Conscious, Conscientious

A constant, harsh sizzle rang out all around Raznizu’s electric cage. Lammy looked up: it had begun raining in the forest. But he didn’t feel a single drop break through the force field.

Clanks and clangs brought Lammy’s attention back down. Raznizu and Najinzu’s knife fight raged on, their speed and acrobatics still leaving Lammy in a terrible awe.

His heart sunk when Raznizu forced out a painful grunt. He narrowly blocked Najinzu’s following swing, but a streak of blood began flowing down the side of his leg.

“Finally,” Najinzu uttered, repositioning. “You’re weakened now, brother. Yield, and perhaps I’ll make your death swift.”

“You always assume victory too—” started Raznizu.

But Najinzu pounced forward again, continuing the duel with increased vigor.

While Lammy could hardly follow their movements, he understood the situation immediately. It was true: Raznizu was weakening. By now, he was practically always on the defense—and his new injury would only slow him further.

“This is the end, traitor!” Najinzu’s voice bounced all around the enclosed space as he jumped and sprinted after his prey.

Lammy couldn’t help but wonder: what could possibly lead two brothers to such opposing sides, that they were willing to kill each other for their cause? He could never dream of falling out that drastically with Deon.

Knowing Zayza was at the center of this all—probably the reason, one way or another—only made his heart heavier.

But now wasn’t the time to sulk: their only line of defense was failing before his still-glowing eyes. Lammy knew he couldn’t join the fight.

But there had to be a way to interfere. He had to shift the advantage, and fast.

He pondered his assisting role for Zayza in the Dream World—but there was no way he could target Najinzu at the speed he was moving.

Lammy needed to fill a similar role, but it had to be discrete.

Raznizu evaded another swing, jumped forward, and flipped off of the trunk of a tree. It was the same form he used when he’d leapt from Xinderzin’s saddle in their first encounter.

Lammy’s eyes widened.

That’s it!

A plan weaved together rapidly in his mind. It would take everything in his power to pull it off.

But if he did, they could win this.

Raznizu sidestepped Najinzu once more, and then parried a swarm of attempted strikes. But as the blood continued to drip from his leg, his movements grew slower. Lammy could even follow his speed now.

But there was another injury: at some point, Najinzu had slit his arm.

Najinzu suddenly hopped back, allowing a distance between the two.

“Tell me who you serve,” Najinzu offered, knives pointed forward, “and I’ll end this quickly.”

“I already told you, foolish brother,” grunted Raznizu between heavy breaths. “I serve the one who will bring about your downfall. The one who will cure our land’s corruption.”

“‘Corruption…’” Najinzu spat. “Not good enough. Very well: it’s time to—”

His words trailed off slowly, as if to mirror the unwelcome discombobulation in his brain. Lammy would have chuckled, if not for the dire stakes of the situation. Najinzu’s eyes squinted in utter confusion at what had suddenly appeared above him.

Raznizu’s expression was almost the same.

Clearly, neither had anticipated the manifestation of a rusted, blue taxi in the air just below the electric force field. Yet there it floated, freezing their rapid duel through its randomness alone.

Lammy focused carefully, preparing his next act. He didn’t need to tap very deeply into his stress to strengthen his imagining this time—this was the easy part.

He wished the taxi away. Next, his furry rainbow dragon faded into existence in the same position. It came out two-dimensional and the details were rough around the edges, but it didn’t need to be pretty—as long as it got the idea across.

Irritated, Najinzu flung one of his knives up at the beast. But it flew straight through, proving its illusionary status. He only grew more annoyed.

“Boy!” he exclaimed, turning and pointing at Lammy. “What is the meaning of this?!”

But Lammy tried to ignore his attacker’s demand. There were still more steps to cover before it was time to start. Keeping his attention above them, he wished the dragon away, and replaced it with the image of a wooden carriage.

“Boy…” Raznizu uttered, catching Lammy’s eye. “I know not what you’re attempting, but leave this to us.”

Lammy glanced at him, but was quick to return his focus on the illusionary object, raising a quick eyebrow. He hoped he was subtle enough.

In a hurry, he displayed the carriage, dragon, and taxi again side-by-side.

Then, he focused carefully on the landscape of the battlefield. Tapping into his current stress, he felt his eyes glow—this step was a bit more complex.

Raznizu and Najinzu watched in befuddlement as ground on one third of the entrapped area—the section closest to Lammy and Zayza—lit up white like it had been painted. A single, simple dot floated above it in the same instance. It only lasted for a moment.

Lammy followed suit with the middle section, and then the farthest from him, close to where Fewpar sat in meditation. The middle featured two dots above, and the far one displayed three.

The flashing stopped, and Lammy took an uneasy, intense sigh.

All things were ready.

“Cease these fruitless distractions!” Najinzu commanded. “You cannot put off your fate!”

Lammy said nothing.

Raznizu glanced at him one more uncertain time, but returned his eyes to his opponent and raised his knives higher.

It was time.

The brothers both charged, flanked to the side, and charged again in nearly identical fashion, only to block each other’s attacks. The duel recommenced with equal tenacity.

Lammy observed carefully. Realizing there was no ideal time to begin, he swallowed hard, and unraveled his plan.

He imagined his dragon—or, an illusion of it—above the fighters once more, allowing it to linger for only a few seconds.

Raznizu and Najinzu kept on fighting, seemingly paying little mind.

Come on, Raznizu…Lammy hoped.

But he had to follow through, or this simply wouldn’t work from here on out. Bracing himself for lethal repercussion the best he could, he lit up the middle section of the area again—the space in which the brothers were fighting.

But this time, the white glow was more than just a light. Lammy’s eyes burst bright orange as he called upon deeper strength. He gave the light an energy to it—a burning, forceful one, inspired by Zayza’s green blasts.

Raznizu and Najinzu both shouted—out of surprise and pain—as they hurried to exit the affected zone.

They paused, gasping, and then shot Lammy a ferocious glare.

“Don’t, boy!” Raznizu pressed.

Lammy had no choice. His unexpected ally needed a hint. “Trust me!” he stressed, hoping he wasn’t giving everything away. “Trust me…” he said quieter.

Raznizu seemed to try reading his intentions, his eyebrows furrowing. But when Najinzu snapped back into the offense—only more agitated now—he had to return to his losing battle.

Lammy waited for several moments. He could only hope Raznizu was still trying to piece it together.

But there was no time to waste.

Lammy studied their ever-changing displacement. Now, they were speeding along all three sections Lammy had highlighted—but it seemed Najinzu was avoiding the middle one a bit now.

That left two ideal options, so Lammy went with the one farthest from him.

He imagined the image of the taxi again. Riskily, he held off summoning the energy over the farthest zone, and waited for Raznizu to hopefully take note.

Najinzu scoffed to himself as he caught the image in the corner of his eye. “Ridiculous…” he growled.

Then, to Lammy’s dismay, it seemed Raznizu was trying to center the fighting close to the third zone. Still very much on the defense, he guided Najinzu closer to the area with each labored dodge.

He doesn’t get it, Lammy bemoaned.

But then, Raznizu shifted unexpectedly. He pushed off a tree and sprang back at Najinzu as if to attack, but instead, zipped right past him. It appeared to be a foolish move, considering Najinzu could easily tail him and stab from behind.

There was only one reason Lammy thought he might go for that.

Oh! NOW!!

Lammy summoned the white energy over the third zone, just before Najinzu was about to hurry after Raznizu. But he was too late: while Raznizu was now safely out of range, the energy encompassed and scorched Najinzu again.

Najinzu roared, crouching over. Despite his reluctance, Lammy pushed himself to prolong the energy as long as he could. After Najinzu crawled his way out, Lammy imagined it away.

Climbing to his feet, Najinzu spat and recovered his grip on his knives.

“They may want you alive,” he said darkly, “but perhaps I don’t.”

Raznizu shot Lammy another quick glance—but though his mask covered most of his face, Lammy could see it: this expression was different this time.

He figured out Lammy’s strategy.

It was time to step it up.

This time, Raznizu moved onto the offense, charging straight for his brother with his black knives twirling. He’d caught a second wind. But despite the damage he took, Najinzu blocked with ease and met him with the same intensity.

Raznizu resumed his earlier movements, but quicker: cleverly dodging and allowing more distance between him and his foe. This only further convinced Lammy they were on precisely the same page.

Lammy projected two images this time: the carriage and the taxi. Swiftly, Raznizu repositioned to the center of the area. Najinzu fled to the zone nearest Lammy, only to be met immediately with the brilliant energy.

Raznizu waited until it settled, and then struck at Najinzu—almost getting him this time as he struggled to recover.

This continued on several more times: Lammy alerted with one or two of the three images, Raznizu systematically moved, and Najinzu howled as he got caught in the danger zone.

It’s…actually working! Lammy realized.

By assigning a number of dots—one, two, and three—above each zone of the fighting ground before he began, Lammy had introduced a sequence. But in order for Raznizu to know which zone he was about to attack, and just as importantly: for Najinzu not to know, he had to communicate in code.

So the taxi, the dragon, and the carriage represented a chronology: one that only he and Raznizu would understand. Based on the order of their encounters with each other—the carriage indicating zone one, the dragon representing zone two, and the taxi meaning the third zone—he could warn Raznizu where he would strike, while it seemed like a series of random attacks to Najinzu.

But having already used these codes several times by now, Lammy needed to be quicker. He knew this wasn’t fit for a long-term strategy, just a surprise one. Soon enough, Najinzu would understand the pattern.

Lammy imagined the taxi again this time, and Raznizu prepared to make his way farther from the area of attack.

“Enough of your tricks! You’ll attack near Fewpar!” Najinzu called out.

Time was already up: Najinzu had figured it out. He had to adjust.

Here it goes, Lammy thought quickly.

He added the dragon and taxi beside the carriage.

Seizing the opportunity, Raznizu dashed forward and kicked Najinzu to the ground, before flipping back and shooting high into the trees.

Then, Lammy lit up all three zones.

Najinzu writhed as he tried to climb out of the energy, but it was everywhere. Raznizu’s face was bright against the light as he watched on, dangling from a branch.

This was likely their last chance. Lammy held on to the attack as long as possible, all the while regretting his need for it.

But suddenly, Najinzu’s screaming ceased.

His shaking did, as well.

He stood tall within the raging energy.

“IDIOTS,” he began, heaving. “I’m a master of inflicting the most pain possible in a living being. You should know that after my finest work, on Zayza.”

He took a heavy step forward.

“You don’t think I can handle the pain when it’s inflicted on me?!”

Lammy’s heart skipped.

I misjudged, were the hollow words in his head.

“Raznizu!” Lammy tried.

But before anyone could react, Najinzu ripped a long knife from his belt and flung it up faster than an arrow.

It sunk cleanly into Raznizu. Lammy couldn’t quite see where, but at this point, it didn’t matter.

Raznizu fell from the tree, and Lammy hurried to imagine away his attack on the ground. He found the slightest bit of relief when Raznizu managed to land on his feet.

But regardless, this duel was at its end.

Panic sank into Lammy immediately. For a moment, he was back in the caves in Realistic Fiction Country, and Raznizu was Ryan.

It was the same as then: with Lammy and Zayza not strong enough to defend themselves, a stranger had stepped up to risk his life and protect them. He was sacrificing everything to give them a chance.

How many more people had to die for them?

Raznizu stood unevenly, keeping the knife lodged in his lower abdomen—probably to prevent bleeding out. He breathed heavily.

“At last,” Najinzu rasped. “I shall remove the disgrace of treason from our family name.”

“You…stole the words from my mouth…” grunted Raznizu. He turned to Lammy. “Listen, boy. Somehow, you can communicate with Zayza in the Dream World, no?”

Lammy nodded uneasily.

“Now’s the time. You have to get her out of there, and run.”

Najinzu cackled at his instruction. “You’re much too late for—”

He fell completely silent. More precisely: everything did. The crackling of Raznizu’s electric barrier, the sizzling of the rain hitting it, and even Lammy’s breath no longer had sound.

Everything around them lost color, fading into gray, black, or white. Lammy glanced around frantically, eyes wide. The trees were slowly withering all around.

“Boy…” Najinzu started, his voice cutting clean through the silence.

“It’s not him,” Raznizu denied. He looked to Zayza. “Whatever’s happening in their realm…the Fiction Country nature is reacting to the emotions.”

Watching Zayza more closely, Lammy noticed her eyebrows furrow. She flinched slightly.

“Boy, go now,” Raznizu ordered.

Lammy didn’t need convincing. An orange tint covered the grayness around him, and he realized his own powers were cutting through the Fiction Country phenomenon.

He heard metal rip from a sheath.

“He’ll be dead before you return,” Najinzu promised.

Attempting to shut him out, Lammy hurried to place his hand back on Zayza’s shoulder. He closed his eyes, and sensed for her presence.

Hang on, Zayza…he pleaded.

~

Wherever Lammy had ended up, it couldn’t have been the Dream World.

No—it seemed more like an underworld.

Everything was pitch black, except the hundreds of floating blue orbs filling the void sky. Underneath, Fewpar stood tall, his face covered in light blue, glittering tears.

Lammy followed Fewpar’s eyes, and there, he found Zayza.

She lay several paces away, her head raised warily. He could see her trembling, even from where he bodilessly floated high above.

He wanted to reach out, but something about this disturbed, distorted setting, and the eerie notes ringing out from the blue orbs, told him it wasn’t his place.

This was between them, and them alone.

“You know, Zayza. You know what you have to do,” Fewpar pressed through a shaky voice. He was neither calm nor crazed as he spoke—this was a side Lammy had yet to see: Fewpar was simply hurt.

Zayza struggled to make her way to her feet. She was a wide open target like this, yet Fewpar didn’t take the opportunity to attack. He simply waited in anticipation.

What did he trap her into? Lammy wondered. Even still, he couldn’t bring himself to send his thoughts to her.

Zayza finally stood, and stared back at her rival. She inhaled to speak several times, a horrified frown forming, but kept failing.

“Come on,” Fewpar practically pleaded. “Do it.”

In that instant, Lammy realized exactly what was about to happen.

WAIT, ZAYZA DON’T—

But her words reverberated endlessly across the Dream World:

“I want to remember.”

A glassy, screaming sound pierced through the orbs’ constant notes, coming from all directions. It grew louder, and louder…

Then, the horizon turned purple.

Zayza’s memory shards—thousands of them—shot through the sky towards her. Fewpar gazed around, both fear and expectation filling his teary eyes.

Zayza, wait! What about what Kotono and Hiroko said? Lammy tried.

But it seemed Zayza wasn’t listening. She simply stood in place, and awaited the memories.

Within moments, they surrounded her in a glorious swarm, their purple light illuminating her body. The blue orbs nearest to them back away abruptly, as if intimidated.

The swarm of memory shards gradually grew smaller, centering in front of Zayza. Soon enough, they assumed the familiar shape Lammy had learned to dread: a faceless, otherworldly version of Zayza, facing her directly.

The blue orbs fell silent, as did all of the Dream World. Lammy and Fewpar could do nothing but watch on.

“Is it time?” the purple being’s jarring, inhuman voice inquired.

No…Lammy begged.

But Zayza nodded.

“It’s time,” she uttered. “I accept you back to myself. I want to remember everything.”

The shards didn’t hesitate. “Then let us finally become one again.”

The being brightened to blinding levels, and reached a hand out to Zayza. Mirroring its motion, Zayza raised her own hand.

And the moment their hands touched, the shards vanished entirely.

There was no grandiose explosion, deafening sound, or gusts of wind.

Just like that, the shards were gone.

In the silence that followed, it left Lammy to wonder if anything had even happened. Perhaps, by some miracle, it failed? Or maybe…

Her memories weren’t as tragic as they thought this whole time?

But then Zayza fell to her knees. She let out a whimper—one that marked the onset of returning pain.

Then, hiding her face in her hands, she wept.

Lammy and Fewpar continued to watch on. It seemed Fewpar hadn’t yet gauged what he should feel.

But though Zayza hadn’t said a thing about the truth, Lammy knew precisely how he felt.

His own tears fell as he helplessly watched his friend wail in agony. With no body here, he could only assume he was crying in the real world.

This was too much.

“Your own mother…the Queen…” Fewpar uttered.

Moaning and clutching her stomach, Zayza looked to him.

“Your own father, the King…”

Her tears were green and glowing.

“And your own sister, my Vayva…” Fewpar finished. “All dead. You killed them. You know that now, don’t you?”

No—that can’t be it, Lammy denied to himself. She remembers it differently. She MUST.

At last, Zayza returned to her feet. Her brilliant tears still fell, but her face had calmed. All Lammy could see was the loss, the mourning, in her eyes.

She’s a victim in this, just like him, Lammy understood.

Zayza opened her mouth slowly. “You have no idea what I endured…and what they endured…” she started, “when I took their lives.”

Lammy’s world stopped.

Wait…what?

“Nightmare,” Zayza uttered.

Within seconds, the purple horizon spread, and completely enveloped the previously black sky. The blue orbs shook in terror, and then darted to Fewpar’s head, where one by one, they vanished with a blink. The ground all around Zayza and Fewpar morphed and shifted.

The Dream World landscape submitted to this new shifting reality, the flat black ground transforming into infinite mountainous slopes and cliffs. The many stars in the dense sky were black, and a black moon loomed in the distance.

Again, Lammy found himself speechless. Zayza was creating this horrific place?

Seemingly replacing the positions of the former blue orbs, hundreds of new images appeared. And they only made Lammy feel sicker.

They were people—faceless, and featureless, more like shadows and silhouettes. And they were all dangling by a ghostly black ropes tied to their wrists, which hung from an invisible atmosphere high above. The silhouette people didn’t move, aside from turning their heads from side to side, slowly, and hopelessly.

They all let out slow, low moans.

If the previous domain was the underworld to Lammy, this was a layer much farther down.

Zayza stood atop the tallest mountain, her eyes bright, across from Fewpar on a lower slope not far away. He’d gone completely pale.

“So…I was right…” Fewpar said hollowly.

“Your accusations were correct,” Zayza confirmed soberly. “But I’m not what you thought.”

A green hue surrounded her.

“I’m far more dangerous.”

The surface of Fewpar’s mountain erupted violently, green energy spewing out of it. Then, it completely exploded. Black rocks darted everywhere.

Fewpar was nowhere.

Come on, came Zayza’s voice.

Lammy jumped, startled. She was speaking in his mind again, at last.

But for the first time, he wasn’t sure if he wanted that.

Regardless, he felt himself fading from the Dream World. This hellish domain rapidly went dark before his senses.

~

When Lammy opened his eyes, he was already getting yanked to his feet.

Everything was practically a blur. Zayza’s hand was grasping and pulling his tightly as he stumbled up. The white electric barrier was gone now.

“GO, PRINCESS!!” came a forced, desperate roar from behind.

Lammy turned to look back, but he only had an instant.

Raznizu stood only steps away, serving as the only obstacle between them and a raging Najinzu, knife still wedged in his flesh. And yet, by his blades and body, he refused to let Najinzu pass.

Najinzu screamed in pure, unrestrained fury.

The last thing Lammy noticed before having to turn his head to regain balance, was how deeply red and damp the ground was around Raznizu.

“Run, Lammy! Don’t look!” Zayza called back, her loyal grip on his hand tightening.

He turned and struggled to follow her familiar frame, her brown hair waving in the stormy air.

But who was she?

No matter how many times Lammy kept trying to remind his brain that this was Zayza, there was a dissonance—he could hardly recognize her.

He realized the hand holding his, guiding him from harm, belonged to a woman who had killed her own family.

Suddenly, he felt just as unsafe running away with her as he did sitting across from a deadly knife fight.

“Come on, I’ll get you to safety!” her voice puffed desperately.

This is Zayza…Lammy tried to think.

This…is…Zayza?

Zayza…what have you done?

As clangs rang out in the increasing distance behind them, the duo disappeared into the cold, wet night.