During a cold night, I remained restless as a rather familiar voice spoke to me:

“Wake up, my vessel,” these were the first words they said.

Strangely enough, I was not confused at all, it is as though I already knew this was coming. Or maybe I had already experienced something like this in the past, there were holes in my memory, I know something was supposed to be in that place, yet there is nothing but emptiness.

“Tell me your name, my soul mate,” the voice gently asked me.

That is supposed to be the one thing that you cannot possibly forget, your name holds great value along with your whole identity, everyone is recognized better by their names.

I raised my head to answer their question, but no matter how hard I tried, my voice would not come out.

Come to think of it, even if I could respond to them, what would I have said? It is such an easy question, but back then I wondered… what was my name again?

“Worry not about your loss of memory, it isn’t permanent. I know you have many questions to ask me, but if I had to go through all your concerns every time we met, you might as well never leave this place,” the voice explained.

The only thing I could still do was listen to what they had to say to me, it is not something I would usually do, that is the only thing that I was sure of, but given the circumstances, I was trapped with them.

I struggled and tried my best to say anything at all, it did not have to be real words, just anything.

“Who... am… I?”

Somehow I had managed to ask the only thing I was truly wanting to know, as if everything else was irrelevant, there were so many other questions I could have asked, yet I felt like knowing this specific question would solve everything.

“That is something you must find out by yourself, everyone who came here before you also had to struggle in their search for answers, this is truly the best thing about this place, no matter what questions you have, you can find out the answer to everything around here. But as with almost everything, there is a great cost for unlimited knowledge.”

I had not thought about this, but looking around me, I could not perceive anything. The scenery looks straight out of modern painting, there were colors everywhere and I was surrounded by a black void, something akin to space. There was no end to that place, at least not that I could see with my eyes.

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“Oh! It looks like our time is almost up, listen closely child of Celestine, in your current state you are incomplete. You must find what you lost before you can proceed on your journey.”

Although the information they gave me was rather vague, the holes in my memory slowly started to close and form vivid images inside my mind. I could see the silhouette of someone sitting on a chair in front of me, their black clothing made it hard to spot them.

“Don’t keep me waiting for too long, we have a duty to fulfill. Every day that goes by, our time window to restore the link between worlds only shortens. If you do not hurry it up, our worlds will collide once again, and who knows what will happen this time,” said the person in front of me.

That was undeniably the same voice that I heard before, however, this time their voice sounded more feminine, and looking at their body structure I would be safe to assume that they were indeed a female.

While taking a closer look at her, the only thought that crossed my mind was that I knew her from somewhere, maybe we had already met before. I felt a strong connection to that girl as if we were bound by a thread to each other. Honestly a very hard feeling to explain.

But she gave me a clue as to who I am, she called me a child of “Celestine”, I felt that this name is very important to me, it is something that I hold very dear, but something is trying to tear apart the association I have with it. My mind filled up with doubt, is this the right thing to do?

“Memories are not typically shared between the real world and the rift, but you can escape with some fragments of memories intact. Although you will not be able to activate these fragments by yourself, you will surely meet another traveler along the way, they will wake them up for you.”

She called this place “The Rift”, and said something about my memories being restored, but before I could gather my thoughts, an immense headache struck me at that moment and I lost what was on my mind, I opened my eyes and stared directly at her while I felt my body going numb and my vision getting blurry.

“Don’t panic, it seems we just ran out of time. When the rift closes, it sends our conscience back to the world we came from. It is a little painful, but you will eventually get used to it. This isn’t your first time here either, child of Celestine.”

The girl came closer to me as her body seems to dissipate into nothing.

“Lock away the fragments of memory you want to be awakened, just think hard about what you want to keep when you exit the rift, the rest will come to you in due time,” said the girl as she completely disappeared before my eyes.

The thought of losing my memories is scary, she did say it wasn’t my first time here, I wonder what memories I lost when I first exited this place, there are many things I would rather not forget from this encounter, but if I had to pick one:

“Please, don’t reject your bond to the Celestines,” I said it out loud as my voice suddenly came back to me.

My vision faded into black, along with all my thoughts and emotions, but from a faraway place I could still hear someone talking:

“Good luck,” said the voice.

Then everything turned to black.