When Eibon realized he was back in the dark red archive of Cece’s mind he was on the floor, recoiling from the pain. He looked up at the daemonic Cece who had a complicated look on her face and the younger one who was clearly trying to look unbothered despite the pain she was also in, panting slightly.

“I’m sorry.” Eibon and Cece said at the same time. Eibon smiled slightly and Cece just sighed for a moment.

“I think you better step outside while we finish the rest.” She said to Eibon.

“Yes, that sounds smart.” He walked out the door and stood in the hallway for a moment to breathe. He had of course assumed his friend had led a traumatic life, he knew what mage families were like and he knew what had happened to her, but he hadn’t quite realized just how bad it could be. He felt bad to intrude, but he felt worse to have not known. It wasn’t like they were good friends yet, but Eibon had decided to be her friend when she made him his focus and he wanted to uphold that obligation.

He walked back to the central chamber solemnly. It had filled with even more water, but it was still at least relegated to one side. Eibon walked past the dark pool of water and made his way towards the second hallway. It was similar to the first, but seeing as his two Ceces were already accounted for, he was fairly sure something else laid that way. He thought of waiting for Cece to be done before pressing on, but time was of the essence. He reached a door, this one a simple wooden one. He opened the door gingerly and inside found a man in plate armor laying on grass. Eibon looked up to find a full sky and sun above him.

“Well, hello there. I suppose one of the paladins survived.” The man didn’t respond and Eibon looked at him closer. “Just barely.”

Eibon took his vitals, whatever that meant here, and he seemed alive, but comatose. He knew paladins had some ability to resist whatever angels did, otherwise they wouldn’t hunt them. He assumed it was the divinity within them opposing the angel’s own, but he had never looked into it too much. He found theology boring once he got past the exciting parts. Still it didn’t look like it was enough if he was there with them. After trying to wake him and looking around for a moment, Eibon turned around and went back the way he came, finding Cece, neither the daemonic version of her or the younger, just as he knows her, standing in front of him.

“I’m sorry again, I didn’t meant to invade your privacy.” He said quietly.

“It’s alright, you couldn’t have known. Do you have all your memories.”

“Probably not, but if I knew I wouldn’t be in this mess.” He said casually.

“Good point, is there any way to get them back?”

“Not for me, but you might be able to.”

“How?”

“The fact that we’re here means our minds, in some way, are connected to each other. So in theory, just as you are able to control your own mind you might be able to control mine. I don’t have my memories backed up like you do, but I have enough resistance to that kind of thing that you may be able to recover them.”

Cece looked at him seriously for a moment, before trying to feel him with her mind. It felt silly beyond belief, and she had to stifle her embarrassment, but like a light in the dark she could feel his consciousness, his cognition floating a bit away from his body. She reached out to it, drawing the disparate parts together delicately, and suddenly she wasn’t where she once was.

“Higher! Higher!” A young girl screamed. Cece watched as a young boy with dark skin and hair lifted his little sister into the air while running, her arms fanning out like wings to her sides. She wasn’t sure how she knew that was his sister, but she felt it in her soul just as she knew her name.

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“Okay Isa let’s go higher!” Eibon shouted dramatically lifting her as high as he could over his head. Cece only heard a giggle as everything faded back to black and she and Eibon were back in the room.

“I suppose it’s my turn to apologize for intruding now.” Cece said bashfully.

“No, thank you, Cece.” Eibon said, a tear in his eye. “I really didn’t want to lose that one.” He smiled.

“Of course.” She smiled slightly, unused to camaraderie. “I don’t think there were any others, but I’ve never done this sort of thing before.” She said.

“I’ll trust your judgement, and now that we have a proof of concept, I have your next patient.”

“Oh?”

“Follow me.”

Cece was led into the room that looked like a piece of the outside world.

“A survivor?” She said upon seeing the man on the grass.

“Looks like it. Do you think you could try and restore his mind.”

“I can try, but I’m not sure.” She said trying to feel the man’s mind. It felt far more scattered than Eibon’s, a bit more lively as well, but also less solid and reliable. The endless threads of her cognition reached out to the man’s mind and just as quickly Eibon and Cece were somewhere else. It was dark, so much so that it took a few moments for both Cece’s and Eibon’s eyes to adjust, which perturbed Cece considering she should be capable of seeing in complete darkness. They were in a room with at least twenty bed in it, each with the sleeping form of a child.

“An orphanage.” Cece thought to herself.

The two looked at each other which confirmed they could both see the other. Eibon was about to say something when he was interrupted.

“Hey, Finn, are you really going to become a paladin?” A little boy whispered in the bed besides them.

“Yes.” The boy closest to them replied. “I want to make a difference in the world.”

“Then I’ll become a priest, so I can follow you.” The other boy said.

“Really?” Finn replied in quiet excitement.

“I promise.” The boy, Cole, said holding up his pinky finger. Finn looped his around and they shook on it, each had a smile on their face. The scene faded and Cece recovered the next memory, feeling her mind strain slightly from the effort.

“Cole! Cole! Who did this to you!?” Finn shouted, several years older now. His fist slammed into the ground as tears fell down his face and a guttural, animalistic sob escaped his mouth. Cole lay dead on the ground, cold and still surrounded by a few paladins. Only a few had been sent on this mission, and looking at the bodies Finn realized it was the weakest of them that were sent, they had no business being in such a dangerous area. He couldn’t consider any of that in a real way though. To do so would be to admit that the body in front of him was rapidly cooling, not moving, not alive. So he sat and cried and screamed, because to do otherwise was unbearable.

The memory faded and both Eibon and Cece recoiled from the feeling of despair for a moment, but both were old veterans of grief and recovered quickly. Cece mentally “grabbed” another memory and brought it closer.

Cece and Eibon found themselves in a different scene now. An archive of some sort. Finn was quietly rifling through a filing cabinet when a set of footsteps resounded through the otherwise quiet halls. Finn quickly stood up and closed the cabinet. He looked to be a similar age to the present version of him, perhaps in his late twenties. He stepped over to a different part of the room when a priest walked in.

“Finn, what are you doing here so late?” The priest said in an admonishing tone.

“Father Carlton!” Finn said in feigned surprise. “It seems I’ve misplaced one of my pauldrons.”

“How on earth did you manage that young man?” Father Carlton replied, more out of amusement than disbelief.

“I’m not sure myself, I swear it was with my equipment one minute and now it’s not, so I’ve been trying to retrace my steps.”

“Well don’t stay up all night looking for it, the church doesn’t like to be wasteful, but just as we don’t have unlimited pauldrons we also don’t have unlimited paladins.”

“I won’t Father, thank you.”

“Of course, good night Finn.” The priest said with a soft smile, before waving and starting to walk away. It was certainly strange for a paladin to be up so late in the archive, but it wasn’t necessarily forbidden, and he had certainly seen stranger. Father Carlton like to talk as if he was a stern authority figure, but everyone in his branch of the church knew that he was easygoing. Finn was silently thankful for being assigned to him, grabbing the documents he was actually looking for. After waiting for the footsteps to get far enough, he began speaking.

“Now that he’s gone.” He said, turning his head behind him to where Cece and Eibon stood. “Who in God’s name are you two?”