Author's Preface
Vera's eyes shook as she stared down at her sailor uniform. The outfit she stole in order to blend in. To try to act like a normal girl.
Now, that same outfit was basking in blood...Naren's blood.
Her hands trembled as she tried rubbing the blood off. Over and over again. Again and again. Rougher and rougher.
Dian's voice seeped through in the background.
"What a shame...Theron you just had to stab him back there...That hair and eyes...I wanted to be his friend!"
Dian turned to Vera, continuing:
"And your poor clothes girl...What a shame."
The little girl looked up to glance at Dian.
Every time she came back here, was another time seeing Naren dead. Another time seeing him torn to pieces, burned to a crisp, or bleeding out. Each and every time it was Naren who died trying to save her.
She was tired of it. Tired of it all. She couldn't bear to see it happen even once more so she decided she'd turn her back on him. That way, that other shaman could save him.
She would forget about him. About Naren.
Her eyes were solemn as they reflected the deep guttural scar of the old woman, trying so hard not to break first.
Swallowing all her tears and sorrow, she spoke.
"Let...Let us be on our way..."
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In the empty house, lit by the blue bioluminescent glare of the lightning bugs in the lamp at the center of the room, Naren titled his head.
"Find the murderer?"
Naren stared blankly at Yuna. Recompiling all the memories he's been able to salvage without letting his head explode.
He'd been killed a multitude of times. But one thing was always there. The deep bone rattling growl of the wolf.
He shuddered as he remembered. The crunching of his bones as he felt the life draining out of him.
Clicking his tongue Naren retorted:
"You want me to find some murderer? That wolf? Why should I? I just want to get out of here...Besides if I remember correctly, you were always pulling the strings. You telling me you haven't been able to figure it out? After trying for who knows how long? And instead you're just here stitching people up like some quack doctor?"
Yuna sat there, taking in the criticism. She took out a waterskin, facing away from Naren as she drank out of it.
She put up one finger.
"One. You are my soldier. Two. I am your princess. You do as I say. Three. If want to call me a doctor at least say I'm like Schweitzer."
Naren stood up in a jolt of tired annoyance. But before he could get a word in, Yuna pressed into his thighs with one finger, his legs slumping down almost immediately as he fell to his knees with Yuna continuing to speak:
"We're all living in the dream of a dream eater..."
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A dream eater was a parasitic creature that stuck itself into a host. Spreading it's nightmares as it ate the hosts dreams at first. Then growing until the effects could theoretically reach an infinite horizon.
"Your mind is constantly in a cycle inside this world...It's like a witch's creed a bit. So what do you think is happening to your real body? Is there someone to sustain it?"
That's what Yuna said. The bodies of those trapped sucked lifeless.
But the parasitic creature also basked in it's own dream. The one thing that wouldn't change no matter what...is the dream-eater itself. Latched into some creature in this dream that stayed the same.
The blood of the leech that's been devouring without restraint was nutritious enough to replenish the bodies of those trapped. That is, as long as there bodies were still there.
Naren stopped Yuna's lecture short.
"Then just go kill that thing. Who cares about a murderer?"
Yuna stared at Naren with her deep black eyes.
"Do you think you can survive against the wolf?"
"Why's it matter. I just need to run."
"I'm saying, do you think you're immune to the virus yourself? The only reason there's only one wolf is because the loop continues to reset at a clutch. The only reason the loop is as strong as it is, is because of the endless feast of nightmares it creates for the leech. And the only reason there is a werewolf...Is because we humans wandered here. Into Lastlight. As soon as we undo the loop, there's no safety net of a reset if we die."
Yuna's words were nothing if not logical. Naren understood that. She was smart. That's why Naren was extra conscious.
As Alice drilled into him. Facing the smart ones are a pain.
"So then how come you haven't figured out who it was? It sounds like you've had plenty of time."
"Well that's obvious. I can't remember."
"Seems like you remember what you have to just fine."
Yuna pointed to her eyes.
"That's because I've been sending myself little hints...From the past. That's my fable. I can see into the lives of my past and future."
Naren opened his mouth, but Yuna interjected herself before he could finish.
"If I send too much from my past, it'll hurt my head. If I continue looking in my future in these loops, all that comes is my death. So tell me why would I go through that, when I can nurture someone like you who can act as a notebook for me?"
Yuna stood up, patting her skirt.
The truth was just as she spoke. Though, Yuna omitted something that Naren hadn't understood yet. The more you know about your past in the dream of a dreameater, the more likely you are to leave with permanent damage.
As she gazed up, she saw Naren already up. Fists hitting his thighs even though they should've still been asleep for a minute longer.
She didn't bother peering into the five seconds into the future she was capable of. Rather she didn't. Staring at his eyes she could already tell the words that would leave his mouth.
Just then, the voice of the statue that Naren had almost forgotten until now rung out through the city. Somehow still as loud, despite how far he was.
"...Burying the kind's existence..."
Naren yawned, then bit down on his lips hard.
Sure enough, the overwhelming indulgence of his past lives had berated Naren's psyche. Completely drowning his resolve. But there was something in there that he didn't need resolve to do.
After all, it's not like he didn't know his own spite. He'd live with it for over a decade. Enough to see what it could do even after taking Maren away from it. What it made him do.
So even without the slightest tinge of determination, Naren was able to still do just as he did two years ago.
"Fine princess. Let's kill...Wait what's the point of wasting my breath if you can see it already."
Yuna smiled subtly.
So there was a reason that the only message she got from her past involved him.
Yuna reached her fist out, her thumb and pinky the only two fingers extended.
"I'll get us out, if you agree to follow my orders until you become a shaman."
Naren stuck out his hand. Yuna wrapping her pinky around his own before meeting the tips of their thumbs together.
Naren spoke suddenly:
"Aww. But you know every word between us could be a lie."
Yuna smiled a coy grin:
"Nope. Not with my spite...After all, I can't lie."
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Suddenly Naren was in a horizon devoid of light. An endless darkness that outreached over the edges of his view. Below him, ankle high water constantly splashed along his bare feet. The place where Cendrine, Cinderella, had spoken to him the very first time.
His soul.