"I have made a horrible mistake."
Hazard mentally berated himself as he, Ro, and the young girl accompanying the High Queen sat around in his and Ro's shared room, the girl on Ro's bed and the siblings on the other. Apparently, the girl had gotten up and insisted on visiting them even if they were sleeping, and Hazard was blaming himself over and over for getting the three of them into this mess.
...He might've been a little dramatic and grumpy from being woken up, sue him.
It was surprisingly silent in the room. He'd suspected the girl would want to continue the talk they had before they fell asleep, but they were quiet, just staring at them. Eventually the tension was too great and it was Ro who spoke up first. "Why are you here?"
The girl flinched at Ro's harsh tone and Hazard rested a hand on Ro's arm. Ro huffed and crossed his arms as he looked at the other girl, "It's okay, just tell us what you want."
"...to talk..." He almost missed the girl's words due to her quiet voice.
"Okay... how about your name? Can you tell us your name?"
"...Dallia." Hazard nodded, trying to commit it to memory. He was still off-kilter from... really everything that happened today, so he was trying to focus on gathering details as a way to anchor himself.
"That's a very pretty name. Can you tell us why the High Queen visited the mine?" Dallia said nothing, gently fidgeting with and rubbing one of her plush's arms.
"...Grandmother said she wanted to find me friends. Good friends that I could trust... but you were crying but Grandmother said you were happy..."
"Crying- oh! We were crying, yes, but we were just happy to finally leave the mine."
"...So you weren't happy to be my friends?"
"It's not that we aren't happy to be your friends, Dallia, it's just... we don't really know what's going on." Hazard kept his tone as gentle as he could, "Why did your grandmother bring you all the way out to the mines to find a friend?"
"She says we can't trust nobles but..." Dallia shrunk in on herself, "...there wasn't anyone at home she wanted to be my friends. We went all over the kingdom to find someone but she always said they could find someone better... and we did."
She was back to looking at them with bright eyes, Hazard smiling back and nodding even if he didn't feel as excited. That did very little to explain why they were chosen, but she was probably way too young to understand. Ro made a noise, one he recognized as her being discontent, and Dallia looked to his sister. Hazard breathed out a laugh, "Ignore her, she's just grumpy."
"Not grumpy." Ro grumbled.
"Grum-py." Hazard sing-songed, and Ro pointed at him.
"Short."
"Beanpole."
"Are you fighting?" Dallia asked in confusion, but they both shook their heads as Hazard answered.
"No, no... well, kind of. Still, we don't mean anything by it, it's just what we do." Dallia still seemed confused.
"Do all brother and sisters do that?"
"Some do, some don't." He shrugged, memories tickling at his mind. An all too familiar house faintly-
Dallia suddenly, quietly gasped, eyes locked onto Hazard. "A Bright One!"
"A what?" Hazard blinked as Dallia slid off the bed she was sitting on, her toy tucked under her arm as she hustled up to Hazard, eyes actually glowing this time.
"Do you remember who you were? Were you a soldier? A crystal-smith? Did you have-" Dallia was rapid firing questions, Hazard unable to get a word in edgewise until Ro whistled, cutting Dallia's deluge of words short.
"How 'bout letting him breathe, huh?" Dallia blink-blinked, frozen a moment before she nervously leaned away, clutching at her toy with both arms. Hazard noticed her eyes started to dim, and he cleared his throat.
"It's okay, Dallia. She's not mad at you, she's just worried for me." Dallia gave a tiny nod. "It's okay to be excited. Now, tell me: what is a "Bright One?""
Some of the glow returned, as did her excitement though it was clear she was trying to tamp the emotion down. "They have a lot of different names but Lady Lubel says there are people whose souls get picked up by the Light to return to new bodies."
Hazard felt a pit in his stomach, Ro going stiff-backed in the corner of his eye. His mouth was suddenly dry and he glanced to his sister before looking at Dallia. "I... see, can you tell us more?"
Dallia nodded, "She says that the souls that come back get gifted with a bit of the Light's power, plus sometimes they remember bits of their old life." She pointed at her eye. "I'm really good at seeing magic, and Lady Lubel says sometimes you can see a Bright One's echoes. Their soul is still attached to their old memories, so their magic sometimes shows pictures-"
As much as he tried to focus as Dallia explained Hazard was, quite frankly, having a massive existential crisis.
In essentially 30 seconds, a literal child proved he wasn't going crazy.
She was right. Even when he was younger than he was now, he always had memories. A life not this one. A home, a job, even an entire different world as he could remember, but he... he thought he was crazy. Everyone said he was, hell he thought it was crazy, nothing of his memories matched this world after all. Ro was the only one to defend him but he knew even she had her doubts.
He was right.
The world suddenly jolted, and he felt something tight around his shoulder. He had no idea where he was just a moment ago, as if he was in another world entirely before he was back in the inn staring at nothing. A hand pressed against his face and quickly his head was turned, now staring at a scared Ro, only just realizing she was speaking.
"Haz!? Haz, Haz it's me. Haz I-" He blinked and she paused, breathing deeply, "Haz? Haz, a-are you back? Are you okay?"
"...-ah." His voice cracked, getting half of his word out. "Yeah."
"You're crying..." He blinked and slowly he raised his hand, touching at his face. When he pulled his fingertips back he saw they were in fact wet and warm, but Ro quickly angled his face so he could look in her eyes again. "Haz, are you... are you okay?"
He knew that tone, familiar from when she knew he was lying about how he was feeling. Despite this he only said, "Yeah."
There was an unsettling silence as she searched his face before pulling her hands away carefully, slowly, as if he would fall apart the second she'd let go. He simply breathed and blinked, mind too filled with thoughts yet then too empty as he sat and ruminated. He needed time to remember there was a third in their room, and he looked at Dallia to see tears welling up in her eyes,
"I-" Hazard has to cough, throat suddenly dry, "I guess we should explain, huh?"
Dallia said nothing, just staring and Hazard took a breath to calm a heart he realized was trying to pound out of his chest. "It... yes, yes I think I'm a "Bright One," like you said. It's just... down, down in the mines there wasn't-, there was no one who ever told me anything like that. I- they said I was insane, because I said I had memories that weren't my own."
"...I'm sorry." Dallia nearly buried her face in her doll. "I-I'm sorry, I never mmmmeant to make you think of bad things, a-a-a-and-"
The apologies were cut off as Dallia fully buried herself into the Dame, body shuddering, and Hazard took a long, deep breath that helped clear his mind as he fought to bury his own turmoil. "It's okay-"
"It's not!" Dallia's head shot up, "I saw your magic, you, your soul is all shaky! It-"
"Dallia." He raised his voice, and the princess froze minus her sniffling. This time Hazard took a deep, long breath through his nose with his eyes shut, and as he let out through his mouth it was like his whole body cooled down. When he opened his eyes he tried to keep his voice as even as he could, "I'm okay, I promise."
"...Promise?"
"Promise." He nodded, "I'm not mad, it's just... today has been a lot, and I need some time to process- uh, to think on it."
Dallia nodded back and stepped back, slipping back onto the other bed. "...I'm tired."
"...Would you like me to tell you some stories from what I can remember?" That perked her up a bit and she curled up under the bed's blankets, looking at him expectantly. It was somewhat difficult, having to remember the fairy tales of a youth that was a whole lifetime ago, but with some ad-libbing she eventually drifted off to sleep. After a few moments of silence Hazard let out a long, slow breath, and Ro pulled him into a close hug with his head tucked under her chin. An old, familiar move done whenever he was upset. "...I'm tired."
"I know, Haz." Ro gently laid on her side, bringing Hazard down with her. "It'll be okay."
Truthfully, she didn't feel confident in her words. Ever since the moment in the mines they'd met the queen and she'd floored him, she knew they were in trouble. The high of knowing they were free of the mines was steadily replaced with the realization they'd have to live on a constant knife's edge around the royal family. The idea of simply taking Hazard, slipping out of the inn window, and finding some way off the island teased her but in the end she knew it was pointless. Angering the royal family would be a death sentence, moreso than any mine collapse or accident. Ro clutched Hazard a bit closer, "...You know I'm always going to protect you, right?"
"..."
"...Haz?" She pulled away, enough to look down and see her brother fast asleep. Even if she didn't have the same sight as him or the princess, she could tell that he seemed... lighter, in a way. Normally his face while he slept would be in an ever-present frown, but here it was a flat, neutral line, a rare sign of him feeling relaxed. She supposed that had to do with being proven right about his memories. It was an odd, bitter taste left in her mouth in the realization he seemed to get comfort from someone else, but the more she thought about it she realized this was an opportunity, however dangerous. A glance down to his damaged legs and she started to come up with a plan, even as she too started drifting off into sleep.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"I'm going to get us out of this Haz, don't you worry."
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Watching the two orphans eat was a great and terrible thing: the older girl quickly cut or ripped chunks off the meat and bread of her breakfast to stuff down her gullet, the boy not much better. The Queen could tell he at least had some sort of etiquette drilled into him the way he held his utensils, but he was still shoveling food into his mouth like it’d disappear any second and any mouth wiping was incredibly rough against his lips. Small mercy that Dallia seemed confused instead of trying to imitate them. Her granddaughter was about halfway done by the time the two finished, Roanna tense and keeping a careful eye on everything, but the boy... he was calm. That could’ve been simply not knowing to be worried in this situation, but the bluish light that bled off him yesterday seemed calmer, less a flickering fire and more a smooth current. Had something happened she didn’t know about? Or was-
“Ro, my lass! Hazard, my boy!”
Vitala managed to stop her eye from twitching, but it still narrowed a hair as she turned her head to see the old man that had accompanied the duo shuffling past the dining area to put an empty bowl on the counter, cheery as yesterday. It was such an odd collection: the boy’s Resonance was like a squire’s, already so strong it bled off him, the girl’s seemed focused purely internally to the point his very veins were almost shining, and the old man glowed like a master.
Was he truly the Headmaster? The man certainly looked like the Headmaster she remembered from her youth. Rumors surrounding his sudden departure from the academy abound, but for him to have ended up in a random mine, it simply made no sense. He would’ve had enough power, magical and political, to prevent being removed from his position, so why? Too many questions without answers, and in her position a lack of information was a deadly thing.
The old man had been talking to the orphans, stroking his beard in response to a question, hand leaving long streaks of food matter... and he lifted his beard up, looking at the stains in surprise as the children giggled.
‘...Or perhaps I’ve finally become too paranoid, and I’ve just bought a buffoon and his merry puppets.’
It was a small mercy he seemed to have whatever shred of sense left to go clean up before the group departed on the ships once more. From there it was the same long, boring journey as she’d been on with Dallia for the past few weeks, rather it was boring for herself. Dallia was livelier than she’d ever seen, talking animatedly with the three every time they had to land. As stinging as it was, Vitala stayed away to let them bond, though a guard was always close by to relay Dallia’s needs and keep Vitala appraised of their conversations.
She was not expecting them to approach her, however.
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Vitala raised a brow as Dallia approached her on the fine wooden chair the Queen set up on the grass, one hand clutching her toy and the other the wrist of the young boy, “Grandmother, can Hazard ask you a question?”
The brow remained raised as she looked to the miner boy, but she nodded towards him. He swallowed nervously but held her gaze as he spoke, probably already asking for favors-
“Can a Bright soul come from another world?”
“...Pardon?” Her normal harsh tone was completely lost to confusion and boy continued.
“Well Dallia says a Bright One comes from a soul returning to the Light, even if I don’t fully get it, but does that mean a soul can from other planets, or another dimension, if they have the right crystals or, or something?” His confidence waned the further his question went, but Vitala was still stuck on the absurdity of the statement. Besides the fact that it’s a very religious question to be coming from a child, other worlds? Had the boy been in the mines so long that the outside world seemed a fantasy to him? The instinctual urge to tell him to make himself scarce for such an inane question was restrained solely due to Dallia being there, and she considered the thought.
“...The priests and priestesses would say yes, I believe.” She wasn’t exactly religious, so it’s not as if she could say that for certain. “What even brought about this question?”
The boy opened his mouth but Dallia quickly chimed in, “He’s a Bright One! He’s been telling me all about his people’s inventions and stories and-”
...In hindsight, the answer should’ve been obvious to Vitala. However, she was caught off-guard; Dallia was exceedingly cheery, yes, but it was the fact the boy was claiming to be a Bright One of all things. It was ludicrous... actually, no. No, the more she thought about it, in a way it did make sense, that was a very plausible explanation for why his Resonance was the way it was. From what she could catch from Dallia’s stream of words, however, it seemed the boy was claiming his people were some advanced race, and she scoffed at the notion. Her gaze turned to the boy.
“Do not be preposterous. Likely, your mind is struggling to reconcile sparse details of your old life, perhaps as some crystalsmith or some sort of learned man, and you’ve imagined any of this “other planet” nonsense.” He seemingly mulled over her words before he hesitantly nodded.
“I see. Thank you for your time, Your Highness.” He awkwardly bowed and hobbled away, Dallia followed along. Vitala quietly snorted as she watched him go. Perhaps she should rename him to “Absurd,” but at least now she knows he’ll be good at telling her fairy tales...
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“I’m sorry.” Dallia whispered to Hazard, and he looked to her.
“Hm? For what?”
“That grandmother said...” Dallia trailed off and Hazard shook his head.
“It’s alright, she’d know more than most, I think.” Dallia seemed to brighten at his words, but the truth was that he was still skeptical of this being his imagination. He didn’t doubt the Queen’s information, but these memories... they were so vivid. It wasn’t like he just had “a feeling,” he could remember days of his former life down to the minute details. He could remember nearly cursing out one of his teachers because they were mad he chose to attend a funeral instead of study remedials on fractions, he could recall the ingredients of his favorite trail mix down to the salt they used, hell he could remember his exact change from that time he fell over in front of that one cute cashier at the convenience store and she laughed at him. His face started to burn in embarrassment as he recalled her laugh, and to him that was just another piece of evidence that there was more going on than just an overactive imagination.
“...I bet you were smart.”
“Hm?” Hazard was brough out of his thoughts by Dallia.
“I bet you were a really good crystalsmith, or a finesmith, or maybe you were a really high-ranked mage.”
“...Thank you?” The compliment blindsided him and he was brought out of his thoughts, shuffling them aside and trying to focus on the now instead. They returned to their small “picnic” area, Dallia returning to the fine seat while Hazard sat on a crate, Ro and Jeddard making do with rocks. A small diamante board was sat between the gathering, though Hazard wasn’t participating; Jeddard seemed the champion, Dallia a close second, and despite her best efforts Ro was getting knocked out of the game first in most matches. He was never a fan of games like chess, so he was happy to watch the other three, and it gave him a chance to... recover, in a sense. He had lost track of whether it had been days or weeks since their travel began, but throughout it all Dallia had been keen on asking him every question that came to her mind and it was exhausting. Trying to gather any information during this was also an issue since she was a literal child, royalty or not, so her knowledge of the world was limited. The kingdom the High Queen ruled was known simply as the Stormlands, a rocky place with arches stretching around the city, and the city was ruled by nobility who lived in the Upper or Lower Rings of the city. What exactly the Rings were and how the Ring nobles ruled was unknown to her, so it was unknown to him as well.
She seemed more obsessed with magic, something that she and Jeddard would gush about, and thanks to Jeddard’s boundless energy he provided the perfect distraction when Hazard was tired. Speaking of which; Hazard shut his eyes and rested a moment, listening to the sound of the wind, the clack of diamante pieces, and Jeddard and Dallia chatter away. He even heard Ro’s quiet grunts of frustration whenever one of her pieces was taken... but then a familiar ache started to seep through his legs and back, and he opened his eyes. He let out a quiet breath through his nose, but Ro’s eyes locked on his.
“Haz? You alright?”
“I’m good, just the usual aches.” She nodded but now Dallia was looking at him, more accurately his legs.
“...Does it hurt?”
“Sometimes.” It was a particularly odd question, considering she’d avoided speaking up about it until now, but maybe that tension had finally built up too much.
“How come they didn’t fix it?” The change was instant: Jeddard’s face sunk and Ro’s lips pursed, fists balling up on her knees. Hazard was about to tell her the overseer’s many sins, but realized he wasn’t around the jaded old miners he normally was. The queen would also probably not be a fan of him swearing or traumatizing her granddaughter.
“...Healing crystals are very rare and expensive, especially ones that could heal what was done to me, and they aren’t normally carried around in mines.” She said nothing, still looking at his legs before turning back to the game. The conversation between her and Jeddard was much more subdued, and Hazard couldn’t help but feel he screwed up. The feeling doubled when their travels turned silent, Dallia’s questions being a rarity instead of a constant, but as they got closer to Dallia’s home energy returned to her... in fact, it seemed energy returned to everyone. It was hard to explain but his fatigue was quickly disappearing, his sight became sharper, even the pain in his legs started to dull.
Letting his senses flow he could see the energy radiating off Ro, Dallia, and the Queen become more powerful, something he found ironic given how the land passing under the airships grew rockier and plant life seemed sparse. Dead wasn’t quite the right word to describe the land, but-
The airship jolted and he pressed himself back into his seat, one of Ro’s arms shooting across his chest to secure him. Dallia seemed nonplussed and the Queen was... smirking? They were much more comfortable than he and Ro were, at least, and he remained glued to his seat until there was another shudder from the ship and the Queen stood. Dallia took her hand as one of the royal guards opened the door to the ship, more guards making a long line to either side of the door to another open doorway. The Queen and princess made their exit, two of the guards taking positions behind them and following them into the doorway. The rest of the guards had followed once the royals disappeared into the doorway... leaving Ro and Hazard alone. Hazard looked at Ro and shrugged before standing up, moving towards the door of the ship with Ro following behind him.
Stepping out on the platform was the first true look he had had at civilization, and he had to admit: it was an amazing sight. They were atop some sort of tower, that much was clear by the city that stretched out far below like a model. With his eyesight energized as it was the city seemed modern for this world: long, wide roads all laid out in perfect straight lines radiating from the tower and what looked like streetlamps lining each one, tall towers adorned with massive crystals dotting the circular city at regular intervals, and what looked like tall, natural walls of stone stretched up to the sky around the city. Gaps between the stone were filled with row after row of tall archways stretching across the space, the faintest dots of movement he assumed were other ships, flowing through the arches.
“...Hey Ro?” Evidently the sight had mesmerized her just as much, because his question caused her to visibly jolt.
“Wha?”
“We really did go from the deepest pit to the highest peak.”
“...Yeah... yeah, guess we did. What was it you said that one time though? “Into the frying pan from the fire?””
“”Out of the frying pan, into the fire.””
“You’re both going to be “fired” from your positions if you do not move.” The two of them whipped around to see the Queen in the doorway, and Ro bristled before the two approached her, “And why exactly are you two lazing about?”
“Your Highness, we weren’t told to follow, and it seemed like the guards were quick to close around you.” Hazard offered in as apologetic a tone as he could muster, now well aware “fired” might mean something very different here compared to his memories.
“You need instructions for me to tell you something so obvious?”
Hazard could tell Ro was about to say something, so he quickly bowed, “We’re sorry, Your Highness.”
Ro seemed to thankfully resign to following his lead, bowing her head as well. He heard the Queen sniff, “Follow me.”
The two did so in silence, Hazard keeping his head down and just following the white marble tiles and the Queen’s cape until something struck out in his periphery; a stained-glass window showing a purple tower, maybe some sort of castle? They started down the stairs and each landing included another window; a figure in white, black, and purple clothing holding their hand high and sending lightning towards armored figures, that same figure with their hand outstretched but with plants now sprouting from the earth, them again but now with people behind them as they appeared at the purple tower again, and... Hazard thought the last one strange. The figure from before was gone, this one showing a group of people fleeing from knights. Was this a religious story, or a historical one? He lingered a moment on the last window before he could feel the Queen’s gaze on his back and he hurried along. They were finally led to a round platform with a purple crystal jutting from its center, and the Queen nodded to a figure in white, hooded robes. The figure nodded back and raised a black staff capped with another purple crystal, both gems lightning up before the platform shook, then began to lower.
There was silence bar the hum of crystal and what sounded like the grinding of gears, until they reached their destination and the Queen walked out into the hall. Hazard followed, taking a deep breath as he stepped over the threshold to their new life...
...and everything turned black...