Pov: Eirian
As he went quiet, Eira and I watched.
"Do you think he made it in?" She asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine," I replied, worried about what was to come.
'Making an offer was giving your life away, to a cause, to a promise. You had a choice in what you were willing to offer, but there was no turning back once you did. You were locked to that promise.'
The doors shuttered, winds picking up and snowing more heavily than before.
As I turned to look at it, I said, "The storm is picking up."
"You think it will dial down?" She asked.
"I don't know-" As I turned to reply, my head instantly shot back at the doors as they burst open from the high-intense winds. Snow made its way into the cafeteria. Eira, on the other hand, yelped, falling behind me.
"You okay?" I asked. "It's just a snowstorm." I turned my head back to look at her.
"Yeah… just got me by surprise."
I chuckled, "Yeah, this happens all the time in the wastelands. You wouldn't believe the type of weather we get there." As I looked back over at the entrance, something caught my eye. Buildings weren't just covered in snow; they were frozen. Eira seemed to have noticed as well.
"Is that normal as well?" She asked.
"No…" I lingered a bit, examining it.
Things would often freeze in the winter, but not like this. I walked up to the door and could see that the entrance was beginning to freeze as well. I hastily looked back at Eira, who had a worried look, "We need to close these doors, and quickly."
When I walked up closer to close the door, a massive surge of wind blew, making it hard for me or Eira to get close.
"Eirian!" She yelled, trying to hold against the wind. Fighting against the wind, the doors came off, nearly hitting me. I looked back at Eira to make sure she was fine, but I was blown away instead.
The inside of the cafeteria started to freeze on the wall by the entrance, quickly spreading to us.
'Shit!' As I fell back, I looked at Ael, thinking of what I should do. I was too weak to carry him. The ice was coming in quickly, and I was running out of time. When I decided to try to get Ael, I found it hard to move.
"What the-" I looked down, my feet—they were frozen. As I tried to budge out of it, the ice didn't crack. It made its way up to me, slowly creeping up. Before I knew it, I could no longer move the lower half of my body, then my torso. Soon after, everything went pitch black. I was frozen still.
---
Gasping for air, I could hear the ringing of bells.
Looking around, the campus was overrun by nature. Vines grew on the walls of buildings, trees sprouted out of other buildings, and the sky. The sky is beautiful, almost a different hue of blue. Noticing the familiar scenery, my eyes turned wide open. I was back at the start of the week again.
'It wasn't just a one-time occurrence...' I thought.
I looked around. Ael didn't say anything, nor did Amiel. They both looked just as shocked as I did.
"Ael?" I questioned out. "Amiel?"
They both turned towards me, "What happened?" Amiel looked at his hands.
Ael seemed just as shocked.
'Do they remember?' I thought.
Before I could ask, Amiel continued, "Are we back to the start of the week?"
'They remembered…' Looking back at Ael, he doesn't say anything.
"Ael? Are you okay?" I grabbed him by the shoulder, but he turned pale, looking at me.
---
We were back at the medical center. It was the start of the week, and my wounds were fresh, but we had other business to tend to first. As I sat down at the edge of the bed, I looked towards Ael, who looked tired from the whole situation. He sat down in the chair next to me, then sighed, trying to get a handle on the situation. We all were.
"Is our contact with Fey what's keeping our memories?" I asked, breaking the silence.
"It's the only thing that makes sense," Amiel added as he leaned against the door frame to my right.
"But what I don't get is how you even made contact with her. You were corrupted last time we saw you." I replied.
He raised an eyebrow, "I was?"
"What was the last thing you remember?" I questioned.
Putting his hand to his chin, he looked up, trying to recall the situation, "Well, I was at the veil, then I reached out to try to touch it. When I did, I was in my sanctuary." He paused, "Although it was different from what you described, I was back home, with a fleet of ships that my family ran… the weird part was that my alter was broken. I couldn't even talk with Fey."
I thought back to the first loop, "That happened to me as well. Except I don't remember having my altar broken, and I kept hearing the voice of Fey screaming at me." I blinked a couple of times. "The only thing that makes sense is that by being in contact with Numen, we can make our way to the sanctuary; being in contact with too much of it gets you corrupted, hence the broken altar..." I looked back at Amiel. "That has to be it, Fey did mention having too much of it could kill us."
"But your altar wasn't broken, does that mean you have a higher capacity for it?" He questioned.
"That or I was in contact with less of it."
"Might be…" He continued.
As I looked over at Ael, he looked at the floor. "Ael?"
"Huh? Oh," He scratched the back of his head, laughing off as he zoned out.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, just getting used to the situation," he chuckled, pausing for a moment. "The reason why our sanctuaries are so different is that they vary between people, well, that's at least what Fey told me."
"You talked to her?" I asked, surprised. "Does that mean you were able to make a pact with her?"
"You were going to make a pact? Wait, wait, you got in contact with her? How?" Amiel, in shock, got up from leaning against the wall.
He laughed, "One question at a time." As he finally controlled his laughter, Amiel leaned back onto the wall, "We figured out that we can get in contact with her if we prayed, but she had to answer your prayers and invite you into the sanctuary. As for making a pact with her, I was going to, but the sanctuary fell apart before I could."
"That's too bad," I added.
"That happened to you as well?" Amiel asked.
"Your sanctuary fell apart?" Ael questioned.
"More like it sunk me to the bottom of the ocean." He looked away as if he was embarrassed.
'To think someone who lived their entire life near the ocean droawned.' I could see Ael trying to hold back some laughter. Before he could burst out laughing, I chimed in, "Might it be the resetting of the week?" They both looked over at me. "Before the week reset, the academy was frozen. Maybe that caused the connection to the sanctuary to get disrupted?" I thought for a bit longer. "Yeah, that has to be it because one of the first times when my sanctuary collapsed, it was when Ael woke me up. Hence, he disrupted the connection."
"So when we get into the sanctuary, we can't be disrupted, otherwise it collapses." Amiel stared off.
"Seems about right," Ael replied.
We all went quiet, and we took in the silence for a moment. After a minute, I heard Ael take a deep breath.
"I need to share something, you guys aren't going to like it." Ael looked at Amiel and me intensely. He was never one to wear a serious face, and because of it, I could see Amiel have a concerned look. "When I was in my sanctuary, Fey and I talked. In that talk, I learned something." He paused, "The Empire is near its fall."
Amiel doesn't move.
"Huh?!" I yelled in shock, almost getting up.
'To think the Empire is about to fall, I would have never thought it possible. The Empire has stood strong for centuries. Heck, it was one of the leading powers in the world.'
"Supposedly, while we were in here, the Sol Kingdom invaded us. I thought you should all know, so when we get out of here, what to expect."
As I looked over at Amiel, he clenched his hands.
"So when we leave this place, there is a high chance we will be in enemy territory," I said, biting my cheek.
"Yeah..." Ael replied as Amiel unclenched his hand, "Either way, we have more important things to worry about right now, like that veil and moose."
Amiel turned towards him, "The moose? Why do we have to worry about a harmless moose?"
"Ask him," Ael pointed towards me.
I lightly chuckled, "turned out that moose is corrupted… surprise." I put out my hands shyly.
"Huh?" Amiel's brow furrowed. "That doesn't make sense."
"We know." Ael leaned back, his head hitting the wall. "Which is why I was going to make a pact with the Fey, to try and get out of this place. There's no way we can fight a creature like that. You already know how strong a corrupted human is; imagine a beast."
Ael stretched, getting up from his chair. "Regardless, tomorrow, we should find Eira, seeing if she remembers anything that can help us confirm our suspicions, since she didn't have contact with Fey." He turned to look at Amiel, "You should go get some rest for now." Then looked back at me, "As for you, we need to start treating those wounds."
---
As Ael finished the treatment, he put down his tools and took a deep breath.
"Done."
I looked towards him, "I might have gotten used to this; that was a lot better than before, that or the anesthesia helped."
He chuckled, but his face stayed the same. He looked as if he had something on his mind.
"Ael, is something wrong?" His eyes don't meet mine. "I haven't known you for long, but never have I seen you be this quiet. Did something happen?"
He didn't say anything; instead, he started cleaning up.
"What happened, Ael?" I continued.
He stopped for a moment, then looked back at me. "Eirian, how close are you to your mother?"
Surprised, I hesitated in answering. "Close… why?"
He sighed, his eyes looking down, then said something under his breath, "Well, this is going to be hard." His eyes rose back up at me. "There's no good way of saying this…" He walked back towards me and was now at the foot of my bed. "I already told you, Fey and I talked, and how I learned the Empire was invaded... but there is something more she told me besides the Empire being on its last legs."
I don't say anything, but I watched him as he struggled to meet my eyes. Seeing this, he took a deep breath.
"When talking to her, she talked about your mother."
My heart started to race as I began to hear it like drums in my head. "Ael..."
"Your mother… she's dead."
And just like that, I was in a void. I could begin to feel my lips quiver, and a tear rolled down my cheek. "W-what? You're lying." I say in hope of him saying he was kidding—he doesn't. "Ael, tell me you're joking, tell me this is all a prank." My voice rose higher and higher, "Ael! Please, tell me you're messing with me." I began to lose hope. I tried to move out of bed to grab him, but couldn't because of my wounds.
Ael takes a moment. When he found the courage to meet my eyes, he told me three words. "I'm sorry, Eirian."
More tears rolled down my face. I clenched my fists enough that they began to imprint marks on my palms.
'Everything I just went through, everything I fought for, it was for nothing.' I thought as I sobbed, clenching my jaw so as not scream in pain.
'Mom, how... how could she have died?' My heart ached thinking this. 'The only person in this world who ever cared for me, loved me, and I cherished was now gone from this wretched planet.' Blood spilled from my palms. 'Why gods?! Why did this happen?' At the thought of this, I closed my eyes, wishing to wake up from a dream.