The Trio Odyssey

Part I: Soul to Soul

Chapter 12: Maia

Unequivocally, she’s walking inside her dream.

And, in that dream, she happens to be walking across an empty horizon of a coast, maybe it’s Sanaje Coast.

She asks herself. 

“What is this? Again? A coast?”

Or maybe it's not, because there’s no perpendicular vertical line like the Gantae Ring. 

“But it’s super dark, and with no Gantae Ring too.”

She reacts to the fact that the sight that she’s seeing is spectacular.

“Perhaps, this is actually Earth!?”

She’s elated, forsaking the facts that she’s presently in her dreams and springing her legs.

“Yes, I’m free now! No more figures, no more royalty! I’m back home!”

From afar, she notices a very bright source of light flashing before her eyes, looking at it that way.

She sees a massive ship that is caught up in a thunderous, violent sea storm, unstably sinking and brightly burning.

A hidden, abrupt and deep trauma is rapidly triggered within her. 

She goes blank and doesn’t know what to do.

And, she doesn’t even remember her name at that time. Not until her female peer in her twenties shouts her name.

“Maia!”

While the trauma is striking her entire body to be so tensed up, she’s just standing there stuck and unmoving. 

Her lips slowly move, repeating after the name that was shouted. 

“Maia?”

Her peer shouts again, reminding Maia for something. 

“Maia, get on the boat now! The ship is sinking!”

The person trapped within the dream, Maia, looks back to the direction of the voice of her peer that’s been calling for her, which is from the opposite direction of the ship. 

No one and nothing is there, but darkness. Yet, what comes after that is the same strangle she had experienced back in the void of the watery realm.

It all felt too real for Maia, once more.

She has no idea what’s going on, reacting to the strangle with her hands trying to get rid of the hands that are strangling her with her hands wrapping around her neck. 

‘Hukk—, this choke, again!’

The choking strength intensifies over time. It’s becoming even worse and harder for her to handle, groaning in agony.

“Hngh—!”

She’s losing a lot of her breaths.

With all of the forcing tensions, she wakes up curling her body forward and breathing intensely.

“Huff—, huff—, huff—!”

Maia checks around in panic, screaming her words out.

“Huh—, wait! Did I get transmigrated again?!”

But no, she’s still on the same bed, still in the same Princess’s room, and still stuck in the same, petite Princess’s body. 

Maia’s sight becomes fuzzy and her head feels dizzy all over and Raeké sees it too.

And, the memories of the figures at Sanaje Coast flicker within her head.

Just two of them, while Maia forgot the rest; they’re the ancient looking building covered in tree roots and debris, and the city with its buildings collapsing in the spin of a fire tornado. 

Those images linger around her head as she walks down, going away from her bed. 

She turns her head to the side of the Princess’s room, observing what’s behind the curtains of the Princess’s room’s window: the sky is still as dark as night, but close to dawn.

Later, she sets her head aloft, looking at the hanged wall clock inside the Princess’s room.

The clock reading shows 5ST, in the morning.

“5 Sol-Togue… Nulhym’s… That might be the same as Earth’s 3:30 a.m.”

She slowly recovers a little of her consciousness, whispering the name that was called in her dreams using Raeké’s lips and throat.

“Ma—i—a—…”

“Wait… Maia… Maia… Maia…?”

A burst of energy sparks around Raeké’s body, making Maia jump in total excitement. 

“Maia, Maia is my name!”

Within her eyes, they are filled, full of hope. While behind those eyes is Maia’s emotions blended with Raeké.

“Thank God, I finally retrieved a fragment of my past memory!”

While she’s lost in her world, one thought passes by that makes her fall silent, murmuring.

‘Just now… I’m pretty sure that I got to Earth. Now I’m back to Nulhym…’

‘Ah—, then that just means, I’m still far from my home…’

Raeké shakes her head to try to regain her focus while Maia doesn’t really want to, but she does it anyway.

It’s a shared action; two consciousness mixed from the one who retains her memories and one who doesn’t, inside the body of the one who does.

Raeké crosses her hands under her armpits with a saying. 

“It’s cold this morning.”

Maia murmurs inwardly, and Raeké hears it too.

‘Huh—, I’m moving subconsciously?’

‘No… it’s the Princess’s movement!’

Raeké mumbles and Maia shares the same mumble.

‘Of course I’m moving right now… what am I thinking…’

And then, Maia hears a line of thoughts from Raeké. 

‘Hmm—… I want to go to the bathroom… then, take some fresh, morning air… and I want more sweets from Doctor Dohret… Umm—, my tummy is hungry…’

Maia reacts strangely within Raeké’s head.

‘Ahh—, I feel like a child again. Thinking about such things.’

‘Isn’t a 7-year-old not a child?’

Raeké yawns as she reaches in front of the oak door of her room, pushing the doors and exiting her room. 

She walks through the corridor alone, while a maid finds her. 

“Your Highness, up early?”

Raeké yawns again while closing her mouth using her fingers, narrowing her eyes and blinking slowly.  

Shortly after that, she responds to the maid while yawning, lifting her arms upward.

“Awwh—, umm—, yes. Lead me to the ba—hroohm pwease—(Lead me to the bathroom please).”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

A few hours later, Raeké’s done with the things she wants to do, except for getting the sweets from Doctor Dohret.

Raeké’s running across many corridors of Heto Palace with her high spurt of energy, like a normal kid would. It’s Raeké’s desire, not Maia’s, but she still does it, because Raeké is still a 7 year-old child. 

As she runs, the ambience within the palace is serene, with birds chirping, rustling leaves, and the crimson colored sunlight from their host star, Julaera, piercing the windows.

She runs while not looking to the front, but the settling atmosphere.

Until she crushes onto someone in front of her, hearing sounds of thud, a woman’s scream, and flying papers at the same time.

“Ah—, my papers!”

The woman is way taller than her. Perhaps, way taller than her mother. a modest dress. 

So, Raeké looks upward, looking at the woman, and she recognizes her a lot. 

She shouts, greeting the woman.

“Oh—, good morning, Professor Tacha!”

The Professor faces down, looking into the Princess’s face with a shocked look, answering her greeting.

“Good morning… Your Highness…”

The Professor kneels and picks up her fallen, scattered papers one by one and rearranges them in her arms. 

The Princess observes the Professor’s doings and she becomes a little startled about what she just did. 

She immediately helps the Professor to pick up the papers and hand them to her. 

The Professor takes them and stands up, adjusting her round glasses.

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

The Princess nods while smiling, and continues with the conversation after she remembers something. 

“Uhm—… By the way, Professor, I have a question about the Crystalline.”

The Professor lifts her irises upward for a moment, taking her time to recall the Crystalline.

“Crystalline… Oh—, so, what is it that you wish to ask?”

The Princess questions the Professor energetically and curiously.

“Can we light up the Crystalline without using any Occult Synthesis?”

The Professor grins, replying and giving off the same energy.

“Of course, all you need to do is just leave it be, and it will glow forever!”

The Princess inhales enthusiastically while looking upward because her Professor is too tall.

And then, suddenly, she remembers about her past conversation with her mother.

“…Mom, how long will I be studying with Professor Tacha?…”

“…About 2 months left, sweetie.…”

She immediately looks away and grunts afterward.

She gazes back into the Professor’s eyes, and inquires.

“Professor, when is the next class going to be?”

“This morning, at 11ST, Ma’am.”

While that, Maia thinks shortly. 

‘Earth’s 8:30 a.m., I see…’

The Princess flinches after finding out that the Professor’s looking at her, facing downward with an upset look and a little shy.

The Professor notices all of that. She kneels and looks into her face, trying to comfort Raeké.

“Ma’am… What’s the matter? Something is troubling you?”

The Princess answers shortly, keeping her face with the same look. 

“No…”

Then, the Professor raises her voice a little higher when talking to the Princess, pressing her eyebrows lower.

“You really shouldn’t hide bad things with you! It will be bad for you!”

The Princess nods slowly while looking into the Professor’s face. That relieves the Professor’s worries and doubts about the Princess’s emotional issues.

The Professor sighs, relaxing her face and adding up her words of advice with a smile.

“Be sure to tell me when something is wrong, okay?”

Raeké breathes intensely, and then yells out her feelings with her eyes closed.

“Professor Tacha, I will miss you forever! You won’t teach me anymore after two months, so I will miss you a lot! You are my favorite professor of all time!”

The Professor widens her eyes and raises her eyebrows. 

“Oh—?”

“It’s true, Professor! I love you, and admire you, so much for teaching me a lot!”

Right afterward, the Professor places her papers down and takes her handbag onto the carpet of the corridor, giving the Princess a long hug before their separation.

“I love you too. You are such an adorable, easygoing, and carefree Princess for me. And so easy to teach too~!”

The Professor lets go of her hug, grabs her stuff and stands up.

“See you during the class, Ma’am. Bye!”

The Princess sends a long wave, swinging her arms energetically.

“Bye~—!”

The Professor has already parted ways with the Princess.

And, out of the blue, Maia resurfaces inside Raeké, recounting her conversation with Professor Tacha in a self-talk.

‘Those warmths, I like it. But it’s not mine! So, it’s the same feeling: her memories, but I experience it too.’

‘Not to mention, did I actually lose my life at that time? Someone must have done it, it’s just I don’t know and remember who…’

‘But no, that’s also wrong! I’ve had amnesia, and I’m living inside Raeké’s body.’

Maia presses her hands on her head while shaking.

‘Argh—, I’ve been repeating this many times already!’

‘To lose one’s memory is to lose one’s life…’

‘If I can’t even retrieve my memories as a whole, I might just have to create new ones.’

‘And to get back home, I will have to take that very path!’