Chapter 57. The Bridge once more.

"Okay," Neverly said. "Let's summon Eris and let her know what's going on. She built this place from scratch. Once she knows what to look for, she'll find this brat in no time."

"No," Everly said immediately.

"Why not?" Beverly asked in confusion. She'd recovered from her near strangulation at Everly's hands within minutes and now looked no worse for the wear despite her near-death experience. Now, she was just puzzled by why Prime Everly was hesitating to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

"Because I said so!" Everly shouted at the other two. "Can you imagine how humiliating it would be to let the others know about this? My fucking pride won't allow it! No, this stays between us. It's our failure, so we're going to handle it. Got it?"

"All right, all right, jeez," Beverly said.

"Hold on, how is this a shared responsibility when two of the three people in this room didn't even exist before today?" Neverly complained.

"Woo, that's a good point," Beverly said.

"Just do as I say before I dissect you both!" yelled Everly.

"God, we're such a bitch," Nev muttered to Bev.

"Yeah, I want a union. I wish we had rights or something," Bev said in agreement.

Everly ignored them both, still too focused on the embarrassment that burned within her.

She simply couldn't believe what a fool she'd been. Anger and humiliation both raged within her, threatening to drown her in alternating waves of fury and shame.

To think that she had lain in bed for over two months, weeping for some girl she barely knew, being tortured by regret for what she'd done. Regret was an emotion that only losers felt. How could she not have realized that something was wrong with her? That someone had been toying with her mind?

It was unforgivable. This violation could not be countenanced! The intruder would have to suffer for this. The problem was that Everly was so angry that she couldn't think of an appropriate punishment, herself. She wished she could have Eris workshop this for her; Eris had always been clever at finding unique ways to hurt people. Everly would have happily let her take the reins here if it wouldn't have meant sharing the knowledge of her personal humiliation.

"Rat room," Everly muttered darkly to herself. Yes, that would be an excellent start. Fenneth's little friend would be shoved face first and screaming into the rat room. Didn't that sound splendid? Yes, yes, let the rats have the little bastard while Everly watched…

"Rat room, rat room, rat room," Everly hissed as she angrily gnawed on her knuckle, chewing so forcefully that she broke the skin and tasted the salt of her own blood.

Rat room, rat room, rat room, rat room…

"Beverly, I think she's losing it," Neverly murmured to her fellow duplicate.

"Uh, doesn't that mean that we're losing it?" Beverly whispered back. "It's not the first time we've overreacted to someone messing with us. Remember what we did to Alec?"

"Jesus, am I a bad person if I admit I forgot about him? He's probably hopelessly insane by now," Neverly winced.

"Oh, who cares? He was just a random background character. No, the real issue is, we've gotta get this chick calmed down before she wrecks the memory palace! This is the astral frickin' realm! There are bound to be consequences if she goes on a rampage out here."

"Holy crap, you're completely right," said Neverly. "You're on the ball today, Beverly!"

"Well, I am an adventurer. In my line of work, it pays to think long-term," Beverly said smugly.

"Hey, don't get carried away," frowned Neverly. "It was a compliment, not a hand job."

"Would the both of you please shut the hell up?" Everly said to them. "I don't want to hear anything from either of you unless it's an idea of how to track this parasite down."

"Is that an invite for a collaboration of equals?" Neverly asked her.

"Do you have something useful to contribute?" snapped Everly.

"Actually…maybe I do," Neverly said, as a sudden surge of inspiration hit her.

__

Everly's memory palace could manifest within itself any place that Everly could imagine, whether she'd personally been there or not; Anything she envisioned could be recreated within its walls.

Now, following Neverly's instructions, it created a large outdoor location for the trio. They now stood on a large stone bridge, built over a fast-running river that divided a large forest.

"I remember this place," Everly said as she looked around. "Yes…this is where I killed that troll a few months back."

"Yeah, that was fun," Beverly grinned. "He tried to eat us, and we totally kicked his ass. Heh, he was funny looking."

"Yeah, yeah, good times, good times," nodded Everly. "But why are we here? How is this going to help us find the intruder?"

"Well, I had a thought," Neverly replied. "Think about it. When did things start feeling weird for us? It was after the big fight in Bremburg. When we did what we did to Fenn."

"Yes. I remember," Everly said in a tense voice. "Now would you kindly explain what the hell this stupid bridge has to do with any of that?"

"Everly, calm down," Neverly said in irritation. "Jeez, use your head. How did we figure out our mind was being played with? When we finally noticed that we weren't acting like ourselves, right? Well, that got me thinking. When was the exact moment that we started behaving differently."

"Oh," Everly said as realization finally dawned on her.

"What? What are you talking about?" Beverly asked in confusion.

"We have a perfect memory, stupid. Just think about it," Neverly said in annoyance to her fellow duplicate.

"Oh, right, right, duh," Beverly said sheepishly before concentrating.

Yes, the troll had appeared and challenged Everly, attempting to make a meal of her. Everly had toyed with the silly creature for a bit, dancing away out of reach of its attacks and mocking it. Then, once she'd had enough fun, she killed it. Afterward, she indulged in a little idle conversation with her servants. Then, amid an argument between Eris and Titania, she saw…

"We saw a dead body floating down the river," Beverly said.

"Exactly," Neverly said. "Exactly. And from that point on, that's when things started feeling...odd."

"That's right. Thea. Thea was in the river. We fished her out and revived her with our necromancy," Beverly said thoughtfully. "And she told us her story. She told us about her village, and how it was under attack by a monster."

"God, that freak again," Everly glowered. "Mister Whisper. The child-eating whatever the hell it was. Didn't I say earlier that I never wanted to think about that guy again?

"Yep," agreed Beverly. "That guy did not fit in with the aesthetic we're trying to achieve here."

"Yeah, it was an unpleasant memory," Neverly said. "But here's some food for thought. If I were an elemental; a spiritual creature trapped in the mental landscape of my greatest enemy, where would be the best place to hide if I didn't want her to find me?"

"Holy shit!" Beverly exclaimed. "You're a freakin' genius! Which means I'm a freakin' genius! What a great day to be an Everly!"

"Except, now you're a Beverly," Neverly grinned.

"Aww, now you're just exploiting my trauma for laughs!" whined Beverly.

"Still, I have to hand it to the parasite. What a clever little bastard," Beverly said. "Hiding itself in an unwanted memory. Knowing we'll automatically push it away whenever it comes up. Tricking us into doing the work of keeping it hidden. The fucking nerve of it."

"Yeah, well, now that we know how it tricked us, there's no way it can keep hiding," Neverly said smugly. "So, let's go hunt Fenneth's little pet down and send it to join its mistress."

"Yeeeah, let's go step on this little froggy," Beverly said with vicious eagerness.

Everly stood quietly as the other two spoke. On her face, she wore a neutral expression. The duplicates could sense that she remained angry. That she was still furious at being tricked for so long by Fenneth's elemental. But they didn't know what she was thinking because she was masking her thoughts from them.

"Everly," Nev said to her. "Everly, what do you want to do?"

Everly said nothing in reply. Instead, she started walking away from them, heading in the direction of Thea's village, exactly as she'd done before, months ago.

"Huh," Beverly said as she scratched her head. "I guess we're going for a walk."

"I guess so," Nev said with a frown on her brow.

What exactly was her original self now thinking?