"How can you not know who you are?" Traigar questioned. If his daughter knew who her parents were, how could she not know herself. "Did someone feed you something funny?"
"I don't..know," Lynefra tried to think. She remembered everything clearly about the previous night, save for the events within the time dilation, but everything seemed foggy. It was as if she was merely a spectator in the lives of the people around her. She furrowed her brows, troubled.
"Maybe it's just a weird side effect of the alcohol, it'll be okay," Cirwyn said, trying to reassure herself more than Traigar. It was more than just Lynefra's lack of memories about herself.
To Traigar and Cirwyn, Lynefra seemed frail, more like a shell than their daughter. Her skin appeared a bit paler than it was before, her hair didn't have the same luster it did the night before, and she seemed to be more thin. She was also physically speaking but her voice wasn't laced with the same kind of power and charm that it usually possessed.
"Traigar, call your the school's doctor," Cirwyn whispered into her husband's ear as she sat on the foot of Lynefra's bed. As Traigar left the room, Cirwyn fixed her gaze on her daughter and sat there silently while Lynefra closed her eyes in an effort to figure out what was wrong with her.
The school's physician came and went, unable to diagnose a problem of any kind. Other than a severe depletion of her vitality and reserves of mana, there were a few ruptured meridians but nothing that wouldn't heal with time. The school's psychiatrist also payed a visit and determined that Lynefra had a case of what he could only desribe as Memory Selective Amnesia. It wasn't a proper diagnosis and there was no treatment that he could think of. The girl had only lost memories pertaining to herself as an individual, she had memories of everything else.
Cirwyn started to cling to Lynefra, everywhere Lynefra went, Cirwyn would follow her. Altresca also followed Lynefra everywhere, when she wasn't busy with managing the school's affairs that is. Sometimes, she even forcefully took Lynefra with her to some meetings in order to keep an eye on her little sister. Traigar had a different approach to the whole situation.
Traigar thought the whole ordeal, while tragic and extremely unfortunate and upsetting, was the chance to brainwash his daughter into thinking that all men were evil unless they were stronger than him. He also told Lynefra that she was especially fond of his hugs and wanted them all the time. He showed his worry in his own way though, he often lay awake in bed at night trying to think of solutions to the problem. His actions while Lynefra was conscious were mostly to ease his thoughts, he didn't know how to help or what to do so he just made his daughter laugh and tried to modify her behavior, slightly. After a couple weeks, his mood worsened and his outlook turned slightly darker. "You know when her memories come back, after all your behaviors and the thoughts you tried to put into her head about men, she probably won't talk to you for at least several months," Cirwyn had told him one night as Altresca had taken her turn to sleep in Lynefra's room.
"If she refuses to talk to me when her memories come back, I'd still be happy just to have our child back."
Freyd was the only one who acted like nothing was wrong with his sister. Instead, he directed his anger to his family. "You're acting like she has some kind of terminal disease! It's only a few memories and her entire self identity, it's nothing that we can't make more of or something that she can't find again for herself. If her memories never come back, so what? We'll just make some more!"
"Why are you the only one who isn't worried? She's your little sister you know?" Altresca had yelled back. They were in their parent's temporary living quarters within the school grounds.
"You think I'm not worried? Of course I'm worried, but what's the use of worrying if there's nothing you can do about it?" Freyd returned fire then he turned to his father. "Dad, when you have a wounded soldier in front of you, do you freak out over their injury or do carry on after applying treatment, and treat them like a normal person?"
"The last thing you want to do is to draw attention to their wound, it only makes the pain worse and it could drive them into shock," Traigar had replied.
"Exactly! Mom, Sca, clinging to her like you're some kind of baby animal reminds her that there is a problem. If you were sick would you want to be reminded of your own sickness every time your family was with you? I wouldn't."
Lystall, Syble, Kuzunoha, and Loki had been seemingly absent in the days since they realized Lynefra's problem. They didn't know how to help and understood that it was something they couldn't help with even if they knew how. Baldr had been able to identify Lynefra's problem with one glance, after he had been introduced to Syble and Lystall. Her soul is fractured, he had explained emotionlessly. She would have ended up just like Divinus did if it wasn't for the other soul fragment that Veorful had given to her. Between the second soul fragment and Veorful's soul fragment, her soul will heal up in time. It's actually a fortunate turn of events.
Is that so? Lystall had not been impressed with Baldr's choice of words.
Yes, think of it as her soul being tempered. The explosive power released broke apart the soul but the power of the other two fragments kept it from dispersing. Her soul should be much stronger in the future and since the sudden manifestation of Divinus wiped out any intelligence there may have been in the two other fragments. Her personality should now grow naturally instead of being twisted in a battle for supremacy.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
What of her memories? Syble asked, he had a closer relation with the girl than the other gods.
I don't know if they'll come back or not. Though, I did manage to keep the soul fragments with the girl's memories from dying using a bit of my own power, they remain dormant.
If her personality from before and the self identity she is developing come into contact, won't it just create another problem? This time it had been Loki who had asked.
No, think of it like a mortal organ transplant. Her entire soul was fractured, well it's more apt to say that it was completely liquified from its rigid structure, now all the soul fragments and slowly merge together completely. She might have been born with Divinus' soul but when Yama made the new soul and attempted to create a situation where they would merge, he had made a complete new soul. You can't make something complete and then try and add more to it, it just doesn't work. A glass can only hold so much water. Too many of the necessary things to carry out the functions of life would be detrimental, no? Two hearts for a species that evolved or was created with only one heart would interfere with bloodflow or there would be too much blood pressure and the individual would have a stroke, Baldr explained.
What of her body? Can it handle that power?
That's the odd thing, I'm inclined to say 'no' but what the mortal doctor didn't realize, I saw plain as day, Baldr was amused with his ability, earning him some sour looks from the other gods. Her body was slightly damaged by the power used but like her soul, it was tempered by it. If anything, the girl's mortal body should be one of the greatest conduits for power in the Universe now. If given the chance, she'll most likely become one of the very few gods that has a physical form which requires no energy to maintain in the physical realm. I can't explain it very well but you know what they say, 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger(†).'
What idiot said that? Syble retorted.
A mortal from a long time ago, he said quite a few profound things, Loki answered.
What's his name though? Lystall pressed.
Frederich Nietzsche, Loki replied.
Oh, I thought it was that singer.. Baldr said. Curious though, the memories of Divinus are still present.
The days turned to weeks, which in turn, morphed into months and her powers and gifts had slowly come back as the time passed, to anyone with a keen eye, they could see that Lynefra controlled her power better than she had before. Lynefra rarely left her room, she seemed even more introverted than she had been before she had met Veorful. As Lynefra hadn't been exactly an outgoing person before, no one really knew there was anything wrong with her. She didn't even have that many visitors. Her extended family had been notified of the odd occurence with the young woman but they too, didn't know her well enough to understand the severity of her illness. There was only one visitor who wasn't related to the Nihili Zelix family, or the Dulsa clan.
"Micah, you sure seem to visit my daughter alot," Traigar frowned. "Why are you so interested in her?" The man asked with narrowed eyes, he knew how beautiful his daughter was and how she could effect men and some women. Her compelling power seemed to be turned several notches down since she had forgotten herself but it was still present, barely. Traigar didn't know the power never held any power of suggestion towards the Duke's son though.
"Hello sir!" The boy bowed respectfully to Traigar. He was neither proud nor humble. He didn't show any weakness to Traigar and his behavior was courteous, which irritated Traigar even more. He couldn't find fault with how the boy behaved, so other than the fact that the boy was showing concern for his daughter, there really was no reason to dislike him. "With your permission, I would like to visit Lynefra again." Micah's request for permission slightly disarmed Traigar.
"Absolutely N-"
"Certainly!" Cirwyn exited Lynefra's room, beaming at the young boy. Unlike Traigar, Cirwyn had a good impression of the Mishall boy. He didn't look at Lynefra with the same lustful gaze as the other boys did. "She's been getting extremely tired as of late, please be considerate of her fatique." Cirwyn's smile faded slightly as she looked at her husband.
After Micah entered Lynefra's room, Cirwyn intentionally left the door open, while she wasn't one to get in the way of a budding romance she didn't want anything improper to happen. She knew how children could be. Then she turned to her husband, "Not everyone wants to lay with her, you know? And even if he does, he doesn't seem like the sort that would take advantage of a sick girl, now does he?"
"hmph," was Traigar's only response.
When Lynefra saw Micah, it seemed as if her eyes lit up a bit and she smiled pleasantly at him. "Hello again Micah," she greeted. It hadn't been the first time Micah had come to visit her after she had lost her memories of herself.
"Hello Lynefra, are you feeling any better today?" Micah said as he gave Lynefra a lavender colored rose. It was not something indigenous to Pandora. Kuzunoha had an extremely good impression of the well-mannered boy and had given him several tips on how to collar the girl if he was so interested.
Kuzunoha's intuition told her that Micah had really felt something for the girl. It was out of the blue and completely unexpected but she could sense the same fires of passion burning within the boy that she had felt for Yasuna when Divinus had given her the ability to conceive a mortal child. Ironically, the only person her power to "charm" didn't seem to work on, had fallen for Lynefra anyways.
"It's beautiful," Lynefra's eyes sparkled like a starry sky. Though she appeared to be more introverted and shy, without the knowledge of who she was reincarnated from, she was more more cheerful and seemed to be free of her previous emotional inhibitions. "Thank you."
Lynefra's smile caused Micah to temporarily lose himself. "You're welcome," he returned her smile awkwardly as he blushed slightly.
Outside, Cirwyn smiled knowingly at her husband and stood firmly in front of the door, blocking Traigar's path into the room. Traigar was no fool, he could read the atmosphere between the young man and the young woman in the room. "Traigar," Cirwyn said slowly, "You didn't act this way with Freyd when he was persuing Fonral."
"That's different," Traigar managed to say, the veins on his forehead bulging.
"How so?"
"Because.." The man knew very well that to say 'Because Freyd is my son and Lynefra is my daughter' would only land him in deep trouble with his wife.
"For such a nice boy to show up when she's lost her memories, it really must be fate," Cirwyn said wistfully.