*Ding*
Memory Shard Unlocked.
Beginning Memory Sequence.
*Ding*
Special System Message.
Beware, what you are about to see has been gone for a long time, Monica Monroe.
These memories are a special allowance for your past deeds.
Do not covet what you are about to see.
Treasure it, but know that it’s gone.
“Peggy, you’re late for school!” Monica shouted from the living room, one hand on the entrance door’s knob, the other holding her son’s hand.
“I’m not! Stop badgering me!” Peggy’s voice came from the bathroom.
“I’m not going to speed up just so you won’t be late this time! Come on!”
“But you always speed for your stupid meetings! That’s how you get all those tickets!” The teen replied from the other room.
Monica sighed, knowing there wasn’t much to argue with a teenage daughter. It was true, and she had gathered quite a few tickets while driving herself from client to client. Most of the partners at her firm booked Uber or taxis, but she just didn’t like being driven by someone else.
“Mommy, can we go to the store after school?” Bobby asked, pulling her hand, pulling her back into reality.
“Sure,” she smiled with a small sigh. “You want a new Transformer?”
“Those stupid toys cost as much as that lip gloss I asked you to buy, and you said it’s crazy expensive,” the teenage girl who had just materialized in front of Monica said. Like her mother, she had green eyes and red hair, a spitting image of hers.
“Lip gloss is stupid,” Bobby declared proudly.
“It quite is,” Monica smiled slyly. “But we can discuss your sister’s make-up obsession later. Let’s just get in the car, please.”
Monica made a point of driving her children back to school. Given her income, she could have easily had the babysitter or hired a driver to do that, but coming from a humble background and wanting to spend time with them, she preferred not to.
Bobby started running out on the porch toward the car parked outside the driveway. Peggy stopped in front of her, her makeup perfect and immaculate, perfectly coordinated with her attire.
“Don’t promise to bring him to buy a new toy if you’re just going to be working late and having Kate pick him up,” Peggy said with a serious voice.
Kate was their babysitter. And honestly, Kate spent more time with them than Monica, which Peggy never stopped reminding her. Monica was a single mother who had tried making both parenthood and her career work.
As it turned out, she had not been very successful at balancing the two. But still, she tried. She tried hard, sometimes barely sleeping to drive back and forth from home and work to spend some time with their kids before she had to drive back and catch some sleep on a couch while working some big cases.
“Listen, Peggy, I promise that I’ll have more time soon since—”
Before Monica could finish, the entire living room started trembling, and her eyes went wide, “an earthquake! Get out now!”
Mother and daughter rushed outside the house. Monica sighed in relief as she saw several people in the peaceful suburb do the same. Soon after the earthquake calmed down, something appeared in the minds of everyone there and the rest of the world.
[Integration Complete.]
[Welcome to the Multiverse, Earthers.]
* * *
Monica woke up in cold sweats, her vision temporarily hazy.
“Are you ok?” A feminine voice asked.
“Peggy?” Monica muttered.
“What? I’m Dotty.”
Slowly, Monica sat up, looking around. She looked at an unfamiliar room.
“Where am I?”
“They brought you inside,” she heard a woman’s voice and turned to find the woman she had seen crying on the steps, sitting on a chair with a blanket over her legs. “You passed out after beating Ivor and his thugs.”
Right after that, the woman erupted in a fit of coughing, and Dotty looked at her with a worried look.
“Can we get the Healer to look at her?” The teenage girl asked Monica.
“Heidi?” Monica said, trying to re-orient herself.
“Yes. Mom’s sick. Well, the whole village is.”
But Monica was still in another place in her mind.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
What did I just see? Why was I somewhere else? Who are Peggy and Bobby?
She had seen herself in another foreign world that looked nothing like this one. There, she had seen herself with two children, unlike Dotty and Ronnie.
What is happening? She asked herself, and perhaps, the System, but no response came back. Then, she heard a notification.
*Ding*
Quest Received – ‘Memories of the Flame II/???’
Uncover a fragment of your past.
Reward: ???
How had she uncovered a fragment of her past?
She was so confused, but it was clear that answers wouldn’t come anytime soon.
So, she stared for a long moment at Dotty, who looked expectantly at her.
“Heidi, can we get her? Maybe she can heal Mom. No Healer ever comes here, so everyone just has to get by. Everyone puts their Attributes in Endurance when they can, but it’s been a year, and everyone’s falling sick. Please, can I get her to help Mom?”
“Dotty,” the woman coughed, “this young woman already helped us. Please, do not burden her with—” She couldn’t finish her sentence before another fit of cough took over.
Monica slowly got up from the couch where she had been lying and looked at Ted, who was standing at attention, clearly nervous and unsure of what to do with his hands.
“Ted, go fetch Heidi and the rest of them.”
Ted scratched his head shyly.
“All of them?” He asked, referring to the ones about to become Cultists.
“All of them.”
“Thank you,” Dotty sighed in relief, her whole body seemingly relaxing after having been a knitted ball of tension.
Ted went out, and Monica approached the kids’ mother.
“Miss, what’s your name?” She asked.
“Madeline,” the weak woman replied.
Monica took a long look at Madeline, noting that she was in her thirties and, if it weren’t for her sickness, she would have been a beautiful woman. Sadly, it was clear that whatever she was suffering from had excavated her cheeks, thinned her hair, and made her skin almost translucid.
Monica was tempted to try to heal the woman herself, but she didn’t know much about healing other than to pour Mana into the Golden Flame, so she decided to wait for Heidi. Despite being an uppity girl, the blonde was still a professional Healer, meaning that she might know more than her about whatever was going on.
“This is a beautiful house,” the redhead said, trying to make small talk.
“Thanks. My husband built it for us… before he ran away,” Madeline replied, sighing.
Well, let’s avoid small talk, then, Monica thought to herself.
“What about Ivor and his goons? Are they still lying outside? Do you think Ivor will want to create more trouble? If he does, I can always kill him.”
“Ivor is a bully but he’s not stupid,” it was Dotty replying. “You survived his strongest attack, so he’ll probably not do anything while you are around. As soon as you leave, he might get ideas, though.”
Even Madeline looked worried, knowing that Monica was certainly not going to stay in Rock’s Heel forever.
“Oh, that’s not a problem,” Monica smiled. “I’ll take Ivor with me.”
“What?” Dotty frowned.
“I will reform him with a little hunting trip, and if he doesn’t change, I’ll dump his corpse in the woods,” the redhead stated matter-of-factly. “I know how bullies behave.”
For some reason, she did. She had been aware from the very first moment she met the guy that this situation wouldn’t be easily resolved.
Sure, punching his teeth out was extremely satisfying, but, as Dotty had noted, Monica couldn’t always stay on Rock’s Heel to ensure he’d behave. However, what she could do was to take him, and perhaps the two goons, on a little expedition. Ivor was the one protecting the village, from what Monica understood.
Her body told her with supreme confidence that she could unmask Ivor’s true character in one simple hunting trip, and if she found him to be a problem, she would kill him.
However, if she could teach him some manners and give him the right incentives to be a decent person, it would do Rock’s Heel good to have someone with a modicum of talent to take care of their monster problems.
She didn’t know how she could be so sure of herself, but so far, she had not been disappointed by her instincts.
“The council will probably want to talk to you,” Dotty said.
“The council?” Monica raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Dotty shrugged before realizing that Monica had no idea what that meant.
“The older and stronger people in the village. The Blacksmith, a Hunter, and old Gertrude.”
“Alright,” Monica shrugged.
Right then and there, Heidi entered the house with her usual haughtiness, followed by the three young men with their wrists still bound and Ted.
When Heidi looked at her, Monica pointed at Madeline. The blonde pursed her lips, approached the woman, and gave her a long look.
“Miss, would you mind lying on a bed and undressing for me?”
Madeline agreed and was helped out by Heidi, who took her to a room.
Monica followed them, curious, and told Dotty and Ronnie to wait outside. She wasn’t sure Heidi would be capable of healing Madeline.
Heidi's brow furrowed as she examined Madeline’s naked body, her hands hovering over the woman's frail body. A soft green glow emanated from her palms, illuminating the dimly lit room. Monica watched from the doorway, her arms crossed, waiting for the verdict. The redhead noticed tiny black tendrils across the woman’s chest.
After several tense minutes, Heidi stepped back, a troubled look on her face. She motioned for Monica to follow her out of the room, closing the door softly behind them and letting Madeline rest.
"It's not good," Heidi said in a low voice, her usual haughty demeanor replaced by genuine concern. "She’s showing signs of Corruption."
Monica raised an eyebrow.
"Corruption?"
“The emergence of an Old God’s Dungeon inundates the surrounding areas with raw Mana that can’t be fully metabolized by System users, meaning their bodies will start breaking down.”
They both turned toward Lucas, who had been listening and spoke out loud in the living room.
“You can’t heal that?” Monica frowned at the Healer.
Heidi shook her head, frustration evident in her features.
"No, I can't. No one can heal Corruption. It’s beyond the System.”
“The only thing one can do when signs of Corruption appear,” Lucas explained, “is to evacuate everyone immediately. Small amounts of Corruption will slowly fade away, but if you’re exposed for long enough, you’ll just die. Painfully.”
Lucas saw Monica walk toward him, thinking that she wanted further explanations. When her slap threw him on the ground, he held a hand to his stinging cheek with wide eyes.
“What’s that for?” He asked, genuinely confused.
However, when he heard a sob and turned to see Dotty hugging Ronnie, he realized he had just told the two children their mother would die a painful death.
“Alright,” Monica said, ignoring Lucas. “Dotty, Ronnie, why don’t you come with me? I’m going to try something.”
Monica took the two children with her in Madeline’s room, not letting anyone else in.
Lucas said that I am an Avatar. Avatars’ powers live outside the System. That means my healing should work.
Monica prayed that her hunch was right and slowly lowered the blankets over Madeline’s body, showing her chest and the black marks on it.
Please, Monica pleaded inside. Please, work.
Without explaining what she was doing, she laid her hands on Madeline’s chest and started pumping Mana through the Golden Flame.