The morning after the dream was shattered

“Mina, it’s time to get up.” A familiar voice called through Mina’s door, pulling her out of the world of dreams.

Mina of course, having been woken up FAR too early, responded with an annoyed grumble and pulling her blankets over her head.

“Come on Mina, you’ve slept in long enough. Breakfast is already over.” The voice continued.

“Shut up Danis, let me sleep.” Mina said.

There was a pause, and Mina heard the door opening. Moments later, she felt someone sit on her bed, followed by feeling a hand slowly turn her head. Reluctantly, Mina opened her eyes to see Iro looking down at her with concern.

“Hey, is something wrong Mina?” She asked.

“No.” Mina replied, weakly shaking her head.

“You sure? Because last time you called me Danis…” Iro trailed off. She was clearly hinting at something, but with how tired she was, it took Mina a solid minute of staring blankly at her before she remembered the incident from the other day.

“Just tired.” Mina then muttered in reply, and Iro seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding in acceptance.

“Alright, I guess that makes sense. Yesterday was pretty intense after all.” Iro said. She then let out a loud yawn. “Honestly, I’m pretty tired too.”

A small scheming smirk then grew on her face.

“You know, we could just take a nap. I could say that you were taking a long time to wake up, then we started talking and lost track of time.” She said conspiratorially, and Mina rolled her eyes.

“Whatever.” She mumbled.

Iro seemed to take that as a yes, as she promptly slid under the covers alongside her and started trying to fall asleep. But, while Iro seemed content and relaxed with the idea of sleeping in the same bed, Mina wasn’t quite able to. So, while Iro slowly relaxed back into a state of half asleep, Mina slowly properly woke up. This gave Mina the chance to think back to what she’d learned last night, all the huge amounts of new information, and she began to plan out what she was going to do with this. First, she was going to try prodding Iro for a bit of info.

‘I’m almost certain she doesn’t know about the whole ‘I’m here to replace Uraina’ part, but that doesn’t mean anything about the rest of it. Now how do I go about this?’ Mina thought to herself.

“Hey, Iro?” Mina eventually said.

“*Yawn* Yeah Mina?” Iro replied tiredly.

“Do you think I’ll ever be able to go home?” Mina asked.

…

“Oh Mina.” Iro said sadly, turning around and pulling Mina into a hug. Mina didn’t resist the hug, she couldn’t, but at the same time she didn’t let herself drown in it.

“I’m serious Iro.” Mina managed to say. “I’m not just saying that because I really miss my home right now. Do you think it’s actually possible that I’ll ever be able to return home?”

Accepting the seriousness of Mina’s question, Iro pulled back to allow herself to look directly at Mina, but didn’t quite let go just yet.

“I see. Well, I’m sure this isn’t exactly what you want to hear, but I’m not sure Mina, I’m really not.” Iro admitted. “I hope so for your sake, as well as your family’s. If you’re missing them as much as you seem to be, then I’m sure they’re missing you just as much if not more. But I really don’t know anything about the summoning magic. Did Athan or Lefteris say anything about you being able to go home?”

“Yeah, they did. Athan said I probably wont ever be able to go home.” Mina answered.

“Oh… that’s…” Iro trailed off.

“but what if he’s lying?” Mina then questioned before Iro could say anything. Her words made Iro look at her in shock.

“Wait, what? You think Athan lied to you? Why? Why would he lie to you about something as important as that?” Iro questioned.

‘Ok, this is the important part. I need to choose my words carefully.’ Mina thought to herself. ‘Reluctant social skills don’t fail me now.’

“Well, maybe he lied to me because it’s important.” Mina said. “I’m Uraina’s chosen one, right? You guys need me to help you save the kingdom. Maybe he told me I couldn’t go home so I wouldn’t be always thinking about how to get back home. That way I wouldn’t be distracted from helping you guys.”

“That… makes more sense than I wish it did, but there’s no way that’s true.” Iro insisted. “Athan is a good man, he wouldn’t be taking advantage of you like that by lying about something so important.”

“Yeah, bu-”

“No buts.” Iro said, interrupting her. “Look, I know this is all just some paranoia and that you miss your family, but you are wrong about this Mina. If Athan says there’s no way for you to get home, that means either there isn’t a way home, or there is one but he doesn’t know about it.”

‘You say that as if your confident, but your face tells a different story.’ Mina thought as she looked at Iro’s face full of doubt.

“Ok ok, I’m sorry.” Mina said aloud. “I was just thinking out loud is all.”

Iro’s face then changed into one of sympathy, and she pulled Mina in closer.

“Yeah, I get it. you’ve got a lot on your mind and you need to get it out.” She said. “Sorry for yelling at you.”

“It’s fine.” Mina replied, easily waving it off.

“Still, seeing as we’ve probably got as much time as we need, do you have anything else you want to get off your chest?” Iro asked.

‘… Hold on, is this an opening? Should I try to question if the evil organization actually exists, and if what we’re doing here is actually good or bad?’ Mina mentally questioned.

Looking at Iro’s welcoming face, Mina decided to take the plunge. It was risky, but she might as well take the chance seeing as the opportunity was presenting itself. So, taking a moment to consider what to say, Mina eventually spoke up again.

“Well, I guess something I was wondering about is… well… Athan says we’re trying to save the kingdom, but does this place really need saving?” She asked. Iro’s eyes went wide at the question, and Mina rushed to elaborate more to push her point. “I mean, when I went into town with you all and had that… whatever it was with Nik, nobody seemed all that depressed. Everyone seemed happy for the most part, not like they were being oppressed by some cruel dictator. The only strange thing was those two teens that were going to be arrested for jumping over a puddle, and even they didn’t seem too put off by getting arrested for such a stupid law. It just, doesn’t feel like these people need saving like Athan says they do.”

Mina then fell quiet to see how Iro would react. Iro’s face twisted with frustration and some confusion as she seemed to be struggling to figure out how to react to what Mina had said. But then, to her surprise, Iro actually let out a defeated sigh.

“I’m going to be honest Mina, I’ve been thinking about that too, especially after the mission yesterday.” Iro admitted. “Don’t misunderstand me. I HATE the king we have right now, my dad died because of one of his seemingly random decisions. But, everything else? All the conspiracies and evil masterminds trying to control the country from the shadows that Athan and Elias claim exists? I’ve been questioning that for a while. And after going to that prison, seeing how weirdly nice it is, and hearing that guard’s explanation? I won’t deny that I’ve been doubting things myself lately.”

Externally Mina nodded along solemnly in understanding, but inside she was cheering out in joy! Iro had questions, she was doubting the validity of the Anaktites mission. While she didn’t have the goddess given insider knowledge that Mina had now, she still had her doubts, and that meant she could be convinced.

“Man, you certainly know how to ask the hard questions Mina.” Iro said as she abruptly stood up off the bed, in advertently making Mina face plant into a pillow now that she didn’t have her support. “I know I said you can let whatever you’ve got on your chest out to me, but I think I need to do some serious thinking after that. So why don’t we continue this tomorrow, ok?”

“Yeah, sure, that sounds good Iro.” Mina agreed.

“Alright. Come on then, we’re late enough for breakfast as it is, so let’s get going to the kitchen and hope Foteini doesn’t yell at us too much for being so late.” She said, and she promptly marched out the door, with Mina following after she got dressed.