Eskaria was not having a good time. Who could blame her? Her 'husband' was not paying any attention to her at all … not that she minded, but there was just something she couldn't explain. Ever since she decided to come along, she had been abducted, chased by armed men, had little sleep, and now she was going off to the-gods-know-where on a giant bird.
It's not that she didn't ask, but the answer she got was, "You'll see when we arrive."
Not satisfactory? Exactly what Esk was thinking! However, she could do nothing except just wait until they arrived at their destination … which they did after a few hours of flying without rest.
She marveled at the sight of several islands floating in the air! These giant land masses could exist in the air without being supported by anything, or dropping to the ground! Her eyes widened, and her mouth opened a little in amazement as she saw their destination, rather, something quite a distance from where they were landing.
They arrived at an island, which was just a dense forest. At the edge of this forest, there was an old man waiting for them. To Esk, he looked very familiar. She couldn't place where she had seen him before.
"Hello Mysa", greeted the old man with a smile, while looking at her. "It has been a long time, hasn't it?"
There it was! That name again! As she tilted her head in confusion, the old man continued, "I always told you sealing your memories was not a good thing. Now look at this?"
Eskaria opened her mouth to ask the old man what he was going on about, yet the words which came out were, "Well, it has worked so far. It's nice to see you too, Oldavin, even though you look old!"
Eh? How … why … what …
Before she could finish those thoughts, the whole world went black, and she found herself in a place filled with darkness. As she looked around, her eyes fell on the person who was sitting on what looked like a throne of sorts. This person looked exactly like Eskaria, if Esk had purple hair, and wore a golden crown with three stars.
"Hello Eskaria, you must be wondering what is happening to you, am I right?" asked the purple haired Esk.
Her voice sounded vaguely familiar. She remembered she had heard it before, but she just couldn't remember when.
"W-who are you?" she stammered.
"You and I are the same person, but you can call me Mysa. You see, a long time ago, we decided to seal our memories because of a certain incident", as she said this, purple haired Eskaria's cheeks turned a fair shade of red. It appeared she was angry about something, and Eskaria did not want to know what it was.
What she wanted to know, however, was …
"That old man, the school principal … they called me that name… Is it because of you?"
"Well, that's actually your … eh … our real name. Mrak named you Eskaria, because well … you were a baby."
"B-but how…"
"How are we called Mysa? And if we were a baby, when did we meet the old man and Rokkai and his wife?" purple haired Esk, rather, Mysa, chuckled as she asked. Then she continued, "We are actually very much older than Mrak and Karim. There's a spell we continually cast on our self, which reverts our body into a baby, and seals our memories."
She paused. "Of course, this created another personality, me. I hold all our memories, and magic, and knowledge of how to use the magic. You, on the other hand, are the current personality, resulting from the life you've lived from the time Karim found you, until now."
Eskaria was confused. "Why … would I do such a thing?"
Mysa turned serious, and her cheeks flushed into a deeper shade of crimson, "It's all because of that Rokkai!! Once I get out of here, I'm going to kill him!!!He --"
Eskaria shuddered. She began regretting asking the question, so she interrupted, "Where are we? And how do I get out of here?"
"We are inside your sub-conscious … eh … we're inside your mind. As for how you can get out … you can't. Or rather, you're not going to. I'm going to merge us together to make sure we become one!" Mysa replied with a smile.
"N-no! I don't want to! I want to go home!!" Eskaria was getting angry, not that it was helping but … it was happening.
Mysa stood up from her throne, and then walked slowly, until she was standing in front of Eskaria. "If you can defeat me, then you can leave", she replied with a creepy smile that gave Esk the chills.
Meanwhile, outside Eskaria's mind, Reeve and Soren were confused, shocked even.
"Eskaria … what's going on? When did you meet this old geezer?" asked Reeve, oblivious as to whether the question was insulting to the old geezer or not.
Eskaria chuckled, before replying, "Of course I know this old geezer. But I don't really know you … who are you?" She tilted her head.
"You didn't answer my question! And why is he calling you Mysa?" Reeve felt he had to ask.
"Ahem. We can talk somewhere private, don't you think? We're in the middle of the path!" the old geezer, Oldavin,
"Private? What do you mean private? We are on an island floating in the air, and we're standing in the forest. What could be more private about that? Besides, what is the need for privacy?"
Oldavin frowned. "Please stop trying to be unreasonable! You're not helping anyone!"
"Ha! Who's being unreasonable?"
There was an awkward silence.
A few minutes later, Oldavin led the way, and everyone else followed. What was the point of the argument earlier? Not even the gods know!
They arrived at a village, which was located in the middle of the forest. This village reminded Reeve of the Southern Earth tribe. However, not even that tribe was this empty! The village wasn't large, it had less than twenty huts.
"Where is everyone?" asked Soren.