Tori Transmigrated

Chapter 224: This is For Victoria

In all honesty, she didn’t think goading him into proving her wrong would actually work. Despite getting confirmation that in the network of underground tunnels and caves beneath the village housed more than ten thousand soldiers, Tori couldn’t help but be a bit giddy.

Staying behind was worth it. This answered several questions, the most important at the moment being where those soldiers that passed through the smuggler’s tunnel in the northeastern mountains went.

And while she didn’t know if this was all of them, losing ten thousand five-hundred plus soldiers would be a massive blow. She almost wished she could call her family and tell them she was carrying on a long, proud family tradition of crushing Soleil’s enemies.

Literally.

She held Adrien’s eyes and smiled as she channeled all the energy she’d gathered through the terracrystal hidden beneath her palm, and released it.

He must’ve known that she was doing something as his eyes narrowed and his shoulders tensed. Adrien’s right hand lowered from where it was shielding his face from the wind whipping around the belltower, outside the drawn lines of her ‘safety circle’.

She had forgotten that with mem’s ability to write charms directly on people and allow her to sense the heartbeats of living beings, its energy was also affiliated with air. It couldn’t purify the air, at least not without writing on an air crystal, but it could still manipulate energy to increase pressure and build up movement.

Every time Adrien moved closer to her, the air current outside her safety circle quickened to the point of pushing him back. The closer he got, the stronger the air current. She had written it into the Old Sulfae on the floor as a deterrent for arrows while she was standing by the window.

She’d written something similar on both Gideon and Fabian, and it looked like hers was working particularly well.

Sometimes my genius...it’s terrifying.

Tori kept her eyes on Adrien, but the majority of her concentration was on the waves of energy she wove into the ground and spread through the earth beneath the village like the roots of a tree. She wound it through the crevices and cracks dotting the tunnels, around the airways leading to the caves, and saturated whatever hard packed dirt the terracrystal energy could get to.

“Are you causing this wind?” Adrien shouted as he reached into his inner coat.

“Technically, you are,” Tori said as she continued to feed energy into the ground. The terracrystal energy lines grew thinner the further away from her they were, and she didn’t think she could get the full expanse of the cave system, but there weren’t many heartbeats she could sense along the edges.

The majority of Adrien’s underground army were in caves beneath the village and immediately outside of it, beneath the surrounding abandoned farmland.

She let out a low, shaky breath. This meant that she would be at the epicenter and it was likely that the old, dilapidated church where she and Adrien were inside of wouldn’t survive what would happen next.

Tori didn’t know if her safety circle would work as well as she hoped. And she knew full well that once she set off the final wave of energy, it would drain her and send her into crystal shock. Crystal shock was her best-case scenario.

Her eyes narrowed a bit.

Adrien Rosiek was still in front of her, trying to get closer as he gripped a dagger in his hand that he pulled from within his coat. His teeth were clenched as he fought against the wind that circled around her barrier like he was trying to get through a hurricane.

If there wasn’t such a high possibility that her precautions could fail and she’d die once she completed her objective, she would’ve laughed at his struggle.

She stood up and Adrien stopped fighting against the wind. He watched her rise to her feet and glowered. “What are you afraid of, Countess? Can’t fight me?”

Tori held her arms out and smirked as she twirled the hilt of her dagger between her fingers from behind the safety of her circle. “Come and get me, Rosiek.”

He lunged forward, but as soon as his feet left the ground, he was swept up by the wind and slammed into the wall. Tori’s eyes widened. That was an unexpected surprise. The wind was as strong as she’d dared hope.

Adrien pounded a fist into the floor as he landed with a heavy thud and lifted his head. His red hair fell over his face, no longer neatly combed back, but unruly and slapping his forehead. He lunged towards her again, but the same wind shoved him back.

He yelled into the wind as he leaned forward, glaring at her as his clothes whipped around him. “Come out here and fight me!”

Tori snorted. “Tch...no.”

“You have to come out sometime, Countess! No matter how strong you are, your body can’t control this much energy! You’ll be drained and helpless-”

“Then before I’m drained, I have to finish you off, don’t I?” Tori said. She shrugged and raised her brows. “That won’t be hard. It was never very difficult to beat you.”

Fury filled his reddened face and he crouched low, preparing to try to duck under the wind.

Sweat was building on her brow and she could feel her body starting to tire. She was exerting too much in too short a period of time, and her body had reached its limits.

Tori knelt down to steady herself and took a deep breath. She collected all the energy she could, and gripped the terracrystal and mem together in one hand. She released the final burst of energy without a word.

She pressed the two crystals on the floor and shut her eyes. She could feel a familiar heat sucked from her body, through her hand and through the crystals.

She didn’t know if she was just dizzy or if the earthquake she was trying to make was working.

Adrien’s voice shouted above the wind howling around her and she lifted her head. She watched him stumble, trying to regain his footing as dust and pieces of wood fell from the ceiling. Adrien turned towards one of the windows and his face seemed to drain of all color.

“No...what’s going on....what’s going on!”

His shouting was lost as Tori turned her attention to the nearest window. The ground outside was cracking. In the distance, large pieces of earth were splitting open and even larger pieces suddenly sunk.

There was screaming coming from all sides and the heartbeats that once surrounded her began to disappear. Large swaths of heartbeats stopped beating at once and her chest tightened. Despite knowing what they were there for, and that it was either them or her, a part of Tori couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable taking so many lives at once.

She swayed in place with no time to dwell on her mixed emotions as her balance started to falter and her body grew cold.

Adrien was yelling and she remembered that she couldn’t risk him getting out alive, either. She gripped her dagger and focused on him.

This man kidnapped her. This man wanted to kill her.

This man killed Victoria. He targeted her in the original game. Because of his influence, she was exploited, manipulated, and killed for whatever scheme Adrien had planned for at least eight years.

Wood was cracking and a beam fell to her right. Adrien turned around at the sound and she took her chance.

Tori rushed towards him, shooting out of her safety circle. She moved her free hand and grabbed his elbow, raising it and pinning it back against the wall as she rammed into him at full force. She pressed her weight against his arm to keep him from moving his weapon.

And then she stabbed him in the stomach.

Tori lifted her head and looked him in the eyes. One of the most intimate things a person could do was stab another. One could feel their heart beat, their breath, and gaze into their eyes.

“Fuck you. This is for Victoria.”

With her body pressed against his and his hot blood coating her hand, she twisted the dagger inside of him, moving it from side to side as if trying to slice whatever organ crossed the blade’s path.

His wide eyes stared back at her with shock and hatred. She could feel his rapid heartbeat against her as she pulled out the slippery dagger with a trembling hand, and stabbed him again beneath his ribs. He shuddered; his face contorted with pain as he wheezed.

“And that,” she hissed out as she shook. “Is for me.”

He curled his lips inward and clenched his jaw as he seemed to gather his strength to push her back. She was weak with the last boost of strength from the mem fading. She knew it took more than two stabs in the abdomen to kill a man instantly, but it would slow him down significantly. She squeezed the dagger after moving as violently as she could while it was inside him and pulled it out, earning Adrien's throaty gasp.

Open distance. She needed to get back into her safety circle. The wind didn’t affect her the way it did him and it should last a bit longer, even after she collapsed. If she died, it wasn’t going to be by Adrien. Not in this life.

Tori stumbled back into her safety circle. Her legs gave way before she stepped in it completely and she fell backwards. Her body slammed against the wooden floor with her feet still hanging outside the circle. Gritting her teeth, Tori crawled into the center of the barrier of the sacred geometry and pulled her feet inside.

Her dagger, still hot with blood, was on the floor next to her.

Her breathing was heavy, and her vision blurred. She could make out Adrien flinging himself against her barrier only to have the wind violently reject him and toss him to the side, spraying blood everywhere.

The noise went quiet as she curled up, shivering, on her side. She gathered her crystals against her and shoveled them down her shirt.

Another wooden beam fell and she watched in a daze as it slammed into Adrien, who was struggling against the wind, and crushed his body just a few paces from her. His head was turned in her direction and his cold eyes met hers as they laid there.

The bell tower began to move. It was tilting to one side, and she could feel the structure give way beneath her.

Tori closed her eyes.

Adrien was right about one thing: when she used up all her energy, she was helpless.

She felt a gentle breeze around her and then nothing.

She hoped that the air pocket she’d surrounded herself with would hold. The sacred geometry would only last as long as that particular piece of floor she wrote it on stayed together, but in case it fell apart, which was likely considering how old that church was, Tori had written a charm on her left arm to keep her in the center of a strong air current.

It was untested and she didn’t know if it would work to keep debris from falling on and crushing her, or to cushion her fall when the belltower collapsed. She was sure the tower would fall considering when she triggered an earthquake to collapse the caves beneath the village, she was right on top of a large one, and without a suitable foundation, the ground had to go somewhere.

Tori tilted her head to the side and twitched. She really was a crystal fanatic. She didn’t think she would be considering her attempt to annihilate an enemy army hidden underground as a crystal experiment when she was dead.

Was she dead?

She tried to open her eyes and was only partially surprised when they opened, but not to anything familiar.

The room, or space or whatever it was, was all white, like she was standing in a light box. She couldn’t see any corners or shadows, and the emptiness seemed to go on forever. She didn’t feel like she was standing; more like floating.

Holy crap, I am dead.

“Hmm...mine never grew this big.” She felt a finger poke her left breast as a soft, curious voice spoke. “I wonder if the soul affects the body....” This time, a hand rose and cupped her breast. “They’re big….”josei

Tori saw thick, curly black hair in front of her. Half of it was tied back, but it was mostly left loose and falling around the pale, pretty face of a girl whose big blue eyes were studying her chest attentively.

Tori crinkled her eyes. She’d read about this scenario in all sorts of comics, but didn’t think she’d actually find herself in one even after transmigrating. Still, this was a good opportunity to get answers.

“I don’t know if the soul affects the body, but what are you doing?”

The girl’s head shot up and a brilliant smile filled her flushed, youthful face. “You’re awake!” Tori nodded her head once and the girl looked excited, and she clapped her hands together. “Do you know who I am?”

How could she not? She’d seen that face in the mirror for four years. “Victoria de Guevera.”

Victoria’s eyes crinkled up with joy and she giggled, but as she looked at Tori, her shoulders slowly sank. She blinked as her eyes redden and Tori heard her sniffle.

“Tori Felix,” Victoria said in a strained voice. She met Tori’s eyes and then bowed her head. “Thank you for saving them.” Her lips trembled as her hands gripped the sides of her riding pants.

Tori had seen the clothes she was wearing before. They were the clothes Victoria had been wearing when she fell off the horse.

“Are we dead?” She couldn’t help but ask.

Victoria raised her head and seemed at a loss. “I don’t know. This is the first time could talk to you since I....” She chewed on her lower lip and averted Tori’s gaze. “I’m sorry.”

Tori tilted her head to the side. “Sorry about what?”

“I’m the reason you’re here.”

The girl trembled in place and seemed ashamed and afraid of Tori’s reaction. Tori’s brows rose and, despite the anxiousness of the girl in front of her, let out a small chuckle. Seeing a young thirteen-year-old Victoria in front of her, Tori couldn’t help but address her as she did younger students who’d come to her worried about something.

“I assumed you would have something to do with it since I woke up in your body. Can you elaborate?”

Victoria looked at her curiously and with a bit of confusion. “You’re awfully calm about this.”

“Panicking is useless. If I’m going to move forward, I need to understand my situation so I can act accordingly,” Tori replied. She smirked helplessly resigned. “Besides, it’s already happened. At this point, there isn’t much I can do.”

The corners of Victoria’s pink lips pulled upwards. “That’s why I picked you. You’d know what to do.” She fiddled with her hands and swallowed as she seemed to think. “When I fell off Gilded Morning, that’s the horse...I hit my head and saw...I saw what you think of as a game. The one on the mobile phones.” She held up her hands to make the shape of a rectangle.

“You know what mobile phones are?”

“I saw your memories,” Victoria said. She shrunk back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know I would when I touched your soul.”

Tori shook her head. “I’ve been in your body and controlling it for four years. We’re even,” she said. She furrowed her brows. “You touched my soul?”

“Yes, after I saw the game ending, I panicked. My family was destroyed, Ilyana was kicked out of school and then she....” Victoria bit her lips and didn’t want to say, as if doing so would curse Ilyana. She sniffled once more and knit her brows together as she tried to collect herself. Her voice shook and she clenched her hands. “It’s not just a game ending. It happened once and it can’t happen again, so I when our souls collided, and I saw your memories, I pulled you. You’re level headed and calm. You think before you act. And you can use a sword! I put you into my body before Sebastian could activate the aurora crystals to tie my soul back.”

Tori jerked her head back and frowned. “Go back...what do you mean it happened once?”

Victoria’s thin arms wrapped around her body, and she looked as if she were going to cry. “It happened. I saw it. They found me and men grabbed my arms. They put these metal shackles on my wrist and hung me up from chains on the ceiling-”

“Victoria-”

“They tore off my clothes....” Victoria’s eyes filled with tears as her face reddened and twisted with pain. She shut her eyes tight and turned her head away. “I shouldn’t have gone. I should’ve listened to him.”

“Who is him?”

“Prince Piers. He told me not to go. He said it was too dangerous, but I didn’t listen.”

Tori’s mind whirled and she struggled to put together what she was hearing. “Victoria....” She softened her voice and tentatively reached out. Her fingertips touched Victoria’s shoulders and the girl flinched, almost stumbling back. “Victoria, none of that really happened....”

The girl shook her head. “No...no, I know it happened.” She sniffled and wiped her eyes. “I remember it. I forgot, but I remembered when I fell and hit my head. What happened in the game really happened.”

“But wouldn’t that happen in the future? The future hasn’t happened yet.”

“Prince Piers said he’d fix it,” Victoria whispered. She lifted her head and looked at Tori with a hint of desperate belief in her eyes. “Before I died, I heard his voice. He kept begging me to wake up and when I didn’t, he said ‘it’ll be all right. I will fix it.’”

Tori looked down at the tear-streaked face that she’d worn for four years and felt her heart break. She tried to put her thoughts in order, but before that, she gently brought the girl’s trembling body closer and embraced her. “Shhh...it’s all right. Take a deep breath. Even if it happened once, it didn’t happen again. You’re safe now. You’re safe.”

Slender hands gripped her clothes and thin arms tightened around her. Victoria’s muffled cries sounded against Tori’s chest as Tori stroked the back of her head and rocked her in her arms, repeating the quiet reassurances until the girl’s broken breathing evened out.

“I’m sorry I trapped you,” Victoria whispered. “I was so scared. I was so scared, Tori. I couldn’t let the same thing happen again. I’m not smart. I’m not strong. I’m hot headed and lose my temper. I only make things worse. If I went back into my body, I didn’t know if I could save Ilyana. I didn’t know if I could stand up to Alessa Hart or her followers. I didn’t know if I could avoid the trap, so I pulled you. I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You were afraid,” Tori told her. “You panicked and were afraid. Anyone would be.”

“I’m sorry....”

Tori rested her chin on top of Victoria’s mop of curly hair. “It’s over now,” she said with a resigned sigh. “I got to go on an interesting adventure, at least. And your family has been very good to me. You were very well loved, Victoria. No wonder you were desperate to save them.” She furrowed her brows. “But...I’ve seen some of your memories...you don’t seem like you’d try to sell Alessa Hart into the sex slavery.”

Victoria shook her head. Her arms were still firmly around Tori as she tilted her head back to look at her with a serious expression. “I didn’t. I didn’t know she was going to be there until I saw her at the trade house.”

“What were you doing there?”

Victoria took a deep breath. “I am a marquis’ daughter; it is my duty to protect the empire and the imperial family.” She spoke familiar words. “I wanted to help the empire and take on duties and assignments, like my brothers. I had helped in gathering information before, and distracted the second prince from getting involved with suspected Duraga agents, but this was my first big mission.” Victoria lowered her head with a forlorn look. “Before I went to infiltrate the trade house where I was captured, he told me not to go. It was too dangerous, but I wanted to prove to him that I could do it.”

Tori squinted. “Him...Piers?”

Victoria nodded. “I wanted to show that I was capable and could get the information and names we needed. I wanted to show that I was useful and that I could help him like he helped me.” Victoria’s voice shook. “He always helped me when I asked and was so kind to me. He trusted me....”

Her cheeks heated up and Tori’s eyes dilated.

“Oh my God, you weren’t in love with Gideon. You were in love with Piers.” Victoria sucked in a sharp breath and immediately buried her embarrassed face in Tori’s chest. Tori muffled her laugh and patted her head. “There isn’t anything to be ashamed of. He’s a wonderful man. I love him a lot, too, you know.” Victoria nodded against her. She heard a muffled ‘good taste’. Tori smiled a bit. “And...he came after you when you went, didn’t he?” It looked like that was the Piers they both knew.

“Are you mad?”

Tori let out a low, heavy breath. She was quiet for a moment, but shook her head. “No. I’m confused and very tired...frustrated, but I’m not mad. I don’t know what happened to my body during the train accident. I don’t know if I’m really dead, to be honest.”

“I put you in danger,” Victoria told her, hesitant.

“Being a Guevera is dangerous,” Tori replied softly. She stroked Victoria’s hair back like a child. “I don’t blame you for acting on your desperation and fear to do whatever it was to save your friends and family. I’ve grown to love them all myself and if my being here is what saved them, then I’d do it again. I would hope that if I were in your position, someone would do the same for me and the people I love. Maybe I’m just accumulating good karma.”

Victoria nodded her head. “You did a great job.” Her red, wet eyes looked up at Tori with awe. “Thank you for everything. For Ilyana, my family...Piers.” She said his name with a blush. “For Fifi and Robi and Val. Sebastian never got married and Kasen never had children before. I’m glad they did. With the kids and Idunn, they won’t do anything extreme.” No raising the dead or making Horizon Silent Hill.

Tori looked at her curiously. “So, you’ve seen everything I’ve done?” Victoria nodded. “Does your soul remain in your body with mine?”

“If it does, I can’t do much,” Victoria told her with furrowed, thoughtful brows. “But I do experience what you do. I don't know what that means, though.”

Tori nodded slowly. “Is that all right?”

“I put you in this situation, I have no right to protest,” Victoria told her. She leaned upwards. “But I like that you’re a hugger. I was also a hugger.” She giggled. “And now I get to hug everyone. I never got to hug Piers…just hold his hand.”

“Yes, it’s taken him some time to get used to….” She trailed off and looked at the girl. She raised a brow. “You held his hand?”

Victoria nodded and looked down wit ha sad smile. “I wasn’t very popular and a lot of people didn’t like me. Ilyana wasn’t there and I didn’t know the others. Piers would talk to me and when I was sad, he’d hold my hand.”

“He just doesn’t touch anyone. You must’ve been special to him….” Just saying it was rather obvious. After all, Piers went after her when she went into the trade house and swore he’d ‘fix it’.

Victoria smiled a bit and looked at Tori with affection. “We are special to him.”

“Huh....” Tori pursed her lips. “Then...do you think either of us will wake up in our bodies?”

Victoria shook her head, disappointed. “I don’t know.” Tori frowned and Victoria squeezed her again. “But, if we don’t, please continue what you’re doing.” She had a firm, determined expression. “But don’t work so much. It’s bad for your health. You need to relax more. Let Piers feed us. I enjoyed that.”

She felt as if she were being scolded by a little sister and Tori laughed. “Just keep doing what I’m doing, huh? You don’t mind that I want to leave your family and travel?”

Victoria shook her head once more. “If anything, you should travel and eat more. That Ewan is onto something. As long as everyone is safe, you can do whatever you want.” Relief filled her face. “All I wanted was for my family and friends to be alive and well.”

Tori’s smile faltered. “You know what I just did...your body...our body...may not be....”

Victoria nodded and lowered her eyes. “I know...and I know why you did it. Dying doesn’t scare me, Tori. I don’t care what happens to me as long as everyone else is safe.”

Tori stroked Victoria’s head affectionately. “You really are a good girl. I’m sorry if I killed us.”

Victoria giggled once more. “I am satisfied if this is my ending. Even if we died to save that idiot Gideon, our death won’t be a cause of animosity. You did our duty as a marquis’ daughter willingly. They’ll be furious at him for his stupidity, but it won’t be enough to turn our family against the empire. Not like my first death was.”

Tori nodded. She closed her eyes for a moment and hugged the soul of a character that should’ve only existed in a game. Victoria was warm against her and comfortable. Tori relaxed. She knit her brows together.

“This has been a really weird trip....” Victoria didn’t answer and Tori opened her eyes. There was no one in front of her and she frowned. “Victoria?” She turned around and the white space around her began to grow dark. “Victori-?”

“Ahhh...” It was as if air filled her lungs and she was forced to take a deep breath. Her body trembled as if every muscle was shocked awake and twitching to revive itself. Her eyes opened and the darkness that met her made her tense.

Above her, she saw a blurry reflection of a long white bed.

Her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t on a bed. Her hand moved against her, feeling weighed and it took conscious effort to move them. The polished white crystal was warm and pulsing with steady energy from several different sources that seemed to wrap around her.

She shut her eyes and took several long, deep breaths. She tried to ground and found that while she could do so, the energy she used to be able to access had become limited. Her lips pulled into a frown.

The last time she remembered such a weak ability was when she first started learning about crystals. She couldn’t control the energy moving through her body, let alone regulate the different ones.

Her eyes shut tight as she tried to identify the crystals the energy was being sourced from, and her heart sank when she couldn’t identify them all.

Am I still in Soleil? When she opened her eyes earlier, the ceiling wasn’t familiar. It wasn’t a hospital ceiling or anything in her original world that she could identify, nor was it the four-poster bed she’d woken in when she first arrived four years prior.

It wasn’t her tent in the encampment or what she'd expect from someone’s home in Soleil. For a moment, her chest clenched. What if she wasn’t in Soleil at all, but wasn’t back in her original world either?

What if while her soul was drifting, someone else snatched her up and shoved her into another body? What if she was in another game or book or whatever terrible media that forced her to face ridiculous challenges and even more ridiculous characters?

Her body sank with a wave of exhaustion. She was so tired. She didn’t want to start all over or deal with a brand new set of drama.

God, if that’s the case, you should’ve just let me die in peace.

As she laid there, willing for the world to just let her go, she felt a familiar vibration at the top of her head, and she recognized it immediately. Alexander purred like that.

Her eyes opened and she slowly turned her head to the side. A large, dark fluff brushed against her face and her heart skipped a beat.

“Ah....” Her throat was dry, and she winced, shutting her eyes once more. Her eyes watered as the mere attempt at speaking made her throat ache. She took a deep breath and moved her jaw open and close.

“Nyaow?” The familiar call of her cat was followed by the firm nudge against her head, as if to reassure her that she was there and she was safe.

Tori felt a pressure between her eyes as she leaned towards Alexander’s head and tried to nudge him back. His purring didn’t stop and Tori laid there, taking solace in existing in the same world as her cat.

If Alexander was there, then so were the others. If Alexander was there, she survived.

With that thought settling in her heart, she opened her eyes once more.

The air was warm and humid, but not to the same extent as Geyser Cliffs. It was night time. She’d been asleep for some time, if that was the case.

As for the reflection of white above her, it was against glass. She could make out the metal beams above her, like a greenhouse.

Like a greenhouse.... She inhaled a sharp breath and ran her hands at her side over the material beneath her again. The glowing crystal was selenite. A massive selenite slab. I’m on the island!

She tilted her head back and let the relief course through her. She was on Anahata Island, in her delta. Her eyes brimmed with tears as her breathing trembled. If she was on Anahata Island, then she was safe.

She was alive.

What about the crystal shock? Her eyes flew open once more and she willed her legs to move. A shaking gasp escaped her lips as her legs slid along the warm crystal. She could move her arms, her legs, her hands, fingers, all the way to her toes. With each movement, she braced herself for any pain, but there was neither a hot flash of sharp pain nor the dull throb of aching.

Maybe her air bubble of safety worked? Or they could’ve just healed her body when they found her. Either way, she didn’t feel much pain aside from the typical tightness and sores of laying in one place for too long. Those would fade with movement.

It took her some effort and her body was sluggish when responding, but she could move. She turned her head to try to take a look around. The selenite had a glow, but it was very dim. The rest of the greenhouse was dark and through the glass walls, the lights from the crystal masters’ quarters were dim or off.

No one was in the room with her except Alexander, but there was a small round table with a neat pile of papers and a cot with a neatly folded blanket and pillow at one end. Someone was there.

She raised her hand and touched her throat. The kitchen was right behind the greenhouse. Since she couldn’t cry out and didn’t want to make noise in general, as long as she could move herself, she could get her own water.

“Nyaow?”

“Hmmm....” Tori twisted her body as Alexander stood up. He remained close to her, nudging her head as she forced her legs towards the side of the table and then slid them off. Every movement was slow and if she felt tired, Tori stopped where she was.

She took deep breaths and clung to the table as her bare feet touched the ground. The long, pale gray night dress she wore was familiar. Ilyana had embroidered outlines of Alexander on the hems for her.

Tori let out a low breath and straightened her legs. So far, this was better than the last time she got crystal shock. Perhaps it was because she used the mem crystal.

She gasped and her hand moved up to her chest, feeling around on top of her night dress fabric. A new chain was around her neck and her crystal was hanging just above her heart.

Tori closed her eyes. She still had it. She tried to ground, but at most, she could feel a warmth from it. No heartbeats.

Whatever. If I have to work back up to that, I will. At least I’m alive.

She shuffled alongside the table, only daring to lift her hand off the edge after every step. Alexander jumped off the selenite slab and circled her once before walking ahead of her and leading her towards the entrance. The wooden door was left open.

Now that she thought about it, it was dead silent in the greenhouse. Usually, she could hear the waves lapping against the sides of the island. Did they put a silence barrier around it?

She held out her arms to try to balance herself as she took one shaky, awkward step forward after another. She dragged her feet towards the open doorway and leaned outside.

The gentle sea breeze filled her senses, and she could hear the crashing of waves not far away. It was familiar and comforting. Tori closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the salty air.

“Nyaow!” Alexander jumped forward, his tail up in the air. He looked back at her and walked back and forth, encouraging her to follow.

Tori smiled. Don’t worry, I’m coming. She stepped out of the greenhouse and on to the covered pathway that led to the kitchen. As she shuffled closer, should see the light coming from the entrance. It was always on, as sometimes the masters on the island stayed up unnecessarily late.

She could smell a light scent in the air and as she reached the entrance, she heard sizzling. Was someone cooking?

“Nyaow!” Alexander darted into the kitchen, leaving her out in the hall. Tori put her hand against the wall and braced herself so she could move a little faster to catch up. “Nyaow!”

“I will feed you later. This food is for Tori.” She stopped before she turned into the kitchen. Her hand clawed into the wall as her eyes watered at the sound of a deep and gentle voice that sounded tight and hoarse. He didn’t sound very well. “When she wakes up, she’ll be hungry.”

Tori shut her eyes and took a deep breath, readying herself. She took slow, careful steps around the corner and stopped just beyond the entrance to the kitchen.

Across the kitchen, a tall figure was over a carnelian stove. There was a basket of eggs on the counter next to him and on the other side of the stove were a small pile of broken egg shells. His arm moved as he stirred a pan on the cooking surface.

Alexander rubbed against his legs. “Nyaow!” He pressed his head against Piers’ knee with his demanding cry.

“No, this is for Tori.” Piers’ scratchy voice sounded painful. “What if she wakes up today? She’ll be hungry. This is her favorite breakfast burrito, see?” His voice shook and she could hear the desperation in it, trying to convince himself that everything was fine. That she was fine. “I’m not burning it any more. She will like it.”

Her lips trembled as she stood in place. Her face was hot and the tears she couldn’t hold back were hotter. She grabbed onto the counter nearest her to steady herself and missed, knocking over some metal cups on to the floor.

Piers whirled around and she caught his clean-shaven face. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair was a bit messy, and despite his effort to appear put together, there were bags under his violet eyes.

“I....” Her voice was rough and almost a croak, but she forced herself to speak. “I’ll like whatever you make.”

The burrito was forgotten.