Etson College - 5:27 PM

Sara insisted on a change of venue and, after she got changed, we decided to walk around my college. The Florida heat was bearing down on us, but it wasn’t terrible. My girlfriend didn’t sweat at all despite being in a copy of my Ringmaster’s Hoodie, which made sense given what she was. She wanted me to feel like I could be at ease, and she clung to my arm as we walked.

During this part of the year, there weren’t many students walking around. Not this late in the day, anyway. Summer classes had always left the commons sparse since most people wanted nothing to do with the hot, humid weather. Park close and get back to air conditioning as quickly as possible was the way to go.

I paused in front of the Jody Etson Library, and Sara stopped with me. It was strange seeing the building in one piece. The hidden boss, Medallion of Uuska, blew out the windows and rearranged everything inside to protect itself at the very beginning. This was my first stop on any run where I had wanted to be a Warmind and, thanks to my wife’s first boon, I had made it there before the system had even dropped.

She led me to a set of secluded picnic tables that were protected from the sun by tall trees. We sat down and she took the seat across from me, though she didn’t let go of my hand. I stretched my legs and her feet were there, waiting, before she set her shoes on mine. It felt like a habit we had done several times before.

“I know you have a lot of questions,” she started, rubbing my hand with her thumb. “You’ve been suffering from bouts of amnesia every few months, and they can last anywhere between a few days to a few weeks.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling calmer than I had back in the apartment, though I was having problems shaking my apprehension. “Why? What happened?”

“After getting rid of Pustibule, most of your plans fell back into place,” Sara explained. “With the help of Kayla and Jeff, as well as my ring, you were able to defeat the Demon Emperor at the end of your 100th Run and make it back to the Hall of the End.”

I blinked. “No hiccups?”

Sara raised her free hand and shook it in a wishy-washy gesture. “Kind of? No plan involving other people ever works out as well as you’d hope it does, but it did well enough. The only really big difference was what you did to Washington D.C.”

“What did I do to D.C.?” I asked, squeezing her hand.

“Well, I didn’t want you going back into Hell until after the Patron’s Ball, and you technically didn’t,” she said, pursing her lips into a disapproving smile. “So you took the largest population of Demons on the planet, summoned a little slice of Hell there, and invaded. You racked up a lot of points with that little stunt.”

“That…” I frowned and looked down at the wooden table. “That could have worked. Angelic Ascent would have built up a lot of power from that since there’s at least one Demon Lord there depending on how many Angelic Templars there are in Ottawa at any given time.”

Nodding, Sara continued. “It was a reckless, off-script move, but one that worked out for you. Remember that, okay?”

I was about to agree when I saw the determined look in her eyes, as if this was a matter of life or death. “I’ll try to remember it,” I answered before poking the side of my head. “If this amnesia thing lets me. As much as I’d love to hear about my apparent rampage through a slice of Hell I caused, what’s going on? Like, right now, at this very moment. Because, as I said, there would be a lot more screaming and pain if I were in the Trial of the Silver Dream and going to the place where I could enter it was the last thing I remember.”

“Once again, you are not in the Trial of the Silver Dream,” Sara said patiently, her soft features relaxing after I said I’d try to remember. “When you returned to me, you didn’t have enough points to bring back everyone that you could.”

“Fuck.”

Another squeeze of my hand. “You were ready to try anyway, but you stopped and started thinking about it for a while. I gave you some time to work whatever it was out. When you opened your eyes, you bought another Ouroboros Tattoo.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” I said, frowning. “You told me that it would be prohibitively more expensive after the 100th Run. You said it was going to be my last one and even heavily emphasized the fact.”

“I’m not proud of it, but it wasn’t a lie. I just… didn’t tell you the whole truth,” she admitted, looking away in shame. “It didn’t change in points.”

“So… the cost must have been with me, specifically,” I guessed, speaking slowly as I still wasn’t sure.

“You’re so smart, Ant,” Sara praised, reaching over to stroke my cheek. “This is the next stage of what you call Regression Imbalance. You have so many Ouroboros Tattoos, so many memories locked up on your body and fed into your mind that you become confused sometimes. You lose your memory, and all of a sudden you’re back in your 100th Run. You’d never have survived a 101st with that kind of debilitating problem, and I couldn’t bear to think of you fighting something like the Writhing Juggernaut or the Merger Mannequin and then just… forget what you were doing.”

I winced. “That would have been disastrous, yeah.”

“Yes. So I was very concerned, but then you told me what your wish was,” she said, leaning forward and setting her chin in her palm. A proud smile plastered itself on her face. “I suppose you can be absurdly clever at times, and something the Dealer either said or did had given you a brand new idea.”

When I noticed that she wanted me to ask what it was, I gave in. “What did I wish for, Sara?”

“To make me the top administrator of the system in your next run,” she said, grinning.

“That…” Words failed me as my mind worked through the full ramifications of what she said. “That… worked?”

“It was a gamble. A million different things could have gone wrong, but it worked,” she answered. “You took my memories as well as the memories of your friends and went back to the beginning. Everything went wrong once you did, but you were screaming your head off for me and it got my attention. Before the monsters could be let loose, I came down and retrieved the Memory Orb. After that, it was easy to banish the administrators, Patrons, and treasure hunters. Everyone who didn't belong.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I let that sink in. If I couldn’t revive everyone, then the next best thing would have been to make sure it never happened in the first place. I hadn’t tried it before now given how fast everything had happened, but I snapped the fingers of my free hand.

No system message popped up.

“It’s working in the background, but no one has access to it anymore,” she said. “I’m keeping it to myself. If I think Humanity is ready for it, I may release it in small doses in the future, but I don’t think that’s for the best given the current state of the world.”

“Probably for the best,” I agreed, though I wasn’t sure what the state of the world even was. I couldn't remember. Before I had the chance to ask, my phone buzzed in my pocket.

“That’s probably Jeff. I’ve got a girl’s night out planned for tomorrow, and you all had plans to go bowling,” Sara said excitedly. “I’m so glad to have friends. Still super happy with you, of course, but girl talk and shopping and not being stuck in the Hall of the End is everything I’ve dreamt it would be.”

“We all?” I asked, confused. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my phone. I did indeed receive a text from Jeff asking about tomorrow. Scrolling through the messages, I noted the vast majority of them were pictures of Corwin. That certainly seemed like something he would do.

“Coe and Klaske are in town,” Sara explained. “They got together during the final battle, which was one of my most anticipated moments of any run if I can be honest, and you were happy to indulge me by giving them Memory Orbs like you did Kayla and Jeff.”

“Does anyone else remember?”

“Just the core members of your team minus Bethany,” she answered. “Because she’s ten. Well, eleven now. You made one for her, but it’ll still be several years before she’s old enough to accept it. Leo has it. Right, Leonard - Mercury - goes by Leo now. He’s made a big splash as a content creator on the internet now that he has some confidence. Misses the Princess, obviously, but he’s been over that for a while now.”

Sara let me soak everything in, and I appreciated her patience. She had done nothing but been patient with me for this whole conversation.

Still, something didn’t feel right. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

“What about my parents?” I asked.

“Should probably respond to Jeff before he sends you five more pictures of Corwin,” Sara stated.

Nodding, I did so before looking back up at her. “They’re okay?”

“Yeah, just fine,” she answered. When I breathed a sigh of relief, she suddenly sat up straight. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to not answer you about that. Yeah, they’re absolutely fine. They’re on another cruise. Your parents take a lot of cruises.”

“They do. It’s kind of their thing,” I replied. “You’ve met them? They seem healthy and well?”

“Met them? I love Delilah and Matthew Franklin,” she said. “So much. They’re such good people. Your father did have a serious health scare, but it wasn’t anything your resident Angelic wife couldn’t handle. I’ve been doing a lot of work, actually. Unlike you, I don’t have to sleep, so whenever you do I tend to sneak out and do what I can for the people in need all over the world.”

“You’re the best, Sara,” I said honestly.

“I know, but thank you,” she said happily. “After the system, though, we had a small ceremony to become married in this timeline. Just our closest friends, so mostly yours, though I’m a part of your group now.”

“Big improvement.”

That pulled a grin from her. “You’re back to school. Something to occupy your mind, you said. It was something familiar and normal, like the apartment. We could be living somewhere else, but it’s an anchor for your memories, you know? You’re going to graduate with your AA after the fall semester. You’ve already talked to your counselors about a four year degree, too.”

I grimaced. “But I don’t remember my classes.”

“Don’t you worry,” she said, reaching over the table and playfully bopping my nose. “The administration knows about your memory lapses, so I’ll talk to them and sort everything out. It won’t hinder your plans in the slightest.”

“Okay, that sounds fine,” I said, though I was a little apprehensive about going to school for classes that I never studied for. Or rather, that I didn’t remember studying for. I looked back down at my arms. “Have I been working out?”

Sara nodded. “That was one of the first things you started doing when you got back. Jeff’s been helping you a lot in that regard. He wasn’t the most in shape guy when the system came, but he had been pretty athletic back in his fencing days. You’ve both been doing wonders for each other, according to Kayla.”

Suddenly, she gasped. “Oh! Oh!”

“Oh?” I asked, concerned.

“Kayla’s pregnant now!” she announced, waving her free hand in excitement. “She couldn’t be before, but I’m going around and healing people so I may have done that first and she’s expecting in August. Isn’t that great news?”

Her excitement made me smile. “Yeah, that’s wonderful. Do you think Jeff would have wanted to tell me first? On account of the memory loss?” I asked, though my eyes couldn’t help but drop to where Sara’s stomach was, even though it was obstructed by the table.

I pushed that thought aside with incredible quickness. As nice as it could have been, I knew I wasn’t anywhere close to being in the right mindset to ask.

“Probably,” she admitted, an apologetic smile on her face. “I just like being the one to surprise you. Especially after all those times you messed with me before giving me the Memory Orb. Don’t think I forgot, Anthony Franklin. You have to deal with a lifetime of me getting back at you for those. More than a lifetime, even.”

“That doesn’t sound bad at all,” I said with a chuckle.

“No, it doesn’t,” she agreed wistfully. “Anyway, everything we have going on is in your calendar on your phone. After your first amnesiac episode, you got really good about putting everything in there.”

“You haven’t mentioned if that’s going to go away. Will my mind ever be right again?”

Without hesitation, Sara nodded. “You will, darling. Like I said. We have a procedure for every time it happens, and it’s there for a reason. It may take a few years because I can’t just wave my hand and fix this without wiping away all the tattoos and your memories at the same time, but I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

With a smile, I offered my wife my other hand, and she took it. “Thank you, Esaraphelscion, for everything.”

“It is my pleasure, Avatar Anthony Franklin,” she said right back.

We sat there for a few seconds, relishing in the peaceful atmosphere, before noticing that a few frisbee bros had arrived nearby. I shook my head. “Alright, procedure,” I started. “What’s next?”

“Business as usual,” she answered. “I say we stop for some ice cream before going back to our apartment. We can change into our pajamas and keep watching Psych. You introduced me to it, and it’s very fun.”

I laughed and hung my head for a moment. “Yeah, ice cream and Psych sounds absolutely perfect right now. I’m ready when you are.”

As we stood up, I still couldn’t shake that feeling that something was wrong. Everything seemed mostly fine, though, and that clearly meant I couldn’t be in the Trial of the Silver Nightmare.

Filing it away for later, I decided to put my paranoia aside and go with the flow. Maybe not everything had to be fought against. Memory issues aside, everything seemed perfect.

I put on a smile, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

If it took some time to do so, well, maybe that wouldn't be all that bad.