Memory Bonds

"Wren? You still with us?"

Wren was broken from her stupor by Eddie elbowing her.

"Of course."

She had been distracted. Of course she had been. Her friends were coming to "save" her, something that could kill them. And she knew there was no talking them out of it. (And if she was honest, she was selfishly glad for that.) So she had to find some way to help.

But she also had to pay attention to the present. It had already been tense riding back on a spaceship with these people. Now that they were on the planet and getting close to the cult's base, her present situation probably took precedent over Fleck's.

'Probably,' Fleck loudly agreed.

Wren didn't appreciate that thoughts could be loud until now.

But focusing on her present situation.

Eddie stared at her with an expression she couldn't read, and then was looking away. It was too late to parse.

"We're almost there," Eddie said out of the corner of her mouth.

Wren looked ahead. They'd actually reached the end of the city, and gone outside a while back, so Harmoni could sympathize with Fleck's air problem. It was unpleasant, but at least her sense of smell was worse.

The area they were in was pretty barren. They walked on gray dust, and passed rocks without any plants in sight. Of course, it was hard to see in general. Some of the rocks littered around easily came up past her head. And she was 182 cm, when last measured.

The area wasn't exactly cliffy, like part of Xentron had been. But there were tall rock formations around, as well as abandoned, dilapidated buildings, falling in on themselves. And there was a thick fog around. Looking too far turned everything to blurs and blobs, and Wren had to make her best guesses. And based on her best guess, they had just passed a building graveyard. Empty buildings slowly falling part, but without any plants to make things break down faster. They just sat in an unnatural crumbling and blacked out state, looking a bit like actual tombstones, and it had been creepy.

The group she was with had more than the three members they'd seen attacking Edinar, but it still seemed like a small group for attacking a magic school. Arrogance and all that.

The man who'd shot fire balls was named Murv. The shadow man was Pauth. She'd heard both their names on the trip here. She hadn't caught anyone else's name, but those two seemed like the ones she'd most need to know. They were in charge? Sort of?

She noticed while Pauth's skin looked like stone, the others looked worse. Pauth at least might be high quality stone. The others were more like old stone, or rock turning to dust, in Murv's case. It was only Eddie who had regular skin.

They were coming up on another building. That wasn't unusual in this area, but they weren't going around it. More of it was coming into focus. The building was large, but dilapidated, like the ones before it. A window or two were shattered. A small part of the roof had fallen into the third floor. Two of the walls seemed to be falling into each other. There was a porch, but there were so many holes or loose boards, Wren was shocked when Murv just walked up to the front door like there was nothing wrong.

With a push, the door swung inwards. And the other cult members started to follow him. So Wren took a deep breath, and followed their steps, being as exact as she could.

The cultists hadn't talked to her about her situation, but they didn't seem to have the full picture. She'd rather it stay that way. And she'd rather not fall through a hole or weak point in the floor.

At least there was none of the dense gray fog inside. It was just dark. There wasn't much inside, at first glance. What was there, like a table and sofa, seemed to be broken, like outside. But as Wren's eyes adjusted, she could see things like support beams propping up the leaning walls. So it wasn't completely untouched.

Murv walked to what looked like a refrigerator, and pushed the chair leg sticking up from the floor beside it. Yeah, scratch that. That wasn't a chair leg, it was a lever. And it wasn't a refrigerator either, apparently. It was an elevator.

This place was hidden in a convoluted and childish way. Good to know. Shame the cultists either didn't know that they were feeding Fleck that information, or didn't realize how dangerous that was. He relayed what he was learning to Moon, who could send it along to Cooper.

Wren wasn't sure what expression was on her face, but it must not have been neutral, because Pauth smiled sympathetically at her.

"We have magic ways to hide our base too, but it's better to use practical ways where we can."

Murv looked over his shoulder, red eyes narrowed. "Funny. I thought Wren's memory problems were exaggerated. That's why she came with us, isn't it?"

"I'm not sure anyone explained the security measures to her in the first place," Pauth defended her.

Murv still looked like he was expecting something, but one of the other cult members raised his hand. "Can we go down now?"

The elevator was just sitting open in front of them, it's faint light casting the room in a green glow.

Murv shrugged. "Not my problem."

He stepped inside. Eddie, Wren, and Pauth went with him. But seeing as the elevator was disguised as a refrigerator, there wasn't much space. The rest of the cult members would just have to wait their turn. One of them groaned, while another one slumped onto his shoulder, but none of them really made any complaints.

The elevator closed, and they went down. When it opened again, it was like they were someplace completely different.

The hall below was small, but well lit with smooth white walls. Up ahead was another hall cutting through, resembling a road's intersection.

A dwarf slowed in the middle of the intersection. Broad shouldered with a square face, but no beard. She had gray eyes and blond hair. The blond hair was not done up in an intricate pattern like Cembra's, but based on the way the strands clung together, she'd once had it like that.

"You're back!" she exclaimed. She moved towards them at a brisk walk. "Oh. And Wren really is back. Anvon will want to hear that. Though he's not here right now. Should be back soon. In the meantime, you should go to the ballroom. There's food inside. And you can rest there."

Murv essentially brushed past her, walking around her before she was even finished talking to them.

Pauth, meanwhile, nodded respectfully. "Thank you."

The dwarf looked a little annoyed, but stepped to the side, making it easier for the rest of them to go on.

Wren tried to keep track of where they were going, though the identical white halls made it hard.

They took a right down the hall, then another right down a much smaller hall, and then into a door on the right. Along the way, they passed a few other doors. Wren didn't know the layout to this underground base, but it was clearly large. As was the "ballroom".

Wren stumbled to a stop. This place was huge. The space could even fit dragons like Argone. It seemed more like a natural cave than the halls; the walls were rough, rocky, gray instead of white, and curved upwards to form a dome. And the area echoed. But there weren't any formations. And it was dry.

A chandelier hung above, casting everything in a yellow light. On the opposite end of the cavern were tables with food, and along the curved walls were couches or fancy chairs. Wren wasn't sure how well it worked when the walls were made of rock, but aside from that, this was clearly a fancy spot.

"You should get something to eat," Eddie suggested.

She couldn't keep her voice down in here, it echoed. So everyone would hear the suggestion, but the others were already finding spots they wanted to be in around the room, and no one glanced at the two.

Well, Eddie probably had the right idea. Wren didn't feel hungry, but she hadn't had a meal since Iva, only barely nibbling on a snack bag during the ship ride here. She was feeling unfocused, like there was a veil between her and everything. So Wren grabbed a cup of water, put some food on a plate, and moved to one of the couches.

Once the food was near her mouth, she really did want to keep eating it. Could you feel nauseous and hungry at the same time? Wren was certainly putting that to the test, the way her stomach churned and twitched with nerves, but her body also cried out for more food.

The people who'd brought her here also ate. Some more cult members joined them in the room, though thankfully none sat near her so far. Wren watched and listened to them as they talked about nothing. A stubborn son, a job change, rising rent in their apartment. Little things, like some members hadn't just gone out and slaughtered a school. Or tried to, anyway.

"I'm telling you, you should move underground," someone said, in response to the rent issue.

"Or I could just kill management. I think the other people there would thank me."

And there it was. She even said it jokingly, like when people jokingly talked about suing, or burning their bills. Only these people actually did murder people. Wren knew this. Pauth was the one she'd seen do as much, and he came off as the friendliest of the bunch.

Well, they hadn't seen it. But with Murv's ability, odds were he'd killed Asplenium.

She wanted to get out of here. She had to get out of here.

Eddie took Wren's plastic cup out of her grip. Wren blinked a few times, coming back to reality.

Her grip had tightened and shook on the cup, without her noticing. Eddie had taken it before Wren could crack it, or otherwise spill it all over herself.

"Honestly."

Eddie had taken a seat on the same couch as her. On the opposite end, Wren hadn't even noticed, but close enough to get her cup like that.

Eddie seemed to be sort of shafted, fidgeting at the edge of the group, just following them around silently. Like Wren. Well, she did seem younger than the others. (Not in literal years, seeing as she was an elf, but in maturity.)

Eddie was watching Wren now. Not intently, per say. More like watching an injured baby bird. "Wren? Are you OK?"

Well wasn't that a loaded question?

It was.

Before Wren could figure out how to answer it, the door swung open again. It was much more dramatic than before, and everyone fell silent when the new man entered.

He was just a hair shorter than Wren. He was broader, but not in a way where she expected him to start flinging people around. He had black hair, and the red eyes everyone in the cult seemed to have. He had light skin, but it was looking very dusty. Considering things like his eyes and veins were were still bright and solid, almost too much so, it was . . . a little disconcerting to look at.

He clearly commanded respect, and Wren got the distinct feeling she should know him.

"Anvon!" Murv greeted. He seemed to be the happiest he was there. "You made it."

Anvon grunted in response, and came further in. "And I see you brought back my errant daughter." He paused, heels clicking together, and turned towards her. "Though I'm not sure why."