The Sword and The Shadow

"Damnit! I knew I shouldn't have trusted him! EIrinn, stay here and take care of Innie. I'll go take a look!" Leguna said the moment he heard the commotion and sped there after he told her what to do.

As Myr was just in the next room, Leguna was instantly able to find out what happened.

And the answer was… nothing much, though that wasn't too apt a description either. The whole room was charred, but Leguna could see from the ruined window that the two of them were fine.

"Dictation speed hasn't decreased," Myr said as if he hadn't noticed the surrounding changes and continued to control his quill with magic. "Do you know what gifts are?"

"I do," Annelotte said, "Gifts are manifestations of abilities to control a certain kind of elemental aspect when their affinity for it is high. The gifts can have a huge range of effects and I know that I'm a gifted as well."

"Why?" Myr asked. How could she remember being gifted even though she didn't remember being a magus?

"Because I can remember the three methods to use my gifts. I'm a water swayer."

"That means you reasoned that out as well?"

"Yes."

"Try using Glacial Conversion and Glacial Domain for me to see." He didn't ask her to use Host of Glacier as he knew how huge the side effects of that would be.

"Alright."

First, she used Glacial Domain to freeze the glass of water near her. The apparatus froze from the sudden change in temperature and exploded. The last remaining intact object was shattered by her.

Then, she dictated a spell. Perhaps she found the damage to the room to be a little extensive, so she sent a low-powered fireball out of the window.

She had long noticed Leguna watching from outside and couldn't help but throw a fireball to his face.

Is this a habit of mine? What kind of relationship did I have with that fellow? she thought.

Leguna naturally wouldn't be hurt by the intentionally weakened fireball. He squeezed it with his bare hands and shielded himself with impetus. "The fireball is the cold kind."

"Alright," Myr said as he continued his evaluation.

……

Tens of minutes passed and Myr finally finished his questions. He spent half an hour arranging his results and came to a conclusion during the evening.

Myr, Leguna, Annelotte and Eirinn were seated in a circle, waiting to hear the reason for her memory loss.

Annelotte sat among the three and looked at them. She felt a little odd sitting with three strangers discussing herself, or rather, her old self.

"The temporal lobe of her brain that stores her episodic memories are damaged," Myr said, "I was also able to find out how Annie got hurt."

"What happened?" Leguna asked.

"She was poisoned."

"Poisoned?"

"That's right. The poison affected her diatagi. More specifically, the poison disrupts the brain and prevents someone from controlling their diatagi well. If the diatagi is like a spring, the brain is the hand holding the string down. But if the hand loses control, the spring will expand and contract nonstop and the results are obvious."

"The spring will… rupture?" Eirinn made a careful guess.

"Yes," Myr said, "If the diatagi ruptures, that means the consciousness of the person will be erased. The person will unquestionably die. This toxin, on the other hand, is more effective the higher stratum the magus is."

"That means Annie's diatagi didn't rupture then," Leguna said.

"Perhaps she had made certain preparations after she realized she was poisoned," Myr guessed, "Usually, loss of control over the diatagi in a high-order magus would almost certainly result in death."

"Then why did she lose her memories?"

"Even though Annie's diatagi didn't rupture, the compression and expansion caused a certain degree of damage," Myr explained, "And the diatagi is connected to the brain, so the parts of it that stores episodic memory, the temporal lobe, were also damaged as a consequence."

"The temporal lobe?" Leguna recalled that Myr mentioned the term twice.

"It's the part that records what happens in sequence," Myr said, "It's quite complicated to explain, but basically, she won't remember what she ate for dinner or who she talked to before. But she keeps her knowledge, because it isn't part of episodic memory. She knows what beef, magi and flames are."

"So she lost her memory and kept her knowledge?" Leguna mused.

"That's the case in simple terms," Myr said with a nod, "Also, the diatagi has a self-recovering factor. With the help of my medicine, her diatagi is more or less restored. In other words, her abilities and power haven't fallen, but she lost her memories."

"Then… how can we help Sis Annie get her memory back?" Eirinn asked.

"It's hard to say," Myr said as he shook his head in frustration, "If her memories are only temporarily lost because of the damage, she might be able to recover it in a few days. But if the damage is too extensive and the memories are truly wiped away, we can do nothing about it. One way we can go about it is us writing down what she had experienced. I can use a spell to forcefully put the memories back, but it will be a painful process, even more so than Scry."

"Let's give up on fabricating memories them," Leguna decided without hesitation. He had experienced Scry himself and wouldn't wish something even more painful on Annelotte, even if it meant she would never remember the old him for good.

Annelotte shot him a glance and wondered why he was deciding matters on her behalf.

Leguna sighed in pain and stroked Innilis's head. "I hope you'll be fine…"

"Since my memories won't be coming back in the short term, can you all introduce yourselves?" She really wanted to know what kind of situation she was in.

Leguna grit his teeth so hard that he almost made them bleed. He ignored the pain and stood up first. "Alright, I'll tell you about yourself first."

"Alright," she agreed with a nod. It felt too weird for her to not know who she herself was.

Leguna felt both weirded out and in pain at the same time. He had to make an introduction to the person about whom he cared most, but it wasn't a self-introduction but one about the person in question.

"Memory… backup…" a weak voice rang before Leguna could speak.

Leguna turned around in shock and saw Innilis's lips moving as if she was trying to say something.

"Innie?" Leguna gave her a gentle nudge.

"Let me," Myr said as he pushed Leguna aside and used some spells on her.

"Let's wait for a little longer then. Innie might know something else," Leguna said encouragingly to Annelotte, though it sounded more like a consolation to himself.

Even though I'm the one who lost my memories, why does he look sadder than I do? Does he care about me that much? she thought, tilting her head.

Not long after, Innilis finally woke. She opened her emerald eyes and saw Leguna.

The look on his face was so sincere and concerned that it looked like he couldn't worry about anything else. Yet, it was that expression that made her break into tears.

"Big Bro Leguna! Waaaaah!"

Hearing Innilis still knew his name, he breathed a sigh of relief. He pulled her into his embrace and caressed her back gently as he consoled.

"It's alright, Innie. I'm back. It's fine now."

Her memories gradually filled her mind once more, whether they be happy ones, or painful and humiliating ones. When she remembered what happened, she quickly pushed Leguna aside and shrieked.

"Sis Annie! You must go save her!"

"If you're looking for me, I'm here."

Annelotte took a few steps forward when she heard someone calling her. Was the girl closely related to her as well?

"Sis Annie…"

Even though she was that desperate for her to be safe, she didn't really know how to respond when it came to it. She pulled away, knowing she had done something very wrong. She didn't even know how to face Leguna, to say no less of Annelotte.

Innilis looked at the expressionless Annelotte and asked, "Sis Annie, are you alright?"

"She regained consciousness," Leguna said in pain, "but she lost her memories…"