--- AYMIAE, YEAR 795 ---

Aymiae shook her head at Netun when she returned. “She’s gone now.”

He looked sorrowful, but she didn’t think he’d expected anything different. Aymi had hoped—well she’d hoped Fora was alright, or at least her clone. But in the end neither of them were here any longer.

Netun sighed, “We’ll have to just continue operating without her. I don’t want to be the one to tell Hivren though…”

Aymi cringed at that, glancing at Alrasi. Hivren had started helping him out in the last few years, somehow the human seemed to understand mental problems rather well. He was an absolutely genius teacher too. Hivren could spot where practically any child was going wrong, and he knew exactly what to do to get each of them to learn.

It was no wonder that he was finally starting up a proper school with skills like that.

He’d asked Aymi a few times about Fora, and it was clear that the sparking girl had never decided to sit down and have a chat with him, or even say thank you. Aymi had made sure to say thank you twice as much just in case, but she could tell that Hivren really just wanted it from Fora.

And now Fora was gone, and Kalteii refused to tell Aymi which realm or world or whatever she’d ended up in.

“At least she’s not stuck dying over and over again anymore, that would be worse. Did Kalteii tell you if she’ll be able to ever come back?”

Aymi shook her head miserably. “She just said she was handling it, but the answer was just maybe.” She sighed, feeling an itch in the back of her mind. That itch was still a bit odd—she doubted it would ever be normal—but it wasn’t unpleasant.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Netun nodded and glanced back at Alrasi, who was sitting quietly on the floor, barely even moving as he watched an insect crawl up the wall. Alrasi was smart… about some things. He could understand people and their emotions, but simple things about the world like this could keep him occupied for days if someone didn’t do something. He had other problems too. Well, they called them problems but they were more like… he was stuck in a childlike state.

Aymi didn’t think anyone could force him to grow up. Even his template refused to grow into anything other than a five year old boy—though at least that was older than he’d been when he’d died.

“Rasi,” Aymi called, tapping him lightly on the back. “Rasi we have to go.”

He blinked at the insect before glancing up at her and tilting his head, he stared at her for a moment before recognising her and smiled, “Okay! Where are we going today?”

Aymi focused back on the slight itch in her mind, getting a familiar feeling from it, “Nakonua, but you’re going to stay with Hivren and the twins at the Ayfel while we do this one, alright? Kalteii says it’s for the best.”

Alrasi tilted his head, “Hivren… the… Oh! I like Hivren, he’s fun!” Alrasi grinned at her, a big happy smile. He didn’t seem to think that anything about what he’d said might have been strange.

That was the most painful part, Aymi thought. The constant forgetting. They’d likely get to the new Ayfel and Rasi would forget who Hivren, Tibetch, and Orfen were again, he’d find the same toys and puzzles and act like it was his first encounter with them. He’d forget all sorts of things like that.

Aymi could feel something similar sometimes, just a sense that there was a big gap in her memories, and sometimes she couldn’t remember who she’d talked to a few days ago, but never as bad as Alrasi. Netun said it was a side effect from being so small for so long—of which Alrasi had been for much longer. Aymi was just glad it wasn’t worse, though she suspected that Kalteii had done something to help heal the two of them.

Aymi smiled, though it was slightly pained, “Yeah! Hivren is pretty cool. Next time though, I bet you’ll get to come with us.”

Rasi looked thrilled at the idea, “You guys go and punch bad guys!”

Netun laughed from where he was fiddling with the transportation crystal.

“Yes, exactly.” Aymi said, smiling.

The child grinned up at her. He wasn’t innocent per se. Alrasi just… didn’t know the difference between good and evil. He knew there were bad people out there, but he didn’t know that he would ever meet them