Athalia sighed. "You don't even have a plan?"
Enza was embarrassed. "It was such an incredible effort to get here; I didn't think about what I'd do when I arrived…"
Athalia chuckled. "Whatever we do, we can't do it recklessly. And I know how we can start—by exchanging stories."
She told Enza about how she woke up in the lake, got rejected by the cabin door, and was forced to help a duckling in order to gain information from a bluebird.
In turn, Enza told Athalia about how her perfect cabin life was shattered, and how she was able to successfully warp to their current location. She included the attic's description, but left out the message on the ceiling about Athalia and the fourth stratum.
Athalia was deep in thought after hearing Enza's story. "Under normal circumstances, the Assurer has to help their companion both physically and emotionally. For example, if your nightmare was being trapped in a pit of spiders, I'd have to jump in and pull you out. Then, I'd have to calm you down and help you through it using words or other tools."
She paced in front of Sariel's house as she continued. "If someone's isolated, the quickest way to physically fix that is to keep them company, right? That means the first step is simply to be in the same room as her. I'm guessing that if you stay in that house with her for long enough, your souls will merge automatically. After that, you'll be a whole person again, and I'll perform the next step."
"…But Athalia, how will I be able to spend any time in there without getting attacked?"
Athalia tapped her foot. "I think it'll work the next time we try, as long as we do some preparation first…"
Enza raised an eyebrow. "What's your idea of preparation?"
Athalia pointed at the door to Sariel's house. "That personality in there isn't really acting like a scared human. It's almost like a wild animal, right? We have to treat it as such."
Enza cocked her head. "What do you mean?"
"We have to make a peace offering. We have to get it—sorry, I mean you—used to us."
"And what do you suppose we use to make such an offering?"
Athalia smirked. "Tell me, what bribes you most easily?"
"Plant seeds to expand my garden. However, my garden doesn't seem to exist in this version of Alavieska… I don't know where we would find any—
She stopped talking as she saw Athalia pointing at the ground with a smile.
"Surely you don't suggest… It would still feel like breaking the rules, even though this is just a dream…"
Athalia shrugged. "Unless you see another way, I think it's our best option. Forget about the "no digging" rule; you can't be so uptight in the comforts of your own mind.
"We can dig down to the germination layer and retrieve some seeds. It'll take a while digging by hand, but it's not like it really matters how much time we spend here. Perceived time in a dream means next to nothing in relation to reality."
Enza wrinkled her nose. "Do we really have to dig by hand?"
"Do you see any shovels around?"
After the pair walked a short distance away from Sariel's house, Athalia stamped her foot on a patch of ground that was softer than the rest. "Right here looks good."
The two of them began painstakingly digging out the ground. It wasn't easy going. The chunks of sticky clay made it harder to work with their fingers, and the larger rocks interspersed throughout made it nearly impossible to pull out whole chunks at once. Time seemed to blur together as they dug.
Finally, Enza's fingers hit something. It was a thick root. She dug out the area around it, revealing a bed of winding roots that extended deep into the earth.
"This is the root layer," she said to Athalia.
"I can see that. How many seeds do you think you should take?"
Enza paused, then smiled. "Four, just to be safe."
She reached her whole arm deep into the roots and felt around. Her hand brushed against warm and wet soil that was almost liquid. She felt around for tiny, hard objects until she had four in her hand, then pulled them out. "Yuck…"
She was holding four oval seeds. They were brightly colored and hardly looked natural. One was green, one was yellow, one was red, and the last was blue.
She wiped the wet, red soil off her hands and approached the door to Sariel's house. As she went to push open the door, the banging from inside resumed, making her flinch. She gripped the seeds tightly in her hand.
She shouted at the top of her lungs into the door's seam.
"I have something for you. I have seeds for your garden."
The noise from inside immediately stopped.
Enza waited outside tensely, deliberating whether to enter. Does the banging stopping mean I made her angry or that it's safe to go in? I guess I don't really have a choice…
She swung open the door and held the seeds out in front of her, doing her best to shield her vital organs with her other arm.
…But nothing attacked.
She was standing face to face with a copy of herself. She was wearing pure white robes, but had a hollow face with lines of deep unhappiness. Despite that, her eyes were locked on the seeds like they were a glorious treasure. Her mouth was slowly moving, and syllables were coming out, but it seemed she was still having trouble forming full words.
Enza nervously extended her hand farther. "T-they're all yours."
She jumped in fright as the white-robed Enza suddenly lunged forward and grabbed the seeds from her hand. She examined them closely, then slowly broke into a smile. She kept up that beaming smile as she slumped against the wall and held the seeds against her chest.
Enza was relieved. Okay, now that she's distracted, if I just stay here and keep her company, it should help ease the isolation over time…
The door slammed shut behind her.
Thanks, Athalia…
She sighed and sat against the opposite wall from her white-robed self, who was still transfixed on the plant seeds.
What now?
…Well, I don't need to be so focused on 'doing' anything.
Sometimes, all you need to do to help someone is to be there for them.
You don't have to say a word… Just the presence of another is enough…
Her thoughts drifted to the cabin again. She tried to reminisce about that peaceful life, but the memories were almost all gone now. Her thoughts kept returning to the strange attic full of finger-knitting, and the message painted on the ceiling…
'Don't let Athalia reach the fourth stratum.'
Why would my subconscious send me that message?
Nobody has even proven the fourth stratum exists. How would I have a premonition about something related to it? And why Athalia? Perhaps it was just a random delusion created by the dream falling apart…
Enza did her best to stop thinking about the topic. As her mind continued to drift, it felt like hours passed, although she had no idea how accurate her perception was at this point. She was taken out of her thoughts by a tiny projectile bouncing off her forehead.
She looked down and saw a red seed in her lap.
A voice croaked from across the room.
"Who are you?"
Enza smiled gently and picked up the seed. "So, you can still talk. I'm… well… have you ever looked at your own reflection?"
The white-robed looked at her in confusion.
"Under the bed, on the left side, there's a mirror. Go get it."
The white-robed Enza reluctantly obeyed. She squinted as she looked into it, then dropped it in fright.
"I look just like you! Why do we look the same?"
Enza laughed. "Yeah, it was a shock to me too, learning I wasn't the only 'me.' Tell me, how long have you been here?"
A dense darkness appeared on the white-robed Enza's face. She stood up and gestured to the right wall of the room.
As Enza approached it, she began to make out countless thin and faint markings.
They were tally marks…
They covered the entire wall and stretched all over the ceiling.
Enza's mouth opened and closed in surprise. She looked at the other Enza. "H-how are you still able to converse with me? Surely this much time with no stimulation would permanently destroy the psyche."
The white-robed Enza ignored the question and smiled faintly. "This is a dream, isn't it?"
She continued to speak without waiting for a response.
"One day, I awoke here. Alone. There was nothing to do, so I did nothing.
"As the days passed, I began to have faint recollections of a time before this, something much grander. I was sure that my only purpose was to suffer alone in this room, but I also felt that I was not entirely myself. I began to have ideas of a life I could be missing out on. This gave me a spark to continue existing, and existing, and existing some more…
"But the end continued not to arrive.
"Even as I suffered and yearned, I felt guilt.
"I felt that my suffering was deeply incorrect; that it was fake. I still feel this way, and I don't know why. I wish to cry, but my tears feel unearned.
"Although in a sense, I have found an answer. An isolation this cruel, a life this incomplete… it could only exist in a dream. Please tell me it's true. This is a dream, isn't it?"
Instead of a response of words, she was embraced by a pair of warm arms. Then, she heard a whisper in her ear.
"You didn't suffer for nothing.
"You suffered so I wouldn't… and I'm sorry for that. You're the strong part of me. You're the part of me that can handle it when things get hard. I'm the one who's weak. Because I was scared to suffer, I split us apart.
"And you're right. This is a dream. It's going to be over soon… We will be together again, and I hope that eases your pain. But this isn't a dream I'll forget once the morning ends. When we exist once more in the same body, I won't forget what you've done for me.
"But it's not over yet. To end this, I have to suffer how you've suffered. I have to face this isolation for myself. I can't escape—no, we can't escape by splitting ourselves in two. We have to go through it together as one, like always.
"So Enza…
"Don't be afraid."
They hugged tightly as their tears stained the fabric of each other's clothes.
Both of their bodies slowly turned ephemeral and melted together…