Two months had passed since we first arrived in Mirukafa. Quite hard to believe, to be honest. It still feels like yesterday that we first met Matina.

  She’s surprisingly very accommodating. She let Captain anchor the airship closer to the base’s entrance and provided us meals that were apparently ‘molecularly printed’. Not sure what that means, but all I know is the meals were conjured up from light on a certain pedestal. Pretty impressive, right?

  However, although they were nutritious, they also looked and tasted bland. They looked like clay blocks, both in appearance and texture. The first few times were okay, but after that, I don’t feel I would want to eat those ever again if given the choice.

  From then on, we’ve been fishing on the less jagged shore to the west, where there was a flat beach by a cliff. Surprisingly, it was Alaric who taught all of us how to go beach fishing, as Captain Odya, Corley and Timbre lived in the desert and never fished, while I had only fished in small lakes or rivers. He asked Matina to create very long fishing poles and specialised baits, and showed us how to cast the line far into the ocean. We had a good time learning, with many laughable and memorable moments.

  Anyway, these days, everyone appears to be on their own routine. Alaric had pretty much become a daily fisherman, going to the beach every morning before sunrise. Captain Odya, on the other hand, is busy testing out new gun prototypes at her newly created shooting range and has become Matina’s shameless regular customer at that molecular printer thing to craft new components.

  Meanwhile, Timbre has started diving lately. Not sure what he is doing down there most of the time, but he appeared to be enjoying it. He would submerge himself from noon until evening, and would sometimes carry shellfish for dinner when he returned. It must be amazing to be able to breathe underwater like him.

  Finally, there’s Corley. She had been recovering well and could now stay much longer outside of that repairing capsule. Still, she needs to—

  “Hey, Lorian!”

  “Ahh!”

  Corley unexpectedly tapped Lorian's shoulder, interrupting his writing flow. She came only to say hi, and didn’t expect Lorian to be spooked by her. Equally shocked, she backed as Lorian turned, and both stared into each other’s eyes awkwardly for a second.

  “Oh, it’s you!”, Lorian expressed, “Sorry for that…. I…”

  “No, no, it’s my fault for randomly approaching you without warning!”, Corley rebutted.

  “Ahem, anyway…”, she bent forward, “what are you writing down?”.

  Lorian, sitting on the rocky ground, retracted the paper he had been writing on to his chest and said: “Oh, this? It’s… just a little memoir”.

  “A Memoir?”, Corley titled.

  “Yeah”, Lorian answered, “Just a short one, retelling about the things happening on this island”.

  “Really? If so, could I read it? I want to see the part where you said about everyone!”, she cheekily requested.

  “Huh? No, it’s not finished—Hey!”

  Corley reached out to the paper and snatched it out effortlessly. She read the whole paper out in seconds before allowing Lorian to snatch it back by hovering it to him.

  “Hehe… I see that you despise Matina’s printed food”, she teased.

  “Come on, not despise!”, Lorian opposed, “It’s just… looks rather unappetizing”.

  “Oh, really? In that case, how about you eat twice the—the—the—”

  “Uh oh, Corley!”

  Her voice started to sound grainy, with her eyes erratically glitching. She stiffened where she stood, like a person shocked by electricity. Hastily, Lorian stood up and grabbed the small floating ball by her side, before tweezing it around like Matina had shown everyone before.

  White aural ribbons surged into her body from the tweezed ball, jolting her body upright as the energy from that small ball overrode the glitches occurring in her body. Lorian kept it going for a few seconds until the energy got automatically rejected by her body, from which she dropped to the ground like a fallen statue.

  “Corley!”, he shouted.

  Corley’s consciousness returned gradually, with the white glows on her body remained for a while.

  “Ugh… That hurts…”, she murmured while lying down.

  “Is everything alright now?”, Lorian worriedly inquired.

  “Mrngh… I think so…”, she weakly said. “Thanks for helping, Lorian”.

  “No problem”, Lorian responded.

  Matina arrived on the platform where they were, checking in on the commotion she heard. Slithering up the ramp, the EOA saw Corley lying on the floor while Lorian was kneeling down next to her.

  “Lorian, did anything happen to Corley again?”, Matina asked.

  “Oh, hey Matina! Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of her using the floating ball”, he turned around and proudly answered.

  “Well, good to hear that you acted fast”, she commended amicably.

  Corley tiredly turned her head to the side, smiling as she saw her lifesaver coming. “Hey, Lady Matina, great to see you coming now…”, she politely said.

  “I have a feeling that I might have to go back into the energy calibrator capsule. The axion and mana in my body are still ‘arguing’ with each other sometimes”, she told her what she felt.

  “Is that so?”, Matina kindly expressed, “The Neomathic Function that I used on you should’ve allowed you to stay out much longer until tonight”.

  “Like I said to you before: you might feel some uneasy turbulence stirring inside of you, but it is not a worrying issue. Just keep your computations unbusy and you should feel fine”.

  “No, Lady Matina”, she politely objected, “I actually don’t feel good right now… Something else must be going on”.

  “*sigh*… Alright, let’s bring you back”, Matina yielded.

  She conjured up a holographic panel from mid-air and gestured around to control the floating ball that followed Corley everywhere. It vibrated for a while before transforming into a flat board, which it then slid below Corley before lifting her up.

  As Lorian watched Corley float towards Matina, he quickly asked: “Wait, then how about tonight? Didn’t you say you’re looking to finally join us for dinner?”

  “Sorry, Lorian”, she responded from atop the board, “It looks like I have to postpone that for tomorrow, hopefully”.

  Matina asked Lorian: “So, Lorian, do you want to follow us to my base now, or are you looking to enjoy the sunset first?”

  “Uh… I guess I’ll stay first”, Lorian hesitantly answered.

  Matina slithered down with Corley by her side as he watched them leave him on the scenic platform alone. This platform, which Lorian had made his favourite place on the island, provided a nice panoramic view where one could see the lower shores below from up high, while getting the best angle to see the sunset shine over the rocky island daily.

  With slight disappointment, he looked out to the sun over the horizon as it was about to set in about an hour. The orange light stretched out over the horizon as the sun became more bearable to watch directly, thanks to the clouds partially covering it. As the waves rolled and the seagulls gawked by the shore, he started to enter a deep reflection.

  It wasn’t about Corley not joining tonight’s dinner, far from it. Rather, it was about the thoughts that had been lurking in his heart ever since he reached Mirukafa.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  It was about Hadrick and Yuna. As much as he developed strong bonds with the Strife Striders, especially after having gone through all of the previous events together, he still thought of his old friends. Partly due to nostalgia, but partly out of guilty obligation, too.

  Ever since learning that his friends were not only alive, but had been taken by two empires for possessing resolites, he had been wondering how they might be doing now. Unfortunately, Matina and her colleagues' ability to spy on anywhere in Equilibria had its limits, with reasons he barely understood upon explanation. With that, he was left with only a small, limited knowledge from a while back: that Yuna had been taken to Tachyon, while Hadrick was taken to Seirion.

  “Matina said that abducted resolutors are to be groomed into the empires’ elite soldiers, Vanguard, as they call them in Tachyon, and Paladins, as they call them in Seirion. They’ll become deeply loyal, unquestioning to any order and unstoppable in battle”.

  “As horrible as that sounded for me, it was the only way Matina could rescue them. Compared to normal people, who are seen as worthless, resolutors are invaluable assets that the empires are sure to secure at all costs”.

  “At least it soothed me knowing that they’re in ‘safe hands’, as much as I hate to say that”.

  He walked up closer to the edge and sat by the ledge with his feet dangling down. Staring off into the golden horizon, he calmly sighed while the cold breeze gently blew across his skin. He pulled out his resolite from his pouch and had it eclipse his vision of the sunset as he held it forth. The golden sunray revealed its mesmerising crystalline pattern from within, hypnotising, like gazing into a kaleidoscope.

  After that, he focused his attention on the Contact Bracelet on his wrist. It still had the yellow silk he tied onto it, covering parts of the old inscription. Both the resolite and the Contact Bracelet had a similar otherworldly profile to them, and yet, neither felt mystifying to him any longer.

  “The EOA… the beings we once called angels…”

  “As much as they have fancier powers, far surpassing the two empires' technology and magic, they humbly admit that they couldn’t do much”.

  “Weaknesses are not something humans usually would want from their divine guardians. But I guess when these ‘angels’ don’t even see themselves as divine or worthy of prayers, that probably means it's just us who have the wrong expectation”.

  “To be fair, they have done a lot already, and most of it went underappreciated by many, including me. For all the flaws that they had, I… still feel that we should give Matina and the others the respect…”.

  “Heh, now that I think of it, I ironically felt more faithful in them than ever before. Perhaps it has something to do with getting to know them in person, as opposed to listening to a jumble of tales about them”.

  “Though… I’m still trying to figure out how we should view them if not as angels. ‘Friends’ felt disrespectful for their status, yet ‘Helpers’ made them too distant…”

  Looking beneath his dangling feet, past the cliff’s slope, he saw a green figure hiking up the winding path from the shores below. He immediately knew that it was Timbre, with something big sagging on his shoulder.

  “Oh, look! Timbre’s back!”

  Pondering time was over. Now, it was time for Lorian to return to the present time.

  He stood up and eagerly waited for Timbre to arrive at his platform. When Timbre took the last sharp turn up, he saw Lorian had already been waiting down the platform’s ramp, smiling brightly as he readied his conversation.

  “Hey, Timbre! What did you bring this time?”, Lorian approached him and walked by his side.

  “This thing?”, Timbre lightly slapped the black sack, “It’s a gift from an ocean friend”.

  “Who’s that?”, Lorian continued.

  Timbre answered: “Just an octopus. It loves to collect trinkets like shells and shiny rocks, and has too much of them to keep. So, it decided to give me part of its collection”.

  “So, these are all rocks and shells only?”, Lorian examined the sack closely.

  “Yes… None of them is of any use to us, really; unless some of us would like to make seashell necklaces, that is”, Timbre admitted.

  “To be frank, I only bring this on land just so that the octopus won’t feel wasted over its lifelong passion. It would hurt its feelings if I were to dump it out right in front of it”.

  “So… you’re going to keep them with you forever?”, Lorian asked more.

  Timbre bluntly said: “Probably not. I might dump them away after we leave this island. Keeping these would only be a waste of space in the airship”.

  “Oh… I see…”, Lorian was taken aback slightly.

  “What’s wrong? It sounded like my answer disturbed you”, Timbre noticed.

  Lorian sprang up immediately: “Uh—It’s nothing! It’s just that I would expect you to keep some of it as a memento for, well… your friendship with that octopus…”

  “Hahaha… what a mindful thought”, Timbre amused. “Unfortunately, I’m not the kind to keep mementoes around. If anything, my strong memory is enough for me to cherish everything”.

  “After all, the important part is the gesture we show. What’s unseen, as long as it didn’t bother them in any way, is up to us to decide”

  “I… might not fully agree with your last sentence”, Lorian responded.

  “Hm? Why is that?”, Timbre became curious.

  Lorian answered: “I… I don’t know how to describe it… But, as someone who had lost so many things, for me, even the smallest object of memento is worthy of keeping”.

  He lifted his hand and looked at the yellow silk tied to the Contact Bracelet.

  “Because, unlike any other item, those objects, be it as simple as it may be, represent the moment when it was received. Everything else changes around us, but the mementoes shall remain the same”.

  “Interesting…”, Timbre commented. “But then, what would happen if the memento is lost or broken?”

  “Then… Then…. uhm…”

  That question made Lorian dumbfounded. Saying that we should fix or create a replica of it would defeat his original argument, yet not doing anything also yields the same result. He ended up falling into silence upon facing an unexpected dilemma.

  “Don’t worry, Lorian”, Timbre cheered him up, “Just because you couldn’t answer it now, doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Perhaps you might find the answer one day”.

  “Yeah… I hope so…”, Lorian replied.

  The two later arrived back at Matina’s cave base, with its massive entrance wide open as the light inside poured out into the dusky environment. Their airship was right next to the entrance, where it was anchored onto the flat ground.

  As they drew closer, they saw Captain Odya and Alaric in front of the cave, both were preparing for tonight’s dinner as smoke rose from the grill. Matina was also seen coming out of the cave, slithering over to the dinner area with a bucket of printed food.

  Upon placing the bucket on the table, Matina gazed up and saw Lorian and Timbre arriving at the dinner area.

  “Ah, good to see both of you coming just in time”, she warmly expressed.

  “Oh? Are we ready to have dinner already?”, Lorian asked.

  Alaric looked away from the fish on the grill upon hearing Lorian’s voice, and happily greeted them from afar:

  “Hah! Lorian, Timbre, you two arrived!”.

  He walked up to them, letting Captain Odya take care of the almost-cooked fish by herself.

  “So… got anything interesting from the seabed?”, he asked Timbre with his eyes locked on the sack.

  “Unfortunately, no”, Timbre answered. He then briefed Alaric about what he got, and it left Alaric slightly disappointed.

  “Oh well… that means we won’t have anything else to add to tonight’s menu. But I guess that’s okay with both of you, right?”, he expressed.

  “It’s fine, we’ve eaten a lot of shellfish lately”, Lorian said.

  Captain Odya brought forth the finished steaming hot grilled fish to the table, with its aroma luring everyone’s appetite, excluding Matina.

  “Alright, that’s the last fish done! Come, let’s dig in while it's still hot”, she invited everyone.

  Sitting around the round table, they indulged themselves with today’s catch. The freshness of the ocean fish meat, savoured with ingredients from Matina’s plant lab, satiated their hunger with an unforgettable taste. In between the bites, they held their usual chatter, with seemingly endless topics to be discussed.

  “So, Corley needed to be back in the capsule early, huh?”, Odya asked Matina, with chewed fish in her mouth.

  “That’s true”, the EOA answered, not savouring any of the human food, but still accompanying them at the table. “Despite the progress she made, her energy balance still needs a lot of tuning work”.

  Swallowing the food, Odya said: “Oh, that’s a little disheartening... I was hoping that Corley could finally join us tonight. She would have loved to eat all of these”.

  Alaric added: “Even with all the tools you have, I’m quite surprised how much work is needed to bring her back to normal, Matina”.

  “That’s how complex and delicate Corley is”, Matina responded. “The fact that she was able to keep working even after many of her components malfunctioned proved how tenacious she is deep down”.

  “You sure know a lot about her, Matina”, Lorian said.

  “Not that I know personally; I just dug up all the information regarding her while fixing her up”, Matina clarified.

  “However, just as all of you remembered: out of her own request, she told me not to share her history with anybody, including the ones she herself had forgotten. If it wasn’t for that, there are many things I would love to share with all of you”, she continued.

  “Honestly, I still don’t understand why she wanted it that way”, Lorian expressed.

  “Think of it as having your childhood embarrassing moments”, Odya commented. “You wouldn’t like it if your parent shared all of those moments with your newly met friend from afar”.

  “I mean, I know that neither you nor I still have our parents. But you got what I meant, right?”

  Lorian nodded, saying: “Well, that’s understandable. But, how about the memories she had forgotten, too? I remembered she said that she wasn’t willing to know them for herself”.

  “Those must be the particularly horrible memories, if she had completely forgotten them”, Alaric speculated.

  “Not exactly”, Matina corrected Alaric. “Memories served a different purpose for her compared to humans like you. While you may remember solely for your own self, memories for her are directly connected to her functions”.

  “From what I’ve investigated, when any of her functions stopped working, she would end up losing all the memories that involved her using that function. Some fragments may linger, but those would mostly be inaccessible to her normally”.

  “If she tries to recall those memories, or is reminded of them, her body would attempt to reactivate the broken functions, which would end up giving her severe pain”.

  “In other words, it was part of her safety mechanism to keep her away from self-harm”.

  “Well, that’s quite unexpected”, Lorian expressed.

  “I always wonder...”, Odya said out loud, “how was Corley during her prime? She always told me she’s past her prime, yet she still could do many things”.

  Matina spoke: “I can’t tell you much, but what I can tell you is this…”

  “She was made to defy the two paradigms… by someone who wished to see a better future…”.