Oracion's POV

With each passing minute, the panic on those survivors slowly ceases as they notice the light from the sky beckoning closer to us. The once squishy platform that we stand on, almost perfectly solidified, leaving a spiral pattern behind as it blends itself into the stone that lays across the land.

A sickening verification hits me as I look onward to see the Veil, confirming that we were indeed outside of it. "Home? We made it?" One yells, setting them off as their worn out shoes carry them towards the inside of the Veil, giving them the safety they've used to.

"You did that, nobody else." Freya comments.

"Did what?" I respond.

"You put those smiles on their faces" She smiles, gesturing to them with the energy of enthusiasm that she has left.

A smile to an emotion, a level of happiness that I brought to them, but what Freya misunderstands is that, "They're not smiling for me. They're smiling that they're home. A happiness that I'm beginning to forget.' I think to myself, blurring my vision the more I'm left alone to my thoughts.

Almost like clockwork, as they enter the Veil, they fall to their knees. "What's wrong!?" Requis shouts to them as they look around, cluelessly.

"Oracion!?" They all yell towards me.

"Quickly, we shouldn't be outside!" Akira extends his hand out to me through the Veil.

My stomach twists along with my emotions as I force myself to walk forward to them. Each step I take only feeling heavier than the last. Eventually, I stand before Akira's hand. Unbeknownst to me, my friends have already entered and are waiting for me. But here I am, hesitating.

"C'mon" he encourages, and so I fill his hand with my own.

He attempts to pull me in but I remain solid as my eyes lock down onto something. "What's wrong, did he get sick from something?" He asks the others with genuine confusion. "Is there something on me?" He points at himself.

I however, wasn't looking at him in the slightest. But instead a bit off behind him, there was something earning my full attention. The trees that bended to the breath of the beast within Xandier's story. A sight only visible from outside of the Veil, the same side from where Indura was being taken. I look behind me, realising that previously gaping hole was what we came up from.

"Give his hand to me." Freya bumps him out of the way, grabbing me and pulling me in forcefully, causing me to fall to my two hands as I stare at the floor with a blank face.

"You...were all walking fine. Moments ago." I look around at him, slumped and almost helpless like a toddler seeking attention from their carer.

"We wer-e leaning on y-ou?" One tries to answer with a weak voice, different than before.

"You weren't." I deadpan.

"This isn't something to discuss out here, let's all get back to the village." Requis advises, lifting me up with a hand and encouraging the others to walk on their own as best they can.

-

"Guys they're back!" Letha calls out from the gate, standing beside Casei.

Looking back at them, I can't help but see them as nothing more than lifeless zombies. They ran to the Veil, full of life and energy. But now look at them, barely able to take step forward without stumbling towards their loved ones.

Embraced by the ones who swore to stand by them no matter what, wanted and praised by those who admire them. I stare around at them, jealous. "Where were you?" Letha asks me.

"The Ruins, Xandier didn't tell you we were out for the night?" I ask.

"The night? Oracion you took...far longer than that. But luckily there wasn't a single Shadow that had come for us, lucky, right?"

"What-" I try to ask but someone bumps into me, interrupting my conversation with her as they begin speaking as if I wasn't even here.

"You okay?" Freya grabs me, helping to balance me after the shove.

"I need to find Xandier, I'll be back." I promise to her, leaving her despite her obvious worried look for me.

-

I run through the village, almost tripping a few times over the misplaced stone within the path.

Arms stretch around me as I'm forced to a complete halt by someone, "Woah" Aeron's voice calls out just as I drop the enthralled metal onto the ground.

"Where's the fire?" He laughs, referring to my hurried pace.

"There was something under the ruins, something strong, something fast, and something that had an intent to hurt us. I got this-" I quickly explain to him, showing him the metal as he takes it to examine.He keeps his mouth closed, instead allowing me to just explain. "He called himself a vampire, I managed to kill him and found the others, we escaped through...something." I briefly state, leaving out details but unimportant ones.

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"I've seen this once before, I can imagine what you want me to do with this." He places the metal into the pouch that's wrapped around his waist. "And you're safe?" He finishes.

"Just some cuts, I think-" I answer, but by the time I find the vocals leaving me, he's wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug.

"Then I don't care for anything else." He practically suffocates me, only letting me out after my powerless squirms turn into desperation.

"So what were you running for?" He asks again.

"Xandier promised he'd let me look at this diary he owns, and quite frankly. I need some fucking answers."

"Answers about?"

"What is the Veil, Aeron? Why are people forgetting me?" I look up into his emerald eyes, noticing a slight glimmer begin to fade behind them as his mouth slowly opens.

"You'r-" He tries to speak.

But Freya interrupts, "Not spoken to Xandier yet?" She asks.

I turn around, confused and a little bit concerned for how she followed me all this way without me realising. "I was just heading to him when I bumped into Aeron."

"O-" She goes to speak but Aeron stands in front of her, placing an arm on her shoulder.

"I was just looking for you Freya! There's something new I was making, can I show you?" He tries to entice her to leave, almost sensing my worries about the situation.

"Go" He mouths to me, void of a voice but filling me with urgency.

And so I continued to run, making my way to Xandier's home where the door's completely fixed and the windows are seemingly blacked out.

I lift my hand to knock on the door, causing it to fall down as if never repaired. I walk along it and into his home, "Xandier?" I call out to him. Looking along his walls, I notice far more sketches than before, some unrecognisable or even differentiable from nothing more than scribbles. While others look like something of a book, the same one drawn over and over again as if trying to remind someone of itself.

With my head full of distraught emotions, and my heart wanting to seek the truth. I felt a sharp spike pierce my body as I hear the words, "Oracion?" Respond back to me from Xandier's room.

I creek through the house, opening the door to his bedroom and seeing him with his legs folded, calmly sitting there with the book in his lap, waiting for me. "Back so soon?" He jokes.

"We were apparently gone for days?"

"...Days" He responds, as if it wasn't the right answer.

"And there wasn't a single Shadow breach from the Veil?" I want to confirm.

"Not a single one, unsettling if anything." He confirms. Sighing a little bit before putting the book up to me for me to take.

I reach my hand out to it, pausing a little bit before noticing his outfit is different from the usual long sleeved tops he wears. "Wardrobe malfunction?" I laugh, trying to shake this uneasy feeling from myself.

He shakes the book, "Yeah" He laughs as well.

I put my hands back to my side, watching his eyes scanning me intently as if he wants to say something more. He shakes the book again. Reminding me of something I wanted to ask him. "From the outside of the Veil...I saw the trees. How much truth was in that children story of yours, Xandier?" I question, but he does nothing more than shake the book again.

And so I reach out to grab it, placing it in my hands and gently tugging to take it away. But he holds onto it. "There's a place in everyone's dreams Oracion, some places that you should never go." He tells me before slowly angling his left arm in my vision, showing a long scar along his skin in the shape of what seems to be something's claw, a failed marking of sorts like it was trying to draw on him.

He lets go of the book, almost making me fall back from the sudden release of pressure. The step back allowing me to take a better look at his room, full of mess with titled picture frames and clothes thrown against the floor. Juxtaposed to his calm demeanour, almost like it wasn't his room. Just before I walk out the room, I realise I never explained what happened in the ruins to him. Turning back around to find him standing, staring back at me, ready to respond to any question I have for him. "I-the ruins, there was something down there. Calling itself a Vampire?" I ask him.

"Are you safe? What happened?"

"I'm fine, but...what's North of here?" I ask him.

He speaks fast this time, "You could go there" he suggests.

"Like, leave the Veil? You'd be fine with that?" I ask.

"I mean, so long as you're comfortable with it. The Shadows seemed to of calmed down, so we should be fine for a while" He slowly fixes his bed sheets and flooring as we continue our chat. "Why the sudden interest in it?"

"People...keep forgetting who I am" I answer.

"Well I can't blame that for unsettling you-whoops" He cuts himself off, accidentally dropping a pen near me.

"And I feel like that Vampire knew more about it than he could speak." I finish, looking down as Xandier bends down to pick it up.

As he stands back up, his hand falls back onto the book as he raises it to my vision again. "So that's what's gotten our Oracion's interest all of a sudden?" He taps the book, directing my focus back to it again as he laughs. Letting go of it to continue cleaning.

"But that's it?" I ask.

"What?"

"I thought you'd put up more of a fight with me leaving, but that's it?" I question as a sense of unease fills me once again.

He doesn't answer but instead, a familiar voice from the front door does. "Oracion?" Freya calls for me.

"Where's Aeron?" I look behind her, but he's not there.

"He went home for the night?" She tells me as if it's a question. Looking back outside to bring my attention to the nightfall.

"I-"

"You've been here for a while, I came to check up on you. Ready to go back?" She holds her hand out to me. I find myself accepting it with ease, looking back to say goodbye to Xandier but he's already closed his bedroom door.

"Come on then, to sleep it is!" She laughs, trying to skip along the stone with enthusiasm as if it was the warmth of morning.

-

As we pass the centre of the village, I look towards the gate. And then back to Freya. Back to the gate. And back to Freya.

"Do you mind if I wander out for a bit?" I let go of her hand, pointing to the gate.

"For sure" She accepts.

I turn the direction, heading towards it but immediately hearing her do the same. "I...don't want any dangers to come to you Freya, please...can I go alone?" I ask, holding back the truth that's spinning throughout me.

"Oh-I'll wait here then. That's fine, right?" She plants her feet to the floor before sitting along the town's monument. Gliding her hand through the water that streams from the top as I walk away from her.

"Oracion?"

"Freya." I answer back.

"Be safe." She gives me a warm smile before looking back at the water. Adding to it with her own as something runs down her cold blushed cheek.

"I promise." I confirm, walking through the heavy doors and ensuring they close behind me.

-

'Requis, Ira, Indura, Freya...Aeron. I'll be back for them. Once I learn what I need to know. I'll come back to them, in one form or another.' I ponder while making my advancement towards the edge of the Veil. Its glimmer becoming more radiant as the sound of its rhythmic humming grows louder in response to my presence.

"Going without this?" A man speaks.

And just as I turn, a blade, longer than the last staples itself into the ground just beside me. A blade dull of light, waiting for something to fill its body. "Thank you, Aeron." I speak back to him.

"I'm fairly certain you can imagine how it works, it's the same metal you gave me. You might need it for those things." He advises, throwing the sheath to me which I graciously accept.

Placing it within the sheath and equipping it to my side with the book. I leave the Veil, looking back to where the voice of my brother was emanating. To only find the emerald traces of where his eyes were supposed to be.