"Know what these afflictions are?" I asked her. She shook her head, either because she really didn't know or because she didn't understand what I had asked.

"And what about this 'Spiritus Atrophy?'"

She looked intently at me and said, "Bad... big bad."

Well, considering it's under the 'WARNING' label...

"Okay," I said, turning, "Let's—"

"Nnnnn," she complained, pointing at me and then at the table, "You. You do!"

"Oh," I said, caught off guard. Yeah, that made sense, but...

I looked at her, then at the table, and back at her again. Was this really a good idea? From her reactions, it was clear this wasn’t the kind of information you shared with anyone.

She must have sensed my hesitation because her eyes darkened ever so slightly and her posture shifted a bit.

Ah... this is the first filter, I realized. This moment was critical. It would set the tone going forward. She trusted me, and now, she expected trust in return.

I was beginning to understand her a bit better.

"You. Do it," she repeated, looking at me with hands on her hips but eyes betraying uncertainty.

I think she was trying to look imposing.

Sigh.

Approaching the table, I let both my palms rest on its surface.

SPIRITUS DIAGNOSIS

Aspect: Null

Essentia: 0/0

Qualifier: ¨[[]¨&

[Warning]

* Extremely Low Essence saturation

* Prolonged exposure to Low Essentia Atmosphere

PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS

Constitution: 14 / (+1)

Vitality: 15

Perception: 21 / (+1)

Strength: 13 / (+2)

Agility: 12

Capacity: -

[Warning]

* One unknown affliction detected

What? Hmmm, interesting. My physical actually increased. Didn't the book say that was impossible?

I looked back at her, trying to interpret her reaction. She seemed mainly confused, but her wide-open eyes betrayed a surprise of some kind. Her face looked even paler under the soft light of the projection.

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She looked back at me with a look I couldn't decipher.

"No Aspect?" she asked.

I just shrugged, like it was no big deal.

"But... Qualifier?" she asked, taking a step closer to the projected sheet, a deep frown on her face.

By her reaction, something does not make a lot of sense here.

"Error? Mistake?" I said to her, trying to get out of the situation.

She looked back at me. By her facial expressions, she considered it a possible explanation.

I decided not to ask her what those things were. It wouldn't be good to show more ignorance. She was already starting to suspect things.

"Anything else?" I asked her, making my intentions clear by leaning towards the exit. She looked at me, and then around the room, but ended up moving to leave too.

I brought her to the room with the big window to try and share my plans.

"There," I pointed to the direction where I had seen those lights the first few times and where the trees were slowly getting more and more common.

"Why?" She asked. This was going better than I thought.

"Lights. In the sky," I mimed explosions with my hands, just like she had done before, "zombies afraid."

I repeated it a few more times, and she seemed to have understood it because she enthusiastically agreed.

"Yes, yes. We go."

Okay, that was good, I guess.

"You know what those are?" I asked her.

She tilted her head left and right and said

"Dunno, but it's Essence."

I looked questioningly, and she continued.

"Essence good. Here no essence."

"You know where we are?"

"Dunno," she shook her head.

"We go then," I said.

As we were descending the stairs, she asked me:

"Your name?"

"Rio"

"Rio?"

"Rio," I confirmed, "yours?"

"Myrra."

We reached the floor, and I extended my hand to her. "Nice to meet you, Myrra."

She just looked at me, a mix of amusement and confusion. I just retracted my hand.

"Never mind, then." No concept of handshakes — got it.

"Let's go, Myrra"

We passed in front of the room with the bodies. There was rubble and wood everywhere, but the corpses...

...They were gone.

Weird. So those things ended up taking the bodies instead of us? Is that it? Why were the bodies left here in the first place, then?

Leaving the house with Myrra, I took a deep breath. We circled the place until we found the big window from outside.

I checked our supplies with her peeking over my shoulder. We still had six loaves of bread, eight fruits, one and a half canteens full of water, and a dozen or so thick cheese slices. Maybe enough for three or four days. More if we rationed.

"Ready?" I asked her.

"Ready," she responded.

It was still early, so we would have a lot of time to make progress. I didn't really have a plan, though, and that worried me — Improvisation was never really my forte.

Just... survive, I guess.

********

Well, at least this is something, I thought.

We had been making steady progress for the last few hours, and judging by the position of the sun, it was close to afternoon now. Trees had been getting more and more frequent over the past few kilometers, and the hilly terrain was gradually giving way to flatter ground. Also, thankfully that hellish heat from yesterday was nowhere to be seen today.

"You see that?" I asked Myrra.

"Ya," she responded, tiredly.

On the horizon, right at the edge of our vision, stood a treeline. It seemed we really were approaching a forest and finally leaving this damn hilly terrain behind.

"So, why are you here, Myrra?" I asked, trying to make conversation. Her state worried me. She seemed extremely tired, and if those projected stats were to be believed, she was not healthy in the slightest.

She looked at me, eyes hazy, "They grab me," she made a motion of grabbing with her two arms.

"Grabbed you? Who?" Seems like she was kidnapped too.

She shook her head and lifted three fingers.

"Three peo- people. Emeraldians. Dunno more."

I assume this is a nationality.

"You?" she asked me.

"Don't remember," I tapped my head, "no memory," she didn't seem to understand the word memory, "I forget," I told her.

"Oh," she said, as if she finally got it.

"Since when," I pointed at her and then at the ground, "you here?" I asked. I was trying to make myself as easy to comprehend as possible.

"Dunno. Long. Days."

I nodded, "Me," I pointed at myself, "5 days."

She looked surprised. "Five days?" And showed me her open palm, five fingers lifted, "Five?"

"...Yes. Five."

She frowned, seemingly losing herself in thoughts.

Why the surprise?

"Kroahm," she muttered.

"What?"

"Weird. Kroahm," she explained.

"Ah, yes, Kroahm."

She gave me a slight, tired smile and let a faint giggle escape.

"Let's go," I said, looking forward, "almost there."