Fleeting Memories

It's like I'm being made a spectacle by hundreds of unseen eyes…

But it didn't seem like murder was the objective—

if that was real.

Just an accidental result.

And yet, somehow…

I'm still alive.

Was it my own ability?

I don't think so.

Thales' monologue accelerated,

his advanced cognitive structure

splitting into multiple conscious streams.

One dealt with deduction,

another was processing strategy,

and the last: information gathering.

"Thales, are you okay?"

Beatrix's voice snapped him back.

He was sweating—

like he'd just come out of a sauna.

"Hmm? Oh, yes."

Thales lied.

He didn't want to worry her.

Or maybe… he was too prideful to ask for help.

The corners of her lips curved.

"You're starting to realize the strangeness of Historia, yes?"

Thales tilted his head like a child.

What did she mean?

…Oh.

This place itself is the mystery.

Everything strange that's happened—

it all began here.

Because I stood up.

Because I got curious.

Thales was about to respond—

but then he noticed something.

The wind currents shifted.

The tea's vibrations halted.

He turned his head quickly.

And—

It was lopped off by a broadsword.

"What a mess. He noticed…

How did he even move in these conditions?"

"Clean it up," said another voice.

The blood splatter—

frozen in air.

Thales had just experienced his own death.

His head was severed.

Suspended. Stilled.

They tried to grab it.

But then—

Causality reversed.

Not by anyone's will—

but by a process.

"Ow."

"Why so hot?

I nearly bit my tongue."

"The world is mysterious, Thales.

With age comes wisdom on how to navigate it."

Beatrix answered with a smug smile.

His eyes bulged.

He began to hyperventilate.

"What the fuckkkkkk!"

He screamed—

a cry of raw, emotional despair.

Beatrix froze.

Then stepped toward him—

her stern expression softening.

She reached out,

took his hand,

and gently pressed it against her cheek.

"It's okay, little dragon.

It was just a bad dream."

A dream?

I was just killed. Twice.

First, an accident—

they were trying to take something…

Then I was blatantly murdered,

in a world where time had stopped.

How do I counter that?

I'm just a boy.

If this is a dream—

Wake me up.

Let me forget.

Let my death be forgotten.

And then—

A flash of light.

An illuminating clarity

pierced his mind like a divine spear.

Clarity in stress.

Alienation in its wake.

He felt nauseous—

to a spiritual degree.

He saw…

A luminescent, sublime, winged being.

Those wings floated in an aetheric ocean.

That ocean was a magic mountain.

That mountain…

was beneath a chaotic sea.

The being looked upon him—

and sang.

"Hush now, flightless bird…

The sun is bright,

but your wax will not melt.

Your candle will not be blown out.

And your spark—will not be forgotten."

"She" said.

No—

she sang.

A phosphorous memory.

Flashing.

Vanishing.

Thales turned again.

The hands of time stood still once more.

Everything—

Frozen.

The blade came crashing down.

He cried out, futile.

The executioner was unmoved—

but there was a flicker of surprise.

It was not Thales who acted.

But—

A robed figure,

draped in the twilight of creation itself.

A mask.

Faceless—

but more precisely: scratched out

where features should be.

They cast a snare around Thales,

weaving stardust and dust-motes of fairy logic.

They didn't block the blade.

But someone else did.

A boy.

No—

a beast wearing boy's skin.

Short, raven hair.

Bloodshot comet-eyes.

Girlish but brutal.

Wearing a shadowy fur coat.

He laughed.

"Haha! Time-stop?

Pathetic mongrel.

How about your existence stops—

and returns to dust?"

He devoured the attacker

with a crimson-black maw.

The superior turned.

"You… it can't be.

Why now?"

The boy grinned wickedly.

No mask.

No restraint.

His aura was a hulking pressure,

radiating destruction.

"WOLFGANG KAEL!!"

The man screamed—

as he was torn apart

and devoured alive.

"Enough, Kael.

Time to go."

A whisper from the shadows.

The mad dog howled—

howled in a symphony of destruction.

They grabbed Thales.

And vanished into the dark.

The snare covered their traces

as time began again.

Beatrix blinked.

And Thales… was gone.

She tilted her head.

No scream. No goodbye.

Just—

Gone.

She should not have noticed it.

Even her perception was too strange

to perceive what just happened.

The future had preceded the past.

A temporal anomaly.

But where did Thales go?