Broken Mind Palace
> ”An entire bloodline cursed over the protection of the entire world? Not much of a choice is it? Regardless, despite this burden, this sacrifice, it’s easy to see that Brymeia is dying.” ~Evanclad Irista, the First Monarch
Blurred memories reflected on the shattered halls as Frein walked through Kristel’s broken Mind Palace. The images would fix themselves somewhat whenever he focused on them, giving him at least a relative understanding of what they were about.
In a sense, the images were the memories of past Monarchs, none of which depicted Kristel. And oddly enough, these were still paintings of the moments when they died. Not quite full Recollections for them to immerse into.
Most of these past Monarchs were either in combat, or at peace in their own rooms. Frein slowly walked through each of them, searching with keen eyes, until he found what he was looking for.
Kristella Irista, the second Monarch, lay at peace on her deathbed. She was surrounded by white and golden roses and other sorts of beautiful flowers Frein couldn’t recognize. Only her luscious pink hair covered her skin. And the unnerving thing of it all, she resembled Elizzel and Schrodie’s persona so perfectly.
“My daughter’s end. I never thought I’d see it,” Evanclad mused, his intangible presence moved closer to the painting. If not for Frein’s acute senses due to his four-meiyal Siffera, he would’ve lost track of the Monarch countless times already. “Elegant. You know, she never slept with any clothing when she reached a certain age. Made it quite an issue for me and her retainers, actually. She was never bothered by it, though.”
“If you have hair like that, I’d bet you’d consider it,” Frein said.
“Fair, I guess. That hair of hers, nothing could cut it. Nothing.”
Well, that’s certainly something to look into…
Just to sate his curiosity, Frein looked around more. He wanted to check on something. Elizzel felt it through their Tether and she went the opposite direction to cover more ground. In the end, it was she who found it.
“Over here, Frein.”
Another painting in still motion. Another girl on her deathbed. This time she was younger, too young, in fact. But she also resembled Kristella and Elizzel. There had been four different people looking exactly the same. Frein thought about it for a while at how absurd that must have been…
Only two of them were actual sibling twins.
“Evangeline!” Evanclad cried. “But how?”
“They’re twins,” Frein said. It wasn’t much of an explanation, but it made perfect sense to him. “In a sense, she’s also a rightful heir.”
The image of Evangeline became more clear as the three of them focused on it. She was surrounded by golden scales, embraced by a coil that shimmered as the painting grew and formed into a scene.
A golden-scaled dragon kept Evangeline secured inside her coil. The deceased Princess still leaned on its tail and she was depicted with a content and peaceful smile. At the same time, the dragon, with its enormous size, majestic wings, and a familiar head shape crowned with intricate horns—unlike the grotesque form of a Forest Jaws—nudged at the sleeping Princess.
Frein could see tears falling from the mythical creature’s eyes. He already knew who it was.
Elizzel stepped closer into the painting. Her watering eyes magnetized at Evangeline. She held the Princess’s face and her lips twisted as she tried to hold the pain.
Frein felt it tug through their Tether and he empathized with it.
The pain of losing someone.
No one dared speak or move until Elizzel found her resolve. After a few moments of tearful silence, she pressed her lips on the sleeping Evangeline.
“I miss you,” she whispered.
The image of Elizzel kissing the Princess that looked exactly like herself was forever etched in Frein’s core memory. It was beautiful, mesmerizing, and full of love.
He wished Katherine would remember him like that when the time came.
Elizzel needed comfort. She was desperately tugging at the Tether. So Frein slowly wrapped his arms around her shoulders and gave her a hug. Her tears didn’t stop for a while.
“I’ll go look for Kristel,” Evanclad’s whispers trailed off as he left the two.
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When Evanclad returned defeated a few minutes later, Frein concluded that Kristel was hiding from the Nightmare’s influence, or that it was hiding her from them.
“We should check on her Exhibit,” he suggested.
“We can’t,” the First Monarch said. “Unless we can help her reconnect with her Spatiera, we won’t be able to reach her Exhibit.”
Frein frowned at that.
“I was one of the few who helped with the early designs of Meiyal Arts with my daughter. I know how the discipline works in theory.”
“Thanks, but that’s not what I meant,” Frein said as they resumed their search through the rest of the Palace. “Kristel doesn’t like using her Spatiera. In fact, I’ve never seen her Draw it at all. Maybe that’s connected somehow? But I know she has some materials integrated in her Exhibit.”
“Oh, the Exhibit exists, for sure. We just can’t get to it through usual means,” Evanclad assured. “But before I get to that, can you get rid of those guys inside first?”
The Monarch gestured towards the inner section of the ruined Palace. They followed the path and turned to the corner leading towards what would’ve been the central chamber of the entire infrastructure.
Even with all the suspended destruction, the grand design of the building brought Frein to awe. Golden accents lined every outline of the walls. Paintings, blurred as they were, depicted epic scales of past Monarchs. The domed ceiling was mildly distorted with the amount of destruction it was sustaining.
In the middle of the open chamber hovered a concentration of meiyal. Tendrils of black smoke slithered in and out of the floating core, seldom whipping towards Frein like a snake on the pounce.
“Is that a Nightmare?” Frein asked.
“Part of the influence, yes. If it’s rooted this deep into the Palace, I could only surmise that it’s been here for a long while now, brooding until the Princess snapped.” Evanclad’s presence kept his distance. “I’m afraid, I might vanish if it accidentally makes contact with my intangible form.”
“How could it hit you?” the Visitor asked, gesturing towards…nothing. “Wait, we went to the Nightmare Lands only recently.”
Evanclad made an invisible shrug. “Could be from when she was a kid, escorted by the Order of the Void to ease her into the influence, or it could be something less desirable.
“In any case, the principles behind my existence are a little different and quite more fragile than yours right now,” the Monarch explained. “You’ll have to do this with just the two of you, I’m afraid.”
What should I do with it? Asking the question was the easiest thing to do, but Frein couldn’t help feel the sly smile lingering within Evanclad’s voice and it clashed against his pride. He decided to snuff out the question before he gave it voice.
Elizzel just eyed him but said nothing. She was still tender from the sight of her first love, sleeping peacefully on the form she had taken that day. Regardless, the faunel knew there was a task at hand and didn’t fail to express her irritation through their Tether.
Without much thought, Frein motioned for Elizzel to return inside his meiyal core and prepare for combat. She obliged without word and the two of them focused on their objective.
“What, are you just going to touch it?” she asked from within the Tether.
“I guess. There’s not much choice but to test it out,” Frein replied audibly. “It’s not like I have any projectile Meiyal Arts to test it out with.”
“I suppose that works.”
With the two in the same wavelength, Frein’s movements became light. Not because the faunel was hindering him in any physical capacity, but the confidence brought by two minds working together for the same objective simply allowed him to move a step faster than if he was just on his own.
The powerful smoke-like appendages whipped at him relentlessly, like a downpour of a sudden storm. Frein utilized his four-meiyal Siffera. Combined with Mesiffera predicting the Nightmare influence’s tendril-like attacks, he was able to move and slide with ease. They all missed their mark, laying waste instead on the walls of the chamber, causing massive explosions of meiyal.
Random debris shot towards him like shrapnel. He deflected them with ease, not even disturbed enough to re-center his balance or stop his movements, swatting them like flies frozen in mid air.
The Nightmare influence doubled its efforts and Frein responded by coating himself with an aura of protective Siffera. He dodged what he could, but the continued, indiscriminate spray of whipping meiyal eventually caught on his evasive maneuvers. They singed his protective aura, scratching his skin. But he refused to relent.
Instead, Frein hastened his movements further and dashed for the influence’s hovering core, slamming himself against it.
It was like breaking thin glass. The Nightmare influence let out a maddened scream before rupturing open, inky black meiyal surging from its cracks.
Frein found it odd. Would something like this really hinder Kristel?
“There are more like this deeper in her Mind Palace,” Elizzel assumed, her intent clearly delivered within their Tether.
“Well, we better go find the rest of them,” the Visitor said, turning to where Evanclad should be.
“You’re not done yet, Frein,” said the Monarch’s presence. “You have to cleanse all of it.”
He didn’t understand until the rest of the dark meiyal leaking out of the Nightmare influence fully emptied. It slowly coalesced into a gigantic form. A skeletal structure manifested, enveloping the influence within a large ribcage that protruded over an elongated spine.
Muscles formed and tied themselves over the bones with mind-numbing, squelching sounds. Frein counted four heavily muscled legs connected to a slithering body and four ripped arms holding a pair of spears and a pair of long swords with lengths several times his height. The serpentine lower half of its torso gave way to a human’s upper half, showing bare muscular abs and a pair of impressive breasts covered only by the flowing dark meiyal that served as its hair.
The creature’s head—a surprise even for Frein—was enchantingly beautiful. Elegant and smooth porcelain skin covered its face with eyes fully colored with shining blue. It had a nose perfectly sculpted as a centerpiece for its artistic resemblance. Finally, it formed a pair of serpentine tails that lashed back and forth.
Frein expected a set of wings at this point, but he was left disappointed. Though, not enough to break him out of his curiosity.
“Hey, what’s your name?” he asked.
The creature blinked at him once and he half hoped that it would reply. But when its frown, twisted and angry as it was, only made it slightly less beautiful, Frein knew there would be no discussion to be had.
It withdrew a gigantic spear with one hand, flame and lightning enveloping it. Frein’s Mesiffera quickly analyzed it. There wasn’t any sign of a Drawn Meiyal Art, but the amount of meiyal surging within whatever technique it was using, sent him alarms.
“You might want to step a bit further away, First Monarch,” Frein said as he prepared his stance. “This could get ugly.”
“Sure thing! Good luck!” Evanclad exclaimed as his voice grew farther away. “And don’t Gather! You might hurt my heir!”
“Perfect.” Frein smiled as he enveloped himself with four-meiyal Siffera. “Another handicap. Just what I need.”
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