VM – Chapter 0

Conflicted Reflections

After the conclusion of a long journey, its often helpful to look back at everything that had occurred and learned from everything that happened along the way.  This was exactly what Lwyn was doing, off on the Great Mountain.

She knew there were other things that needed to be done, other places she had to be, but things were going well enough without her, she would only get in the way.  With her eighteenth birthday so close, there were several people who were just intent on getting things done, things were moving forwards anyway.  However, Lwyn knew that with the changes everyone was bringing forward, the most important thing would be to learn from the past they were leaving behind, and to not forget it.  Moving forward too fast could be just as bad as not moving forward at all.

Everything used to be so much worse, everyone used to struggle so much more, it was back then a time of hate and fear.  Then.. everything just changed.  She laughed thinking about it, remembering just how different she used to be, even half a year ago.  Back then, she only had one set of memories, instead of two.  Back then, she was basically alone, without the friends she had now.  Life had been rough in the days before, as a result.

“Lwyn, here you are.  What are you doing up here?  I’ve been worried sick about what happened to you.  I know you can’t help as much anymore, but you don’t need to run off like this.”  Mhyl surprised Lwyn, showing up behind her while so distracted.  Mhyl was one of those she could consider to be one of those friends she gained from her journey.  Like Lwyn, Mhyl had started off alone, enduring her own harsh lifestyle.  Also like her, Mhyl had gained a second set of memories.  In both their cases, it wasn’t just any second memories, they were memories from a life in another world.  Earth, according to such memories.  Even after all this time, it was still kinda uncertain under what terms they got these memories, be it from having lived as these people from earth and then just being reborn in Celese, or if they had just simply inherited a portion of someone else’s memories in the middle of their own lives, as that person kept moving forward.

“Mhyl, is she alright then?  Ah, actually this is kinda nice.  The quiet serenity, a chance to relax, I can see why Lwyn came up here.  Yeah, things are going well enough today, I think it’s time for a well deserved break.”  Qheria came to sit down beside Lwyn, compelling Mhyl to do the same.  Qheria was yet another of the group, from a harsh neglected lifestyle to the second set of memories.  In fact, she was specifically the group’s leader, if sometimes only informally so.  Her guidance had lead them through so many challenges, from bandit raids to factory heists.  Not that everything was just peaches and cream, so many things had a tendency to go wrong, and they had suffered a good portion of grief in those failings.  No, you couldn’t say everything worked out perfectly along the way, and it was easy to have regrets from more than a few outcomes, but it was hard to doubt just how much had been accomplished in that time.

“What the F~~k!  I thought we were going to get things done today!?  Come on everyone, this is going to be a pretty big deal, please don’t just let everything slide like this.  F~~~ing hell, is this some shitty joke or something?”  Thanrie suddenly showed up, once again livid with rage almost out of nowhere.  Thanrie was the last member of the group, the one who had found the biggest shift of personality from their journey.  All of them had changed from such, with conflicted thoughts struggling to resolve in their heads as if they were each two different people in one.  No one had that in such depth as Thanrie, who almost had a light and dark side as a result.  Although, it was more hot and cold.. but that’s beside the point.  Living with such a complex shift in their own personality had made things very difficult at first, and took a lot to get used to.

“I’m sorry everyone.  I just wanted a place to think about everything we’ve been through over the last half of a year.  So much has changed, and there is still so much that needs to be done, but I just didn’t want to forget everything we’ve done together.”  Lwyn still stood up despite her protests, realizing that she would have to return if she was causing this much of a distraction for everyone.  Even despite her search for tranquility among her thoughts, she was still the most hyper among them in most cases, it was effectively her norm.  That norm had been tried and tested through their journey, it had been threatened and battered though all of their hardships.  It wasn’t at all missed to anyone why Lwyn would hold such a strong interest in taking a moment to reflect on their accomplishments.

Lwyn herself was not human, neither was Mhyl.  Mhyl was an elf, which had given her quite a challenge when trying to fit in when she didn’t even know the human language.  Lwyn herself knew both the elven and human language, being herself a half-elf.  This had been a very negative aspect of her life, considering the degree of hatred imparted on half-elves.  Yet despite this, all four of them had came together successfully, mostly in fact due to the duality of their memories.  While languages of their old lives might have made things a bit challenging, the memories they gained from earth all included knowledge of English, itself not a language spoken by anyone else.  This was only one of the many elements of their newly found memories that brought complexity into their lives.  Qheria and Thanrie both even shared their own complication in memory, that neither of their alternate memories were even female.

While such memories brought a lot of complication, they also imparted some considerable advantages.  The largest advantage was simply an understanding of earth sciences, which was nothing like what they had in their own world.  Technology wasn’t a thing of this world, it was instead a concept much like a fantasy, itself considered akin to a form of magic.  This world instead had its own set of rules, its own laws, its own.. sciences, almost in complete reversal.  It was only with such knowledge that they were able to keep up when the world was challenged in technological warfare.  It demanded constant improvements and learning from each of them, just to stay alive.  Most of all, it demanded a knowledge of how the world works, and how their own fates were interwoven with it.

Lwyn walked back to the drop leading downwards.  It had been a challenging climb to get this far up, but nothing she would have ever struggled over too much.  Her own climbing ability had been profound, but for now her climbing ability wasn’t quite as it might normally be.  Thanrie pulled out a rope with a mischievous smile, as Lwyn sunk her face into her hands.  It wasn’t that she couldn’t count on her friends, instead she knew that her friends were the most dependable people she would ever know.  If ever Lwyn needed help with something, her friends had always been there for her.  She knew that even going forwards, such would eternally remain true.

However, seeing the rope, Lwyn took a moment to recall some of the gear they had used in their journey.  It was not like everything was as peaceful as now, back then was a time of war and conflict, of bandits and assassins.. and worse.  Lwyn looked at her hands, fully aware of how much blood had tainted them due to their journey, knowing that the sense of that taint would never in her lifetime disappear.  It was probably the biggest reason for her reflection of the past, a sense of responsibilities for the outcome of her own actions and choices.  As they had progressed their journey, travelling through distant fields beyond known lands, they had only found themselves with access to more powerful resources, which had thus compounded a greater sense of consequences for their actions.  But with even the very fate of their world at risk, it was understandable to expect some degree of danger, and some degree of loss.

Such had only been their fate, after all, and things such as fate and fortune are fickle at the best of times.  But each of them knew that never in their wildest dreams would they ever imagine having achieved all they had accomplished.  Each of them had been certain they would just lead a minor life without any real degree of importance, and all of that had eventually unfurled into a world-changing legacy.  All of them had progressed from being simple girls of everyday society, without even any real public presence, to internationally renowned super-weapons.  Overall, it was almost overwhelming to look back upon.

As Lwyn made her way back from the mountain with her friends, she tried to recall some of the finer details of their journey.  She remembered that everything had honestly begun with their meeting at the Citadel, late in the afternoon of that fateful day.

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