After a while, Ecludia finally released her grip and slowly pulled away. She looked up at him, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and let out a breathless giggle.
"Gods... I am a complete mess."
A faint smile tugged at Zerin's lips. "I must look wonderful, then?"
She planted her hands on her hips, a smirk breaking through her tears.
"Fine. You win."
Zerin shook his head with a quiet scoff and stepped past her. Somewhere amid the blur of the moment, the Spell had completed the Memory transfer. The glow of the [Firmament Fragment] now rested securely in Ecludia's hand.
"Wha—"
Ecludia turned, her eyes following him as he walked down the corridor.
"Is that the walk of a champion?" she called after him.
"I didn't realize being covered in blood was a competition." He glanced over his shoulder without slowing. "Next time, I'll let you get your hands dirty."
Ecludia's boots scraped against the cold stone as she quickened her pace, catching up to his new stride. Silence lingered between them for a moment before her curiosity finally got the better of her.
"Zerin?"
Zerin promptly turned his head. Pale gray light spilled through the glassless windows, cutting across his face and leaving the other half in shadow.
"...About your First Nightmare."
Zerin turned forward again. "What about it?"
"What was it like?"
"Bloody," he said flatly.
The simplest word for a place like that.
Everything had been the color of blood.
The sky.
The water.
Even the moon hanging overhead had bled crimson.
There had been other creatures, too—things made of flesh, and a priest who cloaked himself in mourning flesh to conceal what he truly was.
And the trees drank.
Their branches jutted skyward like spearheads, gorging themselves on crimson droplets that fell from the wounded sky. The excess lifeblood spilled down to feed the crimson earth.
Ecludia swallowed hard as she continued walking beside him.
Of course, she couldn't truly comprehend the entirety of his Nightmare from a single word. But the flat brevity of his answer was enough to conjure a feeling of it.
"There were other people, right?" she asked. "My Nightmare wasn't exactly the greatest experience, but at least I wasn't suffering alone."
She folded her arms behind her back.
Zerin glanced at her.
There was something almost too careful about the question.
"If you're asking because you want to know more about Ivan, just ask."
His gaze returned to the corridor ahead.
"You don't need to dance around it."
"R-right. Sorry." Ecludia stumbled over her words. "I was just... curious. Why did he call you 'Beast'?"
Zerin came to an abrupt stop.
Ecludia stopped as well, realizing a moment too late that she had pressed too far.
"I'm sorry. I was just wondering if it had something to do with those echoes you have. Well, they're not really echoes, but..." She faltered. "You know what I mean. You don't have to answer."
The tension in Zerin's shoulders eased with a slow, heavy exhale.
He had said she could just ask...
"Ivan is insane."
Ecludia studied his face. "That doesn't really answer my question."
"Then when we get out of this place, you can interrogate me all day." Zerin resumed walking. "Ask whatever you want. I'll give you your answers."
Ecludia followed, her footsteps gradually quickening until she fell into step beside him again.
"Is that a promise?"
"Sure."
A grin tugged at her lips. "Sounds like we've got a deal."
They continued down the corridor in comfortable silence.
Since she had been prying into his past, Zerin decided it was only fair to turn the questions back on her.
"You mentioned your sister. What's she like?"
"My sister?"
Ecludia quieted, gathering her thoughts.
"Well... she's difficult."
There was a trace of deep affection beneath the words.
"She hardly talks. Not because she doesn't have anything to say—I'm sure she does—but because she never seems to know what she's supposed to say."
A gentle smile touched her lips.
"A bit like you, honestly."
She bumped her shoulder playfully against his, only to stagger slightly from the impact.
"And she's lonely."
Ecludia turned to look up at Zerin, the faint smile still lingering in her eyes.
"She'd kill me if she ever heard me say that out loud."
Zerin lifted his eyes from her, then turned his gaze forward again.
It hadn't taken much for him to realize how much she cared for her sister.
"So, yeah... That's my sister."
Ecludia followed his gaze, looking ahead. "What about you? You have any family?"
Zerin subtly shook his head.
"No... I was in an orphanage my whole life."
He paused, then chuckled softly.
"But... I do have a good friend who's probably in the Fractured Peaks, and there's this Master who's my mentor."
He shook his head.
"I feel a bit out of place around those two."
He hesitated.
"Oh, and I have someone I guess you could call a caretaker. Her name is Jerika. She works for the government. She took me to a diner for the first time in my life."
He couldn't help but smile at what felt like a distant memory.
"It felt so surreal."
Ecludia listened to every word, her attention never wavering.
"Sounds like a family to me."
Family.
For so long, he'd thought of family as something that chose you—and he'd always been someone who hadn't been chosen.
Something other people had.
Something he'd never been meant to have.
But hearing Ecludia say it so simply made him reconsider.
"Yeah?" he asked, wrestling with the thought.
Yeah...
If anyone could be considered his family, it would be them.
Each of them brought a different spark into his life, though Jerika somehow seemed to hold them all together.
They neared the end of the corridor. At the corner ahead, a staircase descended into shadow, illuminated only by the faint ambient light below.
Zerin took another step.
Then another.
What were Cael, Dexter, and Jerika doing now?
Knowing Cael, he was probably making the best of his situation, finding some way to joke around and ease the burden of having to work.
Dexter...
How's his luck treating him? Is he faring far better than Zerin is now?
And he couldn't forget about Jerika.
He worried about her a little.
Knowing her, she'd work herself to death if given the opportunity.
Stepping into the intersection with his mind elsewhere, lost in his own thoughts, Zerin never saw what was coming.
Something speared toward him before he could even recognize it.
It drove through his abdomen with such force that it blasted out the other side, only to be ripped free just as quickly as it had come.
The moment he struck the ground, his vision went dark. His head slammed against the cold stone, and consciousness slipped from his grasp as the ground welcomed him into its unforgiving embrace.
Left to his own devices, he might have remained that way—possibly forever.
"Zerin!"
Her scream echoed through his ears.
Zerin's eyes snapped open. His vision swam. The only thing he could make out was the ground directly in front of his face, its sharp edges dissolving into indistinct shapes and muted colors. The stone beneath him was cold, but it was slowly warming from the blood pooling beneath his body.
He tried to move.
Every sound had been reduced to a constant ringing in his ears. Each twitch sent another wave of agony coursing through him, but somehow, he forced himself to lift his head.
Ecludia stood several paces away at the top of the stairs. Her face had gone pale, her eyes wide with terror. But she wasn't looking at him.
Her gaze flickered between Zerin and whatever stood behind him.
Zerin's strength was fading fast. He could barely draw a breath, let alone speak. Still, he managed to force a single word from his lips.
"Run…"
His head dropped.
The last thing he felt was the warmth of his blood spreading beneath him before darkness reclaimed him once more.