nothing much to _____ about

“I think my memories were tampered with.”

Zane tapped his fork against the table, over and over again—it kept him grounded, even as something buried deep inside threatened to rip it all away.

“Or I have—amnesia, or something.” Zane sighed, leaning forward. “Or—Effie, when the hell did you get here?”

“I asked her if she wanted to stay the night yesterday,” Lucian said. “I mean, I don’t really understand what’s going on here, but she seems to, so…”

Effie shrugged, chowing her way through breakfast. “Mfuh.”

Right, he’d probably have to start at the beginning. Lucian and Shay were there when it happened, so they’d understand. “Remember when we were at the mines, and we found those apparitions?”

They nodded. One of the sparks made a sound, as if the mere mention of home prompted it. Though monsters couldn’t understands humans—could they?

Zane shook his head. C’mon, focus.

“When one of the sadness ones touched me, it dug up a memory. What usually happens with those things is something along the lines of digging up stuff they know’ll make you miserable while they kill you. You know. They’re just emotions, touching them makes you feel the same.

“But when one of them got me—it dug up something I’d never seen before. It was weird. I was in a meadow, and there was an ocean over there, and someone else was there with me…”

Was, was, was. If he’d really forgotten, then—

“I think I had something once. I grew up without much in the way of family, fighting for myself. I thought I’d never had anything like a family or a home. But—I think… I did. Somehow.”

Have a home. A family. Someone he loved, maybe more than one someone. Parents, perhaps, even siblings? Maybe he’d never find those fragments, but knowing they’d been taken in the first placed frustrated him. “I don’t know what happened. The more I think about my life, the more fake it feels. I don’t—I don’t understand…”

Zane clutched his head. Shay tapped his shoulder, then wrapped an around around his shoulder. “Hey, chin up. You’ll figure it out one of these days. Once we free that god thing and take down the church, it’ll—”

“What?”

Shay choked. Lucian muttered something, but Effie stared them all down, her smile dropping. “You’re—going to what?”

“It’s not important,” Shay said.

“Yes it is! What the hell—what’re you freeing? There’s a god somewhere? An actual god!?” Effie gripped her hair, dropping her fork. “Wait, forget that, you’re taking down the church?”

“I’ll explain later!”

“Yeah, you better! Because that’s like, I dunno, kind of a huge thing to keep from me? Is that why the knights are after you?”

Lucian cleared his throat. “Well, it didn’t really have anything to do with you, so we kind of just—didn’t mention it. We’re helping you with something unrelated, aren’t we…?”

Effie shot out of her seat, jabbing a finger into Lucian’s chest. “It doesn’t have anything to do with me even though you’re helping me lead a union with your faces attached? Listen, I’m not a religious gal, but a lot of my friends are. Have beef with the church and their god thing, but don’t start causing problems with people just trying to live their lives. Don’t go taking down something that means a lot to people when you can just fix what’s broken!”

“But that’s not what I meant!” Lucian stood up as well. “Sorry, I—I meant that we didn’t want to get you involved because it’s dangerous! And anything we have planned won’t hurt your friends!”

“Then what’s up with freeing a god? Vitam’s not even real. There’s no proof of Her existence, so like, what are you actually doing?”

“He’s real! He’s always been real! He… ah, uh…”

“Okay, sorry, real, but…”

Effie clicked her tongue. “Nevermind. I’m gonna go on a walk. Sorry about your memories, Zane. I just—I need to think.”

“Wait—”

Zane held a hand out, but Effie had already left.

“…Shit. My fault for having a big mouth,” Shay said, slumping in his seat. “We would’ve had to tell her eventually though. Especially if she’s gonna hang around us.”

Maybe he should’ve gotten mad at Shay, but he had a point. Eventually one of them was gonna slip and accidentally mention their real plans. That, or the knights would get involved, and do something about them worming around the city—

Huh.

That was weird, actually.

Why hadn’t the knights done anything about them yet? They wandered about the city without a care, Zane led those rallies, they all but screamed c’mon, get a load of us! We’re troublemakers and in your face! Mysteries upon mysteries upon problems, yet the church laid at the heart of most of them.

Except for Zane’s memories. Which he wondered about, if the church who took him in might’ve had something to do with his past. Magic had the capacity for tampering with people’s short term awareness, but memories? What kind of power would that take?

“One of us—” Zane began, but Lucian shot out of his seat and ran to the door. “Hey, dude, wait, we gotta—”

“I have to be the one to find her! If I didn’t make things worse, she wouldn’t have left!”

He slammed the door behind him. Zane jumped out of his seat.

Forget his memories. Those could wait. But Lucian had to know better than to run off when there were church knights around, when they needed him to make this world a better place.

“What’s that kid doing!?” Shay said. “C’mon, let’s go!”

Breakfast abandoned, they tore the door open, but Lucian disappeared from sight. Shay and Zane split up, taking off towards different districts. Lucian wanted to find Effie, and Zane had to find Lucian, so he started by thinking of where he’d think to find her.

Hm… maybe she’d go to talk with friends. That pub with the day drinking workers seemed like a decent bet. Zane headed in its direction—but stopped.

A crowd, abnormally sized, crowded around a newspaper stand.

Zane hadn’t thought much about gossip rags and noise amidst everything else going on. None of that mattered compared to the actual crowds of people listening to them. Most people who read this garbage just liked to judge others.

But this time, it blocked the streets. Zane squeezed past them, ignored their gossip and hurried. Whatever happened—they couldn’t lose Lucian. He’d been the heart of this crazy plan in the first place, and Zane had to do his best to stop things from falling apart.