‘I’m back here again.’

Kan looked around his surroundings and everything he had just seen disappeared like the morning mist. Everywhere he looked was now that familiar eerie darkness. Kan curled into fetal position and cried. Everything was just to much for him. He had just seen his mother potentially die and didn’t know whether he was going to get out of here.

Time passed and Kan eventually recollected his emotions. He wiped the tears off of his face and began reviewing what he had seen so far. Remembering the scene of his mother being attacked was painful but he pushed through. He needed to get out of this place and save his mother and father in his world. Kan reviewed both sets of memories and sought to find similarities.

‘The day the tragedy happens is on a cloudy day. In both memories the lighting always strikes, then followed by the alarms. The men were looking for Mommy, but why?’

Kan found some similarities between both memories but the one he couldn’t answer was why these men were looking for Claire. He knew that there sole objective was Claire and that Claire knew of some secret that those men wanted. They were willing to kill an entire village to find Claire so the secrets she knew was important.

‘Maybe...maybe these memories are telling me to save Mommy. I want to save Mommy but what about everyone else. I want to save them too, I can’t just let them die. What should I do?’

Kan was ambitious, he didn’t want any sacrifices at all. He sought to find an answer where everything ends well for everybody. Whenever he thought of choosing to save just Claire or the villagers, a irritating feeling could be felt within him. He didn’t want to choose sides so Kan decided to choose both decisions.

A fiery determination burned within Kan. He was willing to do whatever he could to find the answer he wanted. He began thinking and thinking about both memories so he could find more similarities. The more information he had, the more he could be prepared for the future.

‘I will save everyone but I don’t have enough information. I need to see those memories again. I don’t remember everything that happened. I need to see those memories again but how can I do that.’

Kan sat alone in the darkness speaking to himself. Instead of just trying to remember those memories he had decided to recite what he had seen and heard. This way the image of what happened would stay vivid in his mind but eventually he came to a stump.

‘Everything I remember is too vague. I didn’t investigate the surroundings and was too focused on Mommy and Daddy. If only I can see those memories again, then i’ll go and investigate the village to find what day this happened.’

Stuck and confused, an outrageous idea popped into Kan’s mind. He didn't know whether this would work or not but he had to try. There was no harm in trying it so he did it.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

‘Hey Darkness can you please show me those memories again.’

Kan’s crazy idea was to speak to the darkness. Ever since Kan had first been here and heard the voices, he felt that the darkness wasn’t normal. It wasn’t like the regular darkness during nighttime. The darkness here felt eerie and alive like it was the insides of a living thing.

A sudden light enveloped the darkness again. Kan didn’t expect his idea to actually work. He had felt that the darkness may be alive and watching over him so he decided to speak to it.

‘It worked.’

The scenery once again changed...or not.

‘What nothing changed...wait.’

What Kan saw around him was still darkness but it was different from the darkness he was in a while ago. It was just dark, nothing like the eerie and alive darkness he was just in. The next moment he heard a very familiar voice.

“Ok, good job Kan. Don’t use your eyes to try and feel the mana, use your entire body. Mana is like the ocean and we are like fishes. Every breeze you feel is mana, every piece of dirt has mana, and even the body has mana in it. You just have to feel it, don’t force anything. Let it all come naturally. Yes, I can feel you move the mana. Good job.”

“Thanks Mommy, it’s becoming easier to move the mana around.”

Kan watched Claire teach “Kan” how to manipulate mana. Kan watched with curiosity because he also wanted to learn. He didn’t know whether he could learn it right now but he tried.

Kan sat down and closed his eyes and followed Claire’s instructions. He tried to feel the mana but he couldn’t feel anything.

‘Maybe I can’t learn how to feel mana in this place.’

Kan was ready to give up but he didn’t. He tried imagining himself as a fish in the ocean but that was it, he just imagined himself as a fish. He couldn’t feel mana or anything of that sorts. He tried for a little longer but nothing worked. Kan felt sad that he couldn’t feel the mana so Kan stood up ready to go investigate the village.

‘Why do I feel so tired?’

“Let’s go Kan. You and Claire have trained enough. Let’s go home and rest.”

“Ok.”

All three of them headed towards the cave entrance. Kan watched as they left and floated unsteadily behind them. On a usual day the entrance to the cave would be bright and shining from the sun but not this day. The weather outside was cloudy and gloomy so barely any light came into the cave.

‘What is this? My body feels so weak. They’re walking too fast, I can’t keep up.’

Clive, Claire, and “Kan” were slowly getting further and further from Kan. It wasn’t because they were going fast but because Kan was too slow. Something was happening to his body and Kan didn’t know what it was.

Everything was becoming blurry and the voices were becoming distorted.

“That...intense lighting wasn’t it...?”

“Yeah...”

‘Wait...wait. What’s...happening? I...have...to...investigate.’

That was the last thing Kan remembered before everything turned dark. Kan had fallen unconscious without knowing what had happened to him.