“WAIT W-”

White didn’t get to finish before the entire void around them shuddered and shook. Both White and Whisper were sent to the floor where they stayed until it all calmed down.The imagined constructs around them shivered and wavered like a mirage.

When the shaking finished White jumped to her feet and rushed to the massive row of imagined bookcases, each of the books on each shelf were records of everything Andromeda experienced and she was worried that the shock to her brain might ruin them. She breathed a sigh of relief once she realized they were fine. White understood why Andromeda let them take her, but even knowing that it didn’t make her feel any better about it.

“What are you looking at?” Whisper asked, suddenly standing right behind White and looking over her shoulder.

“Do you mind?” White said.

“I just want to know what you’re looking at.” Whisper said.

“It’s not for you to see.” White said dismissively.

“Why? We’re kind of past keeping secrets at this point.” Whisper said.

“Don’t push your luck with me, you're lucky I didn’t try harder to throw you out.” White said. Whisper frowned at being reminded about that. With her soul now connected to Andromeda she was rooted to this place, and in a sense it was as much hers as anyone else’s. The experience of being removed was awful.

“I know you're upset with me, but that’s no reason to be rude.” Whisper said.

“You tried to directly kill Andromeda, and indirectly kill me, and that was AFTER you tried to kill Eli. I feel like I’m being remarkably kind right now. Besides-” White said. She quietly spoke the last word because a thought crossed her mind, but she was interrupted before she could finish.

“That’s… Fair, you’re right. I deserve that.” Whisper said. The tone of her voice caught White off guard. For a being that was a unrepentant murderer not even a few hours ago she seemed to have changed her tune quickly.

Whisper was thankful for a brief respite from the hunger. she had felt for longer than she could remember. Being rid of it was a blessing she couldn’t comprehend. She couldn’t count the number of people she ruthlessly destroyed just to sate her unending hunger, the fact that she was getting any kindness at all was more than she was worth. All it took was the hunger leaving her to release the cloud from her mind.

Even a single moment of relief was enough to make her content, every moment was a blessing. Even If it had to end right there and then she would be ha-

The white void around them shifted. Its endless white darkened into an off white, just barely gray. White was turned around facing the books, but Whisper could tell something was wrong.

“Whisper…” She said. Her voice was quiet, barely audible even with the relative silence around them. “Yes?” Whisper said. The bookshelves faded into nothing, the chairs and seats, the river, the trees. Everything faded away but them.

She turned around and looked at Whisper, her eyes were glowing red. Though there was not a hint of anger coming from her. Whisper felt something in her chest, a swelling feeling. It was something she couldn’t explain with words. It was hot and cold, relieving and stressful. It was like nothing she had ever felt in her entire life. The most bizarre feeling she had ever felt.

“No one dies.” White said.

“What?” Whisper said. Caught off by the tone of her voice, there was pain in it, but something more.

“No one dies, that is the rule. Not by our hands, and not by any others. That includes you and me.” White said, “No one… dies?” Whisper said. The words rolled off her lips as if it was the easiest thing in the world. It felt familiar for some reason, her heart felt calmed just by hearing it.

“I don’t agree with how you came to be here, nor how you are to stay. But I’m not angry at you specifically. Andromeda should have talked to me about it, but she doesn’t think about things before she does them. Do you understand?” White said.

“I… I don’t know.” Whisper said.

“Then let me spell it out. She will kill herself if it means someone else gets to live. That’s why you're here. I’m sure she realized that the only other alternative was to kill you. So she took the option that put her in danger and kept you alive. You tried to kill her and her solution was to help you. Do you understand?” White said.

She hadn’t considered it like that, but now that she had it didn’t seem real. She had sifted through the minds of thousands and seen the memories many more, but no one else she had known would try that.

“I need you to understand, we don’t kill, not me, and not her. I won’t pretend I had a better idea for how to deal with you. Hell, I might have come to the same conclusion in the end. But the reason I am upset is because she acted on her own. It wouldn’t have been hard to come get me first and confirm, but she went and did something that affects both of us.” White said. “Because you and her are now attached at the hip, that means we are as well. Probably even more so. So that’s why I had to stop you.”

“Stop me?” Whisper asked. White had lost her with that. She hadn’t stopped Whisper from doing anything so f-

“You thought you would be happy even if you died, I can’t accept that.” White said. Whisper couldn’t muster the words to speak, she had entirely misunderstood the situation. White was connected with her, she could hear Whisper’s every thought. That’s why she reacted like she did, it was out of concern.

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“I didn’t know that removing you like that was painful, and I didn’t know that it could have killed you had I succeeded. If I had known then I would have never tried it at all.” She said, White seemed to be a master of catching people off guard if this conversation was anything to go by. If she isn’t an aberration, and she is able to read her and Andromeda’s thoughts…

“I’m sorry about that. You’re a part of this now, so I need to try and make peace with your existence here. That means you need to care more about yourself than to accept death. No one dies. Do you understand?” White said.

Whisper sat silently for a moment, then she understood.

It wasn’t that she understood what White was, or the situation she found herself in. It was a deeper understanding. It was the lack of understanding in spite of her feelings that made her understand. It might have been the connection with Andromeda, but she got what White was trying to say.

“No one dies.” Whisper said.

White smiled.

-----

A few hours passed and the void had settled back into its normal white self. After their stressful introduction and strained first conversation, White calmed down enough to sit down and have a civilized discussion about Whisper.

“Alright, it seems like you’re here to stay, so I need to know as much as I can about you.” White said. She had a book and pen in hand, ready to take notes

White knew from experience that she didn’t really need to write things down by hand, as she could just will a written account into existence, with pictures and sound included, but she also knew from Andromeda’s memories that writing things down helps you remember them.

“I’m an open book, ask me anything you want!” Whisper said.

“Right, first question. Ignoring your appearance, you seemed to have had a serious personality shift between when you got here and now. Why?” White asked. The question confused Whisper at first, but then she thought about it more.

“I, well, I couldn’t tell you why. When I think about before Andromeda made me like this I can’t remember much. Just faint memories here and there. Everything in between is a faint blur. I’m not sure there was much of a “me” before this.” Whisper said.

“But you do remember some things right?” White asked.

“It depends on what you mean, if you mean my… activities… then yes, I do remember most of them. Being in the middle of eating was the closest to clarity I ever had.” Whisper said.

“Speaking of that, we are going to talk about it more seriously when Andromeda is here, but I need to know. What are your thoughts on what you’ve done?” White asked.

Whisper sat in silence, White was going to ask her again but saw her stare. She stared at the ground, her eyes absent of light or thought, she could feel the conflict in Whisper’s heart.

“I have no place to speak about it. I won’t blame hunger, but when every moment of my existence was filled with thoughts of starving, nothing seemed sacred. It’s no consolation to the countless lives I’ve ruined, but I feel nothing but shame for what I’ve done. Even if the hunger were to return I would refuse to take another life. I’d rather starve than live with that,.” Whisper said.

One of White’s chief concerns was Whisper’s past. She worried that despite her allegiance to Andromeda that she might be unrepentant for what she had done. But it seemed that wasn’t the case. White was staring at a broken soul, not a monster. It didn’t excuse what she did, but that was on her to repent for it.

“Moving on from that, what are you exactly?” White asked. It made her feel a bit better to see life return to Whisper’s eyes, but she could see some pain in them still.

“Ah, right, it’s a bit complicated.” Whisper said.

“I’m not busy, we have time.” White said.

“I think I need to explain some things first… There is more than one kind of life. You have physical life. Anything made of actual, real material. Flesh, stone, water, whatever.” Whisper said.

“Right, so things like humans and animals.” White said.

“Among others, after that you have mystical life. Instead of being alive in the material sense, the mana is alive and uses material stuff as a medium.” Whisper said. White nodded.

“Finally, you have psionic life, Life that is just a mind. I am, or at least I was, one of those. Beings of pure mental energy that have no physical form and exist in the space between minds. There are several kinds that do many different things, among the most dangerous is what I was. Xixial, we- er, they are like parasites, they’ll die without a host and need to feed constantly just to stay alive.” Whisper exposited.

“Are these mental creatures something we need to worry about?” White asked.

“Not anymore, you handled me pretty well and I like to think I was pretty powerful all things considered. There aren’t many who would be on my same level on the continent. We weren’t very cozy with each other if you know what I mean,” Whisper said.

“I get that, relatedly. What do you think I am? You called me an “Aberration”, and as rude as that was, I want to know why.” White asked.

“Mental beings like myself usually come into being when a lot of people are in one place and all feeling about the same. Xixial are created when there is a strong feeling of hunger concentrated in a small place. At first I thought you were some kind of mental being as well, but there are two things about you that tell me otherwise.” Whisper said.

“Such as?” White asked.

“First, mental beings don’t second guess themselves. They are instinctually set in their ways. Earlier you changed your mind when you learned that trying to remove me was painful. If you were a true mental being then nothing would have changed your mind.” Whisper said.

“I mean… Yeah, but you seemed to change your mind after you linked with Andromeda. How is that different?” White asked.

“When I connected with her, and when the hunger was gone, I was flooded with so many emotions that it overwhelmed me. I think linking Andromeda's full soul with my withered and barely present one caused them to equal out. Whatever I am now, I am not a Xixial. That’s probably why you say I’m acting differently. That’s just me though, if you didn’t do the same thing then I have no idea.”

“Interesting, you said there were two reasons?” White asked.

“Yes, the second reason is that you read my mind. If you were a mental being, that shouldn’t be possible.” Whisper said.

“Why?” White asked.

“As far as I’m aware, no mental being is able to directly read the minds of others, the most I know of is when Xixial skim memories and thoughts, but that’s not enough to know exact thoughts in the moment. You read my thoughts as I was thinking them. That’s not possible.” Whisper said.

“If not a mental being, then what could I be?” White asked.

“I have no clue, either you're somehow a physical being, a mystical one, or something else entirely.” Whisper said.

The adhoc interview continued on for a while, mostly just specific details about Xixial and the other kinds of life, but it became clear to White that Andromeda was coming back slowly, and she wanted to get a message to her as soon as possible.