Three figures were strolling on a road, tall grass standing at attention on either side. Laughter could be heard preceding the three as they walked along the meter wide dirt path. There were no grooves in the soil, as it was far too thin for transport. This was a simple footpath, one frequented, but not by the trader or refugee.

“Hey Darryn, we should really do a goblin quest next,” Jenny said to her fellow adventurer.

“Goblin quest? Why would we do a-”

“Goblin deez nuts!” Jenny died laughing while Khalil shook his head and Darryn awkwardly smiled. There was a moment of silence before all three companions guffawed in unison.

“It's so bad it’s good,” Khalil added during their mirth.

“When we get back, we should use our earnings to get some food.” Darryn chimed it, completely changing the subject.

“Dude we should see if we can get some dragon meat,” Jenny voiced her desire.

“I don't think we can get dr-”

“I’ll be dragon deez-”

“DUMPLINGS. She will be dragging dumplings over to us I imagine.” Khalil —saving Darryn— finished the sentence before Jenny could. A moment of silence elapsed before they all laughed once more.

The three continued to joke and discuss where they were going to eat for a few more minutes. Eventually, the conversation died off, transforming into companionable silence. These three were Reforms. Though since Start they have been labeled as such, the race always prefered to call themselves human. Much to the displeasure of the other races who once referred to themselves as humans. Yet Reforms were quite stubborn in this regard.

At one point during the journey, Khalil had started staring into space, swiping at the air with his finger.

“Any cool new skills?” Jenny called from the front of their procession.

“No, I’m still saving up, I want to make sure I don't mess anything up,” Khalil responded.

“Laaaame. You should get a skill to shoot fire, like me. There’s nothing cooler than smiting your foes from a distance. Like a dragon,” Jenny wiggled her eyebrows. Hence, the conversation picked back up. The three talking through their journey back to the Guild. Their only company, a small circular silhouette rolling in the distance.

Yuclaus sat down on the edge of the chasm, matching his mental manifestation with his physical one. As physical as a body in a dream can get. That then would beg the question of which of the two representations of Yuclaus were more real. Luckily, Cause didn’t find himself thinking of this paradox.

Instead he was trying to come to terms with what lay before him. He opened his eyes, and looked at the medieval town blanketed in darkness. He blinked, momentarily blinded by the tan and white mental landscape, before returning to the night. It seemed access to the mindscape —a term he coined for the land containing his memories— was directly related to closing his eyelids. He would need to figure out how to fix that.

He shut his eyes, returning to the surreal scene in his mind. He looked at the crystal mine below; his memory mine. Just as he thought that, a flash of rose light struck a crystal, before bouncing to a couple more before eventually dispersing. This was not the first time such an event occurred. This was simply the first time Yuclaus noticed it.

All around him was a never ending thunderstorm, like an angry god punishing the land for its transgressions, plasma fell. Yuclaus may make a plethora of questionable conclusions, but it was safe to assume he was aware of what was occurring. He stood at the epicenter of a representation of mind and memories. Every light was the continually created memories, the gems, the lightning rods which stored them. Occasionally new gems were created, but our hero was unaware of the conditions of creation. The mind is not so easily understood.

As there were general strike zones, Yuclaus guessed there were other crags scattered throughout the mindscape. Maybe the cracks were groupings of a type of memory, or maybe there was no method to the madness. This was a theory that Yuclaus would explore at a later date.

For now, Yuclaus was looking at the gem that was struck just recently. He wanted to get closer to it, but found it was about halfway down the sheer chasm. Just as he thought that, he appeared right before it. Resisting encroaching panic at the incomprehensible movement, Cause reached towards the gem. As his finger made contact, Yuclaus got a vague impression of the mindscape.

Jarringly, he found himself back in the dark ruins. Wait, but he never left, he had been here the whole time. In his hand was a sharp, yet hard object. Wherefore ‘tis earth's prize in mine mitt? Last he remembered, Yuclaus was sitting down, waiting for the sun to rise. Once it did so, he would go about collecting his memories. Immediately after he regained the fragments of his mind, he would “yeet the heck out of this nightmare”.

The rock in his hand felt oddly like the smaller two stones he had picked up earlier. Obviously, he couldn't see the object, but it felt a little sharper, more refined. Connecting the dots, he squeezed the rock.

It shattered, Yuclaus closed his eyes against the flash, and found himself returned to the mindscape, regained memories in tow. It seemed he had withdrawn his knowledge of the mindscape, losing access to it once he had forgotten. When he shattered the gem —restoring the knowledge of his discoveries— immediately he was returned. Yuclaus proceeded to have a mental breakdown. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say, he was not happy.

After calming down, there were two choices our protagonist could make. Option one, he could pretend this never happened, ignoring the realm every time he blinked. He would collect his memories at dawn, and fall asleep; he would leave this adventure for his night paralysis demons. Option two, he could explore this realm a little more, and discover a way to solidify control over his mind; Perhaps Cause could bring back something positive when he awoke.

A combination of the two seemed like the best of both worlds. He would test until dawn, when he would promptly attempt to wake up. Decisions made, Yuclaus shifted his focus towards controlling the loss of his memories. His real concern was the lack of control. By slapping himself, he lost valuable memories. What would happen if a ruin collapsed as he reposed within?

There was the very real possibility of him being reduced to a blubbering fool. Defenseless as he was, if Yuclaus was caught unaware, his memories would be scattered until even his name was lost. He needed to somehow limit memory loss due to injury.

It was time for cause and effect! He knew the effect of getting injured, but Cause needed to know why. If he could understand why he shot fragments —Yuclaus’ word for the memory crystals— out of his head, perhaps he could keep them contained. The simplest way to test would be to recreate the loss of memories, and observe.

It was risky. He could lose crucial knowledge, even forgetting what he was testing. A normal person would have hit the nope button and checked out. However, if there is one thing we all understand: Yuclaus is not normal. He would call himself a scientist at heart; I would call him a mad one.

So far probability had not been on our main character’s side, but nothing ventured nothing gained. Yuclaus opened his eyes. He hunched over so his eyes were parallel to the ground. With left hand cupped underneath, his right hand hovered above his head, a sentinel watching the back of his scalp. With little preamble, Yuclaus struck his head.

As his right hand met his occiput, simultaneously something struck the palm of his left. Instinctively he grabbed it, before hesitation stilled him. ‘Twas a gem not but recently crushed in mine manus? Yuclaus was confused. He had just found a gem in his hand a moment ago. He had crushed it, yet the gem remained. Was the fragment being constantly repaired? The last few he crushed had returned memories to him, yet it seemed this one was unwilling to surrender its contents.

Cause was nothing if not persistent. He crushed the gem. Immediately a whoop of triumph filled the abandoned town around him. Victorious! Through difficulty I step once more up the ladder of understanding. Yuclaus may not have been able to pay attention to how the gem exited his mind, but he now had a deeper understanding of the situation. The gems could be extracted in two ways. One method involved him withdrawing fragments from his mindscape, and the other through damage to his dream-body. Yuclaus was confusing himself with his terms. He mentally designated his physical body as his body in the medieval town and his mental body as the one in the thunderstruck lands.

Another fact he gleaned, was that the memory he withdrew was the same one he had last knocked out. He expected his most recent memories to be in the gem, but rather it was once again the knowledge of the mindscape.

Would that mean there is an inherent looseness to the crystals? Once the crystal was unearthed, was it easier to remove? If true, Yuclaus could decide which memory he lost, then study how it was ejected. Back to testing.

Yuclaus returned to the fragmented land. He found the knowledge of his mindscape returned to its previous divot in the canyon. Cause needed to create a temporary memory that was inherently looser than the mindscape one. That way, he could study how they are removed without forgetting what he was studying. So he thought long and hard about a pink elephant. A flash of light appeared in the sky. He gave chase, somehow matching the bolt’s speed.

The light struck an empty spot in another canyon, creating a tiny gem. Yuclaus touched the gem, and felt for any change. For a moment, Yuclaus felt a thin stream go out of his eyes and into his palm. Opening his eyes, he found a miniscule crystal in his hand. He was unable to remember what the fingernail sized gem contained, but knew that it was important. Upon noticing he remembered both his observations and the mindscape, another holler of joy was released upon the world.

Oh stream of thought, it appears thine shores are in need of reinforcement. Focused on his eyes, it seemed there was a constant mist flowing into his brain. It seemed this mist was what fed the pink orb in his mindscape. The mist felt weak for lack of a better term. It barely controlled the flow of memories, rather it was a passive collection.

Contrary to the passive collection, the crystal that manifested in his hand came by way of a condensed energy stream, piercing the mists as if they were nonexistent. Yuclaus proceeded to crush the gem, remembering marvelous pink elephants. As his memory returned, he watched the same stream flow back through his eyes. Following the stream to his mindscape, Yuclaus saw that the orb dispensed the fragment as a thin line rather than a bolt. This line stretched to the spot he had taken the memory from, before it wound upon itself returning to a small gem.

To ensure the soundness of his loose fragment theory, Yuclaus hit himself again. With the impact jarring the memory, a new mist pushed against the flow of the passive intake. The mist eventually pushed through, gifting Yuclaus with an elephant gem resting in his hand. Cause felt that if the intake were slightly more dense, the mist would have been unable to resist the flow.

He put the center of his attention on the intake. There must be a way to implement the memory stream of the fragments into the process of his memories being made. With intense focus, Yuclaus attempted to constrict the mist. After a brief stalemate, the mist began to gradually shift. Cause pushed more, and the mist snapped into a thin stream.

Cause became bold. He immediately hit his head again. A burst of mist flowed from the back of his skull towards the front. It reached his forehead before being pushed back by the stream. The elephant fragment remained alone in his hand. The mist was unable to move against the condensed flow of memories. Yuclaus relaxed, a weight lifted off his shoulder. As he relaxed the stream expanded, returning to a thin mist.

It seemed Yuclaus would have to need to actively concentrate to protect his memories. Hopefully as he repeatedly condensed the mist, it would become an involuntary action. Repetition, the mother of learning. With Yuclaus’ biggest worries out of the way, his previous fear was replaced by excitement. It was time to do more research.