.

 

[Shreb]

With her mark, he slashed forwards, feeling his sword hit something in the air and come to a halt for no apparent reason. Although this felt unreal, like his eyes didn't match what was happening before him, he kept pushing and took a step forwards, letting his sword drop to the side until it was under what he visualized his opponent's blade to look like. And then, another groan before he thrust forwards, a beam of light shooting forwards and searing whatever it came in contact with as Reeve's eyes almost shone a bright brown for a moment, just as his gem did.

"KAUHHHHHH-"

The same magic trick, a violent burst of the strange blood sprouted from the chest of a half-dead corpse, shoulders lanky and arms missing, bony hands gripping tightly onto a blade with ribbons tied around the wrist to force the half-dead to be weaponized. In a cutthroat expelling of air, its corpse burned alive, its marrows searing with black marks until incinerating into dust.

And then a second skeleton shot forward from above.

This was why Laila asked him to thrust under.

Like a lightning strike.
Ia-Iasp, Form 1.
Snap.​

As smooth as butter and as fast as a jet, her blade crossed sky and atmosphere, dividing the air. In one swift movement, her hand went from holding onto the handle to having the blade in its full glory. A flash of paper shavings spread outward like a shotgun blast.

The blade smashed into the throat of the skeleton, piercing into the decaying skin and grinding into the jawline, broken rotten teeth sputtering past them as blood shot out of the half-mutilated neck like a fountain. The blood caught fire, and then...So did the skeleton, instantly phasing into broken dust.

For a brief moment, one could see the talismans tightly wrapped around the metal, crawling down in a spiral pattern towards the tip. She drew the back into her scabbard, her eyes concentrated with a dense bloodshot web forming at the corners.
"They're starting to dig into our minds..."

For how Reeve's power appeared to pour out, along with all that light from the blade, it was very antithetical that his sword began to stench of that same 'cursed' feeling once more. But this time, it was a bit softer, almost somber. All of this unaware to the knight, who kept his eyes intent on whatever appeared before him, as if to make his target reveal themselves out of sheer willpower.

THE BLADE. THE BLADE. IT REEKS OF DEATH. AND LIFE. ATTAIN THE BLADE.
She squinted, her head beginning to hurt. "They...Want it. Your sword. And me. Doesn't matter. We keep moving forward," She harshly muttered, the voice becoming something even he could hear audibly, though it perhaps may have been through water or mud. "This is where it might get a little tricky. Our goal is up ahead. Digsite. Probably where they raised the dead...They're getting real loud, but that makes it easier for us...They only attack opposite to the direction it's happening...Meaning someone's paid a hefty price for being able to handle this level of magic."

As she spoke, the shadow beneath them split off, suddenly shifting to be at their peripheral vision, BECKONING them to look left and right as if there were night terrors creeping upon the corners of their flawed visions. Fog embraced the leftmost edge of their left eye. Fog embraced the rightmost edge of their right eye.

It was like being caught in the vignette of a black hole.
crossingthepathofleastresistanceyouareundeniablywishingyoucouldseeintohowverydisgustinglysillyandrepulsivewearenotimbecilestothehumanraceweareawarethatpeopledesirewhattheycannothaveyouWILLSEEYOURLEFTANDYOURRIGHTASIFTHEYPROPERLYBELONGTOYOUYOUWILLNOTRESISTYOUAREDELUDEDAFAILUREWHYISITTHATYOUAREBECKONINGTHEWORDSOFTHOSEWHOCANNOTSEETHEREALITYANDFORTHATWEMUSTTREATYOUPROPERLYLIKETHESCUMOFTHISVILLAGEYOUAREYOUWILLTAKEANDYOUWILLGIVEANDYOUWILLREGRETANDNOWYOUWILLCOMPREHENDANDFROMTHENONYOUWILLSUFFERUNDERGODSANDTHEDEITIESOFTHISDILUTEDSYSTEMOFHUMANITYANDYOUSHALLUNDERTAKEAFORSAKINGBEYONDYOUWHYDOYOUHOLDABLADETHATWHICHDOESNOTBELONGTOYOUTHESAMETHATYOURVOICENOWBELONGSTOWEWILLANSWERTHATQUESTIONBUTNOLONGERWILLWEANSWERITINTHENAMEOFPEACEWEWILLANSWERITATYOURFINALGASPOFOXYGEN

"NGH-" Laila's eyes shut tight as she let out a heavy intense groan, "Fuck!!! Don't worry, I'm fine- GNHH!" She furiously stated as her head keeled forward, eyes appearing to be actively bleeding. "It's a major illusion, just don't look behind you and don't turn left or right and whatever you do, if you feel something crawling underneath your feet, thrust your sword UP, eyes FORWARD! Persistent freaks...! They got a lot more under their belt since the last time I came here...Fuck..."

Almost perfectly, Laila maintained her heading, deep breaths in and out as she stepped forward, still guiding Reeve as best as she could, but even she was sweating bad, whether it be from the visible mental battle she was going through or just the fact that her eyes wouldn't stop bleeding no matter how fake she said it was. "Fucking bastards won't stop screaming...!"

Then something above began to touch Reeve's hair.

What will he do?

 

[Gary Sue]

As the scene only got more and more grotesque, Reeve could feel himself getting queasy, glaring right into the undead abominations as nothing but dust and ashes was left behind. Blood sputtered all over, and he couldn't help but frown, feeling a mix of uneasiness and sorrow. Worst of all, whatever Laila was doing was more than just a little taxing on her. He gave her a cautious look, picking up on how much she was hurting and trying to speak his mind, but...

"Opposite of where we..?", he grunted and only squinted his eyes more, continuing to move forward along with Laila. When he heard her groan, he immediately came to a halt and looked at her from the corner of his eyes, feeling himself struggle to not turn left or right, down or up... His instincts were telling him he was way out of his 'league', unable to do anything but follow her instructions as they did their best to trudge through the graveyard.



And that's blood, coming out of the shrine maiden's eyes. They had to get out of there, fast. He tried to approach her, just to get turned down when she continued to move on ahead. He was biting down on the inside of his cheeks hard enough to make it bleed. All the while, she had the voices of the undead, and he had the sword trying to make its way out of his hand and into all this blood shooting around- it failed, but it wasn't helping the vanguard maintain his composure any further.

He could tell that she was struggling, and he wanted to stop her. Just as he was stretching a hand forwards to grab her and stop her though, he felt something touch him from above. He froze for a moment, feeling nothing but the sweat dripping down his neck. He moved his head to look up, wanting to scream. His sense of anything had gotten completely disoriented and he was lost, physically and mentally, more and more as time passed.

Remembering her words in the last moment though, he quickly twirled the hilt of the sword so he held it in reverse, before putting his other hand onto it and thrusting it down into the ground. Along with the thrust before it pierced the muddy, damp soil, came a battle cry followed by a blinding flash of light. It spilled out from the tip of his sword, almost attacking anything around the two starting from down and all the way to the sides. By the time the light had dissipated, he was panting, his eyes wide and his irises shaky as he struggled to comprehend if he'd even hit his target at all, this time around.

 

[Shreb]

Something came from above!

As the light surrounded them, screams echoed into the air, silencing whatever was below them and melting whatever grabbed his hair with a warm gust of light and air.

Dust rained down on the two.

"Ugh, that's real, very real," Laila grumbled, forcing her eyes to open. As her eyelids split open, it appeared as if her pupils had caved in, her eye sockets missing something that definitely should've belonged.

Her eyes, obviously.

"Good job," Laila whispered. "Up ahead is the site. It's going to feel like a free fall, that's part of the illusion...They don't know who you are, so they're just focusing on the weaknesses they pieced together from me. My eyes are probably gone right now, but that's fine. They're just trying to convince me I'm blind so I can't give you call outs. I can see."

...

"Deep breaths. The more you panic, the more gullible you become."

...

"Swing your sword wildly. Don't put too much energy into it, just act like we're panicking. Yes, you can swing behind you. Flash the light around."

...thescreamsareechoingacrosstime...

 

[Gary Sue]

As the feeling melted away, he smiled out of what could only be described as desperation. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to shout, but at least he had Laila by his side. So he turned to give her a look, feeling his body tense up and freeze in place. "L-Laila..? Your eyes... they're-", his shaky thoughts were quickly interrupted when she herself acknowledged her eyes had been taken away, so calmly... How? How 'could she still see'? This didn't make sense.

"If it's an illusion, then she can't fall for it because she can't look at herself. So am I the one being tricked..? Sh-She was bleeding a few moments ago... That was real, right? So what if her eyes are-"

"Deep breaths. The more you panic, the more gullible you become."

Despite how calmly she'd said it, it felt like her voice roared in his head as he gave a slow nod. Even though he agreed, even though he also told himself that he wasn't going to panic, that was a lie. His breathing was shaky, his vision felt dreamy and he was very disoriented. He'd even begun to grow uncertain if they had moved any inside of the graveyard, and having stressed himself by using this much of his sword's power was taking its toll on him.

Blessed with power as it was from beforehand, he'd put a lot of is own in that one flash of light that filled the whole graveyard before going dim again. The glow on his sword had significantly weakened, although it was still there. So Reeve tried to listen to Laila, swinging his sword through heavy breathing for air. One slash forwards, a diagonal one to his side, another forwards before a thrust behind... all the while trying not to look anywhere but his front too much.

Maybe the panic caused him to put more energy into it than he tried, his muscles were tense and he was feeling worn out already, not to mention that the fight or flight response got so much adrenaline pumping through him before, that he still felt like he was in a daze. "Just a bit more, c-come on..."

 

[Shreb]

"Good, keep going, they're staying off. Trying to find an angle. They want me and they want your sword. As long as we're still resisting, they can't attack all at once."

"KRAAHH-"

Snap. Her blade wedged into the waist of another walking corpse. Flashing into viev was the digsite, a rectangular hole with nothing but darkness underneath.

"Never...Gotten this far...They tore my head apart at this spot, so I had to back off...When they're all...Clawing at your mind, it's like being twisted from the waist up...Hurts a lot, but who's gauging, huh?" Laila half-chuckled. Someone had to stay positive for the sake of the duo.

Their steps would continue; the voices have since disappeared from Reeve's ears, but Laila looked more stressed than ever, her hand clutching so tightly on her partner that her knuckles were turning white. "Looks like...They're going all in on me...Bunch of cowards, huh...? Nngh..."

It was impossible to tell how much pain she was enduring right now.

They step into darkness, more accurately, on top of it, as if even the hole was an illusion, suddenly spurting an intense sense of vertigo. The feeling of fear was strongest, clutching at their hearts at an extremely pivotal point. Laila couldn't help but let out an instinctive gasp, like her body went into shock from the sudden loss of "ground" .

They were falling...Yet they continued to walk.

"Hooh! That...That got me good...Uh...I don't know what happens from here on. At least they stopped yelling at me. We'll need to find the person that's causing this. Dispel the rituals here. Uh...And maybe figure out if we're in over our heads..."

On the bright side, her eyes had eventually returned. Bloodshot, naturally, but real normal eyes. Blood stopped dripping like they supposedly had been, but the image itself was probably very shocking, no?

 

[Gary Sue]

Another corpse was another grim reminder of all of... this, going on and fucking with Reeve's head. He wanted to throw up this whole time, but he did his best. His mind was trying its darndest to draw parallels to what happened back in the Abyssal Temple when he'd been forced to kill two of his three assailants, although if the grotesque horrors kept coming their way, it'd be hard to keep on going.



And then, silence. He turned his head ever so slightly, looking at her fingers and... "Laila... She- She's struggling...", he felt helpless. He wanted to do something, say something, but he couldn't. Her knuckles were white from how tightly she was gripping her weapon, and just when he was getting distracted and losing focus, his mind went back to getting assaulted by the vertigo and sensory overload. His body was shaking by this point, wanting to give up but... he was trying his best.

If his confidence was a string, it was about to snap. For the lion's heart he normally had, this had shaken him up. Maybe he didn't recover from yesterday or last night, maybe he was just calmer because he saw Laila. And now, Laila was missing her eyes. First she bled, then she went blind. Reeve couldn't tell what was happening, and he couldn't tell her anything either. Moments from his battle with Zel kept flashing before his eyes, and he was weak from having overexerted himself.

Laila spoke again. He did his best to keep on walking, managing to hold himself together and not freeze up in full out of fear he'd actually start falling the moment he did. Her voice was distant and felt hard to understand, but it slowly turned perfectly clear instead of that incoherent mess his fear was causing him to try and shut out. "She's right, we have to find whoever is responsible... and then we can rest. It's gonna be over soon, just... Calm down... D-Deep breaths...", the knight did what best he could to try and pace his breathing, inhaling and exhaling as slowly as his rising anxiety allowed him to.

When he looked to the side to check on Laila again, she was back to normal. Just like before, except her eyes weren't bleeding either anymore. A gasp of relief escaped him as his eyes watered up for a moment, but he almost forgot to keep on moving with it- that was close. He turned back to his front, sweating profusely and doing the one thing he could on his own right now. His best.

 

[Shreb]

He turned back to his front, sweating profusely and doing the one thing he could on his own right now. His best.

As the yelling stopped and the mental torture would alleviate, Laila could finally bring herself to straighten her back, loosen up her grips, and take their steps into the digsite without the worries of ghostly corpses.

"Hah..." She took a deep breath, herself. "Nice, nice, we did it..."

Something grabbed at the two of them; not from anywhere physical, but it was more akin to feeling the brain getting sloshed, a shaking feeling as if something was interrogating them from the inside-out.

"Oh, crap. They've got one last trick up their sleeve," Laila commented with an awkward laugh. "If they're going this route, that means the price they were paying to attack us was real high..."

She turned around, hands grasping at Reeve by the shoulders. "All right!" Laila's voice was more prepped up than ever. "Relax! We made it through the hardest part! This one..." Her eyebrows furrowed, expression turning into something akin to...Curiosity. "The hell...?"

Something was happening that Reeve couldn't see. For Laila, she reacted as if a moth appeared over her shoulder or a letter had teleported from thin air. "Oh, that's not fun. Crap, hahaha...They're digging into my memories. Trying to find out what makes me tick...Didn't, uh...Plan for that...Didn't write any talismans for that, Reeve, so..."

She turned her head towards him. "Just stay with me. It looks like it's the only way for me to get us into the site. Must be a gate or something like that. If they're digging into my memories, it means they won't or can't kill us directly, they have to guide us to our demise. That's why you don't touch dark arts, Reeve; there's always a downside, and for what they're tapping into..."

She smiled happily as she concluded, "Dark arts can be really frustrating to work with."

And in the next few seconds, they would suddenly fall.



Laila doesn't scream when she gets surprised; rather, she freezes up. Her body tensed up from the sheer shock of sudden free-fall as their bodies would come hurtling into the pitch blackness of the digsite.

Air froze up here. Oxygen freely flowed into their heads and hearts, but the wind resistance would fade out over time, turning their free fall into a free stalemate, terminal velocity potentially tricking the both of them that they were floating perfectly still in the air.

"W-woah..." Laila gasped, her voice weak as she stared up at what once was mist and fog, progressively closing up into the darkness that surrounded the two. "L...Light..."

A light shines above her head, illuminating the two. And nothing else. It becomes so deathly quiet except for their voices that Laila almost missed the chaos from above.

"Uh...I mentioned that they probably won't or can't kill us. Maybe they're correcting me..." Laila said with a nervous laugh as she looked back down. "Luckily, um, I do have a spell when we're falling...It's just...Are they trying to put us into a loop? Drive us insane before we get to the ritual...? Hm...Then they'd separate us, right...?"

Laila got her bearings within a few minutes, already trying to analyze what was going on around them; though it must've been worrying considering even Laila had no idea how she was going to solve this little predicament they were caught in.

"Is it a trap? No, this is definitely the only way in...All of their structures only have one entrance from outside to inside, so the ritual is definitely asking for some strange conditions to be met...Hm...Reeve, any ideas?"

Though it was pretty clear Laila was trying to normalize the situation, get them both calm and thinking, steer away from the panic above all else.

 

[Gary Sue]

Whatever was happening to make Reeve fill like his body was being reached into, he didn't like it. The urge to vomit only got stronger and stronger, before it stopped and he finally managed to catch his breath again. Laila went back to trying to explain something, but he was relatively out of it. This was nothing like the Abyssal's magic he'd fallen victim to before, he was completely helpless here, when he could even understand what was being done to him in the first place.

"I thought Laila was out of her field, but... I can't keep up. I'm going to pass out at this rate, and I'm mentally and physically completely worn out already... She looks weak and frail, but...", as the archer smiled, so did he, trying to mirror her through his heavy gasping and breathing. "... she's so much stronger than me. Even after all they did to her today, she's still pushing through. They've barely done anything to me, and yet I'm ready to collapse...", a defeated look took over his eyes momentarily, before a free fall began.

And then he let out a gasp, holding his arms as close to himself as he could. The sudden feeling of falling for minutes on end was agonizing, although he thankfully managed to get just used to it enough to not get pushed over the edge by this overwhelming illusion. Hearing his companion talk so laxly, his own nerves were finally calming down. The free fall couldn't and probably wouldn't last forever, but she was so calm that he could count on having enough time to come up with a plan.

She even directed her question to him, getting him to frown and try to think. He almost reached out with his arm holding his sword to the side, trying to see if there was a wall of some kind, but then he remembered- they wanted his sword. He was quick to sheathe it, holding it buttoned into its scabbard with one and as another took one of the throwing knives he had in his belt out, attempting to reach out with it as far as he could. And once he couldn't reach any further, he pulled his arm back and stretched it forwards again, trying to shoot it as far away as he could and trying to track it with his eyes.

"If... If we are falling down a hole, it feels more like a well... So is it really an illusion or are we in some actual space, falling continuously? I can't find it out on my own, so maybe using my equipment would help... Let's see if this helps give Laila any ideas, too."

 

[Shreb]

The knife inevitably clinked against something, but it was consumed by darkness long before the clink ever happened...

"Fuck. We  are in a hole. Or it's a barrier...But they're not going to go through that much trouble to pretend like we're in a whole new realm...So this fall is actually real, in some sense of the word. The  place is real, anyway. Let's see..."

Laila huffed. "Detect Magic."

...

Her eyes shifted up, then down. The knife, the same one Reeve had, passed by them, moving in a diagonal direction.

"Fucking  assholes. We're going through a loop and we've been entering some kind of gateway that takes us back when we started falling several seconds ago. Here's your knife." She grabbed a hold of the throwing weapon in time as she passed it back to Reeve.

"Dispel Magic." She extended her hand outwardly. "Well, that's great news. Looks like we're not climbing out of this one. Luckily, if they wanted to kill us, they would've done it already. So...We can probably hold our swords hostage for the time being."

Their terminal velocity slowed down with at a startling rate, starting like a bump against a road (except from every possible angle), and then eventually slowing until it was like riding on a gravel road, bumping their shoulders and heads and legs and feet-

"Wo-oahoh-aohhh-"

They hit a surface like an ocean, hitting them like a slap on their bodies before they phased into...

"Dreamwalking...?" Laila recognized the feeling; she had just done it not even a week ago. "Oh...Oh, well...They're traveling into my memories?"

She glanced at Reeve, chuckling awkwardly as she grasped his hand. "...Uh oh...I can feel where they're diving into."

Music suddenly poured into their minds and ears as the blackness hit a sudden contrast; like that a phasing sequence, the setting had shifted into something entirely...Amber-lit.



A cotillion? Some sort of ball in a cathedral-like dining room?

Their feet gently land onto the tiles of a golden-rimmed floor, the walls around them ornately decorated with mosaic-glass windows of priests, divine entities, and the relics of various swords, statues, and pedestals holding old books and novels of all different sizes. The objects actually felt like objects, the dining tables riddled with very exaggerated smells of great meats and veggies. Boiled seafood lined an aisle, and noble-looking people were serving everyone plates and bowls of various delicacies. An enormous chandelier illuminated the world as-

Like the spotlight of a main character, the fogginess of a dream-like state surrounded them, centering on a young lady dressed in a beautifully crafted gown, frills lining from shoulder to waist like a flower sash and the yellow-orange gradient dress just barely hanging above her shins. A French-braided Laila, several years younger with a face still peppered with the beaming smile of a purely optimistic girl ready to take on the world, walked towards a dining room filled with face-less strangers, none of them showing any real distinguishing features aside from a couple of people. One definitely looked like a younger version of Arioon, dressed more like a butler than anyone else. Her vest and suit remained adorned with much less emblems and golden rims than their current one had held, and she looked more like a business woman with the carefully-tied bun at her head's rear and the face of a much more stoic lady despite having been younger. Her blade was much more standard, nothing more complicated than a longsword with a bit of an engraved hand-guard.

Laila gasped. "Oh, gods! I remember this, this was nearly a decade ago!"

Young-Laila approached her mother, drunk on wine and beer as she heartily laughed with a couple of somewhat vague silhouettes of what could've been her comrades, talking about their adventures and dramatically playing charades as they tried to stop their souls from exploding as they continued talking about their shenanigans.

"Mama! Look, it's Ari! Can I talk to her yet?"
"H-uaah? N-no~! Arioon's still in heavy business with her mother, so you'll have to avoid making conversation, otherwise Iiiii get in trouble, okay, honey~!"
"But it's been so long! When can I do it?!"

Her mother lazily sat up straight, pinching her forehead as her comrades segued into talking amongst themselves. She pinched younger Laila's cheek like she was still a baby. "Patience, Lilac...I know it must be a little painful to have to avoid her, but she's in more pain than you are. People like her go through much more rigorous trials, and in order for her to become the next in line for her dynasty, she'll have to continue this for another few years. Now, if you don't mind, your mother's going to have a very exciting time tonight and it's only going to last for about six more hours, okay, Lilac~?"

"Yes, Mama..."

Laila grabbed Reeve's wrist as she guided them across the floor. "This looks like they're doing some extreme memory-diving, way beyond my level of divine skill. They're talking about things that I don't even fully remember. This was the time I was finally old enough to participate in Mom's annual knighting ceremony. The food was all right, their crab meat was really good. They normally do it monthly, but because Mom just got back from her last skirmish in the Greyman's forests, just down the mountain of Greywoods, they set another one specifically for her."

Arioon and Laila faced each other, like looking at polar opposites. Laila, with a beaming grin, ended up hugging Arioon with a beaming smile.

"Hey, Ari, how's life?"
"About as stressful as it usually is." Arioon pat Laila's back as they faced each other.
Laila extracted a talisman hidden in her dress pocket. "Perfect! I made this little talisman for good luck. Look, see, here's the calli-whatever-"
"Calligraphy?"
"Yes! So this symbol means 'good luck...' and this one means 'you.'"
"...'Good luck, I?'" Arioon put her fist up to her mouth, as if resisting the urge to laugh.
"It's poetic!"
"I appreciate your gift. For our sakes, though, please just send a letter. I get punished enough as it is." Arioon coughed, gesturing her head towards the wall. Two figures watch over her with a gaze akin to...Investigation.
Laila chuckled, "Hey, it's all business. Trade me something in return."
Arioon lifted up her vest, gesturing to the dueling belt and the lone insignia on the belt; the insignia of a single sword, its handle and blade designed like Excalibur.
"You made Master?!" Laila gasped.
"Give me another five years, and I'll make High Master, mmhm? Care for a duel to add to my score?" She lightly jested.

"What else happened here," Laila asked herself as she peered around the room. "Trying to see if I can spot anything suspicious. Promotion ceremony, Mom gets a speech said for her by one of the Royal Knights...A knight who got cursed with blindness gets awarded a medal for her bravery...Nothing wrong happened here, I think...They might just be dipping their feet into the water, looking for something that might connect to my weakness and then mind break me..."

That sounded more horrifying that Laila was making it out to be.

"I have a knife and a wooden sword."
"There's nothing wrong with borrowing the blades on the wall."
"They will kill me."
"They'll go through me, first." Arioon carefully folded the talisman, sticking it under her vest to Laila's excitement.
"Thanks, Ari, but I'm not taking those swords!"
"Ah...How does a young sixteen year old like yourself get so excited in these sorts of events? You're not even allowed a drop of the wine."
"Neither are you!"
"I suppose not. Have you thought about your plans for the future?"
"Huh? Shrine maiden stuff, obviously."
Arioon pursed her lips. "Do you like it?"
"Obviously!" Laila hummed excitedly as she stared at the wall, where a large amphitheatre was placed where the music was playing from. Lots of suits, indeed. "I don't want to do anything else! I love it at home!"

Laila hummed. "Looks like the answer could be to find something that stands out real suspicious. Someone casted the memory dive, so we just need to find who did it and where they are...Which probably means there'll be someone here who doesn't match up. Your sword might react to him, but I don't really know what else might work..."

"I'm jealous. The freedom you get to have in your shrine."
"Jealous? I'm jealous of how good you are at anything you do. You're already a swordmaster, you cook amazing food, and you're so quiet! You know how many times you've snuck up on Instructor Sheri?"
"That's her fault, though. We just change at the same time."
"You could probably walk on a tightrope aboard a cliff if we asked you to."
"Don't say that out loud, they might actually make me do that."
"And your magic...It's way better than mine! I've never seen someone toss water like that! What are they gonna make you do when you're done with training?"
"Who knows. I was assigned to...'Special Services'. Whatever that means. Maybe you'll see me a cold heartless assassin, hm?"
"I better make sure we stay connected then," Laila quipped. "Don't wanna be there when you're there."
"Rude. As long as you keep that smile on your face, then I won't draw my sword, understand? We'll keep that a promise. For good luck's sake."
"Heheh~! Good luck, Ari!"
"Thank you, Laila."
"Oh, and it'll be your birthday next month, huh? Twenty two years!" Laila clapped her hands lightly. "I'll miss you."
"I won't miss the pull ups I'll have to do that day. I'll miss you too, Laila. Hey. Make sure not to talk about Saeko."
"Don't worry. I don't want to bring it up, either."

Laila waved Arioon goodbye as the stoic woman faced directly forward, hand behind back and the other against her blade.

"Hm...Let's follow younger me," Laila suggested, pointing at her younger self, happily running to the next person she could spot.

With a little push, his thoughts could suddenly be conveyed, like he himself was also dreaming.

 

[Gary Sue]

One unexpected thing after the other, he found out that they were in a loop while actually falling, got his dagger back and watched Laila stop the fall all on her own. Another good chance to vomit freely flew by as Reeve's urge to thankfully receded, and now they were left in the middle of almost nowhere. Almost nowhere, until he could swear they landed right inside what must have been a sea... no, a lake perhaps? Yet they were still standing, able to breathe and speak. Laila, at least, still could.

There was very little Reeve could do but wonder, when his body started feeling like it had been submerged in a calm body of water. This sensation of dreaming, while being fully awake, was odd. He was almost questioning whether he was actually living this 'memory dive' or not before Laila confirmed for him, and then, he let out a tired sigh. A part of him calmed down though once she grabbed his hand, and he closed his eyes to exhale deeply before he proceeded to watch.

As the scene continued to unfold, he looked around to always keep tabs on the people. Some were quite literally nothing more than cardboard cutouts for people, while others were distinct in the crowd. Tomoe, the younger and more rich looking Laila, and then it was... eugh. He shuddered whole as he gripped his sword a bit more firmly, still neatly sheathed by his hip. "It's her again, ugh. At least she can't talk to me this time..."

What was surprising for how bitter the knight was, was how friendly Arioon was with Laila, truly just seeming like a childhood friend the now shrine maiden was talking with. He felt a bit guilty for viewing her exactly how he did, but at the same time there was very little he could do to change that after how she tried to mess with them all the way back in the tavern. The rest of what all transpired, was said and done, had little for him to add to or even mull over. "If her plan is to find something out of place, we can do that then. Just gonna have to keep an eye out, although... it shouldn't be too hard. Everyone is faceless, so it's probably dependent on the caster's apparel and face. If they look anything like the villagers did before... it'll be an easy guess."

With how things seemed so far, it wasn't like 'interacting' with anyone in the dream would change a lot, considering all of this had already happened in the past. It was just a replay of Laila's memories, same as his own dream last night. This whole dream ordeal... "... I wonder if it was Laila yesterday after all.", he thought while his friend pointed at herself and he did as she asked. Slowly making his way towards her and looking around as he did, he remained quiet, having shared all of his thoughts with his companion unbeknownst to even himself. How she would react to them, if she would at all, was an issue for her to tackle on as she pleased.

And so, the two had stopped right by the younger, energetic ball guest, with Reeve silently inspecting her and having an upward curve on the edge of his lips. "... She's somehow a bit more innocent looking than Laila, while staying a bit more regal and mature. Probably the getup and braids to do with that, though."

 

[Shreb]

... I wonder if it was Laila yesterday after all."

Patiently, she waited for him to finish his little thinking process, smile growing as she continued her fun little journey.

"... She's somehow a bit more innocent looking than Laila, while staying a bit more regal and mature. Probably the getup and braids to do with that, though."

"You think so, Reeve? I dunno, the braids seemed a little tacky. Mom suggested it because braids symbolized precision and thoroughness, which is a big thing for Royal Knights, making sure they were always following every law they were given. But...I'm not a braid person."

She grinned at him.

"I can hear you. And it was me who was in your dreams. Heehee!"

A few of the vague-faced strangers slowly turned their heads toward Laila and Reeve.

Laila approached a woman; dressed in the full-plated armor that once was prevalent in the prior decade, she had her helmet right under her armpit, her hair beautifully braided in a long fishtail, cascading down her armor like a snowfall. She was extremely distinct, her skin holding a slight gray hue and her eyes a silvery ice color. With her hair following a snow-like shimmer, she looked like she came out of an empire of ice; her stillness as a knight impeccable and her face more akin to a princess than a warrior. A look of beauty that could only be replicated in a marble statue.

"Laila," The woman replied, her voice intensely more melodic and encapsulating than considered normal, "You've grown shorter."
"You're just taller!!" She said with a disgruntled pout.
"I believe it's what the scholars would call an 'inverse' proportion. You get shorter as you get older."
"Then why are you so tall!"
"I am immortal."
Laila stamped her foot on the floor. "I hate you so much!"
The knight politely bowed her head. "Immortals don't acknowledge other mortals' feelings."

"Oh, that's uh...Sharena!" Laila placed her hand on Sharena's hair, the figment of her memories making no reaction as she commented, "Huh, she kind of feels like solid marble...Well, normally, the hair feels a lot more like snow. She was one of the royal Knights from the Northern Kingdom of Nephi, so she's a bit more of a foreigner than everyone here, but she's a great person. Their kingdom, super super polite. Super formal."

"She's a real princess, isn't she? Really pretty, I love her eyes. Like looking at quartz crystals. She's real strong, too. I saw her in her swimsuit once when we went swimming in the lakeside, and she has some big arms. She might be able to lift me up with her hands like a pole."

"You're twenty-five!!"
"Plus infinity," Sharena said, her eyes calmly closed as she slightly shifted her position. "Ah, Laila! I just remembered. I spoke with your friend regarding the paperwork for her successful advancement into a mage of influence."
Laila gasped. "Alina?! Is she going finally going to make it?"
"There's little more heartwarming than seeing an apprentice finally pass their exam."
"A fully-fledged magician! You think I'll make it up to her level?"
"Hm...Depends on how you go about it. But I believe you should prioritize your desires over your results. She's actually going on her first excursion starting next month. They're delivering quite the cargo across the mountains, but they'll be passing through kobold borders, so they're hiring her as protection. A couple of good soldiers and a reliable spellcaster will be joining with her, but Alina will play a heavy hand. Best of luck to her, no?"
"I can't believe it!! Where is she? Is she here?"
"Ah, unfortunately not, but you may see her next week when she's attending the church ceremony off the outskirts of Veila. A rite of tongue, or something of those lines..."

"Huh...A rite of tongue...I think that's when the spellcaster enhances their tongue to talk in several languages. You have to essentially recite a speech in five different languages while casting Light and Tongues. I passed out halfway through, but it's a pretty important symbol of the gift of language and magic ingenuity, and really, it's just a trial spellcasters have to get put through before they're considered spellcasters, can take from a year to four if you're really inept. This is mostly for those people who can't swing a sword but can swing their hands around and cast stuff...Kind of like a quick test, I guess. I hated it, by the way, it sucked. It's boring if you can magically comprehend languages, and it's a pain if you're impatient."

Their environment shifted a little, like water, as the music continued. "Alina...Gods...She disappeared two years ago. Said there was somewhere she wanted to go, and not to find her until she returned. I hope she's doing okay. She was a really gifted magician. Arioon was more like a disciplined freakshow, hand-tailored by her family but Alina...She just had a knack for spells. A really good knack."

She sighed, hands on her hips as her eyes reluctantly shifted left and right. "Hm...Should we keep following her...? I haven't noticed anything, really...There's a couple of things we talk about, but I can't remember anything important...I think she mentions something about Mom's ceremony..."

 

[Gary Sue]

With how Laila started talking immediately as though she could hear him just fine, he idly observed before his eyes widened at the realisation. He hadn't said anything, and yet she was hearing him just fine, just like yesterday. When she admitted it was her the day before, he opened his mouth and tried to talk, although no noise came out. "I-I can't talk..? So it's- you can hear my thoughts?", he furrowed his brows and raised a hand to hold is head, grunting and seeming a bit... perplexed.

There was a lot he wanted to ask her, and even more he wanted to talk to her about, now that he wasn't just in a lucid state anymore and he was fully conscious, and so he started. "Can you hear my actual voice? Or can you just tell what my thoughts are. And how do you do that, I thought you couldn't-", his almost overly excited rant was cut short though as the dream continued playing on. This knight was even more regal than Laila, almost divine. Her pale skin, the look on her face, her heavy armor... Reeve felt a form of admiration just looking at her, before he lowered his head to glance at his half-well put together armor. Some pads and plates here and there, but nothing near as secure as this Sharena's.

All this admiration turned into confusion though when Laila brought up... "... swimsuits..? Why would you wear clothes if you're-", another thought that got interrupted by Laila raising her tone, just for Sharena to calmly stop her in her tracks. He huffed and observed the interactions between the two, tilting his head with crossed arms while he began to wonder, was this icy knight really immortal..? "She's mentioned it a few times already, but... Is she really immortal? Humans can't really do that, unless they have some pact with dark magic... right?", he asked rather unsurely, rubbing his chin and looking at his companion now that this lot had gone silent again.

This Alina person had also disappeared, give or take, close to where they were, but... "No, it has been too long... I hope she's alright, for her sake.", he let out a tired and rather hopeful sigh, glancing to the side at Laila and tilting his head somewhat. "Well... It's your memories, we can't just... follow Arioon if you don't know what she did. We're stuck following you around, unless I've got this down wrong, right? Or do you mean to follow Sharena? It'll be hard to tell what they talked about if you weren't close enough to overhear them, right..?"

 

[Shreb]

Ah, she was cutting him off quite a bit, she didn't quite like that! She giggled sheepishly; being caught up in her memories made her want to talk about everything! Still, she kept a mental note of everything he was trying to conjure up so she could relay the answers he may or may not have wanted.


The strangers continue to watch them.

"I guess I can start off by saying that I can hear your thoughts. So uh, be careful what you're thinking about, sly fox."

...

"Hmm. I don't hear your voice the way you might hear it, it's not as clear as the voice in your dreams. You ever put two folders over your ears? Your voice sounds different when you do that, and that's what your actual voice sounds like...This is more like when you just talk with your ears out and about. A little weird, unorthdox, and you almost match up with the other memories here."

"She only works her shift and that's it. Royal Knights are on-call over the weekends, but once her shift is over, her armor's off. I guess it's just a knight thing; do her duty and nothing else until her shift ends. It's a hard test of patience and discipline if you really think about it, so the swimsuit thing was during her break."

...

"Nah, she's not immortal. She's just joking, because everyone sees her as this super wise god, but she's the youngest out of all of the Royal Knights. Maybe she uses some age deceleration spell, but that's all high wizard-level magic. I don't really know, but she's definitely not immortal."

"Oh! I meant follow my younger self, by the way! Yeah, you're right, the memory will just start fading as little Laila keeps on trying to find people, like see-" She pointed to the other strangers they had just spoken to earlier, Tomoe and her comrades frozen in time but still emanating the faint sound of laughter. Unintelligible conversation filled the room with no discernible words to be heard, and Arioon remained as still as a statue. Really, it was just the proximity of young Laila that was putting in all the nitty gritty details.

"-Definitely put some more heart into your magic, Laila. It doesn't matter if you're not as talented or gifted. You worked hard to get where you are, a notable trait for the Royal Knights. You most certainly have an advantage with your family line and you've made a plentiful amount of decisions most people of your age would not have made, and look where it's gotten you."
"Thank you! Sometimes I still feel like an idiot and I'm staggering behind everyone..."
"I'm sure it's a stressful time, being behind your mother's footsteps. But you're doing fine. Just look after your mother and keep learning. Even if I'm a little perturbed with your mother's dishonesty...Hiding the skills of a master duelist."
"Let her do what she wants, Sharena..."
"I know, I know. It's nothing for you to be concerned with. That's between me and her."
She lamely adjusted her dress. "I don't know, though. I wanna be more. I wanna be like Ari, you know?"
"Oh, no, don't do that. Chained down by the family dynasty? Your mother's part of the new generation, a whole line of people who have finally begun to stretch their arms and embrace something different. Arioon might be next in line for the Bleeding Heart, but that makes her no more free than a trained canine. You have the chance to do something more. You just have to make it happen."

Sharena politely smiled as Laila bit her lip in thought. The fog tensed up as things got more and more quiet, the music slowly fading away.

"Huh...I must've tunnel visioned really hard here." Laila hummed as she stared at the orchestra, slowly molding into the fog.

"Do you think I'm good enough? How do I become more like...Everyone else?"
"Loose question, Laila. I think you can start with defining what you believe is good. When you wake up out of bed, is that a good thing?"

...

"It wasn't rhetorical," Sharena said with a captivating chuckle.
"O-oh!! Yea?"
"Why?"
"Uhm...Because then I can go shower...And do my shrine maiden duties...Sweep up the shrine..."
"Haha. I can tell no one asks you these kinds of questions. Listen, you're a very young girl, but you're learning faster than ever, the values that which we suffered to learn ourselves. You've done things you've never wanted to do, all for the sake of your own mind's growth. Failure never stopped you, no?"
"R...Right." She said, her voice uneven.
"The children and the young adults never get asked how they intend to accomplish their goals. And when they do have a goal, they never quite follow their process. You, Laila, should focus on your process. Your habits, discard what distracts you and continue what aids you. If you can make your bed every time you wake up, that's a good thing. Getting out of bed, a good thing. Cleaning, good. Eating breakfast, neutral. Perhaps you can start thinking about what stops you from doing what you want to do, which is to get stronger. Smarter, and whatever else you want to do."
"U-uh...But what if the distractions are also good?"
"Then explain why. To yourself, preferably, but you could score it too on a point system. Maybe dive in a little deeper...And make your good habits more accessible, more attractive. I'm sure you'll figure it out in due time. You're, what, fifteen?"
"Sixteen."
"So just start taking in. Absorb what you think is good practice. And follow those far better than you, and you will eventually have them follow you."
"G...Got it...!" Laila felt a little stressed, reflecting with how the building seemed to tilt and roll just slightly. She bowed her head to Sharena. "Thank you! Have...Uh...A good day, I really appreciate the talk."
"Words are powerful, Laila. As much as people talk of action, words are very influential. Remember that, and you will speak to those like they should listen to you. And perhaps...Maybe even nature itself. Ceremony begins in a few minutes, and they're going to have me cite out the introductory statement."
"What, like a courthouse?" Laila half-joked.
Sharena chuckled as she waved her hand aside. "No, no, nothing like that. It'll be very semi-formal, you all will just stand and clap whenever you hear your mother. Very exciting, though! They're going to have me cast the illusory fireworks! I've never done it in such a public space...The last time I did it, someone bumped into me and it went straight into a tree, and it lit up like the innards of a wyvern."
"That...Sounds horrifying."
"You should've seen the look on the paladin's face. I don't think I've ever seen a faster casting of Greater Shield in my life. Now the knights aren't allowed two feet near a Royal Knight during a ceremony exclusively performed by Royal Knights. Per Knight's Code of Conduct."
"Who bumped into you?"
Sharena shrugged. "Foreign soldier from the Southeast. Honorary kensei. Lovely blade, lovelier voice. Freckled face, black ponytail, very stoic face, but I think she must've wanted to curl up into a hole after that. She apologized by gifting me a...Ki...Mono."
"Kimono?"
"Yes, that one, kimono. I'll show you sometime, it's very smooth! It's black with silver crystallized flowers on it, with a big yellow sash for the waist, and it was very fun to move around in...But it is small."

"Mmm...Sharena had a beautiful kimono," Laila nostalgically said, swooning at the thought. "Gods, she could've captured a cupid with that thing on. Anyway, the mysterious stranger could appear when the ceremony starts, probably? Something embarrassing maybe happens in the next few minutes and I mentally blocked it out?" She shrugged, glancing at Reeve.

 

[Gary Sue]

"S-Sly fox..?", he squinted his eyes and furrowed his brows somewhat in a questioning manner, before she moved on and tried to explain how she heard him. It was... peculiar. He wasn't sure if he himself could hear his own voice by this point. Ever since he got cursed, he no longer had a way to talk, and always 'reading' his own thoughts rather than 'speaking' them, his head had gone completely quiet. He had mixed feelings about this, and it showed on the rather bittersweet look on his face, but he did little to actually comment on it.

And there was the swimsuit comment again. He crossed his arms, huffed, and tried to move on from the rather serious and somewhat depressing subject to what just confused him to no end. "What even is a swimsuit, what's the point of wearing clothes when you're going for a bath? You get to properly enjoy it if you're- Ughhh, good lord...", he let out an exasperated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head in disapproval. What was it with these outlandish rituals and traditions from all of these foreign lands he'd never gone to or met people from? In other words; nobody tell Reeve he's the exception, not the rule.

Moving past that though, everything else said and seen made sense. The scene played out between the not-so-immortal Royal Knight and the shrine maiden, and it got a bit... childish, for a moment. Everything fogged up as it did, and he could tell what stress was going through her. He hadn't been through these thoughts himself before, but he could somewhat sympathize with the lass, just letting out a sigh and looking at the ground. And just as her spirits were lifted in her memories, so were his, with a bitter smile and watery eyes.

The emotional baggage from yesterday was starting to weigh him down, alongside all the pushing and pulling this undead ordeal had been doing on his rather fragile mental state. At the mention of this 'foreign stranger', Reeve stopped and thought for a moment, could that be who they're looking for? "Then again, why would your own memory just speak of this 'stranger' if they're meant to be the outlier to this situation..?", he asked the obvious question when Laila proposed they kept on going until the ceremony. It's not like they had much of a choice to begin with, but maybe getting on a train of thought like that would help lead them along.

With a blink of his eyes, Reeve realised just how close to tearing up he was, quickly wiping them and letting out a low chuckle before he abruptly stopped and lowered his head at his sword. He seemed a bit more serious for a moment, and his smile faded into an unnaturally neutral expression. "... Somewhere nearby. But I don't know where. Let's keep going until we find the caster.", he huffed and looked at Laila, nodding at her unsurely. His sword had sensed the presence of their opponent around them, but... he had trouble pinpointing where, or how far even they were. He just knew that they were close, like a sixth sense drawing nearer by the minute.

 

[Shreb]

"What even is a swimsuit, what's the point of wearing clothes when you're going for a bath? You get to properly enjoy it if you're- Ughhh, good lord...",

She tilted her head, mouth pursed in contemplation. "So if we went swimming together...You'd be okay with me being naked?"

Laila chuckled. "Even when you're just thinking, there's so much to unpack with how you deliver yourself that I don't think I've ever seen someone so confused at the idea of a swimsuit. Swimsuits are just for swimming, not for bathing. Who wants to wear armor collecting seashells by the sea shore?"

"Then again, why would your own memory just speak of this 'stranger' if they're meant to be the outlier to this situation..?"

"I dunno. People have funny ways of looking at their memories. Even though it's all the same web of cause and effect, everyone interprets it different. We're always one step away from calling everything a domino effect of the universe but we're always going to play as the centerpiece."

Dink, dink, dink!

The music slowed to a pause as a man ornately dressed in a suit of armor entered the amphitheatre. Judging by it's royal golden look, it didn't seem intended for fighting, rather as display or a type of formality for knights. The crowd naturally hushed themselves as Laila's journey to find more friends was cut. The knights who were in the area keep their helmets under them as they stand at attention to the man wearing the golden suit.

"Everyone! Everyone. I thank you all for participating in today's knighting ceremony. For those who couldn't make it, please wish them prayers so they return safe with their families and their homes. We'd like to commemorate this ceremony for our infantry, our hard-working brothers and sisters. Knights or no knights, we have seen consistent and continous performance..."

Naturally a public ceremony, most of what he's talking about pertains to the knights doing a good job and how they're handing out awards to people for their hard efforts. For young Laila, it's mostly boring and she's just here to see her mother, so the spotlight naturally gleams on them moreso than the rest of the room. For the most part, it's fluff tall; maybe he means it, maybe he doesn't. Either way.

"Nothing happens. People line up, get their little nice coin or ceremonial sword or a magical engraving on their palms, but nothing important. Mom gets her little medal, we all clap, we drink more after. Ugh. There's no way they'll find anything here, they're going to-"

Just as they spoke, her memory space began to fade out, severing themselves from the landscape that was this cathedral until they were in the black hole they were falling forever into...And then suddenly thrust back into the familiar feeling of water.

"Crap!" She cried, their bodies somewhat tilting and rolling out of place, righting itself into a smooth sense of gravity.

...



Memories have shifted. This time, Laila sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking a ravine, enormous as if a tear went through the Earth's skin. With the fine blades of grass surrounding Laila, the casting moon shimmering alongside its starry friends, and a lake that shivered amidst the darkness, it was a look that could only be captured in real life. The trees remained behind them as Laila looks down into an abyss not too different from the one they fell into, the walls of the ravine menacingly baring its teeth to those who approached. It just waited for its next victim to slip and fall.

"Huh...I think this was about a year before that ball happened." Laila hummed. "Can I fall down this ravine?" She jumped onto the gap, but landed on solid floor. "No, I cannot."

Daring lady.

"Well, well, look who it is." A bold voice pierced through the silence, and young Laila turned her head. Blonde French-bun, blouse, corset, and overskirt. A satchel wrapped around her shoulder, and a long waist belt of small pockets lined her pelvis. She looked like she belonged in a vampire hunter play. Her face, eyebrows furrowed in permanent sarcasm, glanced over the cliff as Laila happily waved to her.
"Alina!"
"Yeah, who the fuck else."
"Did you learn more magic today?"
"Obviously. I'm gonna sit here, so you move the leg."

Alina wasn't as much of a looker as Sharena was, none of the toned facial features and the calming beauty. She hardly held the stoic beauty of Arioon, her tailored jawline and the narrow sheeks. She almost seemed a little more on the countryside, brash, and judgey, but her eyes, ocean blue, naturally put her into her own standing.

"What are you doing here."

Her voice, however, was gorgeous. The kind of voice one might accompany with a basket full of flowers and perfume. If it wasn't for her sharpness and her attitude, her voice could've been mistaken for an angel.

Laila chuckled. "There she is. She can look really good if she wasn't so grouchy all of the time. It's not really her fault, she just tends to get disinterested and impatient really easily. Always working towards something, and anything else was a waste of time."

"Came to see you!"
"Okay, to be more specific, why are you here."
"Nothing wrong with a friend's visit!"
"Appreciate the gesture."
"What are you doing?" Laila asked, legs swaying back and forth.
"Had to tell some dumbfucks in Ruina to eat shit. They were trying to take my wand as entry fee."
"Ruina? What's that?"
"Village around Veila. You don't wanna know, they're assholes, but they carry some of the highest quality materials for my magic spells. And now that I'm figuring out how to perform sorcery, I need that shit if I'm going to do anything more useful than magic hands and weight adjustment."
"But your juggling skills were so good?"
"Yeah? Well, fuck juggling. I don't want to juggle, I want to do more important things. Save lives. Help people. Build a mansion."
"One of those things is not like the others..."
"Shut the fuck up. I want a rich house with a rich husband, okay, is that bad?"
"If you're doing it so you can be rich too."
"I'm rich in fucking intellect, 'kay?" Alina crossed her arms, swiping her long bangs aside. "I've got my standards, I'll tell a guy to fuck off if he eats dog food and hates garlic. I just need a little bit of security, you know?"
"You're only, like...17..."
"And guess what, once we both turn 18, the gap starts getting a lot wider because adulthood doesn't start at 18, it starts whenever you grow a fucking spine and everyone suddenly wants you to earn your right to take a shit in their bathroom."
"Specific!"
"No shit, because I gotta earn my keep in the house, now. I had to collect mushrooms for six hours. Fucking horse apples."
"Did you do anything fun, at least?"
"Conjured a cooking golem. Lasted 24 hours, but it harvested our crops, made a mean beet soup, and then it accidentally cut a hole into our food basket."
"What'd you get out of it?"

Alina extracted a book from her satchel.
Laila read. "Far-flying paper airplane magic...Awfully niche..."
"It's fucking useless." To prove her point, she grabbed a paper airplane from her satchel.
"You brought one with you?"

Alina pursed her lips, aiming the paper airplane and sending it soaring across the ravine with no hint of it falling down even as it traversed an immensely large distance.

"Woah. It's kinda cool."
Alina sighed. "Yeah. It's kind of cool if you want to impress the kids, other than that, it doesn't do jack."

The stars were watching Reeve.

"It was pretty cool," Laila noted matteroffactly. "This was our last conversation together before Alina went missing. Never liked her mentor that much. She and Mom were rivals, she wanted to approach swordsmanship and combine it with the arcane arts, and Mom wanted to stick to the simplistics, maintain the blade the way it should've been, through blood and sweat.

Laila's smile was melancholic. "It always comes down to wanting more. I wonder if that's what this place is doing. Trying to stop me from wanting more. Maybe I really was in over my head."

 

[Gary Sue]

Reeve thought not to comment on her asking about a swimsuit, although by the look on his face it was clear that he'd understood the wrong kind of swimming- a beach? The most luxury he'd ever had happened to be near a lake, and even that was overselling the experience. And as the ceremony started, everything flipped and with a gasp, he went right back to falling. When everything came to again, they were near just that- a lake. He looked around in confusion, wanting to instinctively grab Laila's arm when he saw her jump.

Thankfully, she didn't fall and that left him having grabbed onto her just fine, although that was a bit... awkward. "L-Laila, don't do that..! If you fall and get injured, I can't do anything to help you. Be more safe, please.", he looked at her with a rather concerned frown, the voices by the side grabbing his attention as he turned and analyzed the scene that played out. Although it was rather somber and even felt nostalgic, something was... off.



"This girl... Where have I..?", he found himself trying to think, feeling like the answer was on the tip of his lips but... nothing. His brows were furrowed, he was confused and his mind was trying to help him piece the answer he so desperately needed together. His companion even started sharing her own thoughts in hindsight as he raised his head and looked at the stars, almost like they were looking right back at him. "Blonde, irritated, speaks rudely..."

Even Laila could tell that despite her talking, his mind was in another place right now. It all clicked together though, when he realised. With somewhat wider eyes, he quickly moved a hand on to his sword and prepared to unsheathe it, looking at Alina silently. "... But this is a memory... T-Tch. Hey, Laila.", he turned and looked at her, staying rather defensive in his stance and ready to draw his blade, although he was a bit more relaxed, compared to how quickly he almost jumped into readiness only moments ago.

"I don't know if Tomoe meant it for the real Alina or not, but... Your heirloom. Unsheathe it and place it on your hand like this.", he grumbled and pointed at his knuckles, the same way her mother had shown him the day they set out. "I can't tell you anything more than this. But you should get to it, just in case."

He really didn't know what that would achieve, or what the purpose of being so wary of someone that Laila and Tomoe themselves probably knew in person. But surely, they must have had a reason. Come think of it though, if this Alina was missing, then Tomoe would know about the memory-diving that these casters are performing here, right? Otherwise, Laila was out of the loop on something about this blonde... As for Reeve himself, he didn't quite know how he felt about her yet. A part of him was wary of the blonde whose fangs he had yet to confirm, while another got somewhat suspicious of the much too perfect and wise mother's involvement instead. "... I guess I'll have to wait and see.", he murmured almost lowly to himself, with an unsure look on his face as he sighed, shook his head and watched quietly.