World 1.5

Darkness. Then light.

Kaoru the priestess is inside Yuri's subconscious- the best part of the mind in which to find secrets.

Memories, especially subconscious ones, are huge factors to a person's identity, so as a member of the clergy-cum-police, she is often privy to things no one would share aloud.

But the memories of this girl are... odd.

Even disregarding the shining buildings and even shinier carts (were they carts? She couldn’t find a better word), something is amiss.

In cases of missing children, the clergy's job is to sift through their memories to find out for sure who the child is and, more importantly, who would be the safest for the child to return to. Normally, this is fairly easy- children don't have as many memories to look through.

But this girl, Kashima Yuri (though everyone else just called her Yuri) has far more memories than any child. A late teen, at least, even if her body is that of an adolescent.

More concerning though, as far as Kaoru is concerned, are memories of....someone. Memories of Yuri talking to what looks like thin air, and apparently getting responses. In places where there should be a name, there is only white noise, as if something is being censored.

Even a child's imaginary friend or the hallucinations of some unwell adult would still be visible.

Human memories don't have gaps quite that big. Or that consistent. Not without outside influence.

And that can only mean...

"This girl is no child," Kaoru says when she comes to herself. Yuri had been moved to Kaoru's quarters whilst under Set's sedative magic, so Kaoru herself could enter her mind without getting in anyone's way.

"More importantly," she continues, straightening her back in the chair beside her bed, "someone has tampered with her memories."

Due to the room being small and unable to fit more than three people (without awkward body parts smooshing up against each other), Circ and Set, who wanted to make sure the child (who apparently really wasn’t a child after all) was returned safely to her guardians, fought over who would watch over her and Kaoru.

Set won once Circ conceded that his sedation would be useful in case anything else happened.

"I've never seen a reaction like that," Set says to Kaoru. When she took Yuri's hand, it was as if something switched; she grew pale and her eyes glossy, and started muttering in a language unaffected by Circ's translation spell. Then she seized up, and that's when Set decided to sedate her.

Kaoru nods. "Likewise. If her memories were influenced so thoroughly by an outside source, it would make sense for her mind to be especially sensitive to magic."

Set nods in agreement. He stands opposite Kaoru, to Yuri's right. "Mm. In the name of confidentiality, and as she is an adult, I probably shouldn’t ask, but," he takes a few seconds to figure out how to word this, "what will happen to her now? It doesn’t seem as if she has anywhere or anyone to go to, and she's probably very poor given her clothing."

"We can provide her with clothes," Kaoru says, "as for lodging, well, I would like it if she stayed with us, but that's a choice only she can make."