Lian blinked and afterward was transported from a Caer trapped in mist to a underground cavern, barely lighted by silvery spots reflecting light from crystals attached near the ceiling. The girl spinned around, trying to comprehend where or what this was, until she locked eyes with a pair of arched brows. 

-” Lian sweetie? What are you doing- wait, no. I mean-”. Tried the old goat secretary to ask, but a mix of fear and shame acted like a cork, as if she was trying to hide something. 

The redhead paced slowly, not turning her head to acknowledge any of the ruckus going around her. “ This is a memory, right?”

Olpio nodded, and then a wall of stone and dust hid Lian’s sight, leaving only a tiny portion open for the secretary to watch from. Her eyes wanted multiple times to turn away, but Olpio never feared pulling her sight from the fights and pillages. Until Lian showed up; somehow, for what felt like days of watching a never-ending loop, the girl’s intrusion meant something changed. On the outside. “I’ll tell you, only if you don’t move, don’t ask questions about-”, a trembling hand then pointed at the new wall, “and you don’t try to look at it.”

Something the secretary didn’t expect though, was for Lian to enter this realm with a furious thirst. The redhead ignored the conditions, stepped forward pushing through the crowd that Olpio summoned by instinct. “ We don’t have time for this, Olpio”, screamed the girl with anger spitting through her teeth, trying to push a firg with horns and blue fur. “ Let. Me. Through!”

Olpio- “ Why? What’s over there that’s so important that you can’t wait?”

Lian-” Roads! Doors to the others. And these others are the people we’ll need to stop Feth.” After pushing a bit more, the girl managed to trip over one of the warriors, and the others became a head smaller than before. 

Olpio- “ And then what? Will that fix everything that he’s destroyed before?”

Lian- “Nobody thinks that! Why do people always think that’s a good retort?” she screeched in irritation.” No, but I can make him pay- Pay for what he did to Caer and that he tried to screw-”

With a hand over her heart, Olpio inhales deeply. “ Let it all out girl…”

Lian- “- with the people that helped me out. When I’ll have him on the ground, I can just kick, and kick, and kick-”

Olpio rested her concerned face on her palm, waiting for Lian to wear herself out.

Lian- “ And make him submit.”, screamed the amnesiac, huffing a tired breath. “Make him…make him grovel. Beg-” She tried to think of more ways to punish the librarian, but nothing came out, even though that was all she could think about for the last few hours.

The secretary sat near her, and deliberated internally if to tell her tale which shamed her even now.

Olpio- “ Let me tell you a story, sweetie. One that once filled me with feelings of revenge, and now with shame: Once, a marauding tribe of firgs with horns and hooves crossed from one layer to another, as it was their way of life. And in their voyage, they found a village, hidden deep underground. Easy prey, they thought. The first villagers they killed were near the entrance, a squishy bunch, they thought. Farmers, as they-we found out later. Once those fled in terror, the marauders cheered, thinking we found easy prey.”

The unusual way Olpio told her stories contrasted to Lian how her usual cherry, energetic tone was in comparison to her current sad, mellow voice. 

Olpio- “ We reached the first houses minutes after our first kills”, she continued, flinching at what Lian guessed were some gruesome memories the secretary left out. “ I was a carriage carrier, alongside the other kids of my tribe, which means I stood at the back of the raiding parties. But even from such a distance, I could clearly see them. The warriors of the village; few in number, but valiant and courageous. The precursors of the current Union, locals with large silvery shields and lances, and a pack of shadowy ones. They were the most dangerous ones, taking our back rows with bows and knives.”

Lian’s senses told her that the way Olpio spoke with such admiration about the counterattack was not exactly the truth. The yells and prolonged shadows coming from behind the wall told a different story, one more bloody and prolonged than she presented. Olpio’s tribe managed to cross the first houses and pillage part of the village; which she then confirmed.

Olpio- “ My people had the advantage in numbers; and used that as a crashing wave to force our way in. The back and forth fights kept ongoing for half a day, if you could believe it. And our advantage dwindled, falling body by falling body” The old lady took another look at the scene behind her and sighted. ” And that’s how I got here, to Caer Sidi. No more questions, ok?”, she gave a threatening grin.

A frustrated Lian shook her head and she could feel how inside her, an order, filled with red puss and vindictive spite was metastasizing. She just wanted to yell at Olpio to “ continue”, but at the same time, she could feel the secretary’s shaking hand in hers. 

Lian- “...Ok. How long do you want to stay?”

Olpio- “...I think it would be better if you go ahead without me”, she said, brushing the ground with her hoofs. Then thought to ask how the two should proceed with whatever Lian wanted from her.

Swinging her feet left to right, Lian kept her in a pause, trying to think of a way to explain a concept that she also barely understood. Whatever the red outline shared with her was as a feeling, an instinct of how to use the power, and nothing more.

Lian- “ Uhhhh…you’ve got to think of someone, and once a pathway appears, I can move from one person to another.”

Olpio’s eyes squinted in disbelief and she was about to drop a slap upon the crimson head. “Patience”, she muttered while holding her right hand in check. “Then what was all that ranting and raving all about?!”

Lian- “ Well, the doors are actually all over through the memory. Apparently, since you know everyone in Caer Sidi, I can connect to them much easier. Just think of someone and the door will materialise here”, she stumbled in her words.

Olpio- “...Sweetie, perchance, you didn’t want me to know what pathway you wanted to go through?”

Right on the money, as a moment later Lian got all red in the face and tried to hide her cheeks with her palms. “ Fine, fine, whatever, detective blabberer. I want Arim’s door.”

Taunting a cheeky grin, Olpio did as requested and a small window appeared before the two. Both were a bit surprised by the size, which infuriated the secretary a bit. “ You’ll bring/ no, drag him to our next tea session. This is such an insult”, puffed Olpio, before giving Lian a goodbye hug. 

Olpio- “ And relax a little bit. Whatever you plan on doing, it isn’t worth the grey hair.”

Lian- “ It’s fine, I’ll count on you to help me dye it back to red.”

Olpio- “ Sure, that sounds delightful.” she chuckled. 

…

The next space lacked the grandiosity of the one before. Lian could see in the distance an entrance to what looked like a door frame to a pink colored wall, with a dim light coming from it. At the edge of a door greeted her the prolonged shadow of Arim, who stood crouching at the end of a hallway, watching a scene from his past. 

Once he noticed Lian, he barely reacted; a slight tilt of the head, a bare smile and a finger over his lips. She felt a bit hurt by the ask, but then she caught the whimper of a small child. Afterward noticed the tip of a shadow coming from a separate room Arim was looking into. His chin kept steady on his arms, with hands wrapped around his body.

A broken glass made Lian jitter and she was getting more worried by the second. But also a gnawing curiosity was growing. “ Calm down, just do as Olpio said and wait.” 

Arim- “ Those were my parents”, he said in a tired, inert tone. “This was the day they finally split up.”

Lian- “ Oh…I can wait outside if you’d want.”

The young man pondered for a second, and nodded. “ I just need a few more minutes”, he said, and Lian raised her thumb. Outside was nothing, just a white void. “ Well, sitting on the ground it is”, she complained, after which a bench magically materialized before her. “ That works”, not even trying to comprehend the logic of this mind space. 

Next up she wished for a book to browse, and she got so immersed into it that the girl didn’t notice Arim coming out until he laid next to her on the bench.

Arim-” So…Feth got us?”

Lian- “ Almost. Me, Ogda and Perren’s group are still out there. I’m in here to…wake you guys up in case your teacher has problems with their mission.”

Arim- “ Oh”, he said, very despondent. Then looked at the void and scrubbed his eyes after a few seconds. “...Sorry for what you heard there.”

Lian- “ I don’t think that’s something you should apologize for.”

Arim- “ Yeah, I know. I know, I just…You want to hear about it?”

Lian- “ You want to tell me about it?”

The young man turned face to face with the redhead and after a moment, he felt like he did want to say something about it. “ Sure. It’s ancient history by this point, but I feel like I can give you a summary for now.”

Arim- “ Mom and dads, who says that they need to love each other to make a kid, right? Anyway, the crux of the problems started when dad hid from her, and himself, that he wasn’t actually into women.”

Lian- “Wow…ok. That’s…From Tommen’s stories, I thought that Earth was past those-”

Arim- “ Ha. Right? Most of it, apparently, but there are still a few spots left. Anyway, once dad was far enough from his folks, he finally started to feel much better in his own skin. Problem: by that point, he was already married to his childhood friend. My mom.”

Feeling a bit conflicted on how to react to the story, Lian decided to wait until the end to see if she was supposed to call Arim’s dad a scumbag or pity him. 

Arim- “ And a child…and a life”, he said while stretching his hands way over his head. “ Anyhow, long story short, the two were fighting like crazy for a year before finally breaking up.”

Lian- “ Wait, how old were you during that time?”

Arim- “ 4-5, somewhere like that.”

Lian- “Oh my god, that’s…well, awful. Is that why you guys moved here?”, she asked, cringing afterward for asking such an obvious reason.

Arim- “ I didn’t want to stay with humans anymore. Mom was already in a Fect pact with Masso and we’ve been visiting Caer Sidi every time the worlds synchronized. And it was always my most favorite time of the year. It took a while for my dad to agree with it, but once he realized how much happier I was here, I guess he agreed to leave me with mom.”

Lian- “ Can’t disprove that, you do carry that cute smile anytime I see you”, she babbled out, still untangling her mind about how to respond. Realizing her compliment, she quickly added a follow up question. “ So…you haven’t seen your dad ever since, right?”

A bit surprised, Arim frowned and left a confused laugh. “ What? No. I mean, we take lunch from time to time, but they’re so weird. By now, I kinda want him to get past his guilt and just speak to me like a normal person. He’s got a whole family and all after all.”

Lian- “ Wha-” but then it dropped on her. “ Maci, right, shit! Does that mean that he's with another woman? Or how-”

Arim- “ No, he’s married to a man; nice guy, tells alot about fighting games. I don’t know how they had Maci, but she’s from my dad’s side. Blood and all.”

Like no other time, Lian felt another intrigue stirring up inside. For Earth now. “ Interesting place” she gradually thought about her presumed home. 

She giggled at his comedic raise of voice for the last part and felt a bit more at ease now. “ Complicated family, huh?”

Arim - “ Right? The firg side is so much simpler. Got my two annoying siblings, lots of uncles and aunts, and lots of supportive shoulders. If it wasn’t for them, that-” he turned to the noisy room “- would have been a much darker time for us.”

Lian- “ It does help out; having that many people you can depend on…”,Lian realized, getting a creeping feeling nearby. Another vision of her past passed by. Her tiny, barefoot feet, dragging through a snowy forest, trying to escape something. While her right hand tried to shield her face, the left one held on to something much smaller than her. A tiny child covered from head to toe in snow; her fingers were purple and ice cold. 

Arim- “ So…what should we do now?”, a question which jumped Lian out of her vision. 

Lian turned around, as if she hoped to find that small hand once again, but realized that she was back in present time.

Lian- “ We, ugh, go back. And invade other people's memories.”

Arim- “ Of course…Do we need some nightmare steeds for that or?”

…

The two then jumped from conscious to conscious, freeing everyone from Finley to Masso, until a decision had to be made about the Tuatha. 

Temitayo- “ We should. We need his help as well…he probably wants to have his revenge as well.” The teen’s short demand was enough to convince the group, and alongside Lian as the chauffeur, the two approached the memory. 

A wall of black crystals that seemed to just eat out the light around it raised up from deep under the mantle of the white void and blocked their access. Still, that wasn’t the end of the road for them, as Ecne, the Lord of Masks stood on top of one of the crystals, waiting and whistling.

Ecne- “ Greetings…Temitayo, human woman. We’ll discuss, but on this side of the memory.”