Chapter 8

"Is the 'nucleus' referring to the center of this place…? It looks withered." Hoku had settled on avoiding awkward silence. He had already spent a while following a cat through a soundless field of flowers.

"I suppose that's why it's called the withered forest," she says. Their footsteps are loud on the ground, he occasionally looks down to survey that there are just dead leaves beneath us.

"The nucleus is a safe space. There are all sorts of nasty creatures that roam around it, and being outside of it jeopardizes our lives…" Juno hesitates,

"It's unlikely we'll encounter something on this path, but not impossible." Hoku anxiously grits his teeth.

Creatures? Like animals, or something nearly as unimaginable as this forest?

"Have you ever…" he begins to devise a question, but Juno seems to anticipate what he is going to ask.

"I have. Countless times. Usually, it depends on our proximity to certain things that this universe wants to protect."

"Protect?" Hoku furrows his eyebrows, deeper crevices forming on his forehead.

"Past the nucleus are the Recesses of life, which are essentially wells of flowers, and trees. You have to complete an objective to move on to the next 'mantra'. The Recess possesses the weapons you'll need to survive beyond this fractured mantra."

"So, I haven't made it to the 'timestream' yet? Polaris said I had to complete an objective in the manor to begin my trek of the outer universe."

Juno suddenly freezes, and the corners of her mouth twitch. Her visage lingers in the direction in front of Hoku.

"You met the watchmaker…?" her voice sounded a bit hoarse.

"If the blonde stranger with grayish-blue eyes is a watchmaker, then I guess so." Juno turned around and inspected the ground of lifeless nature circulating Hoku.

"You shouldn't trust that guy, we don't know much about him. Moreover, if you met him then where is your guide? He should have accompanied you in that scenario."

Hoku tilted his head, somehow puzzled further by Juno's acquisition and question.

"I don't have a cat… what are you talking about? Guide? And by your rationality, I technically shouldn't trust you either."

Juno is briefly taken aback. Her eyes widen and her lips relax, forming a vaguely curved line. Her eyelashes hover closer to the center of her vision as her features at a resting state return.

Juno opens her mouth but closes it again upon making eye contact with Hoku.

She fronts the other direction and stomps a foot into the ground.

"Walk and talk," she said.

Hoku observed how her feet struck them. Juno was pacing much quicker than before, the strength in her steps lifted small decaying leaves into the air beneath, and they fluttered under the soles of her peculiar footwear.

"What did you see while you were unconscious?" Her voice was like a sudden arrow whisking closely past Hoku's ear.

He stayed quiet. There was nothing to recall seeing until he was slapped awake.

"Did you hear anything?"

"Uh–yeah, I think. I heard a woman's voice, but it was different from yours," Hoku answered, gathering the fragments of his memory after he 'tripped' on the estate.

He had an indescribable feeling that a detail was missing from what he remembered before waking up.

"A woman?" Juno sounded more confused than Hoku, which he found ambiguous as well.

"I feel like I'm forgetting something. Did I–"

Hoku was on the cusp of verifying that he hadn't left anything behind when he took the second pause in their straightforward journey.

"The compass! Or pocket compass—watch, I forgot the broken compass!"

"The pocket watch is not with you?" Juno halted too, taking a few steps toward Hoku.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The cold woman promptly slipped her hand under the narrow opening of the black robe that covered his chest. A saddle brown silk belt was secured around his waist, and brown chiffon was stitched from the shoulder of his robe to the area above his hips flowing atop the actual sleeve that loosely encompassed his arms.

He felt the coldness of her fingers over the undergarment. Hoku looked down and saw that his pants were also darkly shaded, and cinched around his ankles.

He still wore the same boots that puffed the bottom of the pants. The attire was spacious and glided like satin on his skin.

Juno retracted her hand, and Hoku took heed to the irritation in her tenor.

"Could you take that off? There should be a hidden compartment behind the front, but that broach is pinning your robe too tightly."

Hoku nods, extending the distance between him and Juno so that he can lift his arms. His eyes grasped the sight of an intricate design on the sides of his sleeves.

After unlocking the broach at the center of his robe he discovered that there were also strings with tassels at the ends. It was a small patch, woven like the shoelace on his boots, and hidden beneath the fancy pin.

Hoku was about to pull that tassel when Juno stopped him.

"That should be good. Just check the compartment by your shoulder, there should be a pocket."

He obediently reached into the robe without saying anything.

Hoku's eyes widened slightly when his fingertips brushed over a cold, smooth object.

He pushed his fingers deeper, clasping the trinket, and the fabric flattened over his shoulder after he withdrew his hand.

Hoku handed Juno what she asked for, squeezing the broach that he still held onto.

A solemn expression briefly replaced his confusion.

Honestly, what is going on...

Juno clicked her tongue and curled her fingers around the compass.

Her manners remain passive, even when someone fulfills her requests.

She examined the compass, turning it over in her palm.

'Not bad, watchmaker,' she whispered, an amused smirk fading onto her expression.

Hoku watched as she pressed her thumb on the dial at the top. His eyes slightly widened as flicking open, however, hers grew narrow.

"What the hell did you do to it?"

Hoku stared at her, puzzled about whether she was asking rhetorically or directly speaking to him.

He responded to the latter when Juno made eye contact.

"I didn't do anything—when Polaris gave it to me I didn't get a chance to remove it from the fabric. My memory is even surfacing in fragments, but what I remember happening most presently is dropping it when I stumbled."

Is it maybe cracked? Hoku gritted his teeth when Juno shook her head and began to chuckle.

"This couldn't have been an outcome of you stumbling, take a look for yourself," she closed the compass and tossed it to Hoku.

He reached out precisely, catching it with a single hand.

"Wait—what did you call it again? A broken compass?"

Hoku didn't speak, only nodding as he pressed his index finger on the small golden dial.

He frowned upon inspecting the inside. Aside from the breathtaking design of a compass, nothing appeared amiss.

Hoku gazed closer; the arrow was a bit different, it looked like the minute hand of a watch rather than the needle of a compass.

Even the abbreviations for North, East, South, and West had been traded with symbols of enlarged asterisks.

No… not asterisks these are stars, each depicted with different types of rays.

Around the stars, mellow Roman numerals were poorly covered with a white tint.

"Was this a pocket watch, originally?"

"Yes. It was a significant material for all of us," Juno straightens her posture in an attempt to divert the loss of composure in her wavering voice.

Hoku goes along with it, performing ignorance by composing another question.

"Significant in what way?"

He couldn't help but pang the feeling of anticipation, especially if these alterations were enough to afflict worry onto Juno's dry temper.

Juno was preparing to reply to Hoku when various low-pitched rumbles bellowed from a distance that seemed to relinquish more impact on the highest branches of the trees as opposed to the surface beneath both of them.

The unison of infrasound provoked the hair on Hoku's arms to rise instantly, and his heart burned with inconceivable fear.

A noise void of words nearly slipped out of his throat when he was aggressively yanked forward by his scarf.

Juno caught his arm as he stumbled again because of how stiff his legs had gone following the horrendous terror.

He was brought to further light when Juno grabbed the back of his head and spoke directly into his ear.

"Run as fast as you possibly can into the forest, keep going straight, if it goes quiet that means you're in the nucleus. Tell the others to abide in the safe zone," Juno's instructions are rapid, but spoken with evident experience.

Hoku grasps her shoulder before she can flee. He uses his other hand to shield his mouth and amplify his voice.

The rumbles continue, and a few branches rain onto the dead scraps surrounding them.

"What about you? Are you going to trail me instead?"

Juno disregards his inquiries, instead shoving him away and yelling loud enough for Hoku to hear.

"If they ask about me, tell them I am being held up by The "Return!"

'The Return?'

Nothing more is exchanged as Juno runs off into the narrow space of bare trees.

Hoku's head is aching with a migraine, but the pain is far less apparent to him at the moment given the disquieting rhythm of panic inside his chest.

The Memoir Chapter 5

Objective 4

Aid your patron in eliminating The "Return". Failure to do so will only bring the corrupted remains to you, and you will be forced to neutralize them without armor.