- Aster -

I was falling through the infinite void of nothings holding onto a lifeline of force pulling me...somewhere. I was beyond myself now, with but that singular force pulling me ever onward, surrounded by falling possibilities. I held tight constantly being, stretched thinner and thinner. Growing tired.

The strange euphoria that came with falling away from myself, that to was beginning to, fall away. I held tight to my determination knowing if I let that go there would be nothing left. Nothing to go...wherever I was going.

I was diminishing, loosing myself in the million other possibilities shifting around me. I would always find myself once more, but to find myself...less. I shrank smaller and smaller. Until I was gone, greeted by blackness.

*GASP* I inhaled sharply snapping awake, flailing around trying to catch myself. I didn't move far before my mind caught up with myself as I heard the rattling. My hands were heavy with cold steel pressed against them. My hands were manacled and held on a spike.

'This again?' My mind played back to my training when I woke up a lot like this. 'Am I still in training? Wait...Where am I?' I was confused and disoriented from whatever I had done. I was trying to remember when I heard another chain rattling.

Looking across the room to the sound I saw Violet violently trying to remove her chains. "Hey! Violet! What's going on?"

Violet sat there looking around the room. Fighting with her manacles. Alternating looking at everyone and trying to free herself. "COME ON! Will one of you wake up already!" Violet said oddly flat, completely ignoring me.

"Violet!" I yelled. Violet froze for a second and looked directly at my eyes seemingly unfocused. Not saying a word.

"Violet?" I asked tentatively. This was starting to get unsettling.

Violet's eyes gained focus as she focused on me. "Aster?" There was no hint of her usual heat, or derision when she said my name just what appeared to be genuine confusion.

This more than anything set alarm bells ringing through my head. "Violet. What is going on?"

I think she was about to reply when we heard the rattling of another chain close by. I looked over to see James, seemingly just waking up. When I looked back at Violet, I saw her eyes lose focus as she began to speak.

"Finally, Someone else woke up," Violet said listlessly.

"Where are we?" James asked just as bland.

"Don't remember. But seeing as we are chained to a wall...I'd say we are in a dungeon. ... ... remember anything? ... hitting ... someone ... ... ...?" Violets response seemed to completely lose energy as she spoke devolving into mumbling, with only one or 2 coherent words. 'The rot is going on.'

"JAMES!" James and Violet both stopped talking for a minute looking at me unfocused. 'Ok. That is not creepy at all.'

They looked at me like they were trying to see something, not theirs. 'I don't think anyone is home upstairs.'

I looked around the room again finally realizing it was very dim. My eyes were always circulating energy now. I don't even notice the darkness anymore unless it's complete. 'My eyes must be glowing and they're addled. Must not be able to see me.'

*Clang Clang* The sound of chains rumbled as Bay sat up. "It means we must be in the dream," Bay said in a monotone. I saw the same unfocused look in her eyes as the others. Then what she said caught up. 'Dream? What dream? Why is everything disjointed? Is this a dream? Am I in a dream? Wait how did I even get here.

That's when it all came rushing back to me.

The world was gone I began to remember the last few... days? 'Had it only been a few days? I was put on trial. Joined a secret society. Then they attempted to kill me off? Then...I'm supposed to save my team somehow and reach level 30.'

I looked around the room seeing all my friends and their odd state as they seemed to be going through some scripted conversation. It was hard to follow, as much of their words faded to mumbles. Everyone was awake at this point. But I did catch something.

"But that doesn't explain why the world here is so...quiet like there's nothing."

Bay looked over at Rowan's expression unchanging. "What do you mean quiet?"

"I've explained I can kinda feel people's and other things emotions, like and extreme empathy. The thing is I can only feel you 4. Everything else is just...gone."

'4 does he know I'm here?' I yelled. "ROWAN! ROWAN!!!!!" he stopped and looked toward me his eyes seeming to focus for a moment. "4? Who are you?" Rowan's eyes narrowed at me.

"Rowan, it's Aster." But his eyes were already losing focus. As I heard the conversation around us continuing as though Rowan was talking.

"I think this might be a ... shared dream. Not some ... real and physical." Bay said.

"Is that even possible?" James sounded like he was trying to be shocked but couldn't do it.

"I don't know." Bay shook her head. "They ... everything away from us until we are stronger. So ... proven ... I am going ... ... ... is some type of dream ... ... to wake up from."

Could this be some 'This is getting creepy.' I don't know if Bay was right but listening to all of them talk like this was seriously freaking me out. I need to get free maybe then I can focus on them.

I looked down at my manacled wrists. 'Why are my manacles black holes?'

I stared down at my wrists surrounded by, what to my eyes, look to be black holes sucking in all the energy around me. 'Some type of nullification? No preventative, otherwise I would be back to my normal eyes, and these would probably look like normal steal cuffs.'

This was a first for me. 'I need to cut the flow of energy off from my eyes, so I could see what I am working with.' It was surprisingly hard to cut the flow off. It felt like my eyes were going blind. Everything was slightly unfocused growing dimmer by the second, I was straining to hold the flow back as I examined the manacles.

'Let us see. Fairly basic, lock on each manacle. Looks like a simple embedded padlock.' I was sweating at this point holding back the flow was like forcefully causing a muscle cramp. It was starting to hurt.

*Bang Crash* I was startled out of my concentration as energy rammed back through my eyes temporally blinding me.

"Ow," The world is white and all too bright, like a camera with its contrast to high. I had tuned out everyone around me and that had been a mistake. As my vision came back I saw James sitting with Violet her hands on his chest. I felt a twinge of jealousy until I heard what Violet said.

"This is going to hurt. A lot."

"Let's just do this," James responded. 'Why is this like they're blandly reading a script.

"This will take a few minutes. Everyone you ... want to ... your ears, he's going ... scream."

"Hey what makes you think..." James began to scream or he tried to make a scream. He was calmly saying "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh" it was long and drawn out.

'Ok, this has to be some weird fucked up simulation of them. Why else would they sound and act like that?' I watched this pantomime play out now morbidly curious as they all worked one by one to free each other.

"With everyone free, I decided to try and get everyone's attention, but at this point, I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not. The only one who seemed to acknowledge anything was Violet as she turned to look at me once more.

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"Who are you?" Just a bit of emotion flowed through her voice instead of the dull and dead pantomime of before.

I grabbed onto this shred of focus yelling. "IT's ASTER HELP ME!"

She looked to take a step toward me when Bay yelled softly. "The blight is this?"

There was a pause where Violet was staring at me but I could see her lips moving as if in response to Bay. 'Shit! I think I lost her.'

"You all come here and take a look," Bay said.

"Can't you just tell us?" With that Violet's eyes unfocused and like the others turned to ask "What is it?"

"No, just read it," Bay said.

I turn to look at whatever they were all looking at and could only see a glowing light from where I was. 'I'll have to take a closer look.'

They had all gone silent, I decided to take this moment to take stock of what I had on me. 'Clothes, shoes, satchel, picks, sword, chakram, dagger, mask. Everything I had on me from the party. Surprise whatever I did to get here didn't leave me naked.'

I looked up to the rest of the now...dream-locked team. They were discussing something but were just a bit far away for me to make out their low droning words. Next to the light was a door that looked like an ordinary wooden door, that they were opening.

"Shit!" I reached down for my picks and effortlessly unlocked my manacles, moving to catch up but before that, I stopped to see what it was. As I approached the light a blue screen appeared.

    Mission Rank: ?? Type: Escape

    Mission Status: Multi-Completion Time Remaining: N/A

    Details:

      Free the entire party from the wall. Use whatever method necessary.

    Completion Details:

      Ripped chains from walls using internal energy. Healed team member. Worked together to free all but one. Freed self by picking lock.

'What is Multi-Completion?' I scratched my head trying to figure out what that meant. "Multiple Completions....That means..." I couldn't say it. It was too horrible to contemplate. 'How many times have they done this? How many times has this happened? Enough that their conversations feel like a script.'

"Shit." I moved to the door they were standing in front of staring into not moving.

They looked to be talking but their voices were too soft. I made my way up to them when I finally noticed the silver in the corner of my eye through the door.

I stopped moving and looked through the door hard. Against the bright white I could see the telltale flash of the invisible. As soon as I spotted them the whole room came into focus, filled with magical triggers all around.

When I thought they were going to go in I yelled. "STOP! STOP!" They started to turn toward me. 'Good, maybe I can snap them out of...whatever this is.'

I was standing with them now. "You're gonna trigger a trap!" I practically yelled at them.

The team slowly turned forward-looking considering when Violet said. "Yeah. The entire hall screams trap." She stared out into the hallway away from me.

'Good this is good. She responded' I thought I heard something coming from James but couldn't make it out so I tried again.

"Yes! This whole place is covered in traps." I said.

"You asked."

"I didn't ask anything. Violet..." That's when it hit me. "You're not talking to me are you?"

"Someone else might have a way of finding something." I heard James say dully.

Violet turned and lifted her chains in front of James. "That might be the case if any of us could ... the ... outside of ..., but ... rogues ... ... trained in identifying traps."

"And we left our rogue behind." I looked over at Bay as she said that.

'Are they talking about me now?'

Then James spoke, and what he said confused me more than the whole situation. "Look. We would have brought him if we had time to wait. He was going to be out for 2 weeks anyway. We'll be done and back before he notices."

'Two weeks? What did he mean by 2 weeks? What the blight did the mayor tell them? Was I supposed to be learning a skill or something?' I just thought they got tired of waiting for me when the whole keeper mess started and was eager to start. I was now curious about what they were saying when Bay responded.

"We didn't even look for him. How do we know the mayor ... did what he ... he did?"

"Bay, I know. It was a rough ... we did to him, but we ... ... that what the mayor said was true." Violet cut in.

"How can you say that? That guy is definitely not on the level." It was odd hearing this conversation in a dull thread, didn't make it hurt less.

"I agree." I took a double-take at Violet's response. "Of course he's fishy. First thing he did was call Aster a fool and attempt to have us turn against him." She added something I couldn't quite hear her tone was too low and words to mumbled, but her response made me happy.

"I heard that," Bay said

"I know. But think about it even if he ... teaching ... .... They would probably keep him for the 2 weeks to prove...something. Blight, even if we got back and ... could ... ..., and he is ... ... enough to make him .... I ... ... ... Jame's would ... tare the place down ... ... ... ... he's safe."

That devolved quickly to incoherence, but I think she believed I would be safe. I was really confused, as my emotions were quickly shifting from happy to sad. I was starting to feel numb, or I was trying to numb myself. I didn't know I just needed to move forward with them.

I began to tune out what they were saying when I looked back up and over to them to see Rowan looking at me. His eyes seeming sharp. "Aster? When did you get here?" I locked onto him.

"Rowan. You can see me?"

Rowan looked to be struggling, with something as his eyes stared me down. "How are you here?"

"Listen I don't know I somehow made it here. I'm here to help tell me what's happening."

Rowan shook his head. Trying to shake something loose. When he looked back up at me I could see his eyes drifting.

"Rowan! Focus!"

He snapped back to me. "Aster. Is this real?"

The confusion and hope in his voice terrified me. "Yes. At least I think it is."

Rowan smiled. I think he was about to say something when his eyes lost focus again.

"ROWAN!" I yelled at him. This time it didn't do anything, but he did speak.

"And what is that?" Apparently, it was Rowan's turn.

"Something we've been putting off, but given the situation. We might need to." James said.

Rowan paused before replying. "That doesn't really answer my question, James."

I was about to try to get Bay's attention this time when what James said made me stop dead. "We need to talk about our Words."

"Hey, my language isn't that bad," Violet said.

"That's not what I mean."

Bay answered for James. "He's talking about our Words, special skills. Something very personal...but he might be right."

"Oh." Violet and everyone fell silent.

I didn't know what to do. Was it right for me to listen to them? To find out their words? I couldn't even tell them mine. Should I step away? My mind was moving a mile a minute but I couldn't quite bring myself to not listen. They spoke half in mumbles impossible to understand but there was no mistaking the words. There was an air to them whenever they were spoken.

I heard James: Dance, Honor, Rain, and Moment. And learned of his Dancer subclass.

Rowan's Feel, Run, and Surprise, and that he was a Cook.

Violet's Blunt, Understand, and Silence. Didn't surprise me she was an Alchemist.

Bay's Move, Victory, and Stop, and her subclass Alchemist.

I learned more than I ever thought I would about each of them from those simple words. They were parts of their souls and I felt every part of the voyeur watching them speak.

I tried to tell them mine knowing they would not hear but I wanted them to know me as I now knew them. "Faster, Pocket, Falling, and I'm a Blacksmith. I made your sword James." I looked up as I spoke, none of them acknowledging a word I said, just continuing the conversation as though I wasn't there. To them, I wasn't.

When they began to move to the room I knew it was a bad idea but was also in a bit of a foggy state. My mind not reacting fast enough to grab them. I stepped through and heard the door slam behind me. "Should have seen that coming."

"That is the most cliched thing that could have happened." Violet vindicated my thoughts. "How the FUCK did we not see it coming?"

"Well," James added.

"That was... rhetorical." Violets stopped looking confused and quickly looked around. Catching my attention, this was different. I could see her emotions, where there were none before. Violet looked confused and concerned. I looked to the others and they to seemed to be coming out of whatever fugue state they were in.

'Thank the Keepers. Maybe now they can see me.' I waved to get their attention. That's when I felt it. The hairs on my arms were starting to stand up, and I felt the air thicken becoming dangerous. Search for the source I saw the entire room sparkling with energy flowing toward the roof. It was withdrawing like a wave. I didn't know what was happening but I knew it would come back.

The wave began to rise to bring with it a tide of black arrows. I watched as it moved forward conjuring them from them either as the power flowing through the room. I began to move my power through me and grabbed my mask shoving it on. Focusing on what I need I spoke: "Fall Away." An infinite number of myself began to fall away from my body, as the euphoria of falling holding me gripped. I moved through the infinite falling and moving. I was struck multiple times, but I didn't care. I was ME!

Then the rain stopped and I took in the room. Everyone had moved through the arrow rain, and not one of them had an arrow in them. I lifted my hand and took off my mask as I fully came back to myself. 'There is no way they got out of that without damage...' That's when the implications fully unveiled themselves to me. 'How Many times have you all been through this.'

I felt the little jolts of elasticity pound through me through the arrows, as I watched my team. The 4 of them were looking around confused. Their eyes just flowed over me not seeing me.

It was James that spoke first. "Do any of you know what's going on? I remember this room. I remember conversations in the other rooms. I don't know..."

Everyone was quiet. I could see on all their faces they were remembering. And not all of it is good. Bay broke the silence. "I think we are in a loop."