"What the fuck..."
Those were the only words Allendis could utter. Just what the hell was he looking at? The statue was still held in place by the natural skin that was underneath the stone carving. The only flesh that he could see was that of her right eye, that glowed blue, as blue as the clear sky, and the bottom half of her face down to her chest. Her hair was shining golden, a gentle glow that did not resemble any light he had seen.
"Thou seemest to be in good health." The statue spoke.
Allendis moved his head to the side to get a better look at the woman. Her eyes followed his movement like she was mirroring his gaze. His heart was beating tremendously fast, whether it was from fear or panic, he did not know. He had to calm himself somehow. He pursed his lips and walked back slightly. He did not know if she was dangerous or not.
"Who are you?" Allendis asked. His eyes darted all across the statue's body. Was it even a statue if there was a woman inside it? A stone acting as a second skin somehow.
Her eye dropped down. One of the only things that was not stoned, moved to avoid his gaze.
"My name is... my name... Why can I remember it not?" The stone-woman said. Her single eye slowly raised to meet him and smiled. "Perchance thou couldst help me, mine other half?"
"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Allendis looked around the dark empty void. "And where the hell is that Seer? What did you do to her?"
The stone-woman's eye lit up. Suddenly she stood up and Allendis stepped back and was ready to fight if it came down to it. So her body can move after all.
"Fret not thyself, mine other half." She reached out her stony hand to him and slowly walked towards him. "I mean thee no harm."
Allendis moved further back. "You haven't answered my questions. What are you and what did you do with the Seer?"
Now that she was coming closer to him, Allendis could tell her features much clearer now. Her face was matured yet small. Her sky-like eyes looked enchanting, it made him shiver down from his spine and onto his skin. The cracks on the stone of her body were much deeper than he had initially assumed and her gold locks flowed down to her waist, tied at the end to keep it in place. She was wearing an ornate gold crown that looked almost as weathered as the stone parts of her body. It was wrapped around just above her forehead with a design resembling that of three flower stems intertwined together and at the middle converging into some sort of shield pattern. Topping it all with a thin veil of a dark blue dress that covered her breasts and down to her stomach, with the rest of her shapely body being exposed.
Allendis did not have his sword or any of his tools. It was all in his mind and it seems like anything that could physically harm anything was useless. He tried to think of something. Would jumping be a good idea? No, would that even do anything? This was the inside of his mind, but if that was the case, why does it feel like he had no control over it?
He backed up, as she walked slowly towards him. He could feel that each step he took back, the less ground he had to work with. It wasn't long before he was at the edge and there was nothing to back up to. Should he just tackle her? It was worth a shot. He clenched his fist as hard as he could, trying to aim at the perfect timing. As soon as she gets close to him, he'll attack. It doesn't matter if nothing comes of it, he won't kill himself but he was sure that he'll get out of this or die trying.
She took one more step.
And another.
Another.
Another.
Another.
Until she stopped.
The sound of her bare feet no longer approached him. Allendis looked at her feet that were planted to the rough stone platform, then her legs that stood still, then finally her upper body that almost looked like she was laying on the ground while her eye still met with his. Her smile was all but gone, replaced by a slight frown.
"Mine apologies for having given thee fright. I but desire to gaze more closely upon thee."
With those words, Allendis dropped his guard. He did not know why, all of his being told him not to, but his body relaxed at her voice. He let go every ounce of strength that he had on his fist.
The moment he let go, she was suddenly right in his face. Did he get distracted for much longer that he realized? He felt the cold hands cupping his cheek. The cold stony hand felt rough. He could feel every bump and the cracked edges of her hand caressing it slowly. She only had one eye made of flesh and yet it looked like she was seeing everything with both.
"It hath been long since I have felt flesh."
Allendis could feel the tip of her fingers begin to soften or rather, feel the stone peeling off of her hand. Her palm was still rough, but she was still trying to feel everything through her fingers.
"The Seer of whom thou speakest hath already departed. Most of mine memories yet elude me, but I can only act upon that which I yet remember."
Her hand went from his cheek down to his neck. It did not move from his neck, her fingers were wrapped around it.
"Perchance the time hath not yet come. Wouldst thou care to converse with me?" She asked as he dropped her hand and fell beside her hips.
Was it safe? Safe to ask a few questions. Because he really needed it. He had never experienced this before and something tells him that this was not the Seer's doing.
"You don't remember much. No point in asking random questions, so I'll ask this; what do you remember?"
Allendis saw the woman's eye close down, she raised her hand to clutch her head with the movement of someone with poise and grace. Her right eye finally opened as her left remained blind from the stone.
"I remember a jar brimmed with flesh...a tree that reacheth unto the heavens...and a tower that stretched forth to the moon."
What the fuck are those? "Can you wrack your brain more? Maybe we can find something out." Anything would be good. He needed something more concrete. She was the mystery and anything from her can lead him to whatever the hell he was experiencing.
"I can remember naught else..."
"Great. What a wonderful chat this has been."
"Mayhap 'tis time I claimed thy body, Allendis." Her voice was colder than before.
Allendis glared at her before rolling his eyes. "First the Seer and now you too? Give me a break, Milareth."
Allendis stopped himself from whatever he was about to think. At that singular moment, nothing mattered. Not this bizarre occurrence, not the half-stone woman, not about the Seers or the hundred questions he would like to ask. He honed in on one word. Milareth...
Milareth? Where did that name even come from? Was that her name? He has never met any woman named Milareth. So how? How did he even utter such a name?
The woman looked at him, almost dazzled. She looked down while she put her smooth fingers to her lips. "Milareth..." She muttered softly. "Milareth..."
"That is thy name—Milareth. I have borne this name since becoming... How could I forget?"
"Is that your name?" Allendis asked carefully.
"Aye, 'tis a name I know well, one that is woven into my very being."
Allendis sighed. "At least that's one mystery to resolve."
He saw her shed more of her stone exterior. Particularly, her chest area has now become a smooth and bouncy image rather than the decaying stone.
"Thou must be the key to mine memories!" Milareth said. She tried to close the distance but Allendis held his hand up.
"Hold on. I still don't trust you. You might be someone suffering from amnesia, but we're in this position where neither of us have a way of knowing. I know my memories well, and for all I know this could be some act. How do I know that you didn't plant the name 'Milareth' in my mind?"
Another piece fell off, a small one from her right shoulder, "Such a ridiculous thought! Though much is lost to me, I tolerate not such disrespect—even from mine other half."
"Again with the other half crap! What does that even mean?"
Her words did not make sense, this situation did not make sense, and she doesn't make any sense. All of this is some sort of fever dream that he'd like to wake up from. He'd like to forget everything because this was just making his mind hurt even more than it already has.
"Look, I can't really help you at all. We both do not know anything, and this will be a waste of time if we continue further. Whatever is happening to you, I want no part of it."
Milareth's blue eyes were steely from her glare and frown. "I ask but this: that thou help me reclaim mine memories. Lost though they be, I can do but little, imprisoned as I am. In sooth, it is thy doing that hath brought me to this place. Had it not been for thee—and the Seer's meddling—I would never have awakened. Thou didst stir me from mine slumber... and now thou hast the gall to lay thy misfortune at mine own feet?"
She raised her hand at him, fingers curled as if holding something. Her eyes remained even colder, and her voice much so.
"Were it thy will to defy me... I should end thee with mine own hand."
Pain. Sharp innumerable pain from his heart. Allendis clutched his chest. He wanted to scream but he couldn't. His throat was incapable of it. His vision was getting dark. His skin dripped with sweat that fell down his face and body, with almost a bucketful. His feet lost all of their strength, his knees hitting the ground with a loud thud painfully, yet it did not compare to what he was experiencing.
"Yet still I have need of thee, and thou of me. Thus shalt thou live—for now."
The pain was gone. Allendis managed to breathe out. It was gone completely, but the sensation of his heart getting ripped apart, twisted and crushed still lingered.
"Damn you..." Allendis growled at her, panting and coughing. "You think I'll go ahead and do whatever you want?"
"Mine memories have not yet faded entirely. Some return to me in fragments. Mayhap this awakening hath stirred them. Be that as it may, I reckon idleness shall not content thee—for thou art no foolish man."
Allendis hated her. He did not want to see it from her perspective or even attempt to understand her, but he knew that deep down, Milareth was right. He wanted to know more. More about what connects him to her. The only thing that he could conclude was that she was someone of importance. How someone was connected to him, that was the mystery he needed to find out, and it all starts with him finding out her identity and restoring her memories.
He let his one knee up trying to stand up. Then another. His legs were shaky from the experience but he managed to stay firm for more than a few seconds.
"Fine. Where do I even start? Eddan isn't exactly a small continent. You expect me to just stumble upon it?"
Milareth cocked her head slightly to the right. Gone were her cold expressions. It was replaced with serene indifference. Allendis found it jarring if he was being honest.
"Eddan?" She asked but her face lit up. "Ah! So that is the name of the place wherein the Golden Covenant hath been founded."
"Golden Covenant? The governing church of Eddan?" Allendis asked. He had heard of the order. It was their natural laws that defined Eddan.
The Golden Covenant was the governing belief of Eddan. Under the Watchful Goddess' guidance, those who believe in her can perceive truth and let the light shine into one eye. It wasn't the only system that binds human beliefs in this world. There was the Titan Hand of Creation, the Reaching Ear of the Malga, the Scale of the Deep, and so on. The Golden Covenant is what the majority of people in Eddan believe in. With the Watchful Goddess overthrowing the God-Queen, she reigned and led the people to a prosperous life of no strife, with the Golden Cloth enforcing her will. What a load of horseshit!
"Aye. The knowledge I bear mayhap be naught but common ken unto those sworn to the Covenant. This world hath been shaped by the remnants of the All-Knowing. The Golden Covenant is but one Order that holdeth the blessing of that ancient will. Of the others, I know not. Yet one fragment endureth—clear and unbroken within mine mind: The Realms Between."
Allendis remained silent for a moment. He has never heard of the Realms Between before, so he asked. "What's that?"
Milareth placed her fingers on her chin, cupping it. "Tis a tower unseen by mortal eye, yet remembered by those who dream. A tower wherein unspeakable truths lie cloaked. A tower where none hath ever set foot. 'Tis a place that leadeth unto the deep of Tarethul...and thence, to the Yhalgor's Crown."
Her words made Allendis' skin shift in its winds. He could feel the sweat drip down his neck. Not out of pain this time. The Realms Between...if Milareth knows about something he never even heard off, then it must be because it was something important to her, whatever it may be.
"Unspeakable truths..." Allendis muttered. "How am I supposed to find it something no one even knows about?"
Still, even after listening to her words, some part of him felt...excited. His heart raised to another beat or two and his mind was racing through all sorts of questions about this new information.
"I shall ask proper this time. Dost thou accept mine entreaty to gather my memories, mine other half?"
He shouldn't. He really shouldn't. His life was already on the line just fighting through this stupid war. No he has to risk his life to even get a chance to find her memories. For what? For curiosity? He already knew the answer to that question, a smile creeping up his face and laughed. He laughed quietly.
"I will." He said. "I accept your request."
She too had a smile on her face. Unreadable. Cold. But Allendis did not care. Deep down, he wanted this. He has a knack for poking through other people's business.
"I thank thee, mine other half. May thy journey lead thee to live yet longer—though the path to such a fate be wrought with shadow and sorrow."
She lowered her head at him and Allendis sat up. Sat up...He was back at the tent. The room was dark, with the Seer's bed, table and couch still in the exact same place he last saw them. Going through this was quite the ordeal. He wanted to get some shut eye. Allendis tried to peel his hand off of something heavy. He was still holding onto the paper but it was heavy.
"Shit..."
Allendis' eyes widened as he pulled his hand away A loud thud was heard, it flipped the table to the side. Allendis saw the raven locks of the woman he had been with, now on the ground. He could hear his own breathing.
But not the Seer's.