Wake Up Twice

Kristel stirred awake and was immediately met by soft arms wrapping around her. Frill sobbed on her ear while shaking with relief.

“Frill, I’m alright, but I can’t breathe. Help!” Kristel tapped frantically until her retainer finally released her. She caught a glance of Katherine letting go of Frein and Elizzel. “How long were we out?”

They were still in her room, no surprises there. She was still on her bed with Frill beside her. Katherine was still on the chair and was now joined by Frein and Elizzel taking up the rest of the available seats. Other than that, nothing seemed to have moved. Not even the moons.

Still, it was a relief to know that they were finally awake.

“About ten minutes,” Frill replied, sniffling. “We were getting a little worried since Frein kept reaching Art fatigue and recovering from it instantaneously in a weird way.”

“Ah, that’s because—” Elizzel began, enthused to share but quickly realized it would be better to let Frein do the talking.

“We met Evanclad in Kristel’s Dream,” he said, turning to the Princess. “Turns out he converted a part of himself into a meiyal-charged material.”

She caught the implications. “That’s what the Letterman forced me to Gather? So they’re really on our side, then? Evanclad and Letterman?” She realized she didn’t even integrate with it. Was it forced integration? If so, how?

Frein shrugged. “According to him, he hid this part of himself in a seal comparable to The Four Sealed Ones and told no one about it.”

“Which means the Letterman having possession of it makes him more suspicious than helpful,” Katherine concluded. “Did Evanclad tell you where he hid it? Maybe we can find some clues about the Letterman.”

“He’s secretive about it.”

“That doesn’t explain your fluctuating Art fatigue, though,” Frill interjected. She left Kristel’s side, opening her Spatiera to prepare some refreshments.

“Right,” Frein pointed at her while nodding.

Kristel observed his slow Gathering and Milling, recovering what he lost in the Dream. She felt the same for her own reserves, barely filled with anything now. Spurred by the moment, she Gathered and Milled as well, as calmly and slowly as she could.

“I’m guessing it’s because of the Nightmares I ate.”

Kristel blinked twice, surprised at what she just heard. It took her out of the Gathering process almost instantly. Frein glanced at her. Just from that, she knew that the Visitor caught on to what she just failed to do. Despite that, she tried again.

“You ate Nightmares?” Katherine asked, just as bewildered as everyone else.

A scan ran all over them. It wasn’t an observation Meiyal Art. It felt more direct and the Lady of the Void wasn’t Drawing at all. A Void Control Technique, she concluded.

“Explain,” she asked finally after finishing the scan, unable to discern anything.

“It’s not that bad, but before I explain, I need your word that this information remains here for now.” Frein was looking more towards Kristel and Frill. “Like Eli, we don’t want people finding out if we can help it.”

“I appreciate the trust, Frein. Yes, you have my word,” the Princess said, nodding rather aggressively. She climbed out of bed and asked Frill to bring out a spare chair. Unsurprisingly, her retainer pulled one out of her Spatiera.

“Same as mine,” Frill followed, passing tea. Everyone took their cups, but Frein and Elizzel asked for just cool water instead.

“Thank you.” Frein gulped down his glass before explaining. “Evanclad, apparently, organized the Visitor Project. That’s what he called it. Schrodie didn’t exist back then, and he doesn’t know how the Gatekeeper ended up in-charge with it. Regardless, with that in mind, he told me about my meiyal system, that it came from Zerax’thum, the Fallen Dragon itself.”

“What?” Kristel exclaimed, and so did the others. “So it’s really a special meiyal system, then!”

“Shocking, I know, but you’d be more amazed to find out that some Nightmares—or Void Creatures—existed even before the gods got involved. And one of the ways Zerax’thum became so strong so quickly is because of his ability to consume them.”

“Still, you’re eating literal Nightmares! That can’t be good no matter how you think about it.” Katherine folded her arms, clear about her argument. “Unless you can prove to me that you won’t turn into one of them, then I’m against it.”

Elizzel, in response, raised her hand. “I’ll keep him in check. It’s part of what I do. He already ate two Nightmares and all he got were severe hallucinations.”

They all stared at each other for a while. Kristel knew that with just those simple gestures, the two—no, the three now somehow—were having a discussion in their heads.

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In truth, Kristel understood where Frein was coming from. It was on a different scale, and for a different reason, but both of them wanted more power. And if she were to have that ability, consuming Nightmares for power, if she was in his shoes, she would at least explore the option rather than outright dismiss it, regardless of the risk.

Katherine sighed finally. “I want to be there the next time you try to consume a Nightmare.”

Frein and Elizzel nodded in unison and responded at the same time. “Promise.”

“So there were Nightmares inside Kristel’s Mind Palace?” Frill asked. “I don’t explore it much, but is that even possible?”

“Correct,” Elizzel answered. “The Mind Palace exists within the Dream, or for the more formal term, the Meiyal Dream Realm. And Nightmares, as per their namesake, allows them to invade these Dreams via influences.”

“Why would they do that?” Kristel asked this time. She didn’t get to ask the question earlier, but it had been rolling in her head this entire time.

“To turn you,” Katherine replied. “As a well-trained practitioner, you have innate resilience against Nightmarification. The influence, then takes its time and…well, literally influences you at the most opportune moment. But I’ve never seen this sort of reaction before.”

“It’s Void Sleep,” Frein added and pointed to Kristel. “Evanclad’s term. The Nightmare influence becomes too much to handle, but your resistance still perseveres. So it assaults you from within the Dream until it can completely turn you from the inside-out.”

“But she’s safe now, right?” Frill asked, worried. Too worried to even take a sip of her tea.

“Yes, very safe. I got rid of them.”

They all felt relief, except for Katherine.

“I should’ve checked,” she said. “I didn’t feel anything strange when I was checking up on you earlier.”

“The influence had festered and laid dormant for so long, I think it wouldn’t be possible to detect them from the outside,” Elizzel suggested. “And the Princess’s Dream was so dark and her Mind Palace so broken that navigating took a long time to find her.”

“A broken Mind Palace?” Katherine mused, her face slowly twisting into a frown. “Kristel, have you been Reading Destiny?”

All heads snapped at the Lady of the Void.

“You know about it?” Frein asked.

Katherine’s frown shifted towards him. “Don’t tell me, you know it too?”

Frill shyly raised her hand. “Can you please explain?”

Frein crossed his arms and legs. “It’s basically about reading the futures, the possibilities, also known as Destiny. When I met Rindea, she forced me to Read mine. Look into, peer into—I guess the official term is Reading, huh? In any case, I Read about five seconds before I hit Art fatigue.”

“Wait. How?” Kristel almost jumped from her chair.

“I can’t really explain it unless I try again and I mean deliberately try again this time. Did I get the description right, though?” Frein turned to Katherine who was probably the most experienced out of all of them with regards to this sort of thing.

“It’s not something I do on a regular basis,” the Lady of the Void replied. “Frankly I don’t have the resources to do that with my current state, but back then, I could Read up to thirty minutes on a good day. It helps us navigate through unknown territory. It’s a secret we keep in the Order of the Void.”

“Wouldn’t that put you in trouble?” Kristel asked.

Katherine shook her head in response. “Doesn’t matter to me that much now.”

“But if it’s Destiny, wouldn’t you end up in the same place regardless of what decisions you make?” Frill asked.

The four of them, Kristel, Frein, Katherine, and Elizzel, looked at her in unison and shook their heads slowly.

“How then!” The Aria pouted, crossing her arms.

“How did it go for you?” Frein asked Kristel.

“I, uh…” Kristel pondered. The shock of knowing Brymeia showed her the fight between Kristella and Su’karix still boggled her mind. In fact, she couldn’t exactly believe that it was Brymeia in the first place.

You won’t believe who I am even if I tell you, Princess.

Still, whoever she was, she didn’t make any request to have her name hidden.

“I met Brymeia,” she began and told everyone what happened to her Dream within the Dream. She told them about the eternal spawn of Nightmares, the bloody flood, Brymeia disguising herself as Liona—Frill reacted strongly at that—who asked her to find the mountain. She was in the middle of explaining how she controlled her Dream when Frein interrupted her.

“That’s a lot of Nightmares,” he commented.

“I don’t think they were influences. I think Brymeia made them as a sort of test.”

With that, the Princess continued on with her story. She made sure to include Kristella’s Display, Su’karix’ enormous size, and the battle that occurred. She described the Destiny that she saw. The confusing array of overlapping kaleidoscopes, with each section having its own reality and possibility.

“According to Brymeia, they’re trying to manifest a Destiny into reality, one that benefits them. But for some reason, Destiny loves them both. I didn’t get to see how it ended.”

“Destiny loves them?” Katherine asked, but the question surfaced on everyone’s faces, including Elizzel which surprised Kristel the most.

“I don’t know what she meant by it either.”

“So Reading Destiny shows you things that can happen in the future, and you choose which path to take?” Frill managed to take a sip as she pondered the question. “What’s manifesting, then?”

“It probably works differently than just choosing,” Katherine assumed.

“It’s making reality obey,” Kristel answered with certainty, but it waned as she proceeded. “It’s also the realm of the gods, if I am to believe Brymeia. Kristella and Su’karix, while not gods, were apparently so loved by Destiny that they could do it regardless.”

Katherine’s eyes brightened at that hint. Frein caught it and grabbed her hand. Again, the two had a silent conversation, but this time, Kristel knew what was going on.

“Unless either of you are loved by Destiny, I don’t think you can place your bets on that.”

“But maybe Schrodie knows a way?” Katherine retaliated, too hopeful for her own good. Even Kristel could tell it was beyond delusion.

“Did Brymeia mention anything else?” Frein asked, disrupting the Lady. “We’ll talk more about it later, Kat. For now, I’m curious if the world itself really went and talked to you, Kristel.”

“She said a few more things,” Kristel admitted. “But frankly I don’t really know who to trust except for you guys. She’s the voice that we hear after unsealing a certain amount of meiyal marks.”

She turned to Katherine. “She mentioned that you kept ignoring her.” Then to Frill. “For you, she’s interested to make contact when you unseal more of your marks. But she also gave me a warning.”

“That there’s two of them,” Frill said. “Letterman told me. I’d show you the letter, but it’s completely blank now.”

“So we need to be careful who we listen to,” Kristel finished. At this point, no longer surprised by the sudden reveals of the mysterious letters.

Frein nodded. “Alright, I think it’s already late. We should take a rest.”

“I agree,” Kristel stood and passed the teacup to her retainer. “Can you let Admiral Garm know that we can proceed for tomorrow? I want to make it to Liona as soon as possible.”

Frill bowed and rose from her chair and all four of them headed for the door.

But Frein turned abruptly, stopping everyone in their tracks. “Oh, lastly, I think I found a hint on how to unseal our meiyal marks.” He pulled the door and took a step. “I’ll churn on it a bit more and experiment to see if I nailed it. But I think it has something to do with Destiny.”

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