To Be in Someone’s Mind Palace

Katherine fell asleep on Tich’s head. She had done so in the past, trusting the Floating Dream to adjust and make sure she wouldn’t roll over and fall. Given that Enza had also joined her to cuddle for warmth, the Lady and everyone else took their much needed rest before the fight of their lives. Elizzel was content to slumber inside the Mind Palace.

The flight was slow, but progressing. When Katherine woke up after a few hours of rest, they reached Befall, Scar of this World at the same time. It was now fully engulfed by the massive sphere of darkness. Tich, under her command, waited just outside the Incursion.

Whiteday. Break of dawn.

“Rise and shine everyone! The sun is white hot with blistering awesomeness!”

It wasn’t, but Katherine allowed Sam to float around the flying encampment and stir everyone awake with his enthusiastic announcement. Some were surprised by his appearance, specifically Venry and all the Vyndivalians, for even Xiv hadn’t known he existed.

At this point, however, they didn’t have to hide.

“It’s like Tea,” one of them said. Ral, the older-looking of the twins. He wore a full-beard, and combined with his black unkempt hair, he looked at least a decade older than his twin.

“You’ve never even met Tea,” said Hal, the younger twin. He pointed towards Venry and Distro. “Well, neither did I. Just heard about it in stories from these two here.”

Katherine realized who they were talking about. T.E.A., or Tour Expert Assistant. Preprogrammed M.O.B.I.L.E. devices used in secure pockets of land within the Nightmare Lands made by the Order of the Void. With that in mind, she felt a little offended, but she knew Sam wouldn’t let a remark like that slide.

“Excuse me, bearded handsome!” the device started, with an overdramatic tone. “I am not some ancient device preprogrammed to act like an interactive tour guide! I am S.A.M., the one and only Sentient Assistant M.O.B.I.L.E., and I will not tolerate this slander! Apologize at once, or you will incur my wrath!”

“I’m… sorry?” Ral said, scratching his beard.

“I’m also sorry, I guess?” said Hal, shrugging.

“Good. Fine. Needs work, but accepted regardless. I will no longer deviate my plans to reduce your survival rate to zero.”

“Excuse me?”

“Sam’s taking care of our plan of attack,” Katherine explained while waiting for everyone to gather. “He needs more information, specifically what you guys can do. Kristel, Frill, I need to know how you’ve improved as well, and if you can still fuse.”

The two were caught by surprise, especially the Princess who was stretching herself awake. They looked at each other, before turning back to Katherine with grief on their faces.

“We haven’t tried it since then,” Frill said.

Katherine nodded. “Alright, we don’t have a lot of time. Just see if you can grasp a feel for it, then let Sam know. It’s fine if you can’t. I imagine with the three of you combined back then, you constantly tapped into a certain wavelength, which might not be present with just the two of you, even if it’s theoretically easier.”

“It’s usually Liona who fuses with me first,” Kristel said. “But we’ll give it a shot.”

The two of them headed for Tich’s tail to practice in isolation. Katherine wasn’t exactly hopeful for their fuse, but Kristel had pulled miracles before as far as meiyal-control was concerned. Hypothetically, if the Princess had access to her or Frill’s floating meiyal, and the capabilities that came along with it and her bonded Destiny, she would be basically unstoppable.

Katherine’s sentiment directed her attention to the meiyal marks running over Kristel’s shoulder. Her eyes widened. She went after them while the boys shared their combat capabilities with Sam.

“Hey, Kristel,” she called out, and the Princess and her retainer turned at the same time. “Sorry, I just have a question.”

“What’s up?”

“When did you get all one-hundred meiyal marks?”

“Yesterday.”

Frill, much to Katherine’s surprise, peered behind the Princess to confirm. The retainer blinked multiple times, went closer, before gasping and clutching Kristel from behind in celebration.

“I can’t believe it! That’s amazing!”

“Not much has changed, Frill,” Kristel said, trying to slip away from the embrace. “It really isn’t a power-up.”

“Well,” Katherine started, scratching her chin. The interruption caused the celebrating girls to stop. “While it’s not exactly a power-up, you actually still gain something from getting one-hundred marks.”

“Like what?” Kristel asked.

“For starters, you’ll have a more significant Destiny Adhesion compared to everyone else.” Katherine held up a hand as soon as the term came up, so as to imply that she understood the strangeness of it.

“With regards to Destiny, the Order of the Void isn’t exactly unfamiliar with it. Destiny Adhesion determines how significant you are into influencing its course, or how possible it is for you to look at it. It’s not a thing that’s talked about much because barely anyone exceeds five percent Adhesion.

“With a hundred meiyal marks, however, you jump straight to fifteen percent. Mother Selfiya checked with me and we decided to keep it hidden.”

“Fifteen percent doesn’t sound high,” Frill said. “Or significant.”

“It’s not. I could barely take a glimpse without getting Art fatigue even at my peak. But Kristel’s a step further than anyone else.”

Stolen story; please report.

“Anyone else but you,” Kristel pointed out. “Because you have a hundred.”

“And I’m not anyone else.”

Katherine observed Kristel process the information. While the number was indeed pretty low, it was still more significant than anyone might think. Based on how the Princess was taking the revelation in, it signified that she knew more than most.

Frill, despite her earlier retort, withdrew to herself in order to ponder as well. A good sign as far as Katherine was concerned, since these two ladies would be more involved with Brymeia compared to her in the future. Which reminded her of exactly that.

“The second part,” she started, “is that you can get Brymeia’s attention more often.”

The two stared at her.

“But we can already talk to her,” Frill said.

At this, Katherine smiled. “When has she ever talked to either of you inside your Mind Palace?”

The two were suddenly back in their thoughtfulness. This time, rather than thinking about their Destiny Adhesion, they were trying to recall their interactions with Brymeia.

“The first time was when Frein saved me. I was inside my Mind Palace, and not at the same time. It was like a dream within a dream. The second one, I was outside Brymeia. It was a planet called Kielmera.”

“You haven’t told us the full story on that yet,” Katherine noted.

“It’s because Frein dropped a bomb on me and wanted to leave!”

“Fair enough.” The Lady shrugged this time, before turning to Frill. “What about you?”

“I think the first one was when I couldn’t control myself, back when…” The Aria took a deep breath. “Back when Liona died. I’m not exactly sure. The only other time was during our training in Atlas Sid, and that happened directly outside my Mind Palace. She said that the next time we meet, she’ll explain the whole idea about me replacing her.”

“You have to share that, when that happens,” Kristel remarked. “It’s all well and good, for now, but if she’s taking you from me, then we’ll have a problem.”

“I’ll let her know,” Frill responded with a smile. She turned back to Katherine. “Are you implying that Kristel can talk to her in her Mind Palace now? What’s the difference?”

“Only if you’re alone.” Katherine held out a finger to grab their attention. “When Eli Tethered with me, Brymeia went into hiding. She said she’ll only talk if I’m alone again. And the difference is that you’re hosting her, not the other way around. You’ll get it eventually.”

“I don’t know why she has to do that,” the faunel complained. “I don’t get it.”

“Me neither.”

“So I should push out Nora and Evanclad?” Kristel asked. She blinked after catching and processing Katherine’s words properly. “You Tethered with Eli?”

“You Tethered with Eli?” Frill exclaimed the same.

Katherine nodded and smiled while transferring her held out finger to the front of her lips, encouraging the other two to tone down their voices.

“Yesterday. None of you asked for her. She’s a little peeved. And as for Nora and Evanclad, you only have to ask them to leave your Mind Palace. They can stay within your Dream Realm.”

“Excuse me? I’m not peeved!”

Kristel scratched the back of her head. “We’re just used to not seeing her all the time. I honestly thought she found a way back to Frein.”

“I was just kidding,” Katherine said as a reply both to the Princess and the faunel. “She’s totally fine. She needed a source of meiyal to normalize. So I offered for her to Tether with me.”

“Wait…” Kristel gradually let go of her chipper mood, becoming a little more serious. “Does that mean, if we meiyal starve a faunel, we can kill it?”

Katherine turned the question to Elizzel.

“No. Eventually, the natural meiyal from Brymeia will restore us. It’ll just take much longer. If you can continuously meiyal starve us, I guess that’s a way to stop us, essentially.”

Then Katherine passed along the faunel’s words verbatim. Kristel was disappointed.

“No,” she said. “That’s not enough.”

“I get what you’re trying to say,” Katherine started. “For now, check if your fusion can work. You don’t have to fully fuse yet, just check for the possibility. Then we’ll have Sam add that to his calculations.”

The two agreed to the instructions and headed for Tich’s tail to test their fuse in isolation. Katherine returned to Sam and the boys, eager to know what they had planned.

----------------------------------------

The Entity had been staring at the Oblimoth inside Ashtine when the Sky Knight had been killed. It had attentively given an ear to the entire conversation between her and her twin brother. Up until the final vestiges of life had left the poor girl.

And then, darkness.

The Entity sighed. Brutal and stupid was its impression of the whole thing.

“As if you would be able to control me,” it said.

Within the nothingness, now no longer able to see anything but the Oblimoth and Ashtine’s deteriorating Mind Palace, the Entity took the moment to reflect. It felt unreasonably connected to the Sky Knight. More than it felt with the Princess.

Used and abused. Made to run around someone’s palm until the moment it was no longer needed. A pawn.

Destiny and Contradiction played their great, unending war throughout the entire cosmos. At the center of such grand conflict were Brymeia and it, the Entity. It could recall so much now, but not its name. That cursed… she made sure it could never find its name again, it’s Prime Designation.

And so, it became the Entity.

Born of the same as Brymeia, their Destiny had clashed against one another for countless millennia. Realities had been destroyed and recreated. Galaxies had been swallowed and spat. Life and death had been jumbled against one another. Order and Chaos had been split apart. Blessings and Curses had melded into each other. Truths and lies had become indistinguishable from one another.

So when Brymeia had grown tired of their endless creation and destruction, she had embraced the Entity. Had Given it all her love and affection. And had become its prison.

A prison out of love. Like a dagger stabbing the chest of a loved one.

Pure lies.

The Entity forced the deterioration of the Mind Palace to halt. Its hold upon Destiny was almost nonexistent, but there were other ways to make it work besides that undependable power. Contradictions were so much easier to work with.

It refused to let Ashtine completely die. Not yet.

The Sky Knight manifested beside it, confused and struggling to gain clarity. Meanwhile, the Entity considered its options.

As it was written, when pulling a mortal for a divine intervention, the host must assume a form that was significant and familiar to the guest. It was only good manners to appear as a friendly form, rather than risk the guest’s sanity.

But the Entity was stripped of its power and authority. It was nothing but a shadow now. And while it could take the form of someone significant and familiar to Ashtine, that person had literally tried to kill her.

The Entity ignored the Rule and simply appeared before Ashtine as a shadow. The Sky Knight blinked, looked around, recognized her Mind Palace, then turned her attention to it.

“Who are you?” she asked.

An obvious choice for someone’s first question. Also boring.

“That’s not important,” it said. While before, the Entity impersonated Brymeia, that had been during the time it was constantly bonded with the Irista bloodline. Now that it had a small semblance of freedom, there was no need to use such a cheap trick. “What’s important is what you’re going to do now.”

“I…” Ashtine held her chest. It was clean, unblemished by blood and tears. “I died. My brother murdered me.”

“Not quite,” the Entity said, bringing the Sky Knight’s attention back to it. “Not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“You’re going to die in the next three hours. Your meiyal system can no longer fuel your mental faculties, and your manifestation will simply vanish along with this Mind Palace. Technically, you’re already dead. But if I am to nitpick, you’re still on your way there.”

Ashtine fell to the ground. She started crying, and the Entity understood. Not everyone wanted to die. Even those that thought they had accepted it, when faced by the finality of that reality, they still clung to their final regrets, their hopes, their what-ifs. And all of them had only one thing to say.

“I don’t want to die!” Ashtine cried.

The Entity, its shadow, walked up and crouched before the Sky Knight. It felt pity for her. It connected with her.

“You were used in a game you didn’t know you were playing, Ashtine. And you lost.”

The Entity reached out, placing a shadowy hand over Ashtine. It felt her pain. Her desire to survive. But most of all, it connected to that small spark of vengeance within her. Just a drop of fuel would turn such a small thing into a glorious conflagration.

“The question is, what are you going to do about it?”