“They say,” she began, “that we are traitors by nature.”

  She watched the three remaining people as they examined the new world around them with shock and incredulity. That was part of betrayal, that moment of shock and horror as the betrayed finally understood the truth.

  It wasn’t nearly the same as the many times she herself had experienced it, but it was similar. Teisel watched the scene unfold, her eyes hard, her mind smooth of ripples that might grant an enemy passage into her thoughts.

  Because any moment could be a betrayal.

  “They say,” she continued, “that when we left our world behind that was the greatest betrayal we could possibly have given. It was a betrayal to Alner himself, the god of Protectors. We used to stand in front of the weak and gave everything for them. To walk away from that was the greatest betrayal.”

  Teisel remembered the stories. She remembered them so well.

  She hadn’t been born yet when the alanerea left their homeland behind, but she had heard the legends about the world trees and the ash, and through some strange power she could see it now.

  “We left him behind, and so we will all eventually break, to destroy and to betray everything that held us dear.” She closed her eyes, “That is our curse, and so we eventually became suiki, no longer able to call ourselves the Alanerea. He took his name back from us because of our betrayal.”

  The breeze moved, bringing the stark scent of distant ash. She got the sense that there was less of it now than before. Teisel looked down at the three inevitable betrayers. “And so, your quest is pointless.”

  One of them said something. She didn’t hear it. Teisel walked—really walked—across the field of green grass, approaching the enormous tree, as tall as the sky itself, as thick as a village, as deep as the core of the world. The three followed after her, confused perhaps, but that didn’t matter.

  Teisel looked up at the tree, a feeling of vertigo hitting her. it came from looking at a life older and larger than she would ever become. The world tree, the last one. It held up the sky alone. Its fellows had been cut down—with difficulty—by her ancestors who had sought its great magic.

  They’d never found it.

  “Your quest is in vain,” she repeated, “because nothing is real once the bonds that hold you together are cut.” Teisel turned back to them. One of them said something again, probably, but she couldn’t hear him. “And such begins your inevitable fall. I would wish you to live, but that is only pain. I promise you that I’ve left pain behind, and so must you.”

  Teisel nodded curtly at them, and then with her mind she brought forth a blade, cutting apart the seams of connection.

  One of the inevitable betrayers fell to his knees, screaming.

  They were…

  He was…

  Keshel put his hands to his head. It was the blinding pain of someone with a stronger gift reaching into his mind and editing something. Something that he wanted to keep. He wanted to keep it badly. He didn’t notice when he fell, but Keshel found he was on the ground, still clutching his head, still struggling against the change to his mind.

  But… why? What even was it? What would he be losing? He felt a sound erupt from his throat, a guttural scream. “No no no no no no no no. That’s MINE.”

  He felt the defect rear it’s head, helping him to fight back. The defect stood admirably against the torrent… but… there was something about where he was?

  It only lasted about ten seconds. Something had broken in that time, and it’s frayed strands were now pulling away from him.

  Keshel screamed again, this time more in pain; pain because he was fighting it and the one causing the change was a master at this kind of thing. Finally, the defect fell silent. He was more like an insect suddenly. All she had to do was tell him and he would have to let go.

  No, that wasn’t right, she could enter his mind but she couldn’t move his body.She didn’t tell him to, so Keshel didn’t ahve to find out if he was right.

  She just pulled harder, wrenching it from his grasp. Keshel screamed louder, holding his head with what might have been tears in his eyes. After a long moment, his scream tapered off, replaced by heavy breathing, and finally a simple dread. There was something missing now.

  But what was missing?

  Keshel opened his eyes, blinking tearstained eyes up at two people. Niortak, one male with brown feathers and one female with dark blue feathers. They stared at him; the two looked slightly concerned, but mostly confused.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  He looked up at them for a moment, also confused. They seemed slightly familiar. But…

  Who were they?

  He watched the two of them, and then decided he had bigger problems to worry about. Keshel got to his feet, tracking his gaze around the area. Right, this was… the third place Teisel had brought him; the third mind was obsessed with betrayal and she wouldn’t listen to anything he said. Right.

  What else was missing? Keshel glanced at the two strangers, furrowing his brow before deciding they must be some kind of new test. He’d seen a lot of memories, lost a few things, gone to a lot of places… There were some holes, but Keshel felt he knew what he was doing.

  He sighed and plodded off in the direction of that enormous tree. It had seemed important, and Teisel had talked about it for quite a while. The shade that had taken the form of Teisel was nowhere to be seen, but she had been ghostly from the beginning, so he’d halfway expected her to disappear.

  Keshel walked onward.

  Reiav knew that she was the only one who could help Teisel, but for some reason she hadn’t really felt that way until now.

  She was alone.

  There was no one else to lean on, no other people to bounce ideas off, no one to cry in front of for sympathy and help. No one to experience her pain, which made her pain feel less real somehow.

  Eloi… Fora… Pleseln… She felt like there had been more with her before, but Reiav was alone now.

  She hated being alone, but she had grieved for Eloi alone and picked herself up after losing Pleseln, right? She had to have done that herself, there was no one else who’d been there. So in the end, it meant that Reiav was stronger than she’d thought. Even if it somehow felt harder now than before.

  Reiav walked through the green fields of strange plants, occasionally looking up at the blue sky, glad that, at the very least, she was out in the world. If she died here, at least she could feel the beat of prosperity. That idea didn’t seem as horrible as it had yesterday.

  Yesterday… when was the last time she’d slept? Reiav didn’t feel tired, but she supposed she must have been in this place for several days at least, possibly weeks. It really didn't feel like it had been weeks.

  Reiav looked down from the sky, sighing. “Is there another memory I can see? I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.”

  There was silence.

  Great.

  One of those strangers from before, the other niorta, was close by; he was probably just another distraction though, like the architecture of the SUI-12. Reiav was determined not to waste time anymore. She needed to figure out how to help Teisel!

  Apparently, the other niorta didn’t seem to share her opinion, “You’ve seen the memories too?”

  She frowned at him.

  He looked real enough, but… well, “I don’t want to fall into whatever trap this is, I’m sure there are monsters around again. So please leave.”

  He tilted his head at her, “This is strange, don’t you think? You seem… slightly familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before?”

  Reiav sighed, “I don’t know,” She wanted to just leave, keep walking, but that hadn’t led her anywhere yet; maybe she needed to somehow get the memory from him? But if she waited long enough it would probably just appear like before. Besides, she didn’t want to be mean for no reason, she didn’t actually know that he was a construct of this strange dream world.

  “Huh, I could have sworn that I knew you from somewhere. Were you on the city of Teisel?”

  Reiav blinked at him, “Ah… yes. I’ve lived there all my life.”

  “That might be it then!”

  Reiav nodded slowly and started walking again, slightly annoyed when he followed behind her.

  “I’m Tosono, I’m from the eastern broken mountains. I was never in a sky city before Ruirel picked me up.”

  Reiav paused, Ruirel? He was… Prosperity above, how had she not thought about Ruirel in days?! She berated herself for that. Ruirel was going to become her other half! He was the one who had always seen her ideas as possible, and he had the drive to help her make them a reality. She opened her mouth, closing it again and then opening it, “I’m, Reiav… Ruirel is my fiance.”

  Tosono frowned, “I’m usually more observant than that, something is definitely wrong.” He paused, glancing back at the enormous tree behind them. “Do you think maybe that screaming suiki was important? I know we were… looking for their people before and…” he frowned. “There’s definitely something missing here.”

  Reiav shook her head slowly, “Well you can go check on him if you want, I think he was just insane though.”

  He seemed to have pulled that idea in rather thoroughly. “Yes… yes I think I’ll do that. Where are you going?”

  “Uh… over there. I’m sorry but I don’t really trust you, this place is strange.”

  Tosono nodded, “I understand, good luck.”

  Reiav bowed slightly—feeling very awkward—and finally took to flight, deciding that was the most graceful way to end the conversation.

  She glanced back once she was a ways away; the stranger was back near the mind bogglingly large tree. He’d actually done what he’d said. Did that mean he wasn’t just a new kind of threat here?

  Reiav shook her head and flew onward. She thought she saw a road ahead, which was… honestly probably pointless. Reiav wondered if there was a boundary in this place; if she kept flying would she find her way out of this dream world?

  Maybe, maybe not.

  She landed for a bit, examining the strange plants again. They weren’t as… green as the ones back home. And they were more spindly, she thought. Perhaps. There were a lot of different kinds of plants though, so who knew?

  Reiav took to the sky again, closing her eyes against the wind, simply flying forward.

  She nearly fell out of the sky when she saw a flying machine bank beside her. For a moment, she wondered where that would have come from, but in the end, as she examined it closer, it became clear that it wasn’t real.

  It was made of black smoke.

  Reiav shuddered and dove to the ground, determined to escape what must be a threat. But… well, it ignored her entirely, flying off in the direction Reiav had been going. As she watched, more and more of them appeared out of nothingness, all going in that same direction.

  Reiav watched them warily, but not a single one of the machines went after her. Reiav leveled off her flight, heading back the direction she’d come.

  And then a new memory hit her. Finally.