The curtains of blackness begin to recede only to be replaced with violently painful pinpricks of light. I keep my eyes closed long enough to prepare myself. As my vision continues to return I'm greeted by a concerned face. It startled me but no more than that; If this person had wished me harm... she I think? I can't quite tell yet. She would have done so by now... or already has and I've yet to figure it out I suppose.

My muddled, watercolored vision snaps back into place and, I'll be honest, I'm a bit surprised by what I see.

Leaning over my supine form is a short girl in a tattered green-and-blue dress over black leggings. Messy, sweat-stained, raven hair is pulled back from her face and I'm able to tell that this girl likely isn't much older than ten.

How on Earth...

Fuck. nope. How on Crucible did this girl survive for this long? I've been scraping past by the skin of my teeth and she seems to be doing much better all things considered.

Did I get upstaged by a child less than half my age?

It most certainly seems like I did. It kind of stings if I'm being honest. And while I'm ecstatic that she was able to do well, it still kind of hurts that someone with far less life experience was able to do better than me in...

Hmm. Could it be because she has less life experience that she was able to out-survive me? When a person needs to unlearn information before relearning it in a new, more correct, more accurate way, it is invariably more difficult than if they never had to unlearn anything. She has just enough life experience to be an intelligent and capable person while being far less trapped by social mores? I should probably ask her, but that can wait. I have far more pressing matters to deal with.

I begin to sit up and she scrambles backward, startled. I pause before continuing to rise more slowly and when she sees this, she calms somewhat. I rub at my eyes and massage the areas where my wounds healed. It may be completely functional but, super-powered or not, freshly healed flesh is damn itchy.

"Hey," I mumble out loud through dry, cottony lips."

I clear my throat before introducting myself. "Hey, my name's Cade. Thanks for staring at me while I slept, super not creepy at all," I joke with her before realizing she missed the fact that I was only teasing.

I have no idea if she was able to help me at all or if she even tried, but seeing another human face is absolutely reassuring and having literally anyone or anything looking after my unconscious body in this place is a relief. It doesn't even look like she stole anything. I can't believe I have to potentially reevaluate my thoughts on how much I like animals versus how much I like people. If someone had told me prior to this that an animal would humiliate and rob me but a human would not only not rob me but also attempt to watch over and comfort me, I might have just laughed at said person.

"Sorry, sorry. Poor attempt at humor. My nerves are a little shot right now, thanks for watching over me, I really appreciate it. You're the first person I've seen since all this started. Can I ask your name?"

"..."

I see her lips move but not a sound comes out.

"You'll have to speak up a bit I'm afraid, my hearing seems a bit damaged right now," I lie to her. I know what it's like to have to speak more loudly and clearly while part of a situation in which I would rather not be. I don't want to fall into the normal trap of pointing out that someone is quiet in an attempt to better hear them, only to have that person get embarrassed and clamp down. I prefer telling her a white lie in an attempt to build understanding and to help her feel more comfortable around me. I'll have to remember to let her know I did so after she actually is more comfortable around me.

"...Seph," comes her muffled-yet-still-audible reply.

"Mmm, nice name, is it short for anything?"

"Persephone."

Hey, no pause before the response this time despite still being rather quiet. That was a quick improvement. It's clear she wants more information and help but doesn't seem too confidant in how to go about it.

Before we get any further I attempt to gauge the situation.

"Has anything been by here while I was unconscious? It looks like maybe you or something else might have moved me a bit while I was out and I'd rather find some place else to talk if it wasn't you."

"...No," she clears her throat in what seems to be an attempt to bolster her nerves, "I moved you. You were out in the open. Nothing had come by for a bit while I watched from in that tree over there."

She points toward what looks to be some combination of willow and Christmas tree. It appears as if someone glued orange pine needles to the whip-thin branches of a willow tree. It blows in the faint wind with a graceful undulation and it sets my teeth on edge. The light, metal tinkling sound of the pines is honestly rather pleasant though.

"Okay, that's fine for now then."

I quickly recount my story to her and she does an excellent job of 'oohing and ahhing' at the right times. I can't imagine she hasn't seen her fair share of shit from this world so far, and if she has somehow been lucky enough to avoid most of it, she won't continue to be that lucky forever. I don't skip any important details and she seems horrified when I recount my encounter with Whatsitsface the Vile or whatever its name was. I guess she hasn't come across it, and good thing too, She seems resourceful to have survived this long but I don't doubt an encounter between her and the Malicious would have ended in anything other than her horrifying death or with her beaten and humiliated as badly as I was.

After I finish my story she bluntly sums up my experience for me. "Wow that sucks."

No attempts at comforting me with words. Just an acknowledgement of my suffering. She might be a bit more observant than I gave her credit for; nothing she can really say will make my experiences less shitty or really reassure me about our respective futures. Validation is all she can give me and she gives it freely. I think we'll probably get along fine.

Unless I'm looking too much into it and she's just a blunt person? Either way, we'll likely get along fine.

I ask her how she survived and she launches into a retelling of her story.

It seems that farther away from the direction in which I came is a stoney, mountainous valley covered in a rainbow of irridescence. at least, that's what I gleaned from her. She said stuff like 'there was shiney rainbows on everything. They moved around when I did and it made my head hurt after a while so I started going to where there was less and then I got here and found you.' so I just kind of assume she means irridescent. When the apocalypse started that's where she found herself.

"I got a skill for being one of the first couple thousand to notice that there were monsters. I also got a Path because I was the first person to... how did she say it? Oh right! It was something like 'you were the person who most quick... accepted the fact that there were monsters after figuring out that they were there! She said a lot of people saw monsters before I did but I was the first to act like what I was seeing was real I guess. Not really anything on Earth that swims through the air and eats a person whole right in front of you."

She says the last bit with the cadence of a joke but I can tell she's barely keeping it together. She's a hell of a lot stronger than I was at her age.

I tell her as much and it seems to alleviate her mental suffering just a bit and for that I'm glad. No one deserves to go through this, especially not a young child. She does, however, deserve to know that she's done a damn fine job of adapting so far.

"Can you clarify something for me?" I ask her. "You said 'she' told you some of this. Who is 'she?'"

"Oh! The Goddess of Wisdom! She was super pretty and nice and she had flowers in her hair and she said I did so well! And that she would be proud to make me a... inishit? Initiate? Yeah that one! An Initiate of Wisdom! She said that she took a look at my soul and saw that I was so smart and wise! For my 75th point I got a Skill called 'Wisdom of the Fallen' and it's super scary but also super helpful and then when I finished the Path that's when everything seemed to go black except I was floating in outer space by all the pretty stars and she talked to me while she floated in front of me and said... oh how did it go again?"

She finally pauses for breath after recounting part of her story and I'm amazed at how much she's opened up. I guess it was probably smart to be wary at first, what with the whole stranger danger thing in general and being a minor while lost and alone in a bleak hellscape of death and torment.

The pause ends quickly and she launches back into her tale.

"Oh! She looked at my... being? And changed it a bit so that I'd have more room to grow, better options when growing, and... uh, she made it easier for me to 'Forge your own Path' whatever that means." When Seph says this part she puffs out her chest, adopts a more confident stance, and projects the phrase with mock authority. It's honestly hilarious.

"She said I'd get it eventually and I believe her, she really did seem like the Goddess of Wisdom she was so wise and knew so much!"

After she finishes she seems to remember to breathe and gasps huge lungfulls at a time while looking proud that she remembered everything that happend to her.

"Damn, that's a lot of new information. And we both have Paths opened for being the first at something. You said you got a really good skill from your 75th point. huh? And the fact that you're an Initiate of Wisdom is awesome!"

I praise her because, honestly, that is awesome. And it seems like if things go similarly to her Path, I'll get a really helpful skill and then have a starside chat with the God or Godess of Reflex. Sounds... intense. But that changing your being thing is kind of sketchy and I tell her as much.

"It seemed that way at first but it just kind of tickled. She asked me a few questions about how I would handle some problems and asked me what I thought was more cool or fun as well as some other stuff before saying she made it a bit easier for me to grow like that."

"Huh. Given what I've seen of this new world, that seems like it would honestly be really helpful, if there's nothing malicious behind it. I've already seen first hand what the beings of this world are like and it doesn't leave me very trusting."

"I trust her. After it finished tickling there was a second where I felt like the whole world opened up to me. It went away as soon as it started but she said that it was only a taste of what I can do if I keep it up!"

"Hah, that sounds amazing. And your Goddess does seem helpful. Did she tell you anything else?"

"Not much. She said she didn't have much time and that the energy from the... aether crystals I used was running out and she could only use her power to make it go for a tiny bit more without breaking the connection. She said some stuff real quick about how where we are is super dangerous and that we can die easy, but that there is a lot of aether and it's really pure so we should use it while we can, and that she wanted me to survive but said she couldn't help me past what she already did, but she did so much I wasn't mad! I was happy she helped but when she was fading away I got a real bad feeling, like maybe she was in danger? She seemed worried. I want to get strong so I can help her like she helped me, she didn't even need to but she did and she used a bit of her energy to do it too even though it seemed like she needed it!"

Whoa man she really puts the pedal to the metal when she gets excited. Way better than being dead inside in my opinion.

"The last things she was saying was about like, how and why all of this is happening? I couldn't hear her very well at that point and a lot of it that I did hear didn't make much sense to me... sorry."

She looks ashamed as hell after finishing that last bit, rushing it out like she's afraid I'm going to chastise her for not getting more info.

"No need to apologize, you did really well. Better than me even, obviously," I gesture toward my raggedy clothes and bloody body. You even managed to get 100 AC! I haven't even gotten that much yet. Granted, I spent most of my time getting my ass handed to me over and over again by things that were seemingly -and by almost all means- way stronger than me, but what you did is impressive, you really ought to be proud."

I can tell the praise helps a bit but this time she still seems upset that she didn't catch more. I know the self-deprecating feeling well; always noticing how I can do better but not always being able to achieve it is frustrating.

Hah, time for a distraction. We should probably make a plan and get moving anyway, I know it won't remain safe here forever.

"So, Miss Mighty Initiate of Wisdom, how do you think we should proceed? It seems like you saw a lot more of this place than I did and you managed not to get knocked out. So I'd say you're pretty qualified to help me make a plan."

She looks at me in confusion before responding. "...You really want me to help? Most people just make me tell them stuff and then they decide everything."

Her demeanor changes so drastically it hurts. Her brows crinkle and I can tell she's trying to figure out if I've been playing some kind of prank on her. So far she's done nothing but survive, damn well might I add, and aqcuired significantly more information than I did in less time

"Yeah, that's a pretty common way for people to treat kids but I wasn't a big fan of it before the apocalypse, especially back when people used to treat me like that. Also, more importantly, you've shown that you're resourceful and smart enough to have survived on your own, I'd be proud to work with you and I think you'll help come up with stuff that I would never ever see."

Her cheeks turn rosy and she shakes and lowers her head in embarrassment. Ah, I remember what it was like to not know how to accept a compliment well. She doesn't seem to know how to handle that information and I don't feel like making her figure it out right now. She'll get it in her time.Trying to force her to see it will only backfire and make her more uncomfortable and that isn't conducive to the openness we're gonna need to make a plan for this shitshow.

A grin slinks it's way across my face. She may be a child and have some childish qualities, as can only be expected, but she's shown adaptability and maturity enough to handle the situation. She's proven herself tougher or smarter than I am so far and I wasn't lying, I think she'll be able to help immensely.

Not to mention, not all childish qualities are inherently bad and she's shown exceptional judgement. At least compared to me.

Ugh, I'm so glad to have someone to talk to and bounce ideas off.

...Now to keep myself from focusing on how much I want to finish my Path of Reflex.

A gentle breeze rolls through the area and sets the tree behind us to tinkling. This time the cadence changes as it progresses. It begins as the light, metal tinkling sound I heard before but seems to shift into a sinister, whispering laughter. Coupled with the way the branches sway about I'm left feeling extremely uneasy.

...Yeah, probably projecting.

A shiver runs down my spine and a pall of doom settles over my shoulders like a stifling, suffocating cloak. Seph and I make eye contact and share a wordless agreement before launching ourselves in the opposite direction of the pulsing sense of dread.

I only hope we're capable of surviving whatever the hell is trying to kill us now.