2.10 Odd Little Things

Content Warning: violence, blood. Skip this chapter and the next if you want to avoid it. All you'll miss is how Flora escapes this aquatic fairy prison.

 

The objects are arranged in a circle. 

 

It took Flora many trips outside of 'the library'—as she came to call the place she met Acheron—to find these odd little things, scattered throughout the realm.

They are more than they appear to be.

She doesn't understand their significance, though Acheron has tried to explain.

 

After finding one or two things on the list she'd stumble back to 'the library', having almost forgotten herself. She remembered she needed the items, and she needed to get back here...

Acheron helped her remember who she was. Her name was Flora. She had a mother and three siblings. She had a spouse named Ariel, who would be waiting for her to escape this cursed place... and she needed these things, to escape... but Acheron could not get them for her.

 

Who was he? Did she know him? His answers left her unsettled.

He had to stay hidden here, he said. He had to maintain the wards that kept the library safe.

After some rest in the sanctuary, near Acheron's somehow stabilizing presence, clarity always returned.

Everything he said about her was true.

Everything he said about himself... well, she had no way to know if that was true.

‟What the Resolute Fist calls destiny... it's that, but it's worse," Acheron sighed. ‟We think our choices are our own, but the universe has a way of arranging itself to manipulate us. I've come to think of it somewhat like the elasticity of a brain. If a portion is damaged, but the person survives, the brain tries to create new pathways so it can go back to doing its same old thing, just in a more roundabout way. I thought I was here for my own reasons and mistakes, but I wonder now, if the real reason I'm here is the universe led me here to ensure you escape."

‟I'm sorry if it's my fault," Flora replied, always sincere. ‟I don't understand anything you just said, but I can see you are suffering."

‟Don't say that... don't apologize for what you couldn't have known or prevented."

She wasn't sure how long they had been there, but in her heart she knew it had been too long, and she had come to understand some of the things Acheron would not say—that he was tired, and frightened, and lonely.

 
Acheron did not sleep. Not that Flora ever saw, anyway.

He startled at every noise.

(Did she sleep? She couldn't remember. She must have.)

Flora dreaded it, but once she came back to her senses she had to once again leave this sanctuary Acheron created—this bubble of semi-sanity—so she could find these objects.

Find things. Put them in a circle. Summon the dragon-fairy thing. Beat it up or something. Go home.

 

Easy. Flora could do this.

 

 

 

 

 

The objects are arranged in a circle at the steps of an altar.

Acheron tells Flora a misguided witch had used these specific objects many cycles ago to summon an elder being beyond the witch's understanding. The objects belonged to this realm, now. They were 'lost'.

"Mnemosyne," he whispers, and the objects begin to emit a soft, pleasant humming noise.

‟What did you do?" Flora asks, through the haze in her mind that she attributes to this enchanting noise.

‟She won't be able to focus on anything except what is in this circle," he answers. "True names have a certain... power, you know."

‟Meng Mihuntang's true name is Mnemosyne?" Flora guesses.

‟Yes."

‟And... I need to stay in this circle?"

‟Yes. The plan is that she's looking at you."

‟At me," Flora repeats slowly.

Is the humming a song? Does she know it?

‟Who am I?" Flora groans. ‟Who am I?"

‟You... are Flora, granddaughter of my grandmother's half-sister... unwitting conduit for lost magic.. and in this cycle... Chosen One of the Resolute Fist... and in this moment... unable to be killed."

‟Unable to be killed..." she looks down, murmuring the words, trying to remember.

‟If you die now, it breaks the timeline. So it cannot happen."

‟So I'm destined... to leave here..."

‟Yes," Acheron's voice shakes, ‟but I want to leave also."

Flora steels herself with purpose. ‟I will help you."

‟Mnemosyne!" Flora's shouts ring across the waters.

Flora's voice is hard, almost angry. Acheron told her that the fae would grow more aggressive if they sensed any weakness... even if it was a mere tremble in one's voice.

Acheron and Kerykeion stay hidden. 

‟I'm scared," Kerykeion whispers.

Acheron considers casting a silence ward on her. ‟I'm scared. You're a shovel..."

‟I'm sorry," Acheron says quickly. ‟That was cruel of me."

‟It was," Kerykeion murmurs.

 

In the distance, Flora continues shouting, challenging Mnemosyne to appear.

 

 

‟Why didn't you tell Flora the truth?" Kerykeion's tone never wavers from one of innocence.

 

‟What truth? What do you think she needs to know?"

‟The elderfae didn't banish Mnemosyne to this realm. You did."

 

Acheron takes a moment to reflect on the events of so long ago, then shakes his head. ‟The way I remember it, it was mostly you..."

‟But you still lied."

 

‟The others left Mnemosyne to her fate. It's as good as having sent her here themselves."

‟Why don't you want Flora to know?"

‟I need her help, and I can't risk confusing her even more than she already is—"

Flora's last shout becomes a yelp as the ground shakes, knocking her to her knees.

Mnemosyne resisted the summoning as long as she could, and the effort has enraged her.

"Who are you that you know to do this?"

Mnemosyne demands answers, but a choked throat cannot reply.

This creature looks like a delicate thing, with wipsy wings and thin limbs, yet her strength has her lifting Flora off of the ground with one hand.

(Totally disappointing, that she didn't show up looking like a dragon.)

Flora doesn't remember much after being choked.

Her vision blurs, and things are over as quickly as they began.







When Flora comes to, she is surrounded by the sparkling glitter of a fae's demise...

...and Acheron is seriously hurt.