Andromeda sat there in her own mind. Just moments ago, Ferdinand was sitting in front of her. Then a moment later, White blinked and sent him back to the real world. Even after she said that she would fix this, she had no idea how she would do that. This thought, even as she thought it, was something that White and Whisper could hear.

“I’m sorry…” Whisper said. With only a single short phrase, all of their minds were flooded with thousands of memories. Andromeda forced the thoughts from their now shared mind, and made it even harder to focus for them all.

“It’s not your fault.” Andromeda said.

But as their minds were shared, Andromeda knew that her heart didn’t feel that way. She could feel Whisper’s thoughts just as she could hear her own. It was becoming harder and harder to think without letting those feeling crash over her.

“We can’t go on like.” White said. They all knew that, and they all felt it. It was as though they sat on an island surrounded by the endless sea. The surrounding void closed it all in, and the walls of the home they made in their shared mind were the only thing that kept it from swallowing them.

“I know.” Andromeda said.

She knew, they knew, it wasn’t something she could hide from herself. When she closed her eyes, she could see it all like it just happened again. So many lives, gone. When she looked at her hands, she could see them shaking. Her mind played tricks on her, and she could swear blood dripped from them. They all did.

“Then what do we do?” Whisper asked.

It was a good question, one that none of them were prepared to answer. Andromeda thought back to what she said, it seemed like years ago now. When she sat Rhys’ office, that necklace around her neck, it felt as though she wore her heart on her neck, and she felt so lost. All it took was a word, and a fire burned in her stomach. She swore to be the one to throw mountains, to set herself alight so that others would feel her warmth. Even now, she was promising the world without a single idea of how to do that.

“I don’t know.” Andromeda said.

She couldn’t put her finger on what it was that was wrong with her. The moment she had an opportunity, she would throw herself to the wolves without a second thought, and as soon as she was on the ground she realized she had no plan.

It wouldn’t work forever, until now, she had someone else pull her out of it. Argo after the explosion, Ferdinand after being drafted, Gram after being betrayed. Every single time, she got lucky and didn’t end up paying the difference with her life. Now she had to deal with the idea that if she doesn’t succeed, it won’t just be her paying for it. She reached up and grabbed the hood that hung on her shoulders, and pulled it off.

“You know, I used to barely feel this when I wore it. Now it feels heavy.” She said.

White and Whisper leaned against Andromeda, unsure how else to respond, as they knew exactly how she felt.

-----

Argo stood there, through the thick glass before him was a figure that he both did and did not recognize. The rough shape of Andromeda with flaring colors on all parts of her body. Even the clothes she wore were mostly unfamiliar, the only thing that told him for that this was in fact the girl he sent away all that time ago was the faded blue hood on her head.

His heart was like a lump of stone in his chest, he wanted to reach out and speak to her, but he was told that her body was producing an excess of mana. It would be lethal to let him through even a single door, let alone into the chamber. Carrion stood nearby, a strange sense of déjà vu pervading his thoughts.

“Is this… Normal?” Argo asked. “I don’t know much about magic or any of that, but this… it doesn’t seem right.”

“No, as far as we know, this is new. We are unsure of the exact cause, though we have reason to believe she is alive and well. Just stuck in her own mind.” Carrion said.

“Can she see and hear in there?” Argo asked.

“We don’t know, High Magister Ferdinand as well as myself witnessed something like a reaction when she was first discovered, but we’re unsure if it was biological instinct, or a sense of awareness.” Carrion said.

“Can I do anything to help? Seeing her like this is…” Argo trailed off.

“That is the reason we’ve brought you here. But we were hoping you had some idea of how to assist.” Carrion said.

“Right, something like this did happen before. But it wasn’t anything special that we did. Me, Catherine, and Milo all just took care of her best we could until she woke up on her own.” Argo asked.

“That is… unfortunate. Can you tell me anything in particular about it? Was anything out of place when this last happened?” Carrion asked.

“I couldn’t say, for a few days after the first time, I felt kind of, well, drained. Like I was tired, but I couldn’t sleep either. The kind of tired you get after a long, boring day.” Argo said.

“This may not be a constructive question, but can you elaborate? Was it just a feeling, or something more mystical in nature?” Carrion asked.

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“I couldn’t tell you, I don’t know much about all this. I’m a farmer. My brother is the one with all the smarts between us.” Argo said.

“Whether that is the case or not, it seems as though she personally asked for you. Though the reasons for this are unclear.” Carrion said. “I can leave you be for a brief moment if you wish. It might give you some time to think.”

“If that’s what you think, that’s fine.” Argo said, Carrion took his leave, and Argo was left alone in the room. The silence was palpable, broken only by the faint sound of his own breathing. The room felt suffocating, the darkness seemingly closing in on him from all sides. The shadows clung to the corners, as if they were alive, whispering to him with an unsettling presence. Argo stood there, feeling weighed down by a nameless sorrow that seemed to envelop him like a heavy shroud.

His heart ached with a pain he couldn't quite put into words as he watched her sitting there, unmoving, alone in an empty room. He had traveled across the continent with a flicker of hope burning in his heart, each step fueled by the dream of seeing her warm smile again. He had imagined the familiar look in her eye, the one that used to light up her whole face with life and energy.

But as he looked into her eyes now, all he saw was a profound emptiness that left him feeling utterly helpless. That spark he had longed to see was nowhere to be found, replaced instead by a void that seemed to have consumed her spirit. It cut him to the core, a deep and gnawing ache that seemed to claw at his very soul.

Argo felt a searing surge of emotions within him, a mix of anger, grief, and desperation. He wanted to scream, to cry, to burn the world down, anything so that she might look at him. He couldn't understand why it hurt so much, why the sight of her sitting there, absent and vacant, was a pain that surpassed all others.

"Please," Argo pleaded, his voice barely a whisper, afraid that speaking any louder would startle her. He wanted so much for her to just look at him, to acknowledge his presence, but her unresponsive gaze remained fixed at nothing in the distance. It was as if she was in a world of her own, a world he couldn't reach no matter how hard he tried. The feeling of helplessness overwhelmed him.

A door slammed open, and in came Catherine. The look on her face told him everything, she looked through the glass and her heart visible sank. She, pressed against the glass, saw the same scene as he had. She slammed her fist against the glass, then again, and a third time before Argo stopped her. Not before seeing the small red stain she left on the glass. She collapsed into his arms

-----

The void shivered, and Andromeda felt her skin crawl. Something had changed. When Andromeda looked around, she could still see the walls, and the shelves, the chairs, and everything else. It felt different, and that was most clear when she realized that the others were gone.

Andromeda questioned, "White? Whisper?" As she listened intently, she thought she heard a distant scream. It was barely audible, requiring her to focus her hearing. Suddenly, she stood up and began to move towards the sound. An inexplicable urge compelled her to extend her hand while she walked. After taking a few steps, she reached out and felt...nothing. A solid surface seemed to be suspended in mid-air, resembling an impenetrable wall. She heard whispers, far in the distance, and the sound of alarms, though the latter were much louder.

Andromeda looked behind herself and looked at where the table had been a moment ago. She had walked right through it, and the path her leg took seemed to pull it apart like clay, even now it was wrapped around her leg. She walked with her hand along the invisible wall, eventually coming to find out that the space she seemed to be in was a small room of some kind. The walls were smooth, and one seemed to feel like glass. The dimensions of the room were small enough that she could walk the whole length from within the space of the living room she appeared to be in.

There was another, louder, noise in the background. She tried her hardest to listen, but it was just at the edge of her hearing. It sounded like words, but in the way that hearing through a wall sounded. She could tell it was speech, but not the content.

As she wandered, she suddenly kicked something that wasn’t there. It was hard, below knee height, and incredibly solid, as told by the now throbbing pain in her shin. She cursed in pain, and that was followed by more sounds that sounded like alarms.

-----

Alarms throughout the facility were blaring, Carrion rushed into the room to see the same sight as the rest that had arrived. Andromeda was standing now, but not as before, instead she was walking around the parameter of the room, touching the glass, and seemingly aware, but as he caught a glimpse of her, there was an absence, as if she was moving around unable to see. Her mouth as though she were speaking, but through the glass no sound could pass through.

What’s more, the mana she was radiated had increased dramatically, 90% of the sensors in the room had broken down, and the ambient levels of mana in the room they stood were even rising. The pressure had gotten so intense inside that it was now permeating the glass and leaking into the room.

Carrion turned to the magisters nearby and pointed out of the room.

“Get these people out of here, lock down this wing of the facility!” Carrion yelled, as he was being pulled away, Argo raised his voice.

“What’s happening?” Argo yelled over the alarm.

“I don’t know! But I need you out of here, I can’t have you getting hurt!” Carrion yelled.

“But-” Argo tried to argue.

“GO!” Carrion screamed, as he did, a crack rippled through the glass and through it, both men watched as Andromeda kicked the table and gripped it in pain. Argo was pulled away, and the security doors slammed down. A moment later, the glass shattered into thousands of pieces, the room he stood in instantly bathed in enough mana to strip the walls of their paint, the metal and wood in the room instantly started breaking down.

Carrion felt a single moment of the most intense, infinitely burning pain that he had ever felt in his entire life. For only an instant, he felt as his entire body being torn apart, atom by atom.

Then it stopped, it all stopped. The pain was gone, and when he looked down, the fur on his hands, and his cheeks, it was all silver. Andromeda was still stood there, the alarms still resounded in his ears, but everything had a serene feeling to it. This was like nothing he had felt in his entire life. As his mouth opened in surprise, a small drip of silver liquid fell from his lips. Nothing like the black bile he was used to.

As the drop hit the ground, something happened. Every alarm instantly stopped. The alarms were all set to react to critical levels of mana in the air, and not only did the one in this room stop, the entire rest of the facility did as well.

The last sensor in the room had turned off due to a lack of mana to power it, and its flow had completely ceased. He glanced at a nearby table, where a reflex glass had disintegrated into dust, as if the mana that held it together had been extracted. With minimal effort, he lifted his hand and gestured towards the shattered window. He employed a mending technique to repair it, and the broken fragments of the window reassembled themselves, as strong as they were on the day they were installed. He then repeated the process to repair the broken sensors in the room from where he stood, as well as reigniting their flow. Even from the distance he stood, it was like nothing at all.

A moment later, the silver glow that surrounded him faded away, and the sensors picked right back up. The reflex glass energized itself and restored its form. He picked it up and was startled to see that the levels inside the room had dropped to what they had been days before.

Carrion stood there, then blinked several times.

“What the hell, what the hell, what the hell…” He said, then he repeated it to himself several more times as his composure slowly wore down.