Catharsis: Part 2

Aria whipped around, tears flying from her eyes as they gleamed in the sunlight. Suddenly, the desolate concrete sidewalk she’d found herself on began to crack, lush grasses and vegetation filling the space between misunderstanding and confusion—between industrial and natural… between anguish and euphoria. Blossoming cherry trees lined an empty street, the dark asphalt creating a sleek, modern route for drivers to enjoy their morning commute to work and evening drive home. Her eyes followed the white and yellow painted lines over the gentle slope of a hill where they disappeared into the sapphire sky.

Cherry blossoms settled into her hair with each gentle breath of the wind as they filled her nose with sweet scents, rivaling even the most expensive perfumes—sugary, subtle undertones of almond, vanilla, and something fruity she couldn’t quite put her finger on. With the wind came another unexpected aroma: fresh-baked bread—homemade and strangely reminiscent of the days she used to stock the shelves of her local grocer’s own bakery.

“Lacia— How? When?” She wasn’t just surprised to see her, she was in utter disbelief, unsure of who or what to trust anymore.

Lacia smiled. “It only felt right to ask Mana if Brendan and I could swap places,” she winked. “After all, this whole thing technically started with the two of us and Ahzef, right? I asked Brendan if he was ok with it first, though!” She noticed the sudden look of confusion on Aria’s face. “It’s a long story, but we pulled Lucifero out of the dream, much to his dismay—poor baby,” she mocked, “but we’re running out of time, as cliché as it sounds. Millee and Rei are putting the finishing touches on their fight with Kuria which leaves us with Ahzef, Lucifero, and Azael.”

Aria sniffled. “I need a better explanation than that before I can trust you’re really you, Lacia. And how did you even get here? Wasn’t this some null space created by Ahzef? I was ready to die here…”

“Well,” she started, “Millee went through a similar experience to yours and, we, uhh, kind of have a bit of a sisterhood—it’s a weird princess-family-bond thing.” She sighed. “Like I said, Mana and I managed to pull Lucifero out of the dreamscape and into the real world. Once we did that, Millee gave me a rundown of how things went with Kuria.” Her face turned gloomy, eyes shifting to the ground. “Hika… No, I’ll save that part for later…”

“Was Brendan still frozen when you arrived? Did you see him? Is he okay?”

Lacia smiled. “Yes, but let me explain— When you fell through that weird hole Ahzef made, it completely nullified any lingering magical influence you still had on Brendan—as in, he’s ok, just a little confused is all.” She took a breath, enjoying the sweet scents that lingered in the air. “I like it more here than I do in that dusty desert atmosphere. Anyways, since Mana is now the newest Grandeur, she gave Brendan a little call and explained the situation with Ahzef—ya know, like telep—”

“Yes, like telepathy. I get that much,” Aria finished, “but how did you get here, and how did you know I was here?”

“If you’re expecting me to say I was watching you from the shadows like a really cool detective on a TV show—”

“I really wasn’t.”

“Bummer… Ok, well, since I’m kind of like an Ahzef magnet, when I teleported Brendan to Mana’s location, I released this limiter thing on my mana which made it, like, surge— I don’t know how to explain this,” she frowned. “He is literally like a shark in water, except, instead of blood he was attracted by my mana. Literally as soon as I arrived, that weird hole you fell in closed up, so I, of course, took it upon myself to force him to reopen it…”

“I don’t like the way you kind of just… trailed off. What did you do? You didn’t make some kind of deal with him, did you?!”

“Ew, no! I played with his head a little. He came to me when he sensed my mana and he was miles out which gave me enough time to gather the lingering traces of your mana.” She snickered. “After that, I managed to, subtly, capture just enough of his mana, or whatever the devils call it, and reopen the same hole you fell through, and it led me here, to you.”

“Great… So he uses our own magic against us and twists it into some kind of psychotic break,” Aria said weakly. “Knowing that, it doesn’t change how bad I still want to curl up and die.” She lifted her head up but refused to look at Lacia. “I thought I was invincible…”

The sound of trickling river water wove its way into the symphony of spring breezes and reticent sniffling as Aria tried to wrap her mind around the sudden change in both scenery and battle plans. When her back hit the ground, she was surrounded by a jungle of sun-bleached concrete and yellowed grass that had tried to take back its former home only to be treated like a weed and promptly sprayed. It was a scene she’d grown used to: a concrete cage that stole the warmth from the sun and exacerbated the cold of long, winter nights. She remembered the nights she’d sit in her bedroom window, staring out into the city lights as they twinkled, even amidst the foggiest evenings and heaviest snows, ones that stripped the world of its colors, blanketed all in white.

Lacia had swapped places with Brendan, the boy Aria had wanted to give her whole heart to, but it wasn’t the illusion of his death that had shredded her hope—it was the lamentation caused by her mind, her mind that had been deconstructed and broken down by Ahzef time and again. She couldn’t just pretend like she wasn’t emotionally and mentally drained—she could hardly find the motivation to stand… or even attempt to. It would take everything she didn’t have and more to fix what was broken—more than tape and glue, more than synthetic materials that only lasted so long before they became just as useless as she felt.

Emotionally, she was as strong as a leaf—easy to tear, always at the whim of every subtle breeze. Once she became detached from the branch she clung to, there was no going back—she couldn’t just reattach herself or re-anchor her ship when the anchor itself had already been swallowed by the dark sea. Mentally, she felt like a strand of Christmas lights that refused to light, all thanks to one bad bulb that turned the rest of the strand into a waste of time and money.

“Aria,” Lacia said softly, “do you remember that one Christmas Eve, when it was just me and you and our families?”

She turned her head just enough to catch Lacia in the corner of her eye. “Which one are referring to?” The corner was enough—full eye contact would have been too embarrassing, and she wasn’t ready to face her angels or her demons, for that matter… not yet. “Do you mean when we were, like, ten or eleven?”

“Mhm. Remember how my mother burnt the Christmas ham and your dad ended up bringing some kind of crazy, alcoholic eggnog that was way too strong for him?” She made a gagging motion with her thumb. “I tried a tiny sip, don’t tell anyone,” she hushed. “Ughh, and it was so bad, too!”

Aria giggled, turning what had been sobs into happy tears. “Yeah, I remember,” she said. “Your mom still made a ham that was to die for, even if it was a little crispy on the edges… or everywhere. Honestly, I feel like I grew up so fast after that… Christmas just kind of…” Her shoulders slumped. “…Christmas lost its magic once I hit thirteen, even more so once fourteen came… when my whole life changed.”

“Hmm. I know how you feel.” Lacia sat down beside Aria, stretching her legs out. “But you know what I really liked about it? It was the way everyone sat around the living room, bobbing in and out of the kitchen for food… Oh my god—” she gasped, “do you remember my weird cousins?” She leaned back on her hands. “They were so quick to just, like, hand out presents. It was so… not a vibe. I mean, don’t get me wrong—I love them! But to this day I swear they only showed up for free food and drinks.”

Aria tried to stifle her laughter, unable to hide her amusement. “They were so weird,” she agreed, wiping away her tears. “Didn’t your cousin Ally have some flaky boyfriend who just kind of… lurked between the kitchen and the backdoor? What was he even doing?” she emphasized through laughter. “And his shirt! Omg. It was something about some random sports team and some alcohol brand, I think. Everyone else was wearing Christmassy stuff and he was kind of just… there.”

“Right?!” Lacia agreed. “Do you remember what Ally got from him? Aria, tell me you remember that!”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, and it was gross. And when she held it up for everyone—!”

“No, because who asks for a box of thongs for Christmas? Like, please be so for real with me right now, girl.”

“I think she was kind of embarrassed though. Like, I kind of remember it being a quick thing then she put them away so fast. Men back then already couldn’t get enough of the women’s lingerie commercials,” Aria said, sticking her tongue out in disgust. “You know he had a—”

“Don’t even say it. Oh my god, please,” Lacia laughed. “I’ll admit he was definitely a little freaky, but I don’t think he actually got that excited about his girlfriend’s panties which, I mean, is gross, but it could have been so much worse! She literally would not leave that guy. She was always like, ‘You’ll understand some day, Little Lacia.’ Yeah, thinking about it now, she had such terrible taste in men. At twenty-two, I still don’t ‘understand.’”

A gentle breeze caressed the hillside as Aria took a deep breath. “I’m just so genuinely happy with Brendan. Like, he doesn’t, and never did, ask anything of me, never asked me what I wanted for my birthday or Valentine’s or something—he just knew—and he didn’t mind spending his own money on me, even when I went a little overboard telling him about all the cute stuff I liked.” She planted her hands into the grass, their blades as smooth as ice. “Can you imagine my surprise when he and Mana showed up in the middle of that blizzard? Right after I pulled us from your nightmare. Err… You were super hurt and unconscious, but…”

Lacia nodded. “Meeting him like I did, when I did, was such a weird, chance encounter. And to think we even went to the same school…”

“No surprise there. That boy is everywhere, I guess. …I’d imagine he probably said something like, ‘I believe in you!’ to you, didn’t he?” She turned her head around to face the sun. “I could see it in your eyes, even out of the corners of my own. Every girl he meets, he just has this effect on, like he’s guiding a lost puppy home or something.”

“You’re not wrong,” Lacia agreed, admitting he had, indeed, given her the strength she’d needed to not only pick her feet up but to also believe in herself. “You know what he kind of reminds me of? The ornaments on a Christmas tree.”

Aria looked at her in confusion, finally looking at her. “I need you to explain that one to me.”

“Ok, so, you know how you always buy a new ornament for every place you’ve been to?”

She nodded.

“Think about it. In a way, when you buy that ornament, bring it home, and put it on the tree, it’s a symbol of the journey you’ve made—it’s always with you, always there, smiling back in a way.” She watched Aria’s eyes jump to their corners as she thought about the analogy. “Don’t think too hard… We’re the ornaments, and he’s the tree. He collected,” she motioned with air quotes, “us along the way and placed us on his tree by bringing us into his life.”

“I see,” Aria said, eyes now fixed on the horizon, a lone, passing cloud skirting across the sunset-emblazoned sky. “It seems generic, but I think I’d want him to be one of those red, plastic-y round ones. Like the ones that last for literally ever and are like artificial mirrors. You can see everyone inside the ornament, like they’re pieces of the journey you’ve been on, there to help you remember how far you’ve come. Maybe even testament to how far you can go…”

Lacia gave a satisfied sigh. “I like that, honestly. He’s resilient, never breaks down, and reflects the best parts of your life… everyone sitting around the Christmas tree, laughing, smiling, making stupid jokes—” Her elation quickly faded to an almost dispirited, forlorn look. “I miss those days, you know? Mom and Dad aren’t around anymore, my cousins are in their fifties now, and even the tiny home we spent that Christmas Eve at burned to the ground about seven years ago.” She leaned forward, placing her hands in her lap. “Grandma and Grandpa passed away before I even turned sixteen… But I’ve kept the ornaments they used to use on their tree. Every year, regardless of what was going on in my life, I’d put the tree up, add the ornaments, and say a tiny little prayer… You know, just something to help get us all through the holidays…”

“No, I get it. Really. I lost both of my parents in a car accident when I was fourteen. I literally pushed everyone away and— Ugh. It’s a long story, ok? Ahzef totally played me, but he rebuilt my walls… just to tear them back down in the same way we’d tear the wrapping paper off our presents when we were little.” She rolled her eyes… and smiled. “It’s actually about that time of year again already. I haven’t really been keeping up with the days but, when Mana and I made it to Chronid, as were being rushed to the hospital, I saw a sign— That was, I don’t know, maybe a month or so ago?” She shook her head. “Anyways, it said November fifteenth—just a month and a week or so from Christmas again…”

“I technically died for two years, so I legit haven’t been keeping up at all,” Lacia said, twirling her pointer finger in dizzying circles. “But I really hope we can just… put an end to all of this before Christmas this year. After the hell we’ve all been through in the last two years alone, I think having a Christmas we can all celebrate together would be the most welcome gift of all. Don’t you think so?”

She nodded, turning to face Lacia. “I think it’s time we finally put an end to all of this crap. I am so beyond ready to sleep for a week. Like, you have no idea.”

“Then let the light of a thousand stars illuminate our path and banish the darkness before us. This is our only shot.”

“When did you become such a poet?” Aria laughed.

“Just wait until you see what I’ve been drafting in my head!”

Aria stood up, placing her hands on her hips. Her shadow grew in the setting sun, a phenomenon she realized she may never get to see again, but she couldn’t help but wonder if the sun was more than just a yellow ball of fire in the sky, something that rose and fell without delay upon the start of a new dawn each morning. The way its radiant light gently warmed everything it touched, even on the coldest days, was nothing short of mesmerizing—inspiring, even.

“There are places where the sun sets for months at a time, plunging people into a seemingly endless night, but they always emerge stronger and more determined to carry on than ever.” Aria stared down the slope of the hill, watching as her shadow stretched across the ground. “I can’t change the past, but I can change the future. If I live my whole life hiding behind the walls that I’ve built, I’ll never get to see the sunrise. Now, for certain, that finally changes. I have to move on from the past if I ever want to have a future.”

Lacia nodded in agreement.

“I’m not the sheep anymore—I’m the wolf, and my claws are sharp.”

“You know, it took me a while to fully grasp the concept, we can thank Lucifero again for rambling on, but when we drown ourselves in negative thoughts and emotions, that very negativity is given power—it manifests as something else entirely.” Lacia stood up, brushing the grass from her clothes. “Over thousands of years of history, we, as humans, inadvertently gave that negativity, that darkness, immeasurable power. That darkness eventually became the devils we’re now up against.”

“I don’t know where all of this confidence suddenly came from,” Aria said, noticing the command Lacia continued to exude, “but… it’s what I needed, I think.” She kept one hand on her hip, dropping the other to her side. “There’s something you need to know, though, that I haven’t been able to explain until now.”

The sun dipped below the horizon, igniting the sky in a blaze of bleeding colors: fiery reds and ember oranges staggered atop each other, closest to the horizon; lavender hues softened the intensity of the emblazoned fire that had erupted across the skyline as they tinted the few passing clouds a deep shade of regal lilac. For a moment, time seemed to just… stop. It was a moment, just one, where she could enjoy the beauty of the only place she’d ever called home—the only place she’d ever called Earth. She wondered if Chiipha had sunsets that were just as vivid. Would this be the last one she saw, or would she manage to secure victory before the fading fringes of sunlight vanished for the final time?

“Back on Ahzef’s ship, two years ago— You and neriolite— The reason Ahzef wanted you was because you are the only one, aside from Millee, who can cross dimensional planes, parallel worlds. Neriolite’s effect on you isn’t a negative one, though. It’s the resonance between—”

“My Afterglow and the Erill Gate,” Lacia finished.

“Quick on the uptake.”

“Yeah, well, I got tired of feeling so helpless. Everyone else has been out risking their lives all for my sake, to buy me time. I haven’t had nearly the role I want in this story yet, so it took me a little while to finally piece everything together. Ahzef wanted me because only one of the two princesses will resonate with neriolite.” She became a silhouette against the backdrop of the evening sky. “I don’t have all the answers yet, such as why my rise to power, if you will, started off so rough, but what I do know is that for Ahzef to reach the Erill Gate… He’ll need me to get there.”

“That’s where I have some bad news,” Aria frowned. “When he had me do your blood draws, I had to lower your body temperature. Why did he want you so cold?” she asked with rising intonation. “Well, it’s because the thicker your blood is, the more tightly packed the blood cells are which then makes the blood easier to absorb by the neriolite.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, now holding her arm behind her back. “You see, when the neriolite absorbs the blood of the princess who resonates with it, it opens dimensions to other worlds… worlds where things may be both similar and dissimilar to our world—Earth.”

“When I woke up, you whispered that you knew where I went…” Lacia added, curiosity peeking through her voice. “I saw another Mana, learned about Arias, and met all of these people I’d never even seen before. When I woke up, in that world, they all acted like me not knowing where I was, or what had happened, was strange. It was that same weird world where someone shot me with the arrow you helped remove during my surgery.” She turned her head just enough for Aria to catch sight of her sapphiric eyes, a vibrant glow in the twilight. “Long story short, when Rei found me, after I somehow found my way back to Earth, he figured there were still shards of the arrow lodged in my flesh, but he called the bracelet on my wrist ‘Elucidation Stones.’ Know anything?”

Aria took a sharp breath. “Okay, so, stay with me here because I’m about to basically lore dump on you,” she said. “First, the neriolite— Yes, there are shards still lodged in your flesh—Rei got that much right. The doctor and I were unable to remove several small fragments. The arrow you were hit with was designed to do that, though, to fragment the moment it made contact with you. Essentially, if Ahzef was able to confine you better than he had two years ago, he was going to use you as a sort of conduit to open the dimension where the Erill Gate resides, but he didn’t know how to open that dimension, specifically. It was always going to be a gamble..” She paused, making sure Lacia was still following. “As for who attacked you, I don’t know, but it’s safe to assume there may be one more threat we’ve overlooked. Again, I can’t say for sure. You also wanted to know about where you went. Let me show you what I figured out while I was that bastard’s captive.”

Aria stooped down, knees pressed against her chest as she held out a finger. Suddenly, a small, blue flame overtook her finger before retreating to the tip. She pointed the flaming finger toward the ground where she began to draw as series of shapes. Strangely, it reminded her of the blistering summers she spent as a child, drawing shapes with sidewalk chalk in the driveway of her childhood home.

“Earth has three other sibling worlds—Chiipha is the left-most one,” she explained, revealing four perfectly drawn circles in the grass. “Earth is on the right and completes the pairing of the terrestrial planes. Up here,” she said, pointing to the upper-most circle, “is where the Grandeur lies, Ethera, in this case… Uh, more on that later.” She pointed to the bottom circle, centered beneath the Earth and Chiipha circles. “This is the Reverse World, where the devils lie and where negative human thoughts and emotions go to be reborn into a new, albeit lesser, devil until it matures. There are countless other groupings like this—we aren’t the only one, but many have already been consumed by Ahzef.”

Lacia watched as Aria drew a line through the Reverse World circle. “You mentioned Ahzef,” she said, “but only as a singular subject. Does that mean there’s only one Reverse World? Is that line supposed to represent it’s influence across all of the different groups… or what were the different groups?”

“Exactly. Since the Reverse World exists in only one instance, it has grown to encompass every other dimensional grouping because it feeds on innate human negativity. Needless to say, he has grown so powerful that it’s going to be almost impossible to stop him… unless…”

“Unless what, Aria?”

“Unless your Elucidation Stones are different from mine.” She extinguished the flame on her finger before holding her wrist up for Lacia to see. “Mine turned into a Lycoris, a red one, after I relived a part of my life that I’d pushed so deep into my unconscious mind that I still don’t know how much of it was real,” she laughed awkwardly. “But the point is, it became a part of me, something that is me and kind of symbolizes the main idea, if you will, of my life. And now…”

She slipped the bracelet from her wrist, laying it in her palm as the cerulean beads caught the remaining rays of the evening sunset. Lacia watched as she provided another demonstration but, this time, her bracelet became a white Lycoris rather than the blood-red its spidery petals had emerged as during her early fight with Ahzef.

“It’s a baton… That’s so like you, too.” Lacia stooped down as she examined the object. “Aria, you do know white spider lilies, Lycoris—whatever—represent new beginnings and rebirth, right? The color change is as symbolic as a girl who cuts her hair after a bad breakup…” Her eyebrows rose. “Err… Sorry, I don’t mean to meddle in your love affairs, but this means you’ve removed the things that once held you back… Ahzef wants to play on our emotions and the things that eat at us, but if we can cut off his source of power, per se, he becomes nothing more than a hollow shell.”

Aria grumbled. “That’s like saying your house is built with straw. It may be fragile, but it’s still a home… Ahzef is still a devil, and he still stores all of the power he’s been able to siphon from the other dimensional groupings within him. Just what are you implying?”

“Think about it like this… Cancer cells feed on glucose—sugar. If you can starve the cancer, cut off its food supply, it can’t grow. In a perfect world,” she mumbled, “it would just die.”

This time, Aria’s eyebrows shot up. “Ok, now I’ve got it, but if he’s the cancer feeding off all of these other dimensions, how do we cut him off from that food supply? It’s not like we can just surgically open him up and cut out the cancerous masses.”

Lacia leaned back, finding a comfortable sitting position. “Well, you see,” she said with an aslant frown, “we are the last dimensional grouping left. Every other version of us, in whatever other world, all failed to stop Ahzef and thus Nertiia’s revival… We are the last stand. But there’s still a chance we can protect our home, our group.”

“When did you become so smart? Like, no offense, but what changed? You’re so much more knowledgeable now…”

“Ahh, yeah, um… about that… It’s kind of hard to explain what exactly an Afterglow is, but it connected me to every other timeline that we ever existed in. So, those other dimensions. When I finally awakened its dormant power, I gained the knowledge of every other version of myself that once lived in those dimensions, but that’s also how I know we’re the last chance out of thousands, if not millions, of other timelines where this same war happened. I can give you a better explanation later, when we finish with Ahzef.”

Aria leaned forward, closing the gap between them. “Final bit of lore dump here, then,” she grinned. “Earth and Chiipha began to merge the moment Azhef finished his conquest of the other Earth-Chiipha groupings. It took me a minute to think about it, but before I wheeled you into the Operating Room two years ago, I discovered traces of rich, magical energy from both Earth and Chiipha. When you visit one world but later return to the other, there’s a brief window where you gain that other dimension’s “Aria”—it’s kind of a two-part system in a way, but it’s only temporary and very underwhelming. Your Afterglow only began to awaken fully after you returned from Chiipha, but you also had Earth’s magical energy attached to you as if you weren’t originally from Earth.” She spoke quickly. “You managed to fall between both worlds which kind of kick-started that early awakening, and it’s also why it was such hell for you early on—all thanks to the dimensional merging.”

“When Ahzef finished with the dimensional grouping before ours, then, that’s why my body began to change like it did?”

“Partially, yes. It was more so once Earth and Chiipha began to collide, like distant galaxies. It pulled your Afterglow out of dormancy, and that’s how Ahzef tracked you down, with my help,” Aria admitted reluctantly, “but yeah. Millee couldn’t handle the duties of the both of you by herself. Your Afterglow has always been with you, though—it just wasn’t ready to wake up when it did, so it threw your body for a total loop. Millee awakened hers a few years before you, and she’s been trying to tie up as many loose ends as she could to keep you safe until you finally understood the Afterglow. From my understanding, she caught on pretty quick”

“Ok… Well, don’t feel bad for what happened on the ship and the stuff that happened between us after we disembarked… I know that still bothers you a little bit.” Lacia laid back again, allowing the budding dewdrops to soak through her clothes. “So, because my Afterglow got off to an early start, I managed to inadvertently fall into some grey area between Earth and Chiipha? And the way Arias work… A letter my parents left me said that Afterglows and Arias are the same thing—different names for different worlds.”

“Mhm. But that’s not entirely correct. You did fall into a grey area, kind of like the shared space between two circles in a Venn diagram, which was triggered by the early awakening of your Afterglow. However,” Aria said, choosing to lay beside Lacia in the dampened grass, “our Elucidation Stones, the bracelets, become our weapon—a manifestation of our soul—when we finally come to terms with the things that haunt us. The weapons themselves are the Arias, but not every soul-turned-weapon is an Aria. I don’t know all of the details, or how well I can manipulate time in this weird dimension, null space, whatever-the-hell-place-we’re-in place, but your Aria is still incomplete, unlike your Afterglow.”

Lacia sat up. “You know, I deserve at least a hundred pages to myself after this. I haven’t gotten to shine yet, and I’m supposed to be the main character,” she frowned.

Aria giggled. “We’ve all had to face our pasts and the demons inside our minds, the ones we had to cast out. Now, that just leaves you and Mana, where our story began. I think it’s only fair that the two of you have to give a little backstory too, you know!” She laid her hands across her stomach as she stared up at the starry sky. “I think this is a liminal space, or we turned it into one, one Ahzef originally had planned to trap me in… Now, I think I can regain command of the time within it, and, you,” she said, playfully poking Lacia in the side, “get to find yourself in it.”

Lacia let out a contented sigh. “Alright… I’m kind of excited to see what my Aria will be after this, though,” she laughed.

“It will be something uniquely you.” Aria closed her eyes. “I always tried to claw my way back to some sense of… normalcy, you know? I don’t know what’s stronger anymore—my will to live or the hatred I feel for myself. I threw everything away for a chance at something I knew wasn’t real, yet I went along with.” She exhaled slowly. “Whatever you face, Lacia, don’t let it become something that consumes you. I would have given up if you hadn’t decided to chase after me.”

“After what Brendan and Rei told me about Millee, I had a feeling you were going to need the most support… and I was right. Look,” she said, “what happened between you and me doesn’t matter anymore, ok? You were being manipulated. How could I hold that against you? I know I came off a little cold at first, but I had to figure out how I was feeling about everything first.”

“Trying to tell me not to worry only makes me worry more,” Aria chuckled softly. “What I did was still wrong—nothing is going to change that, but that doesn't mean I’m going to let the past define me anymore. Still, there are questions I have about myself that need to be answered which is a bit stressful I suppose.”

“There’s… still some things we’re missing about this whole war that I don’t yet fully understand, but I think Brendan and Rei will have those answers for us. So, until then, rest here. I have my own demons to fight still. The sooner I get that done, the better. Plus,” she added, “I told Brendan and Mana to take it a little easy on Lucifero because, when we get done with Ahzef, I want to be the one to watch Lucifero burn.”

Aria nodded. “I think we both need to be present for that. That devil has information we need still. When you get back, I’ll be ready. This time, I’ll rebuild my walls with stone instead of salt and sand. I need to be offensively flexible, but a rigid defense couldn’t hurt either, though!”

“And you’re so right, bestie!” Lacia stood up and stretched, defiantly putting her hands on her hips, an act of defiance against the odds stacked before them, but the words felt hollow. “Okey dokey… It would seem as if the forces above have come to say it’s time for me to go.”

She smiled at Aria before turning around to bask in the glow of an ethereal red door that had manifested behind her. Under normal circumstances, she would have protested the sudden detachment from Aria, from the war in general. As she stood beneath the starlit sky, she allowed herself a moment of peace—a kind of calm that only came when she was relaxed and felt safe and comfortable.

Subconsciously, she knew exactly what the door signified—where it had come from and why. Somewhere in the furthest reaches of her mind, she knew exactly what was going on… all from the start. The grand maze was slowly beginning to unfold, revealing its secrets and, with it, her memories of something that was never her own, but when would she reveal the truth? How? If she hid her “past” from everyone, would that make her a liar, untrustworthy… a bad friend? She’d never let on, at least not yet, but part of what Aria had said triggered something in her mind—not a reaction, not a feeling… just something.

For years, she’d harbored doubts about her role in the overarching conflict, in the current and past Rezertia’s, the war that raged in her mind on how to approach things going forward. It seemed like such a simple word, but it held such significance: doubt. The moment all of the pieces to the puzzle finally fell into place would be the moment she knew how to proceed. Until then, she needed to understand more of herself, first—no easy task.

“When… I return,” Lacia said, dragging out the words, “there might be something I need to tell you—tell everyone. I can’t explain it, not yet, but…” She trailed off, allowing herself a moment to think. “I’m not who you think I am.”