Just like the time and the one before that, darkness was all that Asahi and Aletha saw.
The potion's bubbling essence still danced along their skin, leaving a trail of tingling magic in its wake.
"Today is National Starch Day."
A wave of nausea crashed over them, each pulse of the potion twisting their insides like a storm churning the sea.
"Where did you get this book?"
They were ensnared in a merciless cycle, their actions looping until time itself frayed at the edges. Days melted into one another, and Akwan drifted through it all like a faded ghost, heightening their sense of dread.
"Did we loop again?" Aletha said, with a sheen of fear on her face.
"No. It can't be, not with all the progress we have poured in, " Asahi said as he touched his white scapular. "We have worked too hard to simply lose to another time-looping reset."
Suddenly, they recollected the golden luminance, and the flesh of the Ruler of The Forgotten, remembering how it flickered with memories and how it transformed in accordance with its shape on the page. Its influence almost grappled the wanderers once more.
Haunted by memories of the endless three-day loop, they drifted through a haze of fear and bewilderment, desperate to find an escape.
Hopefully, now that we know where the ingredients were…
"Wait a second," Asahi said as he and Aletha peeked at The Forbidden Book. Their eyes widened as the cover was completely changed. Instead of the golden glow it once had, it was now a brown fabric. It looked like any other book from the 'library'.
They flipped the cover and scanned the pages, finding illustrations of Asahi and Aletha flying in the sky, then looping into an alternate dimension, and finally, a frog, followed by illustrations of every form he had taken: alligator, dragon, bear, etc. These recollections, no longer influenced by the Ruler of The Forgotten, drove them to yell aloud.
"We made it!"
A hush settled over them, the air shimmering with the promise of worlds about to change...
The world whirled ahead, depositing them in the vibrant heart of a city pulsing with life and sound.
They stood amid a river of people, the streets awash in a kaleidoscope of shifting colors, vibrant hair, and bright eyes flickering past. The marketplace buzzed with energy as merchants hawked their wares for the grand spectacle of National Starch Day. At the edge, Akwan hunted for the perfect loaf, his arms soon full of breads from sweet to sourdough.
"This should be the time when we will meet…" Asahi muttered aloud as Aletha came looking around. "Belial and Drimi."
Now free from the influence of The Ruler of the Forgotten, Asahi's gaze darted about the crowd for any trace of the dark-haired, emerald-eyed boy. Belial was nowhere. Drimi was absent too. Even Narcissa could not be found. The absence of these figures left Asahi and Aletha questioning…
"Who really was trapped in The Forbidden Book?" Asahi asked as they proceeded to the next section.
Once more, the scene gave way...
The activity moved to a bread stall among the group.
"Out of all the breads you chose, you chose whole wheat?" Clover judged Asahi as he clutched onto a loaf of sliced whole wheat bread. "Don't you think sweet bread could be better?"
"The healthier the better," Asahi said as Aletha's eyes anchored on the sugary breads. "Unlike sugary foods that make you sick to your stomach, cough, Aletha. Cough. Cookies."
Aletha's face blushed with crimson, slapping her brother's back as he chuckled.
"You know that's not true! Sugary foods are good at the moment," Aletha scratched her head, criticizing her own words. "Umm, uh, in the moment, yeah. Some things are better to savor in the moment."
"I detect heavy amounts of embarrassment," Akwan said as he looked at the white loaves. "That's the price of currency in your world. As I said, your world had changed. And that came from my centuries of being alive."
As laughter danced between them, Akwan slipped away to rejoin Clover and the others. Asahi and Aletha lingered over their breads, the taste anchoring them to the present while hushed whispers between Akwan and Clover teased secrets of the days to come.
"In the next three days," Akwan, holding onto a blue luminance, clutched onto the infinity symbol, as his memories of a grand structure came into his peripheral vision. "There will be a ceremony called Fountain Day."
"Fountain day?" They questioned in unison. "What's that?"
Clover, who had looked exhausted the past day, began speaking for Akwan, noticing his exhaustion in his movements.
"It's basically a day for The Ruler of Purity," She said as she scratched her head. "A day to commemorate the years of building this beautiful and glorious fountain."
"What exactly does the Fountain do?" Aletha said, curiosity shining in her eyes.
"In short… They KEEP the waters of the Nation of Purity pure and drinkable." She said as she gave a glass of water to Asahi. "Not just that, but to keep the lands sustainable, and the rolling green to flourish."
Asahi took a sip of cold water and nodded his head in agreement, tasting the fluid as it nourished his soul. If they were ever in that looping prison, none of this information would have been shared. They would have been trapped in the three-day loop.
Now, it made sense why these three-day loops seized their grip in the future, why they couldn't pass the barriers in the first place. It wasn't only to keep them trapped, but to constantly shatter their perspectives on the world.
Now, released from the book's hold, Asahi and Aletha felt the cold touch of reality settle around them. The days of soaring beyond reach had vanished, leaving only the quiet bravery needed to leap into the unknown.
On the third day, as the clock's bells echoed through the air, Asahi stepped beyond their sanctuary and into the bustling world. His eyes caught a procession of ornate carriages, each adorned with intricate patterns, all gliding toward a distant glass palace that shimmered on the horizon.
"That right there," Akwan said as he closed his eyes, walking over to the two, sighing a deep sigh as carriages proceeded onwards. "Is the Grand Palace of Purity, a place where all come to gather with celebrations or parties?"
Asahi and Aletha both looked in awe at the colored carriages.
Some had a glacial blue, while others had a forest green; Aletha thought as they heard the horses.
After staying up for the entire night, ensuring them that it wasn't a loop, Asahi and Aletha had fallen asleep.
During their slumber, Akwan quietly took a pair of glasses and examined Asahi and Aletha's hair color.
"White shades of all around," Akwan said as he covered a blue brilliance shining in between their palms. "Just like their mother." As he looked at the S mark imprinted on their skin, his eyes widened in awe as memories flooded Akwan's brain, triggered by the influence of The Ruler of The Forgotten; memories of a woman dancing with a shimmering brown scarf.
The memory of that star-speckled fabric pulled at Akwan's thoughts, luring him deeper into the labyrinth of his own past…
The past faded away again, signaling another time shift...
Through the mist of memory, the world transformed into a silent village wrapped in winter's gentle hush.
A woman with long, white hair watched as dunes shattered in crimson luminance and a frosty peak towered as a silhouette, all evoking a sense of dread and mystery. She stood clad in a brown robe, its fabric dragging her bare feet.
Four people cloaked in shadow gathered in the villages; Rulers of all types gathered around the square of individuals in this white stone city.
"And so, the Adtraic embraces all with welcome arms."
Then it flickered into an instance where her cold hands were covered by the warmth of a newborn infant.
The wind bit at her skin as snow poured from the sky in unyielding torrents.
Fighting the gales, she shook her head and advanced forward into the heavy snowstorm, clutching onto her brown cloak.
Later, the woman carried the infant to a hidden cabin pressed against icy stone. She slipped off her cloak, unveiling a beauty so otherworldly it seemed to belong to another realm, stark against the wild landscape.
The look in her gray eyes seemed dead, but her shimmering, white hair shone with a brilliance like a star.
In contrast to her beautiful appearance in such a rural town, her voice was also clean to listen to, a voice that was hardened and direct like ice, yet her tone was soft like the breeze.
"I have saved you," She said as she comforted the infant in hot, warm water. "There, there… my child. I'm positive that you will be strong one day. But not in a place like this."
. . .
After setting sail toward the west side of the world, carrying and feeding the infant on her back the entire way there, she placed the baby into the boat, delivering it into the hands of the sailors. Then, after one last kiss on his forehead, the mysterious, shrouded woman waved goodbye, and he watched as the boat slowly departed from the port.
The vision slipped into silence, returning to the present...
The memory faded, returning to the quiet of the present night.
"HUH?!" He expressed, in the middle of the night. "Who… who was that?"
Only the sound of crickets and birds chirped outside.
As these memories continued to gnaw on the back of his mind, the young man, Akwan, began drinking a glass of water to help him fall asleep. But soon…
(CHIRP)
. . .
Morning arrived, shifting the scene to a new day.
…It's now morning, and the rising sun shone on every corner of the town. Asahi and Aletha slowly lifted themselves up, hearing a carriage sound on the horizon.
"Huh? What's going on?" Asahi said as he swiftly noticed something. "Wait... It's past the third day!?"
Aletha sneered, her hair a mess. "Third day for what?"
As they began to come to their senses,
It was now that Akwan realized the importance of that scarf WAS to Asahi and Aletha; it was because it belonged to their...
"...It belonged to their Mother," Akwan said as memories of the beautiful woman flashed into his brain. "The one with shimmering white hair."
After seeing the smile on her dead face as an infant, Akwan gulped down a breath of regret, muttering as Asahi and Aletha arose from their beds.
"Where... exactly do I come from?" He asked the air as he heard Asahi and Aletha scramble over the room.