“Sorry little one,” she said. “Eve and her brother won’t be able to keep you company today.”

I looked up at her and pouted. “Why not?”

She smiled and patted me on the head. “They are with Lord Taira at the other estate.”

“Why?”

“Aren’t you awful curious?” She chuckled and pinched my cheek. “But I don’t know.” She shrugged. “It’s not our place to question Taira-Kaicho. Anyway, you shouldn’t have to stay long today. Your father—assuming he didn’t get lost in his workshop again—will be along to pick you up shortly.”

I slumped my shoulders. “Alright.”

“That’s my girl. For now, why don’t you work on that story you were telling me.” She grinned. “I’m excited to hear the next adventure of Ghost-Mom.”

A ripple of confusion.

I was kneeling at a low table in front of a few loose sheets of paper. Mom left a while ago to do her rounds, and Dad, of course, was already an hour late. Before I could pen my next few lines, I was interrupted by a popping in the distance. I sat up and canted my head.

The noise grew louder, and was joined by a jumble of other sounds, including a great deal of shouting and panicked screams. A woman burst into the room and slammed the door behind her. A ring of bright red surrounded a gash in her dress, growing ever wider as blood seeped into the fabric.

She locked eyes with me and cried, “Maia! You have to—“

She was cut off by a sword piercing the doorway. It cleaved through her arm and torso, scattering blood and limb across the room.

Confusion. Panic. The scene splintered into a maelstrom of images then faded into shadow.

“Wait here kid,” someone said. “It’s… you’ll… be alright.”

The voice was indistinct, echoing in the strange darkness I found myself. How long had I been out? The last thing I remember… was going to see Virgil, for some stupid reason. I was going to tell him I decided to name the boy—

“Hitori!”

A vision of a dim room flashed in my mind. A middle aged man stood before me, obscuring a high table. A woman in white, a Paladin, was working on something laid on top. Or someone.

“Mama!”

A surge of emotions washed over me—terror, anxiety, dread—like an electric current. Something from outside my own heart. Suddenly, the world came into focus. I was struggling to break free from someone’s grip, frantically trying to reach the woman on the table.

My body seemed to be in thrall to an overriding impulse as it turned up to look up at the man holding me. “Let me go!”

That… that wasn’t my voice.

And this… wasn’t my body. I felt panic well up, this time my own. I had somehow become… connected to a small child, around three or four. We could share senses, but I seemed to be utterly incapable of affecting his actions. It was hard to process, and even though he moved by his own will, it felt very much like I shared his actions.

The man holding us back was familiar. Foster? He was much older than I remembered. What in the hells happened to me?

The boy managed to wiggle free, and scrambled to the side of the table. I could see now it was a kind of bed, like could be found in a Temple clinic. The woman on top was badly mauled. Even now, blood trickled from her open wounds. The Paladin was desperately working to stem the flow.

“Mama…”

The Paladin looked at me with sad eyes, then glanced at Foster. “He should… be with her.”

A few seconds later, I felt myself pulled up and held beside the injured woman’s head. I looked down at her and a jolt of alarm struck my heart.

It was… I was…

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“Maia,” Foster said softly. He tapped her shoulder with his free hand. “Y-your son…”

I drew my knees onto the table and pulled her hand into my own. She looked at me, skin pale and clammy, eyes vague and unfocused. “Hey… little… bird…” She gave me a weak smile, and reached for me. Her fingers brushed my face before slipping away and falling to the table.

“M-mom?”

I touched her cheek. The last of its warmth and color gone. She… I…

The boy wailed in pain. I could feel tears run from his eyes.

An echo of sorrow. Long forgotten despair brought to light. The scene fell apart, dissolving into a blur of sight, sound, and sensation. It slowly reconstituted into a vision of a dark tunnel.

I was descending deep into the cave. The men broke though that morning, and after taking a quick survey, they cleared it for the research team. I was dangling below Alcubierre, a Southerner we hired once we discovered this facility was connected to his enigmatic people. He didn’t speak much, but was hardy and thoughtful.

I was not the best at rappelling, but I didn’t want to wait until we finished the scaffolding to get inside. It took several minutes before reaching the bottom, and when we did, my heart pounded from a mixture of exertion and excitement.

This was it, this was the source of the strange phenomenon I discovered, and we were finally about to make it inside. What we found today could change the course of the whole planet, or more. I couldn’t help but tremble in anticipation.

“Doing alright, boss?” Alcubierre said to me with a playful grin.

I nodded, but was unable to articulate a response. He chuckled, then lead us deeper in. I followed the light of his torch a half hour, before the tunnel opened into a colossal chamber. Inside was the front entrance to the vast facility we discovered months ago. The rear entrance proved impossible to breach, and we’d been forced to dig around for another way in.

The towering edifice before me was built with something that appeared to be glass, but initial testing—and the pile of stones leaning against it in some places—revealed it to be some extraordinary material similar to what we found on the other side.

Alcubierre pointed at a cluster of symbols arranged above the door. “It says this is called the ‘Eternal Archive’”—he shrugged—“more or less.”

We continued into the facility, thankful this entrance wasn’t locked. To our surprise the lights came on as soon as we entered. I didn’t have time to wonder, however, as I was here on a mission. I pulled out the malhahon detector I developed, and followed the signal deeper into the complex.

Alcubierre stuck close, reading off various signs and placards as we passed. This place was some manner of museum, although the exhibits were of items well beyond our level of technology. Historians were going to have a field day when they found out about it.

The trail of malhahons lead me through a large room, containing, amongst other things, a full sized mirror. Curiosity drew me in, wondering why such a plain looking item was on display. Also it had been months since I lived out of something other than a ratty tent, and I worried I looked too haggard for such a momentous day.

I took a moment to examine myself. My dark hair was indeed as sorry as I feared, in desperate need of both a trim and a wash. My skin was covered in a fine layer of reddish dust, but at least gained a healthy tan from long days at the dig site. I’m sure the dark circles under my eyes weren’t doing my plain face any favors.

“Dr. Magnus?” Alcubierre said. I turned to look at him.

Shock. Bewilderment. The scene fractured. Time slipped forward. A pair of concentric rings stood on a raised platform, a dark haze bound within. The vision blurred, resolving into the backdrop of a cloudy Seitojin day.

A young girl pulled me along by the hand. She had a pleasantly round face, with well defined cheeks and a button nose. She was also well built for a child, although given she was hunting Slinkers down in the waterway when she found me, that wasn’t much of a surprise.

“How long have you been living down there?” she asked.

“Long as I can remember,” I said.

“Oh…. Was that lonely?”

I shrugged.

We neared a ten story building. Nothing about it stood out from its neighbors, but the girl dragged on with confidence so I supposed this was our destination. We went up three floors and down a short hall then stopped in front of a door.

Before she could take me inside, I wiggled my hand free and asked, “Why?”

She looked at me quizzically.

“A-are you really….” I motioned to myself.

She canted her head. “Taking you home?” I nodded, and she answered, “Well, you’re hungry, right?”

“I- I… can’t—“

“Of course you can.” She grabbed me by the arm, and led me into her house. “Momma taught me how to make sandwiches, so we can have some of those. Do you like ham?” Before I could reply she started walking again and said, “But before that, you look like you could use a warm bath. Let me start one for you.”

She pulled me into a smaller room, with a large basin on one side, and several stone articles arranged around the edges. Mounted on the wall above the tallest one was a reflective plane. I’d never seen anything like it, except perhaps in an especially still pool of water outside.

The girl parked me in the middle of this room and moved to a set of metal faucets. While she worked on them I was mesmerized by the reflection. The image cast through it was so clear, I felt I could almost jump through into another world. I approached it, using a handy stool to prop myself up high enough to see inside.

I saw a young girl looking back at me with dark green eyes. Her features were unremarkable, wholly unlike those of the girl who brought me here. I supposed this was myself.

Hitori was struck by a jolt of alarm, and he became aware of himself. This was the girl who dropped in front of him at the Rusted Pass, if somewhat younger. Why he was looking out from her eyes was a mystery. In fact, what he was doing and where he was were both equally bewildering.

Something happened to him. He only hoped he had enough time to figure it out.