Truth sat back in the wagon with wide, surprised eyes. She gnced at her father, who shared an equally astonished look. The voice that had come from the device, foreign and unknown, was quite a shock. Both had expected the prior form of communication through writing, and neither had suspected an individual to speak up. Especially not one who sounded quite intimidating to Truth with their deep and slightly raspy tone. The man spoke slowly as if articuting each word carefully, a far cry from their rapid and demeaning writing style.

  “Dreamer…?” The voice of the one named Venra prompted, their tone shifting to annoyance. “Answer me… Did Shaed disclose… my name?” They breathed out raggedly as if such a sentence was a struggle.

  Truth blinked and looked back at her, the gss dark. She hadn’t expected this to work; she had nothing to say. She closed her eyes, took in a breath, and focused. “No,” she said finally, “not intentionally. He threw out your name offhandedly.”

  Venra did not respond immediately, leaving Truth to hear only his ragged breathing. Is he alright? She wondered. He sounds as if he’s in pain.

  “So you… Contacted me…? Why?” Venra growled. “You have… No purpose… To speak with me… Dreamer…”

  Truth cocked her head. He speaks as if he despises me. Why is he so hostile?

  A part of Truth, the tiny bit of Luna that was still there, wanted to sh out, to become defensive. However, she stifled that aspect of herself. Instead, she briefly held her breath and decided to follow him.

  “You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry for disturbing you. I simply wanted to confirm if you were the one messaging us earlier. The one who called themselves Ami.” Truth expined, trying to keep her tone professional.

  Her father raised an eyebrow at her but said nothing as Venra hummed to himself. “That is… Or was an aspect of me…” He said, “Now, is that all…?”

  Truth took a deep breath. What did he mean by an aspect? Was Ami someone like Lucien, some sort of projection? Or whatever Shaed described.

  She shook her head. “No, I have some questions–”

  “Then speak, Dreamer… I do not have time to answer petty questions. Be quick.” The man snarled, and Truth flinched.

  Slyran scowled. “Hey, krek,” he said, “What the hell is your problem?”

  Truth closed her eyes and sighed. And I don’t have time for them to argue…

  “My problem…” Venra paused and hummed faintly, something Truth noted he seemed to do a lot. “My problem is that an echo and a mortal are disturbing me for no reason… You are both interfering with my productivity.”

  Slyran opened his mouth to argue more, but Truth stopped him by asking, “Who are you?”

  Venra snorted. “Who am I…? Dreamer… You know my name, is that not enough?”

  Truth shook her head. “I know your name, but I don’t know who you are. What is your retionship with the Master? Why has he never mentioned you before? Why did you wait till now to interfere with us?”

  Venra sighed deeply. “Questions… So many questions… Why is it that you always ask questions and never do what I suggest?”

  Truth blinked. What the hell is he even talking about?

  “Expin?” She prompted.

  Venra huffed. “It’s none of your business… Just an old man rambling to himself… Dreamer, what you ask isn’t entirely relevant to the situation.”

  Truth bit her lip and held her tongue. I’m getting really tired of this “irrelevant” crap. First, I had to deal with Shaed hand-waving me constantly. I don’t want to be put through this again.

  Venra continued, “But I will say this, Shaed and I are colleagues… Which makes you… Our…” He paused and hummed in thought once again before chuckling. “Tool… Like a knife we’ve been honing.”

  “What in the hells are you talking about?” Her father asked, his frown deepening. “What do you and that… thing in Luna’s head want?”

  Venra hummed with amusement. “Hasn’t Shaed expined?” He purred, the annoyance from before seemingly gone.

  Truth blinked. “He, he never really got to tell me anything. Last we spoke, we were interrupted.”

  “Ah, so… That expins it,” He said, and Truth shared a look with her father.

  “Can you be more clear?” Truth asked.

  “It doesn’t concern you,” Venra dismissed her. “What Shaed and I want, Dreamer, is simple. Quite frankly, what we want is what you want…”

  “And that is?”

  “To survive.” He chuckled. “A simple goal that is, one in which you will py a prime role in.”

  Slyran gritted his teeth. “Then tell us, what is going on, if she pys such an important role, shouldn’t you be clueing her in?”

  Truth held a hand up to her father to calm him as Venra simply ughed. “That is not how this works, Elf. Has Shaed expined why he cannot tell you everything, Dreamer?”

  Truth nodded. “He said that I wouldn’t be able to handle it. Something about it being… too much, or something like that.”

  “That is part of it, Shaed and I know the truth, and even we struggle with it. Someone like yourself, a mere echo, wouldn’t be able to comprehend the burden that’s been pced on us. It would break you. That is merely the ethical reason as to why we won’t share. The practical reasoning is because sharing what we know with you puts our operation at risk. The more in the know increases the likelihood of our enemy learning our pns, that is why Shaed and I work on a need to know basis or else all will be lost. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go. Please, do not bother me again, Dreamer–”

  Truth opened her mouth to speak, but the darkness in the gss faded, and her reflection reemerged. “Darnit!” She pounded her fist on her leg. “I feel like that was a waste of time.” She huffed.

  Slyran shrugged. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I think we learned some stuff. Good job contacting that guy out of the blue.”

  Truth snorted. “We didn’t learn anything,” she said, “nearly all of that I knew already.”

  Slyran shook his head. “Perhaps, but what I got from that is this. First, the name of the dark lord.”

  “I knew that,” Truth said, and her father shot a look at her—the same look that read, “Don’t speak when I’m talking.”

  “Secondly,” he continued. “That man has no respect for you and sees you as merely a tool.” Truth opened her mouth but held it as Slyran said, “Thirdly, that guy is a bigger jerk than I thought. And finally, I think he’s terrified.”

  Truth hesitated. “Huh? Terrified? I didn’t get that, arrogant, sure but…” She trailed off. None of what Venra said made him seem terrified at all.

  “Not of you,” Her father crified. “But of what he’s working against. While you were talking, I thought about everything you told us. The Master, and now that guy, those two seem to be working together. Since the beginning, those two have been bullying you, telling you where to go, what to do, without ever revealing anything. They’ve constantly been acting like there’s a bigger picture to everything, yet it feels like everything they’ve had you do, has been reactionary. Which just goes to show after speaking to that krek before you and your mother left and hearing him now talking about how he’s trying to use you shows me that this guy doesn’t know what he’s rooting doing… Pardon my nguage.”

  “You got all of that from this?” Truth asked skeptically, and Slyran shrugged.

  “I’ll be honest. I’m mostly guessing, Luna, I don’t trust the guy, nor that Master man in your head.”

  “Neither do I,” She mumbled. “I don’t think I can trust either of them as well.”

  Her father looked at her momentarily before closing his eyes and nodding. Without saying a word, he faced forward in the driver's seat and blinked. “What in the hells are they doing with Saria?”

  Truth gnced at her father and followed his gaze toward the front of the clinic. The rge crowd bunched around the entrance began to part quickly, and she could see Isa trying to catch her Aunt Saria, who was stumbling away from her. Behind them, a man in a bloodied doctor’s uniform, she assumed was Dr. Kegan, and Varis chased after them along with a few other aids.

  Slyran gnced over at Truth. “Stay in the wagon and watch your mother,” he said, hopping off the side.

  Truth opened her mouth to speak but held her tongue. Although she wanted to go with him, leaving Cailynn alone would be foolish, even if only for a moment. If there was one other aspect she cursed that she and Luna shared, it was their curiosity. Their drive to always be part of things. Seeing the commotion not too far off made her itch and want to snoop around and listen in.

  However, she refrained from doing so. She took a deep breath and drew her knees to her chest as she watched her mother sleep. “Why won’t you wake up?” She asked and, as expected, got no answer. “We were both there… So why am I awake, but you’re not?”

  Cailynn shifted in her bnkets, though this wasn’t anything new. Her body occasionally twitched, and her eyes shifted beneath her closed lids. She was dreaming, but dreaming of what? Would she have memories simir to Luna's when their minds melded? Truth shivered at the thought.

  Luna would be terrified of this, but it’s possible she’s experiencing the memories of our past life… A whole other world, unlike Enora. Mother herself might be having her own little adventure.

  However, if it were anything like the memories Luna had experienced, it would be an on-the-rails experience. The thought shook Truth to her core. Like Luna, Truth didn’t want the others to be aware of their past, either. She needed to let go of it and let it die, but if the others learned of it and began asking questions, it would make doing so much more challenging. Not to mention, it felt vioting. It's not that Cailynn did this intentionally; it was an accident. Also, it’s possible Cailynn isn’t even seeing those memories, so her worrying about this could be for nothing.

  Truth closed her eyes. “Hey now,” she said to herself, “Don’t start spiraling like Luna. Take a deep breath, and focus.” She sucked in some air, held for ten seconds, then released. Her mind cleared. Then she heard it.

  A voice, a very soft voice, a whisper. “Zero, one, zero, one, zero, zero, one, one…”

  Truth’s ears twitched, and she focused harder on the sound and realized the hushed voice was coming from right in front of her. Cailynn was speaking… “Zero, one, one, zero, one, zero, zero one…”

  “What the hell?” Truth blinked. Her mother’s words were so faint, barely even a breath, but they were clear. Those were numbers, numbers which…

  Isa’s words fshed in her memory. “Oscar brought her here. Like Cailynn, she was unconscious. Except… She was mumbling incoherently.”

  “What was she saying?” Truth had asked.

  “Nonsense, really,” Isa had said. “She’s been babbling numbers.”

  Those numbers. Truth’s eyes widened as she listened. “Zero, one, one, zero, zero, one, zero one…”

  There’s a pattern, I think. It’s like she’s speaking… Her mind trailed off as she listened more, and it clicked. It’s like she’s speaking binary!

  Truth started and began to scramble in the wagon. Her hand shot to her side, where she always kept the enigma bag her mother had given her strapped to her waist. She hadn’t gone through it since visiting Trentonville when the guards dumped out all the jabber waste. Luna had been too zy when it came to cleaning it. However, she still occasionally threw items in there, such as a notepad and pen Dr. Kegan gave Luna when she and Varis started working for him.

  Don’t forget what she said, don’t forget what she said, Truth repeated in her mind over and over as she stuffed her arm into the cool interior of the archeo bag. Immediately, she felt both the pen and notepad bump against her hand in the void, and she gripped them fiercely as she yanked them out.

  Hurriedly, she flipped to the first bnk page in her notepad and began to write. Truth leaned forward and listened intently as her mother continued to mumble the numbers: “Zero, zero, one, zero, zero, zero, zero…”

  God, I wish I knew what this transted into, Truth thought as she jotted each number down. The notepad was so small, however, that she had to cram the numbers together and write as small as possible, as within a minute, the first page was already full. She quickly flipped to the following and continued writing.

  Someone shouted nearby, yet Truth kept her head down as she listened to her mother’s rambles. She flipped to the next page—another shout. Suddenly, the wagon jerked, and Truth’s writing hand slipped. She ran a line of ink across the page.

  “Hey!” She shouted and turned to see Aunt Saria frantically climbing into the driver's seat. Truth’s expression faltered between anger and confusion before finally settling on confusion. “Aunt Saria?” She asked.

  The woman was breathing raggedly, and her eyes snapped left and right like a wild animal's. She ignored Truth as she grabbed Ruby’s reins. The Strider gnced over her shoulder, unimpressed by the elf. She chirped with annoyance and refused to move when the elf flicked the reins.

  “Go!” The woman weakly commanded.

  A few seconds ter, Isa and Slyran ran up to either side of the wagon. “Bsted woman, what are you doing?” Slyran barked.

  Isa shot Truth’s father a scolding look. “Slyran, calm yourself, she’s just scared.”

  “We need to go!” Saria said dryly, her throat sounding hoarse.

  Finally, Varis and Dr. Kegan arrived. “Aunt Saria, you’re sick, so please come back!” Varis said.

  As Kegan approached with hands held in a calming gesture. “Lady Saria, the boy is correct. You are dehydrated. Please, come with me–”

  “I can’t!” Saria said, panicked. “We need to go now.”

  “Where?” Slyran asked.

  Truth slunk away, one ear listening to them, the other still trying to pick up her mother’s words. It was hard, though, because everyone was speaking all at once, trying to get her crazed aunt to go back to the tent. She could hardly make out the numbers.

  “To work,” Saria said, one hand reaching to rub her dry throat. “Danger… Comes running… out of time. Go… I must… We must…”

  “The numbers,” Isa said. “Is it reted to those? What do they mean?”

  “You mean these?” Truth called out, and for the first time, everyone acknowledged her as they all turned to face her.

  “What do you mean?” Isa asked, coming over to Truth.

  “Well, I think I missed part of it,” she huffed. “You all are too loud, but Momma is talking.”

  “She’s talking?” Slyran gasped and ran to climb into the wagon.

  “Yes,” Truth said, “But she isn’t awake. She’s mumbling numbers.”

  Isa’s eyes widened, and she gnced at Slyran worriedly as he climbed into the back of the wagon, knelt over Cailynn across from Truth, and listened.

  “Zero, one, one, one, one, zero, zero one, zero, zero, one, zero, one, one, one, zero…” She finally stopped.

  Truth huffed again. “Bah, I could’ve gotten more, but you all are so noisy!” She compined, annoyed. Then, she looked at her Aunt. Anger boiled up inside briefly, but she stifled it. Part of her wasn’t just frustrated at the woman for intruding on this discovery; part of her was furious about what had happened before in the pnt, at her aunt in general. It was a pointless fury; Saria had been under ether manipution before. Except she was also part of that stupid religion. The one that Putinov was part of, and Charity, all the ones making things more complicated.

  Calm yourself. You’re going to spiral like Luna again. Focus.

  Once again, Truth took a deep breath and realized everyone was looking at her. Even Saria was silent. “What?” she asked.

  Her father blinked and shook his head. “Nothing, that notepad. What was she saying again?”

  Feeling put on the spot all of a sudden, Truth blushed faintly. “It’s just numbers, I think… It’s…”

  Do these people even know what binary is? Is it even a thing that’s been invented?

  “It’s a pattern,” Truth said instead, “A code of sorts, I think… but I don’t know for sure.” She handed her father the notepad. “Three pages filled completely with it. I missed the first half and got most of the middle, but in the end, I messed up when Saria showed up.” She side-eyed the woman.

  “Go… We must…” She kept muttering to herself.

  Did she go mad? Truth wondered a part of herself feeling a little guilty now for her prior anger.

  Slyran’s brow was knit, and his eyes skimmed left and right as he read everything Truth had written. “She said all of this?” He asked, looking at her. She nodded. “Any idea on what it could mean?” He asked, looking up from Truth to Isa, who also stepped into the back of the wagon.

  Slyran held the notepad out to her, and she took it and read it. Immediately, her eyes widened even more. “These… I recognize these.” She looked at Saria. “Lady Saria, these are the numbers you were speaking of.” She shook the notepad.

  Truth frowned at this. “Wait, but how?” She looked at Isa. “Saria didn’t touch me, mother did,” She said.

  “Excuse me?” Kegan asked with an arch brow.

  “A long story,” Isa told him and looked to Truth. “Yes, dear, but… this might not be reted to that. Perhaps something else?”

  Truth pulled her lips into a tight line. More and more complications… Of course. There’s always more.

  Isa looked back at Saria. “Lady Saria, please, slowly, tell us what is going on?”

  Saria fidgeted with the reins, occasionally flicking them again to get Ruby moving. Thankfully, the stubborn Strider simply stared at her bnkly. After a few fruitless attempts, the woman whimpered and, in a hoarse voice, expined, “Storm… Storm comes… death… lots of death… freezing weather. But… Hope. There is hope…”

  “The beacon,” Truth said, recalling what Cereb had shown her.

  Having heard her, Saria perked up and nodded. “Yes… That is… what it said… I–we must get to the… generator.”

  “Dr. Kegan,” Slyran said, and the spindly doctor perked up immediately. “Get her some water, please.” Kegan shifted and nodded before quickly dashing back to the clinic. Slyran then looked at his sister-in-w. “What said this?” He asked.

  Saria fidgeted, and in a soft voice, she said, “I think… I think it was God.”

  A memory of the Master echoed in Truth’s mind: “Luna, keep an eye on your aunt, and make sure that the construction is complete…” A memory that Luna had stored away. One that she refused to believe.

  Saria couldn’t be a traitor, could she? Or, well… A traitor to what? She was a devoted aerinite, a follower of the “All-Father,” the being that Charity and Putinov served. Luna refused to believe that and stuffed that knowledge inside the closet with Truth, leaving her to stew with it.

  Perhaps Saria wasn’t her enemy, but she was a naive and terrified woman. If her god, this “All Father’ told her to go to the beacon, then… Wait a second. If that was her deity speaking to her, and the numbers she mumbled might be reted, then that means Mother is…

  Truth looked to Cailynn, her heart sinking. Mother might be being maniputed as well.

  Focus. Don’t spiral! You need to approach this piece by piece. We know something good isn’t coming, and we must ensure that the generator, or whatever it is, is finished. That is confirmed… but…

  The Master and Cereb mentioned that we needed to ensure that thing was built. But… if Saria’s God also wants it made, then…

  Truth shook her head.

  “Is something wrong, Luna?” Isa asked, looking at her.

  Truth blushed and looked at her. “I’m fine, I’m just… confused.”

  “About what?” She asked.

  Truth looked to Saria, who was once again fussing over the reins. “I think I would want to talk privately about it.’ She looked at her father. “With everyone, like another family meeting.”

  “Right now?” Slyran asked just as Kegan returned with a soldier’s canteen he presumably borrowed. He passed it to Saria, who finally released the reins and began to drink the water hungrily.

  Truth shook her head. “Not now, but soon. Right now, I agree with Aunt Saria, we should get to the construction site like I asked.”

  Father cringed slightly. “Dear, I told you, I don’t think they’ll let you kids in.”

  “I know, Papa,” Truth said, looking him in the eye. “But I need to go. Whatever is coming, I agree with Saria. It’s going to be bad. I can feel it.”

  “The cold…” Isa said softly, and Truth nodded. “It’s far too cold for this time of year.”

  Slyran shrugged. “It’s probably just a te frostwind like I said before, it happens.”

  Truth shook her head. “No, Papa, this is different. Please, trust me.”

  Slyran held his daughter’s eyes, and for a minute, the two seemed to be having a staring contest. After a few moments, his eyes twitched, and he sighed and hung his head back. “By the gods, can we get a break?” He asked no one in particur and leaned forward, spping his hands on his legs before standing up. “Alright, I trust you, Luna…” He turned and hopped off the back of the wagon and gnced at her from over his shoulder. His brow furrowed as he seemed to study her for just a moment before turning away and walking around to the front of the wagon.

  “Varis,” Slyran barked, “Hop in the wagon, we’re leaving. Saria, scooch over.”

  “Mr. Ashflow–” Kegan began to stop Slyran but stopped when Slyran held up his hand.

  “I know she’s not ready, Doctor, but I won’t force my sister-in-w to stay if she doesn’t want to. My family and I will keep an eye on her.” The doctor looked conflicted and opened his mouth to protest, but his words died when Isa came around and touched his shoulder.

  “Nigel, it’s okay,” she said. “I’ll be going with them.”

  Kegan started and turned to her with surprise. “What? But the clinic…” He trailed.

  “I understand,” She said, “But where they’re going they may need my help.” She smiled. “You can come with us.”

  Kegan opened his mouth to speak, but no words came. After a moment, he shook his head. “I can’t, and I won’t force you to stay either. Thank you for your help, Isa.” He nodded to her, his voice calm but solemn.

  Isa’s ears fttened a little, and she nodded. “I’ll be back once we’re done at the construction site. We won’t be far.”

  “You should come,” Saria said, her voice sounding much better. She sipped more of her water. “The storm that comes will bring much destruction…” Her eyes gzed as she looked over the vast triage of the wounded and dying. “Everyone here will perish in the coming hours.”

  This armed everyone. “Hours?’ Truth spun to face Saria, and Isa stepped towards her.

  “What do you mean hours?” Isa asked, her calm demeanor towards her having faded. “Speak, Saria, tell us everything.”

  The elven woman turned to Isa, and something about her didn’t seem right to Truth. The gzed eyes did not match the bright warmth they once held when they had first met; instead, they were filled with a deep sadness. “I did tell you everything… A storm comes, and with it, death and destruction.” She pointed towards the east. “We have only hours now until it arrives. That is why we must go now. Only those who come will live.”

  “01001000 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110110 01100001 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01111001 01101111 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100001 01110011 01110101 01110010 01100101 00101110 00100000 01001000 01100101 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110100 01110101 01110010 01101110 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100011 01101100 01100001 01101001 01101101 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01110010 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01100110 01110101 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01101000 01101001 01110011 00101100 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110111 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 00101100 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01110000 01110000 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01111001 01101111 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110110 01100101 01101001 01101100 00101110 00100000 01001000 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01010011 01101001 01100100 01100101 00101110…”

  - Warning from Beyond, Lady Ashflow’s notebook, original text that was recorded on 5/18/1943

  ImmortanJoJo