“Just leave me alone!”

He’d grown to regret that argument. He lost sight of what he really needed. He was frustrated, confused, and took it out on the first thing he saw: his old “imaginary” friend, Lekra. Now they were nowhere to be seen and he’d been wandering on his own for gods knows how long.

No matter how hard he tried to escape, he couldn’t. He wanted this suffering to end. He wanted to shout out to the world and tell it that he learned his lesson. He’d never be the same person again, as long as he could come back home…

There was nothing around him. It truly was just a white void. There was no beginning, and there probably wasn’t an end. While some things remained of a bygone era, most of it was barren. This fake realm didn’t even quell his needs; he was starving, unable to sleep, and practically dying for some sort of social interaction. This was no paradise, nor was it hell. This was exactly what he needed to learn his lesson. The perfect punishment for the stupid, haughty Prince Natheniel.

He didn’t know how long he’d been wandering. It could’ve been a couple of hours, it could’ve been ten years. All he knew was that he was going insane. The white void had begun to show some sort of picture, and in the horizon was the wispy figure of Lekra and what looked like a woman. He was definitely going insane, but he chose to look into it anyway.

“Lekra..?” It was a hoarse mumble. He got close enough that he was unable to deny his Skiá, at least, to be real. They had the same feeling that they always did, like a welcoming kind of unsettling.

They perked up immediately, and so did the woman. “Nathen! Thank goodness. Are you still mad at me? Look at you! You’ve gotten so thin… who would’ve thought people in this state could change…”

“Oh, are you Nathen? Lekra was talking about you.” There was something… familiar about the woman. He decided, at that moment, that she shared a vague resemblance to Domenique; lighten the hair up a little, and the two would be nearly identical.

Natheniel nodded. “So Lekra’s been talking about me..?”

“They… told me about what happened to you—the reason you’re here…” She shook her head. “I’m Fauna, by the way.”

“I’m Natheniel. Nathen is just Lekra’s nickname for me,” he mumbled. When she gestured for him to sit down beside her, he did. “If you know why I’m here, then can I ask about you?”

She nodded slowly. “I don’t mind. Eldrianna wanted something from me, but I… honestly have no idea what it is. Looking back on it, she… might’ve always had her eyes on me. Nothing really came out of it, though, until I went for a walk with my friend. She was able to separate us and bring me here. I’ve been here for about… twenty-one years, maybe?”

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More of who she was clicked with that story. “You’re the Forgotten Light!” The fact that being in the same place as her was not quite a good thing, however, had yet to cross his mind.

“I… assumed they still talked about me. I don’t think I would be here if they didn’t…” It was clear that she both appreciated and mourned that fact. “There’s still something keeping you tied to the living, I can feel it. If you have a Skiá, then surely you have a Fos somewhere. It must still be with the living.”

He’d learned quite a bit from Lekra. The “Fos” she was referring to was Ihu—or, as they were known in every other context, Iztali. Neither Natheniel nor Lekra could find a way to tell what they were doing, though. At least he could be assured that they were still alive.

Fauna continued, a bit more hesitant than she was before. “Lekra… they mentioned Imre. My old friend was Imre Mikkel. Do you know him? Is he doing okay..? Please tell me he’s still alive…”

“Know him? I’m his son! Kinda. I’m adopted.” Natheniel was not prepared for the look she gave him. He had all of her attention—all she wanted was to hear more. “You disappeared around the time Zofie was sick, right? Well, Imre and Dimas got married after that. Then they found and raised me. I was their only kid for three years until Imre and Lydia had an actual blood heir to the Seothian throne. Their kid’s name was Tavin. Minne died shortly after that, but they never really knew why. Then, when I was thirteen, Lydia… also died. Some other stuff happened, but… he never really changed. He moved on because he knew he had to, I think. And of course, then I ran away, and now I’m here…”

He wished he could actually tell the truth. Tell her why he ran; the paranoid reasoning, the remorse he felt for doing it, the action itself. Words failed him just thinking about it.

“You want to go back, don’t you?” Somehow, her question surprised him.

Unable to come up with the words, he simply nodded.

“When you’ve been here as long as I have, you think of ways.” She stood up, gesturing for him to follow her. “At least one of them has to work. But since nothing’s really tying me to either world, I can’t leave here. Maybe… maybe since you have your Fos, you’ll be able to leave. Then maybe there’s a chance that you can take me with you.”

“If I could, I definitely would!” He didn’t question where they were going—even if Lekra seemed cautious. “I don’t know if it’ll help them remember you, but it’ll keep you from disappearing forever.”

She guided him past the little area and back out into the blank space. It was a wonder she knew where she was going, given how empty everything was. Natheniel, at least, would’ve gotten lost if he was told to lead—there were hardly enough surroundings to even know if he was going in a straight line or not.

“What… what’s left of my memory back home?” Fauna spoke so suddenly it was almost startling. “I know there’s not a lot. But if I can go back… I want to know how much they’ll need to relearn about me. How much I’m going to need to relearn about them and the world they’re in…”

“No one remembers your name, face, or voice anymore. Everyone’s memories of you are somehow being rewritten, everything about your presence in those events slowly fading. There’s only one person I know of that still remembers actually interacting with you… Imre.”

She let out a bittersweet laugh. “He’s probably never given up on me, even as everyone else has. I can’t wait to see him again.”