Reunion

Ugh. My head.

What are all these strings?

All around me are different colours of strings intertwined and running from end to the next. They surround my vision, making it hard to see anything else.

"Would you look at that? Incredible. Not one of the bodies has been intact." Kefi spoke, moving through the strings like she doesn't see them.

"What are you talking about? All I see are colourful strings."

"Strings? I don't see anything like that."

"They are all I can see."

"Really? Strange. Wait, I got an idea." Kefi started to move through the thicket of strings, occasionally swaying like she was trying to avoid something.

I looked down but I could only see strings encircling the ground.

What is going on here?

As she kept walking, I could see the threads getting scarcer revealing a desolated wasteland covered in strings.

I still couldn't see below me but I could feel the liquid under my bare feet with every step I took. I stepped on something squishy and paused when I felt liquid come out of it.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Uhhhhh … Nothing. Don't worry about it, Meraki." Kefi said nervously.

I looked down and lifted my leg to see it covered in yellow threads, connecting to the ground along with other threads.

What on earth is going on here?

"Can you walk faster?"

"Sure, I'll start running." Kefi started to laugh. "I'm just imagining a naked girl running in a field of bodies. Damn, will it be a sight to behold."

"Bodies?"

"Never mind that. Let's run." Kefi got into a running stance and took off. Before I knew it, I was standing under a withered tree and saw the barren field covered in threads. I still couldn't make anything out except for some bodies littered around.

The threads came from the bodies and connecting to something on the ground.

"Where are we?" I asked, looking around me. "Kefi, I still can't make everything out properly."

"Hmmm … I wonder why that happened. Did I accidentally activate something? Wait, let's share your eyes."

A strange feeling of something moving inside me covered my body, it wasn't painful, just uncomfortable. Thankfully, it stopped in no time.

"Whoa, so this is what you see?" Kefi's voice sounds so much louder and closer now than before. "I understand what happened."

She placed my hand over my eyes and blocked my vision. Heat spread slowly in my eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Done." Kefi pulled her hands away and I finally saw the bloodied ground.

"Magnificent isn't it?" She asked, grinning and taking in a deep breath. "This is what a battlefield looks like at the end of the day. Thousands upon thousands of bodies as far as the eye can see."

"Where even are we?" I asked, taking everything in.

"No idea. But it looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie, don't you think so?"

"I wouldn't know. What's this feeling?" My body instantly tensed up, the hairs on my arm standing on ends.

An intense foreboding feeling came over me as I looked around.

"It's coming from above."

I turned my attention to the sky and saw a portal open up.

"What is this?"

"You're oddly curious today, aren't ya?" Kefi teased. "From what I can make out, it's a portal."

"I got that but what is this feeling? I sense a strange feeling of dread as soon as the portal opened up."

"Hmm? The strange feeling of dread? Guess your body is getting more in tune with mine."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's just that you are feeling immense power coming from another person and your body is taking that as a threat. So you are in fight or flight mode now. Impressive, you have achieved the ability to sense levels of magic now." Kefi clapped her hands and smiled.

"Ok, so if that's a threat then why aren't we hiding?"

"We'll need to work on that part. You see, just because there is a high-level Magic User around here doesn't mean they are necessarily a threat. In fact, this one feels too friendly, it's actually concerning."

"Friendly? Who co-"

"Miss!" Aurora fell out of the portal, her arms open wide. Subconsciously, my body moved to the side and she landed on her face.

"Ow! That hurts. You're so mean, Miss." Aurora complained as I saw another woman come out of the portal. She wore the same uniform as Aurora the first time we met and even had the same emerald brooch, carrying a sleeping boy in her arms.

"Miss. Are you listening? Meraki." The instant she said my name I finally paid attention to her.

"Yes?"

"Now you listen. Shouldn't you be catching me when I fell? I can't believe you just stepped aside." Aurora continued to complain while she summoned a thin coat, that reached up to my knees and helped me wear it.

"It was by mistake," I said, buttoning the coat up.

"Hey, you!" Kefi greeted, bright and cheery as ever.

"Ugh. I was still talking to Miss." Aurora replied, looking away. "But ... I'm glad you're back."

"Of course. You won't be able to get rid of us so easily." Kefi said, winking.

"Please just give Miss her body back. It's so strange seeing her act like this." Aurora covered her eyes but her voice couldn't hide the emotions she felt brimming over.

"Yeah. It's good to be back. I guess." I took her hands in my own and held it.

"Miss~" Aurora was on the verge of breaking into tears but a voice called out to her.

"Hey, Aurora." The other woman walked to us, still holding the boy.

He looks oddly familiar.

"Oh, Rose. Let me take Leo from you." Aurora gently took the boy and held him in her arms.

"I've never seen her look so gentle with anyone else except you before. Could it be?" Kefi gasped dramatically, "Are you being replaced?"

Days like this, I wish Kefi was another person so that I could smack her across the head.

"Take care of your son more."

"Eh? Son?"

"I asked if he was your child and you smiled and said that he was a very good boy. Then when I asked him what relationship both of you have, he said that you adopted him. Wouldn't that make him your son?"

Aurora looked at him with a soft expression on her face, "If I could have a son, he would be the only option for me."

"Woooowww~ She up and replaced you like that, Meraki~ You're not needed anymore~. Let's just leave~."

"No! Miss! Wait! F-for children, you are the first option. I w-wouldn't- well- I-I"

"You're something else, Aurora." I smiled, seeing her flustered expression. "I'm not jealous, don't worry."

"… You're really Miss, right? Right?"

"Of course I am. Who else would I be?" I asked, indignantly.

"There's no way you are Miss. No way." Aurora began rambling with a panic-stricken face.

"You sure are calm, given the situation." The woman Aurora called Rose stared me down with suspicion.

"How exactly am I supposed to react then?"

"With worry and fear? You did kill a bunch of people. Everyone lying dead is your doing."

"Hmmmm~ Really? I didn't know that I still had it in me. But it was fun~ Don't you think so?" Kefi bit onto my finger until it bled and looked at her with ecstasy.

"So you don't feel anything?" Rose asked again, while I wiped the blood off my finger, accidentally spreading it on my cheek.

"Not really," I wrapped the sleeve of the coat around my finger and pressed it hard. Seeing it still trickling out, I stuck it back to my mouth and swallowed the blood.

After everything that happened, blood has become such an important thing to me, wasting it needlessly would be such a shame.

"Aurora was the one that told you to do this right?" I looked up at her, licking the blood. "So it's fine. After all, she's the only one I trust. But don't tell her that."

Boom!

The ground shook as a loud sound burst across the deserted wasteland, followed by a big gust of wind. Behind us was a forest filled with leafless trees and a broken-down castle further back.

The sound came from there.

"Miss!" Aurora was by my side in an instant, still holding the boy and attempting to protect me from the wind at the same time.

I have to give her points for tenacity.

"What was that?" I asked, looking at the bodies that got blown away because of the air pressure.

"We need to do something about that."

"Stop saying my thoughts out loud, Kefi."

"Nonsense. Everyone needs to hear what you think about every now and then. You are too complicated even for me."

"Shush. Aurora, what's going on?" I asked as the wind and sounds died down.

"Rose?"

She held a hand up, her stance ready for battle as her hand rested on the handle of her sword.

"Remember what I said about the experiments and those conducting it?" Rose's voice carried over in the silence, even though she was just whispering.

"Yeah."

"Well, seems like," Aurora unsheathed her sword, pointing it to the direction of the castle as something inky began to crawl out of the window, down the walls, "one of their experiments worked out really well."

Several long arms like poles stuck out of it, steadying it's every step as it dragged it's slimy, inky body out of the window. Its eyes glowed red and I can feel a bunch of negative emotions coming from it.

It's nauseating.

"Miss, go and hide somewhere!"

"Poor thing," Kefi said, looking into its eyes. "It's so lonely."

"What?!"

Boom.