“When you finished the twentieth floor, I thought it was best for him to wear something better. Now get yourself dressed and let’s head to the basement since no one is there. The rooms are too crowded for us to talk.”

Alcoroth was back and was waiting by the door. He stood fully sized, though a bit too tall for the doorway and a bit taller than the last time I thought he had been fully sized. His outfit was a bit different too. He wore a dark black skin tight sleeveless shirt (like Mezu), with a robe that loosely sat on his shoulders with ornate decoration. His glasses seemed nicer, and he had an expensive looking hairpin holding his hair up.

If I didn’t mostly dislike him, I would’ve called him attractive.

“Oi, change.”

Right, not the time to stare.

I got dressed, grabbed my things and we went downstairs. The floor was empty and there were only some small embers in the fireplace.

We went down the next flight of stairs into the basement. It was a simple sparring room. There was a slightly elevated mat in the center of the room and there were torches along the wall where the stairs came down from and on the side walls, but the back wall had windows set in it.

The view outside was a nice grassy hill with a star filled sky. This building must’ve been set in a hill. I sat down on the mat and took my shirt off cut my arm off and passed it to Mezu. I then opened my back and pulled out the reward from the twentieth floor.

“Oh, those are nice.”

“What are they?”

“Pass them here I want to double check before I answer.”

I tossed one over to him.

“Yes, these are very nice indeed.”

He sat down next to me and started wrapping my nub up.

“These are enchanted to support your healing. It will attract more mana to your wound than your blessing does on its own and then will move with your arm as it starts to grow back.”

“What do you mean my blessing uses mana? Do you know how my blessing works?”

“Yes, well I’ve figured out part of it by now, it just didn’t really matter before, so I didn’t tell you. When you heal, it takes the natural light mana from the air around you and uses that to enhance your healing. If I were to speed up the process, I would simply be feeding my own mana into the mechanism that is already in place. If you had your own mana, you would be able to control the blessing on your own but since you have aura that’s not possible.”

He finished and waved his hand cleaning the blood up from around me before standing up.

“No what was it that you were confused about.”

“They keep calling Paeris a mom and somehow, I’ve been agreeing with them but when I think about why I agree with them instinctively I can’t figure out the reason. I thought I didn’t remember my mom.”

“We would have to discuss this with Kusho, but when it comes to basic word meaning and association, that is probably the part of your memories that are the most accessible to you. So, while you may remember the association without trying to but when you try to think about why you have that association in your brain you can’t access the greater collection of memories that helped establish it.”

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“Is it like earlier with dinner? When I ate the meal that Lefty made, and it tasted so familiar, and it made me sad, but I couldn’t remember why?”

“Yes.”

I threw myself back onto the mat laying down and staring up at the ceiling.

“Why is my memory so messed up? Why is it confusing me so much now?”

“We can’t ask Kusho for help just yet, but with your memory, there’s a chance that it’s always bothered you and always affected you, but you just can’t remember the specifics of that if you tried to.”

This was frustrating. I thought I didn’t care, but apparently, I did. Apparently, I thought about it all quite a bit.

“Why can’t I go back to not thinking about it? Ever since I met you, I’ve been thinking more and more about all of this. It’s all just so frustrating. I just want to have fun fighting and eating food. Why do things have to be complicated?”

Alcoroth didn’t respond right away, and then I saw him sit down next to my head.

“I previously said that your lack of curiosity frustrated me. I think I’ve decided to take that back slightly. As we’ve climbed, I’ve noticed your memory improving more and more. With your memories, also comes a bit stronger of a personality than you previously had. You express yourself more, have more interest in things, and are contemplating things more.

“It’s not a large change, but it’s something. The more you get your memories back I feel that you’ll be more solidified in who you are. So, for now, it’s okay to be frustrated about things you don’t understand. It’s okay to not know and ask for clarification. Admit when you’re confused, because it will help. And it’ll take a bit but until Kusho can help with your memory library, we can only take small steps to figure it all out.”

He was being oddly encouraging, and the way he spoke calmly made it feel like it wasn’t actually him. His outfit was too different, his shirt was similar to what Mezu wore. Yes, some of the outward appearance was similar to him but he was different.

“Alcoroth hates me.”

The man laughed, “You’re much smarter than Alcoroth claims you to be.”

His appearance changed slightly. The glasses were gone Alcoroth’s gold tinted eyes were now much more brilliantly colored. There was also a slight shimmer to his skin tone. His hair was now a pale white matching Mezu’s. The blueish black tinted scales were now a darker black with a purple hue.

“I assume you won’t tell me who you are.”

There was just a soft smile on his face. Mezu went over to him beaming and sat in his lap happily.

“It takes a bit for Alcoroth to admit his true feelings. But I’m sure he will do so eventually. Your instincts are good… at the very least. If you want to be less confused about things or want to try not to think about things so much because it’s too troublesome, simply leave it to your instincts. Trust them. If you decide something, you may simply leave it to your instincts.

“But if you want to talk about it or try and gain a greater understanding of anything in particular then ask Alcoroth. You are doing well and progressing at a good pace. Continue to learn and discover new things. Knowledge is a wonderful thing, and with you especially there is so much for us to learn.”

He smiled and gently kissed the top of Mezu’s head muttering something in a language that sounded similar to elvish, but I couldn’t place any of the words. Then he was gone. I sat up and it was just me and Mezu alone in the room. Mezu had finished my arm and was looking around a little his face drooping a bit sad.

“I’m sure we’ll see him again, let’s get to bed.”

I picked up the rest of my things and let Mezu climb onto me before heading upstairs. I entered the first room off of the landing at the top of the stairs and saw there were no empty beds. I went to the next room and saw one empty bed.

I closed the door gently, put my stuff down next to the bed, and then lay in it with Mezu. I let him get into whatever position he wanted and then curled up next to him.

That person or being, I didn’t really want to think so much about it. I just felt like I’d know eventually, and if I just followed what he said, to trust my intuition then I was probably right. There was no need to think about it too much. But the way he was with Mezu, made me think of Alrick.

It wasn’t the similarity of hiding his appearance initially. I didn’t know for sure in the end with Alrick, but it was simply the level of comfort that I had with Alrick, I saw with Mezu. Alrick was yet another person I’d probably meet again but I still wanted to understand what this feeling meant before then.

But maybe I wouldn’t understand it till I knew who he was. Or better yet knew who I was.