Author's Preface
Cairo tilted his head, scrunching his face back in confusion.
"The hell're you on about?"
Naren lifted his hand into the air.
"Admit it, you like me."
"You tweaking?"
"You got you're own problems for being a shaman. We got a lot in common then...So let's see it we get there."
"You think I'm planting flowers? How the hell're you gon be of any help?"
"I'm looking for Cinderella. You think you can top that?"
Cairo froze up for a second. A smile slowly stretching across his face, as he grabbed Naren's hand into a clasp.
"You ready to kill a whole empire?"
——————————————————
Yuna's eyes fluttered open about an hour ago. In the same place she'd always woken up after these loops. An empty room by herself.
For a second, she would look around the room, observing every detail. Even without her memories, she would still instinctively try to ascertain the situation before moving.
But, before she could get too far, the same thing would occur.
Yuna's pitch-black eyes would go cold as her body froze. Her head begin a painful process, in which it felt like a bag of razors were thrown in, shaking and bouncing off the edges of her skull in a frenzied joy.
Yuna clenched her jaw as she could feel her head splitting in two. Her vision doubling, then tripling, then ten different views of the same thing pouring into her mind as she watched the messages her previous self had arranged for her:
The little witch who contracted Lyssavirus lycanthrope. The boy with the crimson scarf that was bounded to her and contained memories. The one-eyed stain with a perforated intestine. The two sent by Ashwin.
Yuna wanted to scream out. As loud and angrily as she could. But she knew not to. She knew to hold it in and bide her time.
A couple seconds later, the time had passed. Her head gradually returned to normal, her body collapsing onto the floor, her breathing heavy.
"Please, soldier. Stop being so stubborn."
Yuna was unsure how much longer either her or anyone else's body could hold on. She had been relying on the ambrosia she'd backed originally.
The mystical beverage that held every mineral and vitamin a human needed would refill after every loop. It's properties enough to maintain their bodies for a shorter period of time. But Yuna couldn't leave all her hopes onto the drink any longer.
Punching off the floor, the princess got to her feet, taking in slow deep breaths to put her wildly beating heart at ease.
It was either her soldier listen to her now, or she'd have to get rid of him.
That was the hardest part however. Deciding to let Naren live.
Yuna had seen through the eyes of her future self once recently. Which was already a rare feat. But there was only one thing she saw: A boy with red curly hair and a crimson scarf looking at her with two fingers held up.
"Two, Yuna. Two."
The battered and bruised boy looked like he was fall unconscious at any moment. One of his eyes blacked out, a large gash on his chin. And a chunk of his lips missing.
Yet the boy still smiled at her.
Yuna didn't know much of what that vision meant. Except for the sheer fact that the boy, Naren, was a shaman. Not an aspirant, but a shaman.
That was proof enough that they had been able to get out of here. And proof enough that she needed him.
Well, it should've been if not for the fact that she had no idea how far into the future that truly was. Was it even truly her solder? Could it have simply been an illusion her future self was seeing?
That was the downside of such a magnificent fable.
It was utterly and completely devoid of context.
Yuna sighed as she headed towards the door. She was originally here to relax a little before heading to the Tomb of Atlas when the whole Dreameater business began. Now she had to speed it up a little.
Yuna opened the door slowly...
BOOM
A blinding white flash pressed her to the ground, as the house itself began blowing away in the afterath of the explosion.
Yuna, just barely held herself from being stripped away, staggering to her feet, her eyes widened while she looked at Lastlight.
Or what was left of Lastlight.
A blazing inferno is what greeted Yuna. As she wandered her ptich-black eyes stared off into what was peaceful town plaza. Where stalls should've been were now dancing wisps of flames. Where husks should've walked were cindered ruins of life. Where buildings stood was now a circle of hell.
And at the center of it, was a boy in a blood-red scarf and a one-eyed man in all black. The ground around them crumbling into ruin as their eyes locked onto each other.
Naren's gaze caught Yuna. His golden eyes glimmering as he began waving over. Yuna noticed his arm first though. The faint transparency of it.
"Yo! Yuna! You're smart aren't you?! Where's the Dreameater?!"
The princess' mouth hung open as she watched the ground under Naren sink away. His body fwipping out of a nearby glass window.
At the same time, Cairo's footing slipped. He dug his fingers onto the side of the gaping wall. Melting into the stone as he climbed up from it.
"Hey dickhead! Can't you shut up! Everytime you say that thing's name the fuckin ground explodes!"
Naren put a hand up, apologizing to Cairo as they both approach Yuna.
"Any ideas, princess?"
How many times had Yuna woken back up at the house? How many times was she forced into a confrontation with Naren. Finding him looking for Vera, ignoring her words, watching as the world itself broke apart and rejoined together again.
Over and over again.
She tilted her head, her scowl furrowed into a look of pure suspicion, but before she could speak, Naren answered her question.
"I was never a dog person you know?"
He waived his fading arm in front of her as he continued.
"Plus I'm not tryna become one of the parasite's magic tricks."
Yuna thought long and hard. What was he trying to do? Was he really going to give up on saving Vera? In the trance of her fable. Where the world stopped moving except for her mind, she was only able to come up to one conclusion.
"What a loser."
"Huh?"
"You heard her little dude. You're lame."
Yuna clapped before the two could get into an argument, focusing their attention back on her.
"If we're going to do this, then both of you will listen to me."
"Yeah? Who made you our boss, shorty?"
Ignoring Cairo's remark, Yuna continued:
"The parasite is buried inside something that hasn't been impacted by the loops. Something that doesn't stick by the dream's rules...Kill it before nightfall."
Her gaze stayed on Naren as she watched him think. What was his significant to her future. And why did her past self hold him to such high regard?
Suddenly, Naren pointed at Yuna. Or rather past her.
The princess followed his finger, back to the statue in the town plaza. Somehow unaffected by all the chaos and destruction.
——————————————————
"What a piece of cake."
Naren clapped his hands as the statue that had been giving him such an wierd feeling was laid out in ruins before the three. It's six arms flialed around as it's eyes now scattered through the streets. Somehow, still refusing to burn.
When Cairo tried burning it, the statue stood completely untouched. And even after Naren's kick dug into it several times it was barely scratched.
The three had to continuously hack at it, over the course of an hour before they were finally able to bring it to the state it was in now.
"Thought some would tryta stop us? The little shit went down way to easily."
Cairo watched as Yuna sifted through the remains of the statue, as if looking for something.
Behind them, Naren stretched out his shoulder.
"Do we chant "There's no place like home." a couple times now? I heard that does the trick."
Yuna continued shoveling through the statues remains.
"Are you sure the statue hadn't been effected by the loop?"
"Pretty sure...Plus there was always that ominous speech. Somehow, it always sounded so loud."
Cairo tilted his head.
"speech?"
"The one about sinners. You know seven sinners here yada yada."
Yuna slowly turned her head back.
"Soldier, nobody heard a speech."
Naren stared back.
"No, that's...There was this speech, it was kinda creepy. Every day I heard it. It was so loud...Come on, Yuna, you even fixed my shoulder in front of the creepy thing. There's no way you hadn't stored that in your little info bank."
Naren stopped as a sudden thought crossed his mind.
His gaze moving from Yuna to his shoulder.
Suddenly, his memories began shuffling. To what started this all. To the girl that grabbed onto his shoulder, her blood spilling across.
The sharp pain that followed.
Then the relief Naren felt from Yuna fixing it.
Fixing it all those loops ago.
Naren slowly pulled up his long sleeves, his golden eyes watching his bare arm expose more and more of itself.
How come the pain never came back?
He stopped.
His shoulder fully exposed Naren stared at it.
A disgusting looking eye sprouting from his shoulder, the beady yellow pupils staring right at him.
"I can't shrug you off, can I?"
Just then, a small frail hand landed on his arm. A hand that was full transparent, failed to be covered in the long loose apparel of it's owner.
Naren looked up to see a little boy with a wooden mask. One with big round eyes.
As the boy spoke, Naren recognized his voice. The voice of Nico.
"Taht od uoy tel t'nac I."