~AB dimension~

Zhaika tried to move backward, away from the Demon's voice, but her back pressed into cold metal. Her breath was shallow as she slid a hand along the surface behind her, trying to find any sort of opening.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Bluebell whispered after a moment with no response.

Zhaika took a long, shaky breath, focusing on the feeling of her body being her own again. "How am I supposed to trust that?" she whispered finally.

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence.

"I don't have anything against Humans," Bluebell answered finally. "And I don't want the other Demons to know you're here. They might..." She paused. "They might resent you, just because your life was so full of opportunity."

Zhaika frowned. "What opportunity?" she demanded in a harsher whisper. "You don't know anything about me. I've had about the worst run of it possible." And to add onto what was an already-perfect life, now I'm stuck in a lightless, heatless, gravity-less void with a bunch of Demons who may or may not want to hurt me.

"Worst run for a Human, maybe," Bluebell huffed. "Your kind get two dimensions full of magic and light and technology, just because the Gods decided they liked you more."

"Two dimensions? I didn't even know there was more than one dimension in existence until today."

More silence.

"Huh," the Demon answered finally, sounding unconvinced.

Zhaika squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her forehead. Her anxiety had finally started to subside as she focused on the conversation, but the fact remained that she couldn't see and was still freezing cold. However, this Demon really did seem like she didn't want to hurt her — at least, not right now — and befriending her was the best option Zhaika could see. "My name is Zhaika Vallenscey. And if you want to get along with me, don't ever possess me again."

"Sorry about that," Bluebell responded, sounding sheepish. "At first, I thought the Gate guards heard me, so I didn't even sense you until the very last moment, and I didn't have lots of time to react. Once I realized you felt different from everyone else — not that different, I mean..." she added as if worried that she'd offended Zhaika. "Anyway, I realized you must have come through the Gates somehow, which meant you were probably Human, and after that it was just kind of...instinct."

A sudden thought occurred to Zhaika. "Have you never possessed anyone before?"

"Nope. There aren't any Humans in the Astral Blind dimension. We were starting to think they were a myth from the past until two of the Gates got cracked open somehow." After a second, she elaborated, "There are lots of those Gates around here — seven, to be exact — but we don't know how many of them ever actually went anywhere."

Zhaika hummed, not sure what to say as she processed the information.

"So anyway, yeah, that was my first ever possession. I think I did pretty okay though." She let out a soft, nervous laugh.

Zhaika wished more than anything that the Demon could see her glaring. She takes away my control over my own body and then describes it as 'pretty okay'!?

"Can I ask..." Bluebell continued obliviously. "Why did you come through the Gates this direction?"

The question hit Zhaika harder than she'd expected. She thought back to what had happened since she'd woken up that morning in the shack and noticed that Caesia was still absent. The memories were oddly difficult to recall, like something was distorting them somehow, but she remembered enough that the confusion she felt about her last-minute decision came storming back in.

"I made a mistake," she answered finally, not sure how much she should tell the Demon. After all, she could probably assume that Bluebell wanted Allium to succeed in letting their kind into Zhaika's dimension.

"How so?" Bluebell prompted carefully.

"I met Prince Allium — well, I thought he was Prince Ikreva, my kingdom's Crown Prince, but it was actually Allium possessing him. And he said he needed my help, and I wanted so badly to actually help my people..." She felt tears welling in her eyes and realized her voice had been rising. As long as she kept it steady, though, Bluebell wouldn't know how she felt. It was sort of freeing, knowing no one could see her cry.

"Well, he tricked me into opening the Gates further, which could hurt my kingdom, and I realized he probably did the same thing to my sister Caesia-" At the mention of her sister's name, her voice finally cracked.

Then she finally realized what was wrong with her memory. She couldn't picture her sister's face. She couldn't picture anything.

She sucked in a breath. "Bluebell, something's wrong with my mind."

"What?" the Demon asked, startled, as if she'd been deep in thought about something else.

"I can't picture anything."

"What do you mean, 'picture'?"

Her eyes widened. "Can you not...form images in your mind? I mean, I know this dimension has no light, but your mind should still be able-"

"Oh. No," Bluebell interrupted, not aggressively, but forcefully enough to stop Zhaika from winding herself up further. "The Astral Blind isn't just lightless, it doesn't allow for any type of vision. Real or imagined."

"But now I can't remember what Caesia looks like. I mean, I could describe her, because I've done it before, but I can't see her, and she's the only reason I'm even here, I did this for her, and I still didn't even make a difference either way!" She tried to breathe, but it came in as a gasp and out as a sob as the tears finally fell down her face.

She rested her head back against the metal behind her and used the bars her feet were hooked in to slide down into a ball near the 'floor'. Her arms wrapped around her knees and she buried her face in her legs, shoulders shaking as sobs wracked her body. "I was trying to help Caesia," she whined into the cloth of her pants.

"Can you hear her voice?" Bluebell asked gently in front of her — it sounded like she'd crouched down as well.

Zhaika took a few rapid breaths, trying to focus on the Demon's words. Can I hear her voice? Whose voice? What does she mean? Oh. Squeezing her eyes shut tighter, she thought back to the last interaction she'd had with her sister, trying to hear the words that had been said.

"I'll be in the nobility's neighborhood as usual." It did sound like Caesia's voice — the same register and timbre as her own, but more...sarcastic, for lack of a better term. Careless.

Zhaika remembered the feeling of rolling her eyes. "Let me know when you feel like joining me on the farms. They pay pretty decently."

"Keep telling yourself that."

And then Caesia had left.

"I can hear her voice," she said aloud. Her own was weak and shaky.

"Hold on to that," Bluebell said. "And know that she's probably alright. Prince Allium can be dramatic sometimes, but he never really wants to hurt anybody, okay?"

Zhaika wanted more than 'probably', but since there was nothing she could do right now, she nodded. After a moment, she remembered the Demon couldn't see her, and whispered, "Okay."

"Um..." Bluebell began hesitantly. "I don't want to freak you out, but do you hear people coming?"

Zhaika went still, listening. Sure enough, voices were growing louder somewhere above them.

"We need to find somewhere for you to hide-"

The surface above them banged loudly several times.

Zhaika had to bring a hand to her mouth to muffle her yelp. Her eyes darted around the darkness out of habit, before she came to her senses and tried to feel for openings around her.

"Stay here, I'll come back," Bluebell whispered. There was a soft click, then a creaking noise above. Zhaika grabbed the bar by her feet and pulled herself as far down in the space as she could.

"What is it?" Bluebell asked more loudly, now a distance above Zhaika. At full volume, her voice was high and ringing, but not piercing.

"You're not supposed to be over here." It was one of the two people that had been arguing before.

"I just needed a bit of space," Bluebell said defensively. "It's getting so crowded on the main structures."

"That doesn't give you permission to wander into the royalty's space," the other Demon snapped. "Come on, let's get you back to the rest."

Bluebell let out a long sigh. "Alright."

Three soft whooshes later, Zhaika was alone.