He woke up screaming. The sweat pouring off him felt like he was submerged in the ocean once more. A dream...

No, a memory.

Nyxis clutched his head, steadying his breathing. He remembered something. A palace, a family, a battle. The Palace was his home or it had been. Something happened judging from the hatred he felt towards that place. What was he supposed to feel in the memory of a man and a boy who looked so much like him and a woman who held so much greed in her eyes?

They were his family—that much he could remember. What happened to them that made him revile but, at the same time, pity them? They all perished in the battle that happened in the Palace. He recalled butterflies, for some reason. There were tinkling shards and a voice as well. A small gasp tore from his lips. It was the same voice that belonged to the woman who fell with him.

The Heiress.

Dear gods. He should know everything about her and why he had to fight her but his stupid brain couldn't even remember why he had to haul her off the cliff. It just reminded him that he was stupid enough to fall off a cliff. His memory showed him another girl whose face his brain kept failing to show. The girl with the warm, brown eyes...who was she?

He sat up, his body feeling less burdened. Some of the tension in his shoulders had eased; he could move his limbs without much strain and pain shooting into his head. How long had he slept? His stomach growled. Oh. How long had he gone without food?

He edged off his rock and trudged to the curtain ahead of him. He pushed it back just enough to see the blue-haired girl bustling around on a counter on the far side of the room. A pile of chopped firewood stood to his left, beside yet another curtained doorway. Above it perched a cauldron hanging from a pole supported by braces that were stuck to the rock.

Nyxis watched as the girl chopped orange crops and dunked them into the boiling cauldron in smooth, graceful movements. She must have been doing this for a long time now. He spied more kegs to his right, piled on top of each other as if there's nothing in them.

The roar of the ocean was so strong that he could hear it in this cavern. How come he hadn't heard it from when he first woke up atop his rock? Was that how damaged he was?

"How much longer are you going to stand there?" the girl's voice tore through Nyxis's thoughts, going from soft to high-pitched. She's annoyed and rightly so.

Nyxis pursed his lips and turned away. " I am not hungry," he lied. Perhaps he can find some edible roots in this cave and—

Water slammed into him from behind. He whipped back to the girl who had an arm forward. She's smiling, albeit a little wickedly. Nyxis frowned, feeling cold droplets slither from his hair to his clothes. He was dripping.

"We both know that to be a lie," the girl said, blowing on her hands and dusting them off. "Sit down and start eating. I redacted the sustenance from your treatments so you are naturally hungry. Come."

Nyxis knitted his eyebrows. He stayed where he was. "Why are you still treating me?"

"Mind you, I am still angry about last time," the girl tucked her hair behind a pointy ear. "But like I said, I am going to get you out of this cave alive and healed."

"Yes," their petty fight edged into Nyxis's memory. A wince crept to his face just as quickly. "Even after that, why?"

The girl picked at her lips and averted her eyes. "It is what I am born to do."

"Are you a doctor?" Nyxis asked, feeling some sort of strange connection to the word. Perhaps, he had been one too.

"You could say that," a small smile colored the girl's lips. Then, she shook her head and waved a hand in his direction. "Now, come here and eat."

Nyxis obeyed. He sat into the ground with a heavy splat as his wet clothes smacked the floor. He accepted a steaming bowl of the orange goop the girl had been cooking. He looked at it and sipped a small amount. It's surprisingly decent, the salty flavor blending with some sort of fruity sweetness in his tongue. Strangely, he recognized it.

"Did you use chasset buds?" He raised an eyebrow. He didn't know how he knew that but apparently, he did.

"Yes," the girl said slowly. Then, she leaned forward from her perch and wagged her spoon at him. "Ripe or raw?"

Nyxis shoveled another spoonful and smacked his lips. "Raw," he said. "Ripe tastes more like the seeds."

He blinked. What in Umazure was he saying? How did he know these things?

The girl huffed and inclined her head sideways. "So you remember things like this now?"

"I guess so," Nyxis muttered more to himself rather than to the girl.

They continued eating in silence. Nyxis ate enough to stop his stomach from grumbling but not enough to say that he's full. He set his bowl down. It had taken him a while before he realized that they were made from hollowed-out cores of levier fruits.

WIthout a word and much noise, the girl hovered her hands over their used dishes. Nyxis watched as water from a nearby keg floated towards the girl in large blobs before settling on the dishes. The girl flexed and relaxed her fingers, the water following her movements. Within moments, the bowls were clean and the water discarded on the ground with an ugly splat.

Nyxis's jaw hung open as his head snapped up to the girl. "Are you a water sprite?"

The girl looked at him once. "No."

She stood up and was about to disappear into the other cavern when Nyxis opened his mouth. "I am sorry," he blurted. The girl froze in her tracks. He gulped the bitter taste in his mouth. "And thank you...for saving me," he coughed out.

The girl didn't look at him and gave no indication that she heard him. Instead, she continued walking and disappeared into the curtain beside the fire.

"So," Xanthy coughed into her fist as a random memory popped into her brain. "There was this moment where I was so under pressure that I unleashed the Virtakios and suddenly, this whole gaping void that sucked everything was in front of me. What was that?"

The being thought for a while before answering. "You need to understand the nature of the magic of both worlds and the nature of yours to understand the answer to that question."

"Uh huh," Xanthy nodded, unimpressed. "So the nature of the magic of World Beyond is, I don't know, beyond us?"

"Nope!" the being said in a strange tongue but somehow it translated as a no. "It is not that beyond us. World Beyond's magic is imagination. People there have blazing mindscapes that are capable of creating anything. It is the same magic that brought this world to life in the form of dreams."

Xanthy raised an eyebrow. Huh. The being continued, "And Fantasilia, being a product of dreams, has a type of magic that is wild and uncontrollable. We have magic that has many forms and many vessels but we are still made up of the same thing that brought us to life."

The being pointed to Xanthy. "We are all made of dreams. Everything you see is part of a dreamscape that came forth from World Beyond's magic. Those from the world beyond us, when they come here, they take part in that magic with them."

"And that is the essence of the Virtakios," the being folded its hands together as if closing a tome it finished reading. "The Power of the Ancients, after the first ones from World Beyond to ever discover our world, is simply the power of imagination toned down to fit inside this world. In simpler terms, the Virtakios is the power to change this dreamscape, to manipulate it, to bend it according to your will."

"Is that why I can do all three types of magic?" Xanthy scratched the side of her face. "Is that also why I can touch other people's magic and hinder it?"

The being nodded. "You have been changing the very foundation of their existence whenever you do that"

"Then, why can't I control it?" Xanthy said. "Should I not use it only when I wish and not every damn time I let my emotions slip?"

The being shook its head. "The Virtakios should never be controlled nor is it to be treated as a separate branch of magic. It is part of you and the only way to control it is to use it with your spells. That way, you can get used to the feeling whenever you channel it."

"But I have been doing that to strengthen the effect of my attacks," Xanthy glanced up, remembering all the times she did so. "I'm still dangerous to be around whenever I'm too angry."

"Well, perhaps this is a reminder to keep your temper in your throat," the being said with a hint of amusement creeping to its tone. "Don't be afraid to unleash the Virtakios with the intent to save and not harm. Think of it as just a tool to give the world a better linoleum."

Xanthy knitted her eyebrows. "Linoleum? What is that?"

"Nothing important!" the being clapped its hands together. What in Umazure was this Arbotro spouting?

Well...that's the least of Xanthy's problems when the line where their conversation was going registered in her mind. "You talk as if I'm getting out of here," Xanthy narrowed her eyes. "It's as if I will have more venues to use the Virtakios in the living world. I mean, I'm stuck here."

"You are stuck here as long as you want to be," the being rolled its shoulders. "You will be as long as you are running."

"So I can get out whenever I wish?"

"Between you and me, I think you don't want to get out," the being replied.

Well, that's kind of...true.

"So," the being brought its hands together once more. "Let's go to a topic that will make your feet itch to get out of here."

Xanthy raised an eyebrow. What topic would make her want to go back into the world she left behind? "That is?"

If the being had a face, it could have smiled as it said, "The Sovereign and the Heiress."