The scene from the top of a mysterious hill changed. Aris found herself sitting on a curved wooden bench. It was one among many curved benches, all curved concentrically around a round sandpit mostly covered by a circular wooden platform. Aris looked to her left and saw that Mind was still split apart horrifically. The way she was positioned on the bench next to her made the split apart pieces and the viscera look even more morbid.

A figure seemed to rise up from the wooden platform; a ghost rising out from the solid wood. Aris imagined it was what she would look like if she came out of shade form as it passed through the platform. It was a man in a plain looking tunic and dark pants with a matching cloth belt. No buckle held the tunic together, he simply tied the string together at his right breast. When he got closer to the audience of Aris and Mind, she could see that he was about Rask’s age in appearance and, like Mind, had strange pitch black eyes that were almost liquid in appearance.

The man narrowed said black eyes to Mind and completely ignored Aris. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked.

“YOU’RE THE ONE WHO BROUGHT HER TO ME,” Mind continued to strum in order to ‘speak’. “DON’T THINK I DIDN’T NOTICE. DON’T YOU DARE COMPLAIN ABOUT HAVING TO DO SOMETHING IN RETURN.”

Aris recalled flailing in the darkness after entering the large Gate in the sky. She remembered being drawn through something, like helplessly being carried by currents of the Great Solvent. Was it this man’s doing? What was he? His eyes were too similar to Mind’s for it to be a coincidence.

“THIS IS BODY.” Mind seemed to have read her thoughts. “HE CLAIMS TO BE A NEUTRAL BYSTANDER HOWEVER I AM BEGINNING TO HAVE MY DOUBTS.”

“She carries our brother’s eyes so I thought it was him,” Body said pointedly. “I thought he was here to see you.”

“I AM INCLINED TO BELIEVE THIS. BODY WAS NEVER REALLY GOOD AT DECEPTION, THAT’S MORE MY FORTE.” The small hands paused at strumming the viscera and the split nose seemed to try to sniff. It ended up sounding like a gurgle. “BUT STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED RECENTLY.”

Looking annoyed, Body hitched a hand onto his hip. “So? Is there a reason for all this drama?”

“THE LITTLE MOON WANTS TO BE CONVINCED.”

“And you couldn’t be bothered to do the convincing?” Body looked like he rolled his eyes, although Aris wasn’t sure as the movement didn’t translate well in the liquidy darkness. “You are literally the master of the Spoken Word and you can’t be bothered to tell our guest of honor why you’re killing everybody?”

“SHE HAS OUR BROTHER’S EYES, YOU SAID SO YOURSELF,” Mind said. “THEN SURELY SHE MUST BE SHOWN. IT WASN’T HAND THAT SACRIFICED THEMSELVES.”

“Does each Part have a mastery of one of the senses?” Aris interjected. Body pinned her with a stare.

“YES. HEEL HAD SIGHT. YOU’VE BEEN ENJOYING THAT PERK FOR A WHILE AFTER YOU ABSORBED HIM.”

“I ‘enjoyed’ a different kind of sight,” Aris said rather bitterly. “I lost my original sight.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“RIGHT, WELL, EVERYTHING COMES WITH A PRICE.” Mind made a shrug, or as much of a shrug her shamble of a body could muster.

“Yours is that of speech,” Aris said. She turned to Body. “What is yours?”

“I suppose you people don’t teach the young what’s proper to ask a Part,” he muttered.

“JUST ANSWER HER.” For some reason Mind sounded slightly… giddy. Body glared at both of them.

“It’s smell,” he snapped. “It was a joke, apparently, to give me smell. Body odor. That’s the joke.”

“That’s… unfortunate.”

“Yes, thank you,” Body said, clearly annoyed. “Anything else before I leave you alone so you can torture Aris while you trigger the end of the world down below?”

“I DON’T TORTURE, THAT’S ALSO HEEL,” Mind said sarcastically. “TELL ARIS THE STORY.”

Aris briefly saw a strange look flit across Body’s face. “Which one?” he asked.

“THE ONLY ONE THAT MATTERS.”

“Does it even matter anymore? Let’s just be done with all this… madness.” Body looked around the empty benches, dark eyes seemingly seeing something Aris couldn’t see.

“ARE YOU GETTING COCKY THAT YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE I CAN’T ORDER AROUND?” Mind demanded.

“We both know that’s not true.”

“I’M GLAD YOU KNOW IT. NOW SHOW HER THE STORY.”

“Fine.” Body turned to inspect the plain wooden platform. “I mean if you’re going to put on a show for this one, there’s a better stage for you to do it on. I’ll go get the book.”

Body melted through the floor. The moment he was gone, Mind got up in a huff and the scenery around them changed again. The benches remained the same but the stage was replaced by a stonework one, one that Aris immediately recognized. The image of a blazing sun with a crescent moon embedded within it was formed with the stonework. It reminded her of the viewing platforms back in Caelis castle.

“What is the meaning of this?” Aris asked.

“BODY JUST WANTED YOU TO FEEL AT HOME,” Mind said.

“You wanted to remind me of the home you destroyed?” Aris mused. She felt strangely calm, although she felt she should be angrier or more scared at what was happening. She seemed to be at the mercy of two Parts.

“I DIDN’T DESTROY IT. NEITHER DID BODY. THAT WAS ON YOUR FELLOW MAN.”

“But you started the events,” Aris said. “You willed this to happen.”

“HUMANS HAD EVERY CHANCE OF TURNING IT AROUND. THEY REFUSED AT EVERY CHANCE. WE MAY HAVE PUT THE ROCK UP AT THE EDGE OF THE CLIFF BUT WE WERE NOT THE ONES TO REPEATEDLY KICK AND SHOVE IT OVER.”

“What did you call us?”

“HUMANS?” Mind’s split form smiled in two halves while dripping black liquid from its lines of viscera. “MY MISTAKE. SHOULD I SAY GAIANS? THEY MEAN THE SAME THING. IT’S WHAT YOU LOT CALLED YOURSELF BEFORE YOU CAME HERE.”

Aris stood up. “What do you mean ‘came here’?” she demanded. “Explain.”

“BUT THAT WOULD SPOIL IT. BODY HATES IT WHEN I SPOIL A GOOD STORY. ISN’T THAT RIGHT, BROTHER?”

As if on cue, Body reappeared through the stone floor carrying a leather bound tome. He gave Aris a pointed glare not unlike she would get from a disapproving professor back at the Academy. She sat back down to her seat on the wooden bench while Body turned to what looked like an arbitrary page in the book and started reading aloud.