2.9 Just Can't Remember

 

‟Let's see," Acheron mumbles, raising a hand as if to shield his eyes while sigils of light pop up from his other hand. ‟Hmm... I don't think it was a single piece of turquoise that brought you here. You're saturated with this place's resonant energy. You must have come across dozens, maybe hundreds of artifacts touched by Mne-... er, the one you called Meng Mihuntang... for this to happen. Eventually you absorbed too much and you were transported here."

‟Where is here?"

 

The floaty lights vanish.

 

Acheron takes a deep breath before he attempts an explanation. ‟This is a piece of reality that belongs to the fae. There is no physical exit. No solid connection to the world we came from. One cannot walk between these worlds, one has to be pulled here, by a metaphysical link." He looks her up and down, expression neutral, but sees nothing helpful on her person. ‟As it stands, Old Lady Meng is enjoying watching you wander, waiting for you to lose your mind. She is sadistic and cruel."

‟...Old Lady?"

‟The fae go by many names, depending on whom they're interacting with. To her worshipers in the Resolute Fist, she is Meng Mihuntang. Meng Po was the goddess of oblivion in a Chinese myth. Mihuntang... literally, 'the waters of oblivion'... is a soup Meng Po gives the dead so that they forget their life and reincarnate without problems."

‟And you're saying this mythological character is real?"

‟Meng is a real entity. The myth is just a myth."

‟But she inspired it?"

‟Other way around."

 

‟Okay. Why is she angry with me? Why did she pull me here?"

 

‟She didn't. This realm is where she was imprisoned by the other elderfae. She's stuck here as much as we are... but she wasn't always, and coming into contact with her old stuff, absorbing all of that energy, is what made the universe decide you must belong here. With her. And you're not the first mortal to fall into this trap. She loves it when new toys fall into her cage."

Flora doesn't know what an elderfae is, and doesn't really care. ‟How do you know me? And what did you mean you remember me differently?"

‟We've met. Time's a loop. You just can't remember."

‟We've had this conversation before?"

‟No. This is the first time we've met here. Do you have a family, Flora?"

Flora is stunned by the sudden change of subject, but answers honestly. ‟Well, I'm married."

‟No kids or anything?"

"...No."

Acheron nods pensively. ‟I have one. A little boy. I was starting to think I wouldn't see him again. But... we're in luck. There's one thing Meng Po can't account for."

 

 

He smiles, almost triumphantly. ‟You are destined to get out of here."

 

 Flora laughs nervously. ‟Well, I am a Chosen One."

Acheron does not laugh.

Flora's expression falls into a small frown again. Part of her is so relieved to finally have company, so overjoyed to hear another voice, she wants to hug this stranger. Another part of her finds him extremely unsettling. She's used to the Resolute Fist saying things she doesn't quite grasp, but this is different.

‟And why are you here, Acheron?"

 

 

Acheron won't look directly at her.

‟Meng can see us through any large enough amount of water. So I had to hide in these caverns. These books represent the knowledge I was seeking. You must have noticed this place will try to shape itself to give you things you understand, things you're familiar with. Anyway I was looking for insight into Meng's mind, so I could devise a way out, so I was drawn to a repository of information, but there's nothing I can use here. Most of the pages are blank and the ones that aren't blank are worse."

 

Flora nods along, struggling to keep up but holding on to one possibly vital nuance. ‟I asked why you were here... and you told me why you were in this room. But why are you in this realm?"

 

‟Meng knows I'm here somewhere," he evades her question again. ‟If she finds me, she will kill me."

‟But why?"

 

‟There's no point discussing that."

‟And what about me? What will she do with me?"

‟Nothing, directly. She'll watch you slowly go mad and die here. No one has ever escaped this place."

 

Flora thinks about Master Yuan's vision. It can't be a coincidence. ‟This is going to sound weird... since you seem stuck here in hiding... but I was told by one of the masters of Resolute Fist that I would fall into a trap, and a man would be able to lead me out of it."

‟I'm hoping you'll save me more than I'll save you. Meng doesn't hate you like she hates me, so... yes, I have the very basics of a plan. Let me know what you think..."

 

‟Okay..." 

 

‟I help you find Meng. You distract Meng. I surprise her while she's busy with you, and once I've taken her out and ended her influence on the realm, we can use Kerykeion to destabilize this little pocket of spacetime and that should cause us to pop back to our last stable location."

‟Take... her... out," Flora repeats, slowly.

‟No way around it," Acheron says.

‟Master Shen Yu told me I should try to make amends with her..."

‟Amends? How?"

‟I have to give her something of similar value..."

‟That won't accomplish anything. This is her prison; she doesn't know how to open it and let you leave. Even if she wanted to help you, she couldn't."

‟Couldn't it be worth talking to her?"

‟Every vision says no."

‟You one of those vision-havers, too?"

‟My precognitive abilities don't work well down here. That's not important. Please just listen: I doubt Master Shen Yu has met Meng. I have. She cannot be reasoned with."

‟You're the one who sounds unreasonable. Straight to murder." Flora folds her arms defiantly. ‟Then again, I guess she is a dragon? Is slaying a normal response to dragons?"

Acheron looks puzzled for a moment. ‟Maybe she was a dragon to Master Shen Yu's ancestors, but she won't take that form here. Don't go in expecting a monstrous serpent."

‟What is she, then?"

‟A fairy."

‟Like, a little winged thing?"

‟You'll see when we summon her."

‟I haven't agreed to anything, yet! I don't know if I can trust you. For all I know you were sent by this Meng Mihuntang to test me."

‟Test you? ... Fae don't think like that, but I'll forgive you for not trusting me. It's not as if I have a way to prove anything I'm saying is true. Keep doing what you were doing if that will make you feel better... keep wandering aimlessly... but I think you know you don't have much of a choice but to work with me."

Flora chews on her lower lip, deeply uncomfortable.

Acheron lets the silence hang there for a while before he says, not a question, ‟You don't want to go back out there, do you." 

‟This place... is doing something to my head," Flora whispers. ‟I can't go on alone. I'm losing my mind."

‟Well I'm not a hallucination. I promise. I'm just a prisoner here, like you."

 

‟I'm sorry I haven't been more help," a third voice, familiar to Flora, enters the conversation.

The ghostly entity doesn't startle Acheron like it startles Flora. ‟Good of you to join us," he says.

‟Axe?" Flora gasps.

 

 

‟Kerykeion," Acheron corrects her. ‟I could sense her presence. I've never seen her manifest like this though."

‟I'm not used to having such... intense... thoughts of my own..." the spirit confesses. ‟It's your energy interacting with mine. Making up for the... gaps..."

‟Ghosts don't have physical brains, that's why mediums sort of lend them their processing power," Acheron explains to Flora. ‟Same principle here. Except what Kerykeion is attuned to is— never mind, this is all out of your wheelhouse. It's our combined auras that's giving her extra power, that's all you need to know."

‟She never told me her name. The Resolute Fist called her Pangu's Axe."

‟In the right hands she's an incredible tool. You and I aren't powerful enough to use her full potential."

‟Is she a tool, or a person? I don't get it."

‟Is a tool. Was a person."

‟Don't be offended on my account, Flora. My only wish... now... is to leave here," Kerykeion says.

‟She only has words because we're giving them to her," Acheron tries again to explain, but he can see Flora shaking her head, unable to follow. ‟She was an elfling. The elves were, uhm, they were becoming something. They were on the verge of change. The fae didn't like this. So they went to war with reality. Or, something like that. I can't actually explain it to you without showing you things that will harm you in ways that will follow you into subsequent time loops. The only person I met who might have had a chance at untangling our history went mad from the attempt."

Flora looks from Acheron, to Kerykeion, and back, obviously not comprehending.

‟Your axe is frightened because the fae murdered her," Acheron punctuates every other word with a slow emphasis, doing his best to spell this out so they can move on.

‟That's a lot to take in, Acheron."

He shrugs, failing to keep the snark out of his voice, ‟Take all the time you need."

Time. As if she wants to spend another second in this eldritch location.

‟You said we could use Kerykeion to destabilize this dimension or something." Flora was so hung up on the killing Meng bit, she couldn't stop to question the unfamiliar word—Kerykeion—and how it played in to Acheron's plan. Now she knows he meant Pangu's Axe.

‟Kerykeion can warp reality to reshape her surroundings. Don't you know that?"

‟Yeah, but she's been... uncooperative."

‟She'll function properly again once we get rid of Meng."

‟I want to help," Kerykeion says softly.