Upon reaching the wall, Apolo extended his hand towards the wooden planks and realized that he could also pass through them, just as the masked young man had done. With the assurance that he wouldn't crash into the wooden boards, Apolo passed through the wall with his body, allowing him to see that on the other side, there was a wide hallway with white tiles that stretched seemingly to infinity and beyond.

The walls and ceiling of this peculiar hallway were made of the same white tiles as the floor. Moreover, countless transparent crystals on the ceiling illuminated the place with an uncomfortable white light. Apolo found this light extremely bothersome, as the polished tiles in the hallway were reflecting the white light, flooding the area and contrasting sharply with the dark hallway he had been walking through not long ago.

Although he couldn't see any doors anywhere, and the hallway didn't seem to lead anywhere specific besides infinity, the masked young man was advancing into it, walking slowly on the white tiles in silence, apparently waiting for Apolo to get used to the uncomfortable light of the hallway and finally decide to catch up with him.

After a few seconds of struggling against the glare of the light and realizing that the masked young man wouldn't stop to wait for him, Apolo didn't wait to be able to see normally and ran toward the black point in the distance, managing to catch up with him and wasting no time to ask:

—What do you want to show me? Where are we headed?

—When you see it, you will understand...—The masked young man calmly responded, making Apolo impatient.

Upon hearing this response, Apolo stopped looking at the masked young man and instead looked at the infinite hallway ahead. He emphasized his thoughts:

—But this hallway leads nowhere!

—For now... for now, it leads nowhere. But sooner or later, Helena's subconscious will forget us, and then this hallway will show us what we want to see—The masked young man replied calmly, trying to reassure the impatient noble.

—Helena's subconscious? Where are we?—Apolo asked, straining his eyes to see the end of the hallway, but it was of no use since the hallway didn't seem to have an end, or at least, the uncomfortable white light reflected throughout the place created the illusion in his mind.

The masked young man adjusted his mask and calmly began to explain the current situation to Apolo in the simplest words he could muster, trying to make the noble understand what had been happening all this time:

—Well, the answer to that question depends a lot on time: At first, we were in a dream controlled by Helena, or by her ring, or from anyone, one can never be sure of the truth. Then I handed you control of the mask and forced you to delve into a memory that was in the silver mask to gain some time, because the deeper you go into a dream, the more time distorts, and decades become seconds, and seconds become decades. Using this precious gained time, you managed to hand me back control of the mask before your time ran out, and unconsciously forced me to delve into one of Helena's memories, which not coincidentally happened to be the memory you most wanted to discover. Regardless of that, in that memory, and with a bit more time to work with, I was finally able to put the silver mask on you and thus force you to show me the invented subconscious of the "other" Helena hidden within you. That way, I ended up inside the subconscious of Helena's acolyte, that is, the subconscious the mage created when she killed Helena's real subconscious. From that subconscious, I managed to get the acolyte of Helena to hand me control of the mask again, and by using her invented memories, we managed to delve into the subconscious of the "real" Helena, the mage who has been complicating our lives all this time. Having fixed the important things, I made you appear in Helena's subconscious to explain the whole truth. Quite complex, don't you think, Apolo? But no matter how complex all the steps were to get to this point, luckily, all of that is now in the past, and everything has gone well... so far.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

—Helena's acolyte? So, there are two Helenas, or am I getting confused? Your explanation is confusing enough without repeating two names and expecting me to understand it—Apolo commented, completely bewildered. For some reason, subconsciously, he felt that those words made sense, but the logic in his memories indicated that the sentence didn't make any sense at all.

—You never delved into the acolyte's subconscious, let alone were you conscious during the dream created by Helena,or by her ring...or from anyone, so it's logical that you don't understand what happened, and for now, you're too ignorant to fully grasp my words, so I don't expect you to understand right now...—The masked young man replied calmly and quite conclusively—The important thing is for you to understand the concept that there were "two" intruders in your mind: one was the evil mage who was making your life miserable, and the other was an unfortunate soul who died a long time ago, but her memories survive in the mage's imagination.

—If I'm not supposed to understand it right now, so be it...—Apolo replied, forcing himself to ignore the many questions in his mind, trying to concentrate on understanding why this masked young man had gone to such great lengths to reach this place. Just as this mysterious person had commented: he didn't remember any dream created by Helena or her acolyte, but Apolo decided to trust his words and not argue about a matter he couldn't fully comprehend. Despite that, Apolo sought to understand the few doubts he had partially deduced during these dreams—So, are you my ancestor Tea, the great memory mage? Now that I think about it, it would make sense for it to be that way. It would explain the issue with the cursed axe and why you were so skilled in magic. Did you ultimately become a mage after the siege, or did you remain a soldier until you got tired and became a mage?

—No, you're getting confused—The masked young man replied firmly—The mask holds Tea's memories, but I am not Tea. Although, unfortunately, I can tell you that young Tea had many more years of military service before he finally gathered the courage to tell his parents the truth and could become a mage.

—Then who are you?—Apolo asked, a little annoyed that his idea wasn't correct.

—Isn't it obvious?—The masked young man responded with a smile, looking as the end of the hallway finally appeared before his eyes, revealing that this hallway ended with a completely red wooden door—Let me give you a hint, I am your best friend, the smartest and most handsome person in the world, and I know you perfectly, to the point that I know all your secrets. Now tell me: Who am I?

—Me?—Apolo asked with a slight blush on his face, embarrassed to feel that he perfectly fit that description.

—Yes, you've always been talking to yourself: Don't you see that you're a genius, Apolo!—The masked young man replied. In reality, if this person's true identity were Tea, the deceased would find it quite convenient to make Apolo believe that all of this was the product of his own ingenuity. That it wasn't the result of the help of an ancestor who had happened to take the trouble to put a defense mechanism in one of his inventions, in case any of his descendants were mentally affected by trauma like the one he had experienced during the war, or if they fell victim to an unknown spell from a mage or creature with malicious intentions.

—You seem very real to be something invented by my imagination...—Apolo replied honestly, although by the appearance and voice of this person, it was difficult for him to think otherwise.

—That's because your imagination didn't create me; Tea's imagination stored in the silver mask did. But deep down, we are the same person, Apolo: Never forget that the only one who can solve and understand your problems is yourself!—The masked young man replied, pointing his hand towards the red door in the distance—We're almost there; in a few minutes, you'll finish understanding how you ended up in this desperate situation.