บท 287: A Blast from the Past

"Viv!" the girl called out. "Wait for me! Mum said we weren't supposed to leave the forest! It's not safe out there!"

Oleandra had seen enough dreams by now to recognize when she was dreaming and when she was reliving the life of a previous incarnation. She was vaguely aware that she needed to wake up, that there was danger out there in the waking world, but the feeling was soon forgotten as she sank deeper into the dream realm.

…the girl had called her Viv, which meant she was taking the role of Viviane in this dream. What was she thinking? She was Viviane. And this was her little sister Morganna.

"Are those wings just for show?" said Oleandra, rolling her eyes as she acted out Viviane's part. "Are you a Fairy, or are you a chicken, Anna? Come on, I want to go to the beach! I need loads of water to practise my magic! If you're not coming, I'm leaving without you!"

Well, this was new; after her awakening as the Lady of the Lake, Oleandra had often dreamed of Viviane, and those dreams had always been extremely vivid. But those dreams had always been about her life after her incarnation into a human body.

Oleandra studied Anna in her Fairy form. She was wearing a simple white dress; what looked like iridescent butterfly wings fluttered agitatedly behind her. Two, foot-long antennae peeked out from the top of her head through her golden hair, and they each curled downwards towards their extremities, before ending with some sort of glowing, ball-shaped organ.

"But the elders said we should never stay isolated for too long! They said the fog would eat us up, and we would never be seen again!" Anna cried out in a panic. "And mum and dad will be mad when they find out we're gone!"

"Don't wander too far away from me, then," Oleandra responded nonchalantly, despite herself. "I'm leaving, with or without you!"

Oleandra set off at a brisk pace, often flapping her wings to jump over a boulder or to avoid a cloud of silvery mist. She could hear Anna scrambling frantically a few paces behind her to keep up.

There was nothing around them but dead trees and sparse vegetation— plants wouldn't grow with the mists blocking out most of the sunlight. Mushrooms grew just fine, though; which was a good thing, otherwise there would be nothing to eat.

"The Voice says—" Anna began.

"The Voice can't tell me what to do," Oleandra said brashly. "I go where I want, and if it wants to teach me something, it can do so when we're at the beach."

The Voice, of course, referred to the Shadows of their past incarnations, which would teach them about their powers and other important things. As a result of this particular evolutionary trait, Fairies excelled at whatever they were already good at, but they were a little bit lacking in the creativity and adaptability department compared to humans. Which was understandable, as having a teacher from birth caused them to be much more set in their ways.

Also, it was Voice singular; usually, only one Shadow would ever show itself at a time, to prevent young Fairies from developing personality disorders from having to deal with too many Voices in their heads at once.

It felt strange to Oleandra to hear Viviane so flippantly disregard their past selves, but in a way, it just meant that they weren't so different after all.

Oleandra hopped, skipped and sang loudly the entire way, avoiding the pockets of dangerous existence-devouring mist that plagued the island of Avalon, and Anna dutifully followed in her footsteps and wingbeats. And finally, they arrived at their destination.

"It's still here!" Oleandra said excitedly when she saw that the sandy beach was still mostly mist-free.

The mist ebbed and flowed over the island like the tides; when it was at its worst, the Fairies would huddle together in the few safe zones, hoping that the mist would leave before they starved, or that it wouldn't worsen the next time it returned.

"There's not much to see," said Anna sullenly. "Are you happy now? Can we go back, before the elders and mum and dad get mad?"

All she got in response was a jet of sea water to the face; Oleandra held her sides, laughing uproariously at the sight of her wet sister, whose wings were looking rather miserable in their waterlogged state.

"That's not funny!" cried Anna, spitting out mouthfuls of salty water. "I'm telling mum!"

"Tell her what, that you left the forest?" Oleandra said, putting her hands on her hips. "That you came with me to the beach?"

Anna then began to sputter excuses as she searched for an appropriate comeback. Viviane could be kind of mean to her little sister, but she also had her own brand of kindness, Oleandra realized. Anna had been scared stiff, but now she had completely forgotten about her fear, which was replaced by anger. Which was… better? Maybe? Kind of?

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Oleandra laughed. "Here, stay still, I'll dry you off—"

But her voice was cut off by a deafening blast, followed by a low-pitched buzzing sound. The air itself was humming; such was the intensity of the noise. The sisters put their hands over their ears with pained expressions on their faces and watched through squinted eyelids as something incredibly bright streaked across the night sky, visible even through the dense cover of mist surrounding Avalon.

The two sisters huddled together in fright as they watched the flaming meteor carve a path through the sky, cutting through vast swathes of mists, before falling beyond the horizon.

"What was that?" Anna whimpered. Oleandra could feel her little body shivering in fear.

"I have no earthly idea…" Oleandra responded in Viviane's place.

But she knew what she had just witnessed; Viviane had described it to her in her stories. She was reliving the day the country of Ys fell from the sky and appeared in the World of Mists, after a terrible storm blew it away from the French coast, causing it to sink under the sea…

Somehow, it had ended up back here.

"Watch out!" Anna screamed, pointing at something over Viviane's shoulder.

Oleandra turned around just in time to Summon a barrier of water, protecting them from the incoming shockwave that resulted from the appearance of Ys in this world. And then, the deafening noise of the crash shook them to their core, as the wave of sound finally made it to them after the first shockwave.

"It'll be all right," Oleandra said, though her own voice was trembling. "I'm here for you, and as long as I'm with you, you'll always be safe…"

Eventually, the waters receded, and Oleandra ended her spell. But as soon as the veil of water fell, a sense of wonder gripped the sisters. For the first time since they had been born in this wretched world, they were seeing the true night sky. Millions upon millions of stars twinkled gently in the firmament, and the space between them was painted darker than black.

"I have no idea how long it will take," Oleandra murmured, holding Anna's body tightly and gazing at the stars above, as she repeated Viviane's words from over a millennium ago. "But no matter what, I will get you out of here. That's my promise to you, as your big sister."

Vows held incredible meaning when they came from the mouth of Fairy— they couldn't lie, so Viviane wholeheartedly believed that such a day would come when they would finally be free.

Together, they contemplated the starry sky in silence. In Viviane's and Anna's Mystic Eyes, colourful lines were drawing themselves between the stars, forming profound patterns— those of the twenty-four runes of the alphabet of the stars. A strange sense of familiarity washed over Oleandra as she gazed upon them. It was as if their forms were somehow stuck halfway between the shapes of Midgard's and Niflheim's runes…

Midgard was Earth, the Realm of humans; Niflheim was the Realm of the Dead…

And that's when it struck her; this place that she'd been calling the World of Mists wasn't a world at all; in fact, it wasn't even the REAL World of Mists! It was a space between worlds— Avalon was stuck halfway between the Earth and the World of the Dead!

Niflheim literally meant World of Mist in English. Which meant that the all-devouring mists that plagued the island of Avalon and the boundless oceans that surrounded it weren't just any mists; they were the mists of Niflheim; the mists of death, emanating from the World of Death…

"Come on," Viviane finally said, with a final regretful glance at the deep blue sea. "We should leave and get to high ground before the tidal wave reaches the island; it'll drag us beneath the waves…"