Reunited

33rd of Shar 358

Without much of a second thought, I flew over as fast as I could to where I saw Ymir fighting on the roof. I was on the roof she was last on, and I saw three bounty hunters. Two masked individuals and a big one with a giant axe, dressed in black. She was cornered and she was hurt. I know these mercenaries were stronger than me, so I had to make a decision on how to save Ymir.

I took out an arrow from my quiver, taking a deep breath. I aimed my bow at the bigger mercenary, who was in the center of the two. I touched the tip of the arrow with my finger, quietly whispering darkness. I am enveloped in darkness and can't see the mercenaries anymore. I released the arrow and the darkness surrounded where the mercenaries once were. I could hear a scuffle of confusion inside the darkness I had created. I heard the sound of swords hitting against stone followed by a gasp for air.

I flew into the darkness and grabbed hold of where I last saw Ymir. I grabbed her and pulled her up with me to the rooftop. As I flew up to the rooftop, an arrow flew past my head with a second arrow following shortly after, hitting me in the shoulder. I carried Ymir, working my way away from the area back to the hotel. She looks very weak, with multiple stabs and slashes all over her, with a really bad stab in her stomach. I cured her wounds and asked her where Memory was. She said I was incredibly hard to find and she wearily pointed in a general direction north of us, saying he didn't want to get him involved. Ymir thought I was in the spire and that's why she couldn't find me but I corrected, saying that we teleported there. She fell asleep in my arms and I brought her back with me to the hotel.

When I got back, I found Fathom talking to a spider in the corner like it was a person. Strange. Hornet and Tenebrous look to me and Tenebrous recognizes Ymir. He says she has saved him before but not as many times as he has saved her. I place her on the bed and watch as Fathom had caught the spider in a jar. He hands the jar to Ferryman, who he asks to cast dispel magic on. He does so and nothing happens. Fathom still seems paranoid so he casts sleep. The glass jar shatters across the room and a person appears from where it once was. Wait... It's Memory!! And he was sound asleep.

He looked exactly as I remembered him. I was so happy to see him I almost cried. Fathom was wary of waking him up, wanting to tie him up but I told him that would just escalate things. I went up to him and shook him awake. He was surprised to see me and everyone introduced themselves to him. He found us by changing form into a spider and staying with the investigator who was just here, who was searching for who was involved with the dragon. Seems he was right. The others brought up the powers we got from the golden threads. He seemed surprised with what I got. Tenebrous asked him about red threads and he shed a tear. Another memory came in, he says. He told Tenebrous of two red threads: one somewhere alone and forgotten surrounded by bloodshed, and another that is missing, possibly already taken. Tenebrous thanks him. Memory then sat us down and helped us recall our lost memories.

Åsmund asked us to look in our heads to before the vault, before the Ruins of Creation. In my head, I could see the gap in my memory visually, like a canyon had been cut through separating awakening in the ruins and my arrival in Zetsubou. He asks us to look deeper. I look down into the canyon and I don't see much. He says we weren't completely conscious during the time of the gap. I see the face of who hired us. He promised great ability, power that will get us to what we were seeking. The face, his voice, it matched what we heard in the ruins. Our mission was to grow our ability, grow our knowledge. Åsmund asks us to open our eyes again. While my eyes were closed, I had drawn the face I saw, and as I looked down at my drawing of chalk, the person who hired us appeared in my head. A devil. Dark, greyish black skin, long horns, long, curly black hair, a long tail. Perfectly smooth skin, the image of someone who was eternally young. As his image appears in my head, I heard the voice I heard in the ruins call out. "Rise, travelers. Come and find me."

I got a better understanding of why we accepted that job. We did get the power we were promised, but what would they want? What are their intentions, their plans? It seems like we were the only ones to benefit from this. Maybe we haven't finished our mission yet. There was something I remembered... follow the trail of the threads. Maybe if we keep collecting threads, it will lead us to him. Tenebrous asked us if we got our memories back. Hornet and Fathom explain what they saw, casting an illusion of how this devil looked. What he casted was exactly what I saw in my head, albeit with the legs cut off. Fathom intends to reach out and Ferryman says we have a motive now, being to collect more golden threads.

Fathom asked Memory to restore the memories of his sword and he says he is not a memory healer. He points to me and explains that him trying to restore the sword's memory is the same as asking me to cast Fireball at my state. He is not all powerful and his ability allows to him to remember things that were truly lost. If there is nothing for him to read, that means someone out there remembers. We are going to a mechanomancer in the morning with Fathom. As everyone left the room, it was just myself, Memory, and Ymir sleeping on the bed.

I told him how much I missed him. I told him about my adventures. About my new friends and acquaintances. About Erafinyr. About the victories we had together, how much I've grown. He said he was proud of me. I'm so happy to see him again. The amount of relief I felt as I changed my form into that of of a fox and laid on his lap was... it was such a comforting feeling. It has been years since I was able to do this. I couldn't help but tear up, crying in his lap as a fox until I drifted to sleep.

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