File Corruption

The fog became denser the further they ventured into the island. Every morning, they would awake to find a little less visibility than they’d remembered. All around them, it was silent. Pearlescent light cut through trees and cloud and fog, showing signs of a sun that Tomita had yet to see.

It was melancholy. Though neither of them could sense any immediate danger, a new sadness and foreboding hung in the air, coating them in a film of soft fear and anxious hesitation. Izhari felt that the crystal was near. Its calling was growing every day. After two weeks of searching, she was finally feeling something close, and both of them hoped they would soon be moving on to whatever awaited.

Tomita scanned the map tome for clues. There was a section that highlighted where teleportation crystals had once been located, but with the world shattered and remade as many times as it had been, especially by Him, it was hard to know how accurate any of those maps were at this point. So Izhari’s sense was all they could trust.

Each morning, she meditated to try to cultivate her connection to the stones. Tomita found instructions on how to better align with the crystals, but its notes were useless. Instructions focused on being connected to nature, having a properly situated body, and being clear of mind. Many of those were beyond their control. Even the fog resisted Izhari’s attempted banishments. The only aspect they seemed to be able to influence was Izhari’s mind, so Tomita took it upon himself to give her as much peace and tranquility as possible.

All chores and daily decisions became his expectation. When it was a moment of quiet, Izhari’s focus was on herself; he would handle everything else. To Tomita’s relief, the trees around them bore fruit, so he began to pick them and stew them in a pot to create a simple dish alternative to their preserved meats. The tent was always set up and taken down while Izhari sat in silence in the cart. He was becoming quite good at having it up in a few minutes.

“On my last venture, I merely slept under a tarp…” Izhari once said with a pleased grin.

“Well, thankfully, I am here for you now, so you are living the high life,” grinned Tomita.

“Yes. Thankfully,” she replied.

As he worked, Tomita felt something pleasant in his chest, and it seemed to come from both his psyche and from Izhari’s.

Positive feedback for completing tasks had always been something that motivated him. Without much else to live for, even in Tokyo, being told he was a good employee was a significant bit of fulfillment. It was a nice relief that Izhari was the nicest manager he had ever been under.

As Tomita pushed them along a few hours later, he saw two more streaks in the sky. One fell not far from them, striking a tree and exploding in a chiming hum.

“What was that?” asked Izhari.

“One of those falling star sort of things. I’ve seen a few of them,” replied Tomita.

“Falling star?” Izhari asked.

“We called them meteors in my world. They’re things that fall from the sky, like bits of rock and debris from space. The barrier that protected our world, called the atmosphere, would set them ablaze as they neared our world, so we would see them falling across the sky, leaving streaks of light. It’s like that,” Tomita explained.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing. One landed nearby?”

“Yes.”

Izhari paused in curiosity.

“I feel something from it, I think. There’s a strange fluctuation in the air now. Could you take me to where it fell?” Izhari asked.

“Roger,” Tomita said as he angled the cart towards the nearby impact point.

When they crossed through the trees and neared their destination, Tomita saw that the area was glowing with ethereal light. Beams of soft, golden-yellow brightness cut like knives through the trunks of towering trees. Ahead, Tomita saw hundreds of floating orbs hovering silently in the air, dripping raw golden fluid down onto the ground. Cracks of static energy popped between the orbs, sounding shattered chimes as they burst around.

“Izhari, it looks like a bunch of memory orbs? But they seem different?” Tomita asked.

“Yes, it feels strange here. This doesn’t feel like how I remember them feeling all those years ago. But they seem like memories?” she asked.

“Yes,” replied Tomita as he brought the cart to a stop nearby one of the pulsing golden orbs.

Static energy crackled around him, and he felt the hair on his arms and knuckles rise ever so slightly as his hand extended.

“What are you doing?” asked Izhari.

“Touching it, of course,” replied Tomita.

“Careful! It could be dangerous…” Izhari replied as she sat up.

“Well, all the more reason for me to touch it versus you. If something happens to me, I have faith you can patch me up. Not much I can do for you in that case, though. So, I shall touch.”

Tomita stepped forward and let his fingers reach the orb’s glowing body. As soon as he touched its incandescent form, his mind and body lit up in sensation. Images, feelings, and smells flooded him. This was different than the other experiences thus far.

He was a child laughing. It was winter. Snow covered the ground, and large, smoothed rocks poked out from the white blanket of cold. The sky was amber and sad. Before him was his mother. Not Tomita’s mother, but the mother of this memory holder. But Tomita felt so very sure that she was HIS mother. Something in his mind seemed to be rewriting itself. He knew who his mother was, and it was not this figure. But now it was. Something wasn’t right.

Who was his mother? It was this figure. No! It wasn’t. Yes, this was her! No! His mother abandoned him! She left him with his father in Tokyo! No! This was his mother! That was his father’s grave! His name was —--- Tomita—-- Tomita!

Who was Tomita?! Who was that speaking?! Where was he? None of this was right?!!!!

HELP ME!!!

Tomita!!!

Tomita was ripped back into reality. It was dark now. Izhari was beside him, on the ground, exhaustedly leaning on her staff.

“What… What-w-what just happened?...” Tomita whispered.

Something was running down his cheeks. He touched his face and found glowing, golden-white tears running down from his eyes.

“That memory… It’s like it bound itself to your mind. I could sense it happening. It was stitching itself into your thoughts, becoming truth… You were crying, and moaning, and screaming like you were fighting something… You were gone for hours….” Izhari sighed as she slumped forward.

“I did what I could. The memory is withdrawn now. It will fall away in a few minutes.”

Tomita looked at the teardrop’s glow.

“It f-felt so real. It was taking over my actual memories… I couldn’t remember my own m-m-mother,” he whispered as his hands shook.

Izhari’s blank eyes looked at him.

“I’ve never heard of the memory orbs doing such things. Please, do not touch anymore. This is all very strange,” she replied.

“Oh yes, I have no desire to touch any of those again,” Tomita replied as he took out the bottle of etherdrop and consumed a large sip.

He hoped that would be enough to push the memories of his mother and father far away. He wanted them to stay in his mind, but he did not want them present. So he let the etherdrop do its job as he helped Izhari back into the cart. From there, they moved through the night until, finally, hours later, they found their destination.

At the edge of a small pond stood a viewing pedestal. Ruins of a grand gazebo stood in watch, covered in moss and leaves. Out in the water, submerged by a few feet, was the crystal. Half of it was hidden beneath the placid waves. The rest shone blue, casting their otherworldly glow across the mirror-esque water. Izhari sighed a sigh of relief.

“We made it,” she said quietly.

“Let us leave this place.”

The two of them moved forward with haste, emboldened by their success and unsettled by the eerie stillness of the island and the strange memory orbs. In their excitement to leave, they rushed into the water and let it rise up to their ankles, then knees, then waists. They were close now. In their excitement, they didn’t even notice the water rippling and displacing nearby as something began to move towards them just below the water’s surface.