*** Mili ***

“Let’s give this a try!”

Excitement coursed through my body as I kicked open the door to the room where the Giant was sleeping.

It was the next day. After what happened with Guisen, I wanted to go straight inside and wake them up and try to talk. I was exhausted emotionally and physically, but I didn’t care. I finally had answers sitting right in front of me after months of just building up questions, but in the back of my mind I had the feeling that if I waited too long they would pass me by and leave me in the dark.

And even though the visions Guisen and I shared provided a distraction, I was already starting to feel the memories of dad creeping back in at the edges of my mind…

Nope.

Not thinking about that.

It didn’t matter that it was already past sunset, I was ready to stay up all night and then some. I just needed answers.

The only problem was that the Giant wasn’t as ready as I was. Guisen had to physically hold me back from storming inside and waking them up right then and there. It frustrated me, but he was right. Depriving them of their much needed rest was no good. I wanted answers but their health was the number one priority.

The patient always comes first…

So I waited. I marched right back inside, laid down in the bedding set out for me by the fireplace and closed my eyes. The sooner I slept, the sooner answers would come. All I had to do was sleep. Yup, that was it. Any second, I would fade away into sleep, then I could wake up and get back to work.

…

It took a long time for that to actually happen.

Even as I sat still staring at the back of my eyelids, my brain refused to stop working. I was focusing on holding onto the sensation of making that connection with Guisen. I wanted to remember it as best I could. I wasn’t focused on it while it was happening, so it was hard to be sure about how it worked, but that meant that every little bit would help me figure it out.

Plus, thinking about that kept my mind from drifting.

My powers were based on directly interacting with another person’s soul. I had carefully paid attention to how I could affect the physical body, but I had never seen it affect someone’s mind like that. I must have done something differently, so all I had to do was figure out what that different thing was and I should be able to replicate its effects.

I started running through every possible idea for what that “thing” was. I already had theories just based on my previous experiences, but I wasn’t sure which were worth following. I kept running into dead ends - points where my theories came down to simple yes/no questions that I had no way of answering without trying it again. Whenever I came to one, I felt my eyes shoot open and dart over toward the door at the end of the room, and every time, I felt myself slip farther and farther away from sleep. I’d have to force my eyes closed and start all over again, but I’d inevitably end up running down a new train of thought that came to a grinding halt as a new question came up.

It was the most exhausting night of sleep I’ve probably ever gotten. Or at least, it felt like that in the moment.

At some point, although I’m not sure when, those streams of thought lost their form and I started “sleeping.” I call it that, because I never felt my thoughts stop. They just became more vague and uncontrolled, completely losing any sense of reality and just existing as a persistent noise in the back of my mind. One minute those thoughts were sweeping over me. The next, I blinked and they were still going, but the gentle light of morning was filtering in through the windows

As soon as I realized what that meant, I picked myself up and started heading over to the room, although my mind and body were still heavy. It felt like I hadn’t slept at all, but I was fine with that.

I kicked in the door with a little exclamation, hoping to wake the Giant up in the process. It was early, but I had waited long enough, I deserved to get started now. Instead, the door stopped short halfway open and I heard a grunt from the other side. I carefully pushed it open and peeked in.

“Giant?”

Sure enough, they were laying on the ground just in front of the door.

“Are you serious,” I exclaimed more than asked as I pushed my way into the room and started dragging them back over to the bed. “I know there are things you probably need to figure out, but I’m trying to help you with that. You’re in no condition to be going anywhere right now.”

They didn’t show any signs of recognition toward my speech, but as I started pulling them, they did accept my help and lean on me as we walked over to the bed.

“I do have to say, it is impressive that you’re this energetic already. Hopefully that's a good sign. If you focus more of that energy into recovering you could be out of here that much sooner.”

They still didn’t respond. They just slumped down onto the bed and rolled onto their side to face away from me.

“Nah-ah,” I tutted, grabbing their shoulder and pulling them back onto their back so they could see me. “We’ve got work to do.”

They looked up with another blank stare as I reached my hand out into the air above them and let a gentle glow begin to swell. I focused intently, trying to recreate the feeling from before. Instead of reaching out with my soul like I normally did, I tried to envision a part of my soul connected to my memories and draw a connection out of it and extend a tendril out toward them…

Nothing happened.

“So that’s not it…”

That was fine though. Figuring out new things about my powers rarely went that well so I wasn’t worried. There were still other things to try.

I honed in on their soul instead, minding the massive scar that ran across their face and focusing on the places where it seemed like it responded most positively to during our treatments. I may not have been able to initiate the connection just from my end, but if I could find a part of their soul that corresponded to their memories it might still work. I poked and prodded, trying to find anywhere that felt like it would work…

I couldn’t find one…

“Okay… so it’s not a matter of finding a specific point of connection. How about…”

I remembered how unintentional the connection with Guisen had been yesterday. Maybe it required a more open approach? Instead of trying to extend my soul into theirs, I tried to pull back and let myself relax. I closed my eyes and envisioned the boundaries of my body fading away, like I was melting and filling the space. After a moment of meditation, it seemed like it worked. I opened my eyes and my own soul was more like a cloud than a bundle of threads.

I had done this before when experimenting with other treatments, but I hadn’t found anything it was useful for yet. I’m sure there was something it was good for, but spending too much time like this always made me nervous so I didn’t try it out as frivolously as some of my other tricks. The way my soul seemed to disperse reminded me too much of what happened when people died. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I stayed like this for too long, so I erred on the side of caution.

I let the cloud around me extend out and wrap around the Giant’s body and soul. They didn’t seem to notice, continuing to stare up at me, but that was normal. From what dad had said, he could only really see a vague light when I used my powers, but nothing specific.

Once they were surrounded, I meditated on the memory of when I first found them, lying on top of Nephern and Kene. I needed something distinct to get a reaction out of them if it started working since I wasn’t able to explain what I was trying to do. As I held the image in my mind, I started to realize how gruesome it was. If I had nearly died like that, I wouldn’t want to see myself in that state, especially if I didn’t have a chance to brace for it.

I changed to the memory of Bethern and I walking into the camp where I found them. Surely they’d recognize it enough to get my point across.

This was the moment of truth. I had come up with a long list of ideas for what could trigger the shared visions, but most of them assumed that the things I had tried before would work. If I couldn’t get some kind of foothold with this, it meant that there was some other piece I was missing.

It would be an upsetting set back, but I could handle that much. A part of me thought that it might actually be nice to have something specific to work on.

I held the vision in my mind and put myself back in the mindset of that moment in the camp. I tried to pull myself back into my old emotional state - the worry, the fear, the frustration. I imagined the smell of burning flesh. The sound of the fire roaring in the distance. I did everything I could to make the memory vivid and complete and imagined immersing the Giant in every ounce of my feelings. Making my soul one with the memory and then in turn making them one with my soul.

I sat there, eyes closed, letting it play out in my mind until just before we came across the three of them. Then I let it drop.

I opened my eyes and stared down at the Giant.

They were still staring blankly up at me…

“Are you fucking kidding me!?”

I threw my arms up and stormed away from the bed over into the corner of the room.

SLAM

I kicked a bag of grain sitting there as I let air hiss out from between my teeth.

That was the ticket. I was feeling better already. I brought my foot back again and slammed it down. Again and again.

Even as I was doing it, I felt bad about doing this to Guisen’s property, but it wasn’t like I was doing any real harm.

I saw the bag start to tear and managed to hold myself back, taking a deep breath and letting my shoulders drop. Dad taught me more than a few tricks for calming down quickly, but it was nice to let go every so often. It was fine.

I turned back to the Giant and-

CRASH

Something fell down behind me. I looked back and saw that there had been a bucket filled with tanning equipment partially balanced on the sack of grain. Its contents were now spilled all over the ground.

“Yeah… that tracks…”

I knelt down and started gathering it all back into the bucket. I had nearly finished when-

***My lungs were burning.

My vision was blurry and tinted orange.

My ears were ringing and every inch of my body ached.

I limped through the middle of the camp, staring down another giant that I had never seen before. They had darker skin than the Giant, but otherwise looked just as alien. They pulled a small metal tool out of their jacket and pointed it straight at me. I kept moving forward until there was a flash and I felt searing pain cut across my head, just above my left eye.

I dropped. I was on the ground.

Oddly enough, the right side of my vision was dark and obstructed but the left side became clearer for a second, completely losing the orange tint for a moment before it was replaced by the red of blood flowing down into my eye. I felt like I was nearly dead, but my body kept moving. I looked up to where the other giant had been a moment before, but they were gone.

I rolled over and looked around.

Nephern and Kene were laying on the ground, not ten feet away from me. My vision started to go dark around the edges as I pulled myself forward. It felt like an eternity of my body straining and screaming out as I clawed myself over to them. Just as I extended my hand out to grab at them, my vision faded completely.***

And then I was back in my own body.

I dropped the bucket back on the ground and its contents scattered out onto the ground as I snapped my head around to look at the Giant.

Was that one of their memories? Why had it suddenly worked?

I thought that they would be looking at me too, but they weren't. They had their eyes locked on the door.

I snapped my head around again to follow their vision and…

It was Kene.

She was standing in the cracked doorway, looking back at us.

“Hey Kene. What’re you doing there?”

She didn’t answer, just like normal. She just pointed at the bucket on the ground. She must have heard me knock it over. That explained why she was there in the first place, but why had I suddenly gotten that vision? Did having her here help somehow?

I started thinking through what had happened as she turned to leave.

“Wait,” I shouted out and scrambled over to the door to try and bring her back. She stopped as soon as I made a sound, but her face had no expression. She had the same dead eyes as she always had over the last month, but at least she still listened.

“Why don’t you come back in here for a minute? I could use your help with something.”

She didn’t make any sign of confirmation, but did start to follow me back into the room. As we walked in, I made careful note of how the Giant reacted. They briefly looked at me, but as soon as Kene was clear of the doorway, their eyes locked on her instead.

It was… good, I think… that they were having that kind of reaction. It meant that they recognized her. It would definitely be helpful to have her in here, but the conversation with Guisen last night was still fresh in my mind.

“Kene, could you stand here in the doorway for a minute?”

I wanted to keep distance between the two, but as long as she was within sight it should be alright.

She stared blankly at me, but she didn’t turn to leave. That was probably the best I was going to get out of her.

I turned back to the Giant.

“Alright, lets try this again then…”

I closed my eyes and repeated the process I had done before, activating my powers and slowly letting my soul expand out to fill the room. Once it was done, I opened my eyes to get a good look at the Giant before I started trying to project another memory. Last time I had tried, their soul looked mostly unchanged, but now that I was looking at them, I could see that their own soul had expanded a little bit. Not quite to the extent that mine did, but enough that it was noticeable.

Was that what made the difference? Did we both have to open up our souls? If that was the case, then why was theirs more open now?

Was it because of Kene or was it something else?

I had stopped focusing on expanding my own soul when the vision did finally kick in, but from my own experience, it took a little while to return to its normal state. If I was right about how it worked then I must have caught it just as my soul was about to finish contracting. So let’s see how it works if I get the timing right.

I closed my eyes and pulled up the memory of me and Betheren again. This time, though, I decided to let it play out a little bit longer. Now that I had seen their own memory of how they ended up in that situation, I wanted to make it clear that there was a connection between us here.

As soon as I finished running through it in my own mind, I opened my eyes and immediately looked at the Giant.

Practically the same instant that I opened my eyes, the Giant jumped back, pushing themselves back into the corner, eyes wide and locked firmly on me. It was like they were trying to get away from me.

They were terrified.

I’m so fucking stupid. Of course they were terrified. Not only had they just seen themselves nearly die, but I’m sure they had no way of knowing that I was going to do that. I even knew that they would react that way. I should have started with something simpler first. Fuck.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” I said firmly but calmly as I put my hands out to try and show that I meant no harm. It didn’t work. As my hands moved forward, they shrunk back even more, struggling to pull themself into a ball despite their weakened limbs.

It would almost look funny if it weren’t so sad. They were nearly twice my size and yet they were cowering away from me.

I kept trying to soothe them, but no matter what I said, they just pulled farther and farther away from me. I was just about ready to give up and leave until they were able to calm down when Kene stepped up to the bed. I had been so focused on the Giant that I hadn’t seen her come over.

“Kene, stay back-” I started to say, but I took so long to notice that she was already reaching out toward the Giant before I even spoke. I had no clue what she was trying to do and I was worried about how they might react. Sure enough, as her tiny hand reached out and came to rest on their foot, they instinctively flinched back like they had with me. However, as they looked up, their eyes caught hers, and instead of retreating more, their body visibly relaxed.

“There, there,” she said raspily as she continued to gently pat their foot and their body slowly unfurled in response .

This time it was my turn to stare.

That was the first time I had heard her speak since she found out about what happened to her parents.

“Kene, are you sure you don’t remember meeting this person before?”

I had already asked her about what she remembered of the attack and she said that after getting grabbed out of the barracks it was all black until she woke up after we brought her back into town. That made sense given that she was unconscious, but if that was the case then why was she acting like this? Why were they both acting like this?

She shook her head without looking at me.

“Is there a reason you came over here?”

“They’re scared…” she said matter-of-factly. “Bad dream.”

“Bad dream? As in they had a bad dream? How do you know they’re having a bad dream?” Had she also seen the vision? When I used my powers had it sent my memory to everyone within a certain distance? Was that how it worked?

My breath caught in my chest.

Had I accidentally shown her Nephern?

She didn’t respond. She just turned and started to leave the room silently. I grabbed her by the arm and swung her around to look at me.

“Did you see anything just now? Some kind of vision? I need you to tell me.”

Dead-eyes, she shook her head and pulled away. I let her go as she walked away. Her response didn’t fill me with confidence, but at the very least, she didn’t seem any different from before. She probably meant something else entirely when she said ‘bad dream.’ I was probably just overthinking it…

“So Giant,” I said, turning around, desperate to get back to work and stop spinning my wheels on that question. They were staring intently at me now, all of the timidness from before completely gone. It was such an abrupt change that I jumped as I saw the resolve in their eyes.

It wasn’t just different from a moment ago. Since they had woken up, they had a sort of dull look on their face, like they were completely indifferent to everything I said and did. Even when we were trying to speak through gestures yesterday, it seemed like they were disconnected from the whole conversation.

But now it felt like they had a purpose, even in something as simple as looking at me.

“A-are you ready to try again,” I stuttered out, unsure of how to respond to the sudden shift, and gestured by pointing from my head to theirs. They seemed to immediately catch my meaning, nodding their head in a way that I figured out yesterday meant “yes.”

“Okay…”

For the first time, I felt unsure about this whole thing, but I had spent too long longing for answers to back down.

A gentle glow filled the room. When I opened my eyes after meditating like before, the same determined eyes were fixed on me. Surprisingly, it also seemed like their soul was even more “open.”

It wasn’t quite as expansive as mine was, but it was still obvious that they had done something themselves to help the process along.

Did the Giant have powers like mine?

No. I pretty quickly struck that out as a possibility. The soul responds to changes in the body and mind, even if people aren’t aware of it. Even I wasn’t aware of what I was doing the first time I learned how to manipulate my soul like that. Dad taught me how to meditate as a way to try and help me get past my mental block about using my powers and I kept doing it even after I got over it. One time while I was meditating, I started thinking about my powers and accidentally activated them. When I came out of it, I was able to see my soul and how it had expanded. After that, I was able to practice and recreate the effect more intensely and reliably, but I had probably spent a long time doing it without being aware of it.

The Giant didn’t have powers, but they had definitely practiced some kind of meditation like mine before.

Another question added to the list, but this time I was optimistic. If they had done something like this before, it would probably make it even easier to communicate with visions.

I started filing through my mind for something to start with. I had learned my lesson and would definitely be staying away from the more… brutal... images of what I had seen that night, but what to start with-

***A figure in familiar white armor is standing in front of me. The majority of their armor is matte white, although there are black and orange accents running across it in straight, geometric lines.

Wait, it’s not a person. I reach forward and pull the helmet off of the head revealing a plain, featureless face made of black cloth. The armor is on some kind of stand.

Even though the armor is clearly visible, it’s almost like everything else around me is shrouded in a grey fog. I can see faint, humanoid figures moving through the fog and even feel the air brush against me as some rush past, but I’m not able to make any details out on them.

It’s almost like I’m standing in a void with just me and the armor.

That is, until I look over at a reflective surface beside me. Standing in there before me isn’t my own face, but that of the Giant. Their body moves and I can feel my own body copy their movements.

It feels… wrong…

A wave of nausea sweeps over me as the disconnect between my mind and my body becomes clearer.

The Giant in front of me lifts the helmet above their head and I do the same. We bring them down over our heads and-***

I was back in Guisen’s house.

My vision was spinning and I felt bile rising up in my throat, but I closed my eyes, rubbed my temples, and forced it back down. As I stared at the darkness on the back of my eyelids and focused on the slow, gentle movements, I gradually felt the sensation of sickness fade away.

When I was able to finally open my eyes and look at the Giant, they were staring intently back at me with the same glint of determination in their eyes.

Like they were waiting for something.

I swallowed roughly before I spoke, feeling the sting in my slightly acid burnt throat.

“Are you wondering about your armor?”

They just looked at me blankly. They couldn’t understand.

I mimed the action of putting the helmet on my head, just like I had seen, and the nausea briefly came back but I was able to quickly will it away. They nodded.

I suppose that was fair enough. I had planned on taking the initiative in the conversation since we needed my powers to communicate, but they got the first question in after all. It threw me off guard a little bit, but as long as we were talking and moving everything along, I couldn’t really complain.

“One second,” I said as I went over to the bed and reached underneath it. I fished around until I felt what I was looking for and pulled it out. It was a large, rough hempen sack. I undid the drawstring on top of it and fished out a helmet.

The helmet.

It felt familiar in the memory, not just because it was their memory, but because I did vaguely remember the armor from when I had first found the Giant. I say vaguely because if I hadn’t gotten the image directly out of the Giant’s mind, I probably wouldn’t have easily recognized it.

In the memory, it was pristine and white with gentle accents, but as I pulled it out it was warped and charred. Large patches of white did peek through the damage and I could faintly make out the detailing beneath layers of soot and dried blood, but it was barely recognizable. On top of that, there was a massive hole through one side of it.

I handed it up to them.

They immediately started turning it over in their hands - inspecting the hole, knocking on parts, trying to scrape away the burn marks. After a moment of inspection, they picked it up and slid it down over their head.

I tried to stop them before they put it on, but it was such a swift movement I didn’t get the chance.

We had pretty much stripped the armor off of them and put it straight in that bag. Me and Guisen had each pulled it out a couple of times just to look at it, but we hadn’t done anything more than that. Specifically, we hadn’t cleaned it. There was still copious amounts of dried blood all over the armor, but particularly in the helmet.

I wanted to say something, but they didn’t seem to mind so I just let it go.

They sat there for a moment, tapping on the side of the helmet and talking. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it seemed like they were calling out to someone. I looked around the room, trying to figure out who they were talking to, but it was just the two of us. Had their head wound done more damage than I thought.

After it was clear that whoever they were talking to wasn’t going to respond, their shoulders slumped and they pulled off the helmet, dropping it onto the bed. It seemed like they were upset about something, so I expected them to take a moment to collect themselves, but instead their eyes locked on me.

The same determined look.

What were they-

***I’m walking through the woods. My vision is tinted with orange as I look around. I can see the details of the plants around me with such detail that it seems like it’s daytime, but as I catch glimpses of the sky through the trees I’m able to see the stars and moon up above.

There are other people walking behind me. I can hear them and occasionally catch glimpses of them out of the corner of my eye, but they are just grey blurs. Like before, I can tell they are humanoid, but I can’t make out any other details and as they speak, I can’t understand.

It’s not that I don’t speak the language they’re using. It’s like their voices are coming from underwater. Even if they were speaking Ang Perelan or Mag’Kele, I wouldn’t have been able to pick out the words.

We walked for a little while before-***

I was back in the house. The Giant’s eyes were still fixed on me. What was that supposed to-

***I’m standing in the middle of the camp. Vague grey shapes move around me, but I’m standing still, staring at two particular humanoid blobs. Just like before, I can hear them speak, but not understand.

Even without understanding, I can tell by the energy of the movements and voices that they’re fighting. I have no clue what it’s about, but I also don’t seem to care.

I look past them at a large metal platform on the ground. My eyes lock on it for a moment before-***

I was back again.

The sudden, rapid shifts in perspective were disorienting as I tried to piece together what I was seeing and what it meant. I was particularly confused by the grey fog that hung around the people in the Giant’s memories. In the first vision, I had sort of assumed that they just hadn’t been paying attention to the people around them and that was why it was there, but those last two visions were different. They were staring straight at people and just not seeing them.

Is there a problem with their memories? Did it have to do with their head injury? Is that part of the reason that they reacted so violently to the first memory I sent?

I looked at them and they didn’t seem disoriented or confused, just eager for a response of some kind. If it was a problem, they didn’t seem bothered by it. Did that mean something else was going on?

I guess it would be fine to leave it for now, but I definitely wanted to find a way to ask about it later.

That aside, what were they trying to say?

The first vision distinctly felt like they were lost in the forest. Even though it was a memory, I couldn’t really tell what they were thinking at the moment, but I could feel the emotions they were going through. So while I didn’t see anything that particularly made me know that they were lost, I instinctively knew that that was the case.

Apprehension, frustration, uncertainty.

It felt like I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going.

In the second memory, I felt a strong sense of longing, but I’m not sure what it was for. When I felt it swell up, they were just looking at the metal platform, which didn’t make sense.

In that first memory, were they trying to find their way to the camp in the second? Do they want to know how to get back again? Are they lost now and wanting to get back to that place?

That was the best idea I had, so I started there.

If I could just speak to them, I could explain that we were a few hours away, but how should I convey that with a memory? What single memory did I have that would get that across? I could show them my memory of making my way out there with Betheren and the rest of the guards, but that would be hours worth of memory. Would that be fine to do?

Or…

I could do what they did and use two memories. One of us leaving town and making our way into the forest and then another of us finding the camp. It wouldn’t give them specific directions, but it would reassure them that I knew how to get back and could get them there once they had recovered. I would be heading that way soon anyway to take Makat and Kene into the Helefiran. The camp was far off of the trails dark traders normally used to get to Anghelen, but I’m pretty sure Makat’s village was still only a few hours away from it. It shouldn’t be a problem.

That would do.

I gave the Giant a nod and they returned it, saying they were ready. I let the light swell and focused on the memory of the night of the attack. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I just began with us leaving Fort Heferal. I’d let it end once we got a decent way into the forest. I’d pick up the second around the time that we heard the loud noise that led us to the camp and make sure to cut it off before I found the three of them there.

At this point, the process went fairly smoothly. The Giant didn’t respond negatively like they had the first time. It was a quick process. I opened my eyes after the first one and they very quickly gave me a nod, saying they were ready for the next. That went just as smoothly.

They took a moment to think once it was over, but after that they nodded quietly, seemingly satisfied with my response.

Then they looked at me again with the same determined look.

I had let my powers drop pretty soon after I was done sending out the vision, but as soon as I saw that look I quickly kicked them back up and saw that their soul was slowly expanding outward. They were about to send me another vision.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said, putting my hands up and trying to gesture for them to wait. Their body and expression didn’t change that much, but I could see their soul slowly contracting in response.

I was ecstatic that this was working and that we were finally able to talk, but so far this had been incredibly one sided. They had shot off each of the visions so quickly that I didn’t even have a chance to think before we started. I wanted to take my turn now.

But where to start?

I could ask about where they came from and how they got here, but I couldn’t even begin to think about how to do that. I could try and ask about what had happened with Kene, Sterthen, and Nephern, but I wanted to ease into that more. They reacted very negatively last time they saw a vision related to Kene and Nephern, so I didn’t want to rush into that and scare them off. We had plenty of time to get to all of those details, but I still wanted something.

What was simple to start with?

And then it came to me.

This might be a little tricky, but I wanted to test out the limits of my powers too. I nodded to them that I was ready and they nodded back.

I focused on a large number of short memories. Each only a few seconds long and they all pretty much showed the same thing.

Sterthen and Nephern standing in the barracks on the night of the attack. Sterthen turns to me. “Can you also look over her, Mili?”

Guisen standing in the kitchen of his home cooking with Paran. They look at me as I push open the door. “Welcome back Mili. How was work?”

Kene in the bed of Guisen’s home by the fireplace, opening her eyes for the first time since the attack and looking up at me. “Mili…?”

The people in town calling out to me as I walk past. “Good morning Mili!”

Dad, standing over my shoulder as I use my powers to help heal an injured Magora man. “You’ve got to try harder Mili. You’re getting sloppy.”

There were others, but they were just faint memories of people I may have met once or twice before. The important part was that they were all memories of people saying my name.

I tried to let them all fly by as quickly as I could. At first, I could feel the connection drop between the first two and there was a brief moment before I was able to get the next going. After that, I tried to change memories without letting the connection fade. At first it felt sloppy, but by the end it was a single stream of memories.

When it ended, the Giant looked at me confused. I suppose they still weren’t able to understand what was being said, but understanding wasn’t the goal.

I point at myself. “I am Mili.”

Then I pointed at them. “You are…?”

There seemed to be a moment of realization as they mimicked me, pointing at themself.

“/ɑɹdənt fɔɹtin/”

There we go! I had tried for so long yesterday, just trying to find a name for them. I had grown sort of accustomed to calling them “Giant,” but that felt so impersonal. This was much better.

“You are Arthen’fortheen,” I said, pointing at them.

They shook their head no and pointed at themself again.

“/d͡ʒʌst seɪ ɑɹdənt/”

“You’re Arthen?”

“/ɑɹdənt/” they said, emphasizing each letter, but it didn’t sound any different from what I was saying already.

“I get it, your name is Arthen. Just go ahead and ask your next question,” I said, waving dismissively before gesturing from my head to theirs like I had before. Their shoulders slumped, clearly not happy with it, but I saw the determined glint in their eye flash up again and got ready for the next memory.

And that is how I met Arthen.