Aren watched as the two travelers walked through the door and immediately heard the sound of something wooden shattering against the walls of the other room. They drew their weapons and rushed into the room before he could say anything.

When they entered the room, they saw the situation at hand. Rigur was bent over the stone countertop, gripping his head in pain.

“Sir! What’s wrong?” The first man said. Aren motioned for them to follow him into another room, as they left they heard another scream of agony and something made of glass shattered.

“I’m not sure what’s causing it, but some kind of psychic attack is being levied against him. He’s been getting worse since this afternoon, and I’m worried he’ll lose control of himself soon.” Aren said.

“We don’t have any standing orders, and he doesn’t seem to be in a state to give them.” The other man said.

“Maintaining the wellbeing of your employer is a requirement on your contracts. Before you say anything, I know that because I’m the one that drafted them.” Aren said, then he pursed their lips and relented.

“What do you suggest?” The first man said.

“I already sent the others on other tasks, so one of you needs to enlist the aid of a Medea for Rigur’s injuries, the other needs to find a mage. I don’t care how much it costs, go-” Aren was interrupted by the sound of the front door being kicked in. The sound of Rigur throwing things in the other room could still be heard, so this was someone unrelated.

“Engaging target.” One said, then they drew their weapons again and rushed for the front room. Aren swung around the corner to see a strange sight. A woman who had the same face as Whisper was standing at the doorway, but she was holding the weapons of the two travelers. Though she vaguely resembled Whisper, her skin, hair, and eyes were entirely different. Most importantly, her hair was bright red.

“Identify yourself!” One Traveler said, he took a single step toward the woman, and she reached out and flattened the man like it was nothing by throwing him into a nearby wall. The other tried the same thing and ended up being thrown through a table.

She stepped toward Aren and glared at him.

“Where is he?” She asked.

“Who?” Aren asked, genuinely confused about everything that was happening.

“Rigur! I know he’s here. Now tell me.” The woman said. From the other room, the sound of something heavy smashed against the wall with enough force to shake the building. She pushed him aside and marched into the room. Rigur was attempting to tear a light fixture from the wall and pulling hard enough to tear the stonework it was bolted to apart.

“Rigur!” The woman screamed, Rigur stopped what he was doing and turn slowly towards her.

“Andromeda?” He asked. Even through his bloodshot pupils, she could see his surprise.

“I need you to calm down, something is wrong, and we can’t fix it if you’re tearing the building down.” Andromeda said.

“It feels like there are nails in my head. Yesterday I thought I had just a migraine, but this is so much worse.” Rigur said.

“I know, I know… The same thing is happening to me. But I need you to hold yourself together.” Andromeda said.

Rigur stepped away from the light and stumbled over to a nearby table that miraculously wasn’t destroyed yet. He gripped the side with enough force that his fingers bled.

“A-Alright… I’ll do my best.” Rigur said, there were beads of sweat dripping down his brow, but she trusted he would hold out for just a little longer.

“What’s wrong with him? I know that he’s not a pushover, but this?” Aren asked with a broad gesture around the room.

“I don’t know what’s causing it, but the pain he was experiencing caused him to enter a state of pain induced psychosis.” Andromeda said.

“But even out of his mind…” Aren said, looking toward the large sofa sticking partially out of the wall. Andromeda walked over to Rigur and put a hand on his shoulder, Aren could see that her entire arm had turned as white as snow. Just like a Medea.

“Have you ever heard of something called Hysterical Strength?” She asked. Rigur’s head started to lift, and there was an obvious rush of relief that washed over him.

“No?” Aren asked.

“The human body is a complex machine built with the express purpose to survive. One of the many countermeasures it has is adrenaline. It pushes the body to its limits for the purposes of fight, or flight.” Andromeda said. Just as Rigur’s eyes finally cleared up, they rolled up into the back of his head. Andromeda caught him and laid him flat on the table he was leaning against, she used the torn fragment of a nearby pillow to cushion his head.

“In the back of our minds, there is a mental block preventing us from exerting the full strength our bodies could produce, this is because acting at that level for too long can destroy our muscles. Hysterical strength is the case when the body has been filled with so much adrenaline that those imposed limits are broken. It can be fear, anger, stress, and even pain that does it. Rigur was in so much pain that his body thought he would die.” Andromeda said. Aren rushed to Rigur’s side, his sweat was cold, and his breathing shallow.

“Will he be alright?” Aren asked. He put a hand over Rigur’s forehead, wiped a small, bleeding scratch.

“The adrenaline going through his system dropped suddenly when I used a healing aura. He’s just exhausted from the stress. He should be awake in the morning, but I can’t do anything about the headaches. It’s just going to get worse until we figure out what’s causing that. As for his body, I’ve taken care of that with this aura.” Andromeda said. By this point, the two men from before had picked themselves back up and wandered back into the room.

“Who is this?” The one traveler said. Aren thought on this, but didn’t have an answer.

“He has a point, who are you?” Aren asked.

“They already know, so unless they want another fight, they should leave.” Andromeda said pointedly. The two men didn’t hesitate before bolting out of the building.

“What do you mean, and why are they leaving?” Aren said, the situation rapidly losing him.

“I don’t have time to explain that, my head is killing me. I’ll let Whisper take back over, she’ll explain.” Andromeda said, then her skin, hair, and eyes shifted again to once more look like Whisper.

“Wait what?” Whisper said. Then she turned around to see Aren in front of her

“H-Hi…” She said.

-----

With a little assistance from White, the majority of the room was repaired. Whisper and Aren had got Rigur into a bed in the other room and went back out to talk. The atmosphere in the room was tense, and neither knew how best to start.

“So…” Aren said.

“Yeah…” Whisper said.

Anything either tried to say got caught in their throat, it didn’t feel like anything could have been said at the right time. The first attempt to break this now deeply thick ice came from Whisper, and it started with a sigh.

“I couldn’t even begin to explain what’s happening, I barely understand it all myself.” Whisper said.

“Yeah, I’m completely lost, last I heard no one had found Andromeda, er, you? What’s up with that?” Aren asked.

“Oh god, I have no idea, It’s like… I’m me, they are them, but we’re all each other, but not really because we’re all separate. We each kind of do different things, but we all have the same general idea about how to do it. It’s so confusing that when I think about it, my head starts to spin.” Whisper ranted.

“Oh… Uh, who are they then? Specifically.” Aren asked.

“Uhh, hmm, I guess I start with Andromeda. She’s a- well, “normal” person.” Whisper said. “She’s a mage, but she can also heal people. We don’t really know how. The running theory is that White has something to do with it.”

“She can do what now?” Aren said, acting as though he misheard her.

“Heal… People…”.

“But she can do magic?”

“...Yes.”

“But she can heal people?”

“Uhh, yeah, that’s the case.” Whisper said.

“But you said she can do magic?” Aren asked.

“I did…” Whisper repeated.

“But she-”

“Are you just going to repeat yourself until I say something different?” Whisper finally snapped.

“Hey, don’t blame me. I’m not the one saying crazy things over here. You might as well say she’s a winged pig or something, because honestly, I’d believe that before the first thing.” Aren said.

“It’s true, seriously, she can prove it!” Whisper said. She grabbed Aren’s hand and picked up a loose bit of glass that was still sitting nearby and scratched him.

“Oi, what the hell?” He exclaimed. Then as soon as Whisper let go, Andromeda came back into control and grabbed his hand, a green light enveloped it and restored the cut back to before. She looked him dead in the eye as a bead of sweat dropped from her brow and a twitch in her eye.

“You both owe me…” She said coldly, then returned control to Whisper.

Aren inspected his hand, the painful scratch Whisper just delivered to him a moment ago was gone and there was no suggestion that anything had happened. If he didn’t feel how she stabbed him, then he wouldn’t believe it happened at all. He clenched his fist and shook it slightly, heavily suppressing the urge to delve further into that grand revelation.

“Alright, I guess I’ll believe you, for now.” He said. “That’s Andromeda, what about the other one?” Aren said.

“You mean White, yeah, she’s- uh… Huh? I have no clue at all. She isn’t a demon, a xixial, mental being, definitely not human, but she acts like one, can read Andromeda’s mind, and looks like a Medea.” Whisper said.

“That might explain the healing I guess… Wait, no it wouldn’t. What that hell am I saying?” Aren said, his mental state was rapidly depleting, and he wanted nothing more than for the subject to change.

“When she’s in control, she has this kind of field that makes everything around her fix itself, and it can even work on people too.” Whisper said. Aren broke, and turned the part of his mind that tried to rationalize everything and just listened.

“Alright, where do you fit into this? Andromeda’s a human, probably, and White is anything but human, and the three of you all share a body more or less. I can’t imagine you’re much more complicated.” Aren said. He could tell from the face she was making when he said this that he didn’t like the answer he was about to receive.

“I’m…” She said, but the words died on her lips. Whisper’s expression darkened, just as it had the other night when he asked about her. She shook her head, said nothing about it, and turned to him. “What do you think I am?”

Aren didn’t know what to think, looking at her all he could rationalize is that she was something other than human on account of everything else she told him. “I couldn’t say. You seem haunted by something, and any time you think about yourself you grow distant. I feel like nothing I could say would match with what you feel.” Aren said. Whisper smiled a joyless smile.

“Another question, what would it take for you to hate someone?” She asked. This too gave him pause. He hesitated to answer because he knew it was an intentioned question. He wouldn’t risk anything

“What if told you that I can hear your every thought?” She said, “It’s how we found this place and how we knew that those men from before were trouble. I found them before coming here and followed them on a hunch. I can hear their thoughts.”

“Then the other night at dinner?”

“Every single moment, from the moment we met. I even sense you around the corner. I just didn’t think you’d run into me.” She said, things tarted to fall into place.

“So I’ll ask you again, what do you think I am?” She said.

“You can hear the thoughts of those around you… I couldn’t imagine that kind of stress, having everyone’s thoughts and feelings projected onto you. I can barely handle my own, to know someone else would be-”

“Inhuman.” Whisper said.

“I was going to say “Awful”, I don’t think you're inhuman, in the sense of not having humanity. It wouldn’t weigh on you so heavily if that was the case.

Whisper shook her head.

“No, It doesn’t. It’s not me that it ways on, it’s the part that isn’t me. The part that was given to me.” Whisper said.

“Given to you? What was given to you, and who gave it?” Aren asked, but his question didn’t reach her.

“I’m just a monster, given a second change I don’t deserve by someone too good for me.” Whisper said. She winced in pain and shook her head. “No, No! I don’t deserve this… I’m a monster, I’m a monster and I don’t deserve it!” She wasn’t talking to him, she spoke to someone that wasn’t there.

“What do you mean, a monster? You’re a person.” Aren said, this made things worse.

“I’m not! I’m not… I’m… not real.” She ranted, “I pretend to have these feelings, but they’re just the good parts of Andromeda. She took the best parts of herself and shared them with me! I’m not real! I shouldn’t be able to be happy! I’m a monster, I’ve k-”

Her wails stopped.

“Whisper?” Aren said, her face was as pale as a ghost. She didn’t breathe. She was very still for a moment, then she shook her head.

“I was a Xixial. Before I met them, I ate the souls of those around me. Thousands. All of them suffered and starved because of my endless hunger. Andromeda chose to bind our souls into one to save me from my hunger…” She said. Her voice was quiet, still, and almost calm. She was shaken beyond belief and devastated, but very still at the same time. “I remember. Every. Single. One…”

“I don’t understand, what happened? Whisper please, tell me!” He asked. He worried that they might have done something to her. But the moment that thought crossed his mind, she shook her head.

“They… We- I need to explain something.” She said. “When I joined them, I couldn’t hear their thoughts, and they couldn’t hear mine. My memories were my own unless I shared them verbally. But just now, because I was losing myself, they changed that.”

She turned to him, her previously dark eyes changed to the same blue color as Andromeda’s. He saw how they glowed brightly in the dim light of the room, the glassy expression of one who was about to cry made them look like small mirrors that he could see himself in.

“What does that mean?” He asked.

“They know everything I’ve ever done, and they feel it as though they did it themselves…” She said. Aren felt his stomach drop, if she was telling the truth, and going by her tone she was. Then they just-

He felt ill even thinking about it.

“But… Why? Why would they do that.” Aren asked. Her eyes welled up with tears that didn’t match her almost serene expression.

“She told me if I had to be a monster, she wouldn’t let me be alone…”

-----