...Who am I?
I knew something would go wrong. I knew it from the start, and I'm not just talking about the Dream Realm exploration. The last thing I remembered hearing was the cold, mechanical voice of the Spell welcoming me, then nothingness.
I felt like I was slowly falling down, or maybe sinking, as layers of soft and warm obstacles broke away when I made contact with them on my way down. It was...relaxing, to be honest, and I almost desired to stay longer. But that wasn't meant to be, it seemed, because the feeling vanished as suddenly as it arrived, and then I was awake and aware once again.
Consciousness returned like a slow, muddy tide. My head throbbed, a dull ache behind my eyes, and my thoughts felt wrapped in thick cotton wool. The transition was never pleasant, but this was different.
This was a deep, unsettling wrongness that I couldn't quite place. I was lying on something cold and slightly damp, and an oppressive, salty darkness pressed in on me from all sides.
"Ugh," I groaned, pushing myself up to a sitting position. My limbs felt heavy. "Sasrir. You awake?"
A shadow peeled itself from the deeper blackness around me, coalescing into his familiar form. He looked more solid here, more real. "Unfortunately," his voice was a welcome anchor in the disorienting void. "I feel your headache. And your confusion. What is this place? The air is... thick."
"That's what I'm trying to figure out," I muttered, rubbing my temples. "Something's off. I can feel it." I squinted, trying to pierce the absolute blackness. Nothing. It was like being locked in a closet. "Can you see anything?"
"No more than you. But I can hear..." He went perfectly still, his head cocked. The usual sarcasm drained from his expression, replaced by a sharp focus. "Waves."
"Waves?" I repeated, a cold knot beginning to form in my stomach. "Like... ocean waves?"
Yes. Crashing against stone. Not a gentle shore. It sounds violent. And there's... a smell. Rotten salt and something metallic."
The pieces clicked into place with a horrifying, sickening finality. The fog in my brain evaporated, burned away by a surge of pure, undiluted dread. The cold stone. The salty air. The violent sea.
"No," I whispered. Then louder. "Ah fuck, you have got to be kidding me."
I shot to my feet, my heart hammering against my ribs. I shouted a string of curses into the oppressive dark that would have made my old college roommate blush. This was bad, this wasn't where I had wanted to bae Sure, I arguably knew the most about it, but this place was still one of the worst in the Dream Realm.
"Forgotten Shore," I spat the name like it was poison, finally sinking back to the ground in defeat. I angrily bit the knuckle of my thumb, the sharp pain a petty distraction from the monumental disaster unfolding.
"After all that... after six months of prep, of thinking I'd beaten the odds, thinking I could outmanoeuvre the story... I end up right where the story fucking starts."
"Does this place seem more familiar to you?" Sasrir asked, his voice low and serious now, all mockery gone. "Can you tell where? This chamber feels enclosed."
"I can't see a damn thing," I growled, frustration boiling over. "It could be a cave in the Crimson Labyrinth. It could be a basement in the Dark City. It could be a hole in the ground for all I know!" I let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "Honestly, at this point, I don't care. Just as long as we're not right under the Soul Devourer Tree or in the nesting grounds of those Spire Messengers. Anywhere but there."
The irony was so thick I could taste it. All my jokes about stealing Sunny's plot, about knowing the script—the universe had apparently decided to call my bluff. Fuck, this was honestly driving me mad right now.
I didn't need this on my plate. At least I was two years early-I didn't have to worry about stepping on a stone, rocking the timeline and making the Trio get eaten by their first Scavenger Centurion.
"Effie should already be here, but I wonder about Kai...and Gunluag, Kido, Gemma, Seishan and the rest of the guys at Bright Castle. I can't remember how long they were here before Nephis led them out of the Dream Realm" Sasrir muttered, more to himself than to me.
"The witch was here for about ten years if I recall, but I don't know about the rest. Heh, should have asked for the Wiki as my golden finger instead" I laughed, brushing away the gloom and darkens in my heart. It would have been far harder, had the majority of it not been absorbed by Sasrir.
"Glad to see you're feeling better" he smiled towards me.
"No use moping about. This is actually a great chance for me to use..." I concentrated and in seconds, a cluster of silver light motes formed the shape of a crucifix in my hands, "...this!"
"The Unshadowed Crucifix?" Sasrir raised an eyebrow. "I thought you hate pain and blood?"
"I do," I confirmed with a small grin, tossing the Memory towards Sasrir. "That's why you're going to be using it instead! Only activating the Demigod -level abilities requires my own blood, you can use the rest."
"I don't have a Rose Bishop's regeneration you know" he sighed, but dutifully caught and held up the cross. "Close your eyes, this will probably be bright."
I did as I was bid, and even then I hissed as a wave of golden light pierced through my eyelids. I waited for several seconds for it to dim, and then opened them to see Sasrir frowning at me.
"We're stuck in a ridge, surrounded by red coral. It seems we got the Coral Labyrinth, though I can't tell how close we are to the Dark Sea. Since it's night but we haven't drowned yet, I think it's safe to say this place is relatively high up though, high enough the Sea can't reach us."
"The question is, how do we get out?"
After a moment of silent contemplation, Sasrir spoke up. "If you don't mind being left alone, I can transform into a shadow and go up. My vision will be limited to block and white, but its better than pure darkness like it is here. And if anything happens, you can just recall me back, though it will take time depending on the distance. I can leave the Crucifix or bring it with me, if you wish."
"Haah, just go out for a couple minutes, bring the Memory. And don't lead any abomination back to the hole."
"Right."
With that, the Unshadowed Crucifix vanished into silver light once again, settling into Sasrir this time. During our months together, we had discovered that, if I consented, Sasrir can summon or dispel any Memory or Echo despite being classified as an Echo himself, and he even has his own Soul Sea, though I couldn't enter it. According to him though, it was just a sea of churning and filthy black mud. Watching Sasrir vanish, I felt the distance between us gradually grow larger until I could only tell his rough direction.
All by myself, I nestled against a wall and tried to conserve energy. The mood swings and frequent pondering had taken a lot more out of me than I expected, and sleep actually began to encroach on my mind. I vaguely opposed it at first, but with Sasrir nearby and myself hidden in a cubbyhole, I deemed it safe enough to nap for twenty or so minutes. Yet even as my eyes began to close, I still couldn't shake that clinging discomfort, like an itch right in the middle of my back I can't reach.
...I swear I was forgetting something.
....
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