-- Aster --

I followed them through to the next area, a small room featuring a puzzle. Standing in the center of the space, was a large diorama of a king holding court.

The king sat upon his throne as the jester entertained him and his courtiers. His mage on his right and his healer on his left, with an archer watching from the side. This was all conjecture as their faces were all smooth stone with no features, yet the rest of the statues were highly detailed and fully colorized. Their apparel told who they were. The healer in whites, the mage with their staff, the king with his crown, the hunter with his bow, and the fool in his bells.

I barely had time to take in the scene before my body locked into place, and the figures came to life. The newly mobile automaton started to act out a play or more of a farce as I saw it. The fool tried to deliver a warning but I could see he would always be killed. The court never would have listened, the animosity, the audacity of this fool to dare speak to the king. The arrow struck the killing the fool. The statues froze and I was suddenly able to move.

The whole play-act left a bitter taste in my mouth. I turned away from the harsh scene only to find them all just sitting there. Resting.

'Must be safe here.'

I took my chance and began to try everything to get their attention. I yelled, I screamed, and I grabbed them. My raucous screeching didn't do much, but I quickly found out how dangerous it was to try and grab them. Every time I would physically touch them they reacted violently, James tried to knife me and Rowan punched me in the face, but it wasn't until Violet nearly stopped my heart that I abandoned that route.

Out of any real options, I decided to just stick with talking. My throat was starting to hurt from yelling. Surprisingly, when I spoke normally I was met with some success. Here and there I would ask a question and they appeared to instinctively answer. Sometimes they would even look up at me when asked, but then they quickly move back to whatever they were doing in the room.

The longer I spoke to them, the more progress I was making. Getting more and more responses. They were never about anything important, sometimes just grunts. I talked about nothing to them for a while without a single word from them.

When Bay got up to walk around a little she bumped into me and my heart stopped when she said "Oh sorry Aster." Then moved around me. I knew on a subconscious level they knew I was there, but consciously they didn't.

'Are they repressing this all?' I felt my heart hurt when I finally realized what was going on. They were fully disassociated from the world, not letting themselves feel.

'I bet they don't even know they're doing it. How many loops does it take before you had to escape like this?' This was horrible. What the blight is this fucking torture. 'Who would put anyone through this?'

The full implications were hitting me. We had gone through 3 rooms so far not including this one. I could see another door and it hadn't even been an hour. I felt that there couldn't be much more to this whole thing. Maybe a couple more rooms but...how many times have they gone through this? For them to go into this kind of survival mode it had to have been weeks.

'How long did it take me to get here?' I had no idea, the answer to that question but looking over everyone made me want to cry.

I sat down next to Violet and Bay. "I'm sorry I took so long."

"It's not your fault," Violet said surprising me, but I knew it was just an automatic reaction.

"No, but I should have been there." My head was in my hands at this point.

"We left you," Bay added.

"What's next?" I asked. I was taking no comfort in this conversation just like I couldn't comfort them.

"Darkness." I could feel the fear coming from Violet's voice.

I looked over to the girls, I could see tears flowing down their faces. They looked scared, staring down at the door. 'What is really in there?' I looked over to James and Rowan only to find them staring at the door with tears flowing down their face.

Then James stood looking over the group reluctantly. "It's time everyone."

Shakily, everyone stood. "I will not let you guys down alone," I said to them all knowing they would not hear me. All 4 of them only had eyes for the door to the next room. They moved as one into the darkness.

I stepped with them into the room of darkness, at least it should have been dark. As soon as I stepped past the threshold the blackness became a bright storm of power. It was like trying to see through a blizzard. The storm was so thick I could barely see the others. They had all only walked a short distance into the room before just stopping. 'Now what?'

The storm billowed around me gathering thicker and thicker until I couldn't see anything.

That's when a blue screen appeared in front of me.

Mission Rank: ?? Type: Free Your Mind

Time Elapsed: N/A Time Remaining: N/A

Details:

See the darkness to remember the light.

The screen popped away when I finished reading, and I was swallowed by the storm.

------

"Aster move. Fight." A voice yelled at me.

"What? What's going on?" I jumped looking around trying to figure out what is happening. I saw my team all standing in a semi-circle facing a horde of wyvern-scaled wolves coming our way. Each wolf stood at least 3 feet covered in moss green scales, brown fur, and sharp angular faces more dragon-like than a wolf. When I turned toward everyone my heart hurt for and I didn't understand why.

"Come one we need your help!" I finally was able to put James's face to his voice.

"Hey, they can see me?!" I said. 'Wait why wouldn't they be able to see me?'

The horde of monsters was getting close and I finally remembered what was going on.

We had all been traveling for a week on a new mission, we needed to clear out a nest of wolves. We had just reached the area we were told the creature would be, and that's when everything went to shit.

I had found the wolves pretty quickly the problem was I found them by literally tripping over one. Their scales and fur being the perfect camouflage for the area. It let out a yelp, then let out a massive howl before any of us could understand what was happening let alone stop it. The team must have ended the creature while I was unexpectedly incapacitated by it. The monster's howl must have had some type of energy attack explaining the disorientation and why it took me so long to remember what was going on.

I began to move toward the horde when I heard a growl from behind. I looked back to see the second group of scaled wolves coming towards our rear, and not one of my team saw them. They were now engaged in the ones on the front and didn't have time to watch their back so I did it for them. They were still a distance away but if I could take them out before they got into range of the other's they could focus on the ones without issue.

I ran toward the back of the monsters pulling my dagger and spoke "Faster." My body sped up to a speed I've only recently been able to control. My sudden burst took the wolves off guard, as they didn't even attempt to dodge my strikes. I moved dancing on a knifes edge at speeds I couldn't fully control like a reaper harvesting their lives with every move. At some point, I had put my mask on and fell away becoming a literal blur, felling all of the creatures.

"Aster! Are you gonna help us or not!" I heard Violet scream at me.

I could hear their battle behind me. The sound of metal on flesh and the occasional screams when a wolf got a bite. I want to help, to even yell something back but I was already barely holding on myself.

So many monsters died and it wasn't until I cleared them all out I noticed the monsters had all melted away as though they were never there.

"Aster!" James yelled angrily at me. I looked up to see him fighting 3 large wolves and barely keeping them off.

Rowan jumped in from the side killing one taking the pressure off James, allowing him to kill the other 2 without issues. Out of breath Rowan said disdainfully. "Don't bother he's too cowardly to help. He's probably run away."

"Well, that's mean to say," I said as I ran past them into the remaining monsters. I had taken off my mask knowing, and stopped falling. I was still figuring out the skill and wasn't ready to risk my friends until I could control it better. It looked like they had taken out most of the wolves already and with only a few groups remaining.

"Now you show up. When we're almost done." Rowan said condescendingly.

"I've been helping." I tried to defend myself but could tell he didn't believe me.

"Sure. Just take them down." I replied

"I am!!!" I shouted. Which distracted me enough to immediately git bitten by one of the long snouts of reptilian furry. This one moment caused a cascade, allowing more creatures openings to bite and claw.

"Why did we even bring him?" I heard Violet ask.

"Bait," Rowan added

Violet snorted. "Fat lot of good that did."

Moving, slicing, stabbing I ended the monsters attacking me. I was breathing hard now that I was free. Bloody and bruised, I turned to keep fighting.

"Congrats you survived. Now get over here and help fight." Rowan said.

Moving, I found I was limping making my way over. "I'm comin'."

I moved into the range of one of the creatures. It opened its mouth and I saw the silver glow appear right before it released a ball of fire. Thanks to seeing it form I was able to move right out of the way. The fireball passed by me striking Rowan instead.

"What the Rot Aster?" James yelled.

"Not my fault!." I yelled frantically back at him. 'When in rot can they use magic? Not one of the ones I fought used anything like that.'

"You could have at least taken the hit. You would have been kinda useful." Violet sneered.

"Seriously, Aster if you aren't going to help get the fuck out of the way." James added,

"I AM HELPING!"

"Doesn't look like it," James commented.

"Then pay attention." I should have taken my own advice as one of the wolves lunged knocking me to the ground.

"Just stay down Aster. You did fine killing those few monsters. If you get back up. I don't think you'll survive." Bay, said sadly.

When I looked to see them agreeing with Bay, it hurt. I bit back a retort and asked Violet.

"Violet. I could use a heal."

Violet ignored me.

"Violet please." I pleaded

James moved to her side "Just do it Violet."

"Why he'll just get in our way again,. Violet complained

"Doesn't matter. He needs help."

"It can wait."

James hesitates before taking a look at me. "...Just do it."

The 2 stared each other down before Violet threw up her hands. "Fine."

Violet moved smoothly through the battlefield, just stopping short of me. Instead of touching me, she reached out with her magic. I could see the power flowing from her into me. The way the whole process worked was strange. Violet was reaching into me, using her power to guide my own forcibly into the wound.

It hurt. I knew it hurt, but like all pain, I just experienced it as though from far away. When I was mostly healed I finally asked her. "Why?"

"You know why."

"Enlighten me." I didn't know.

"You're a waste, a failure. Can't even help when everyone is in danger." She said angrily.

"Just because you didn't see me fight does not mean I didn't." I retorted. 'She's never going to believe me.

"Are you sure about that? Look at all the corpses. You killed like 5 there's at least a hundred dead here. Maybe 20 left which I should be helping with instead of healing someone like you."

"You would leave me. To the monsters?" I asked disbelievingly.

"If I had to," Violet said quietly.

I stared at her in disbelief. "This isn't like you, Violet. You. Would...never..."

"I've watched you screw up over and over." Violet said.

I tuned out what Violet as my brain finally started to piece some of these strange things together. A thought occurred to me that began to solidify my thoughts. 'How did we get here? When did we get here? On a mission...where did that mission come from.'

"Violet. How did we get here?" I calmly asked her.

"You're incompetent."

"No, how did we get to this mission?"

"I don't have time for this."

'That's it! Right there.' My eyes widened and I smiled as Violet stood to leave.

I spoke. "This isn't real."