Day: 3752

Days Left: 1728

Lives Saved: 20

Hendricks was present for Oscar's first shift, though Dex was the one to show him the ropes, giving a more in depth look at the system, database, and controls. Meanwhile Nicola monitored footage from Corinna's presumed whereabouts, finding nothing again. Dex wondered what Nicola would do if she did find her. Hendricks stated that his revenge would be sated for Corinna to stay her regular prison sentence, but what about Nicola? And what would Nicola do if Dex did try to free Corinna early as he planned with Rhea? He had not fully considered the consequences, only concerned about Corinna's wellbeing with The Grim Fairy and not what Nicola and her family would do to her if they wanted revenge. Without Corinna's past actions, they would still have a mother, a wife.

Dex would cross that bridge when it came to it, his plan with Rhea relied on the queen returning to the village anyway which may never happen. So much could change within that time too.

Once Hendricks was confident with Oscar assimilating in, he left to attend to other matters, giving a quick update on Duchess Sophia to Dex.

"What was it like, working for her?" Oscar asked once Hendricks left. "Being the duchess' servant?"

"She was eccentric and excitable," answered Dex, trying to hide his composure, glad to have some kind of conversation with Oscar that wasn't work. "She helped release me early so I could see my son."

"Really?"

"If I had stayed longer in The Abyss, I wouldn't qualify to see anyone from my past." Dex paused. "Though I am grateful for that... her actions after I cannot forgive. I was foolish to think she was any different from other nobles, the way she treated Corinna's family..." Dex bit his lip, automatically glancing at Nicola's direction.

Nicola continued to stare fixed at the screen though Dex noted the tension in her shoulders.

"Where is she now?" Oscar asked.

"Held up in a dungeon somewhere, I think underneath the palace," answered Dex. "Got some special necklace on her that she can't take off that stops her from using magic."

"So, what's the plan? To keep her there forever?"

"Uh..."

"There isn't a plan yet," said Nicola. "We still need her alive, at the very least, in case she can be used as a bargaining chip. In the meantime, we need her likeness for a golem to copy her."

Oscar and Dex remained quiet.

"It is not something you need to worry about," said Nicola. "It is being taken care of."

Oscar shrugged. "I just thought she'd be thrown down into The Eternal Abyss by now."

Dex was conflicted about whether to smile at the thought of it, but his mind kept twisting into guilt. That was the woman that reunited him with his son. A woman who ended up being so twisted all the same. He wished she had admitted to him that she freed him for some nefarious scheme, that there was no compassion or empathy in her heart. But there had been, even if it was limited to certain people, like her family, certain servants and other nobles. The woman had friends she cared deeply about, she had the capacity for love and yet she still turned into a monster. Why? Why did it have to be so complicated? Why couldn't the monsters be monsters and the knights in shining armour be heroes?

The shift went by quicker than Dex thought, even if it was awkward with both Oscar and Nicola there. He found it odd missing Kyle even if he teased him, or put him on edge about casual discussions of betraying Hendricks. Oscar did not seem to be disturbed by watching footage of Sector 38, the village where his previous self had lived and then perished in a fire. Nor when taking notes on prisoners occupying the village; their names unknown to him apart from Ivette and the three imps who he was happy to see, though Dex did give him a classified version so as not to reveal Ivette's crime. Oscar had been taught the button to take it off if he wanted to, but Dex was glad to see it was still on when walking past Oscar's screen.

Maybe he will be alright, Dex thought hopefully, messaging Calanthe not to worry as he finished his shift, saying goodbye to Nicola and Oscar.

Once Dex was gone, Oscar glanced up at Nicola, glad that she was on a computer on the opposite side of the room, unable to see his screen. Just as he was taught, Oscar looked up his own name on the database, seeing every linked up broadcast with footage of him, notes on his psych evaluation that someone had done in his mind where he was not conscious of, a detailed one at that especially in regards to his change in behaviour after the death in the fire. Oscar read everything about himself, how invasive it was whoever it was that decided it was important to document his insecurities and fears, his feelings of inadequacy and how that could be used to up the ratings. And then there was an exploration of his love life, ideas to plan attacks on his partners for entertainment or certain future mask designs.

Oscar attempted to keep his composure, his face falling vacant as he dissociated from everything, from the rage he felt. He had to keep going and not get caught, not he thought Nicola would berate him, but certainly did not want anyone believing he only joined this job to get information. No, he did truly want to help. But he had to know.

Next was the footage of him before the incident. How odd it was to watch yourself, though not really yourself on a screen. He listened in with headphones of overheard conversations, how he once acted with Princess Alfreda and the other servants, how he had acted with Sumit, or rather barely interacted with him at all. Just fleeting conversations if they were nearby. It was true. That Oscar in the video, seeing him next to Sumit, they were not alike. Nor was the Sumit he knew.

Oscar watched as the old Oscar and Sumit entered a warehouse where they had grown abyss plants. And he watched two women sneak in, the house catching fire as they left. He sped through it, watching the fire consume the warehouse with a separate window focused on the argument in the village, keeping everyone distracted until they finally noticed.

Princess Alfreda entered the warehouse and brought back two smouldering corpses.

There he was.

That was his beginning.

He typed in the database bringing up the records of Pearl and Daina.

And there were his two killers. Faces to names that had haunted him all this time.

Day: 3753

It continued to be difficult to judge time passing down in the pit. The sector they were in, the sky was constantly dark and cloudy. There were a few hints as to when it was technically daytime, and blood moons, but Rin instead relied on how quickly her body was recovering as a measurement. She counted in her head, breathing in controlled intervals, as she focused on shaping the paper that formed her body. The majority of it was dry, a few still crinkled and yellowed, but the rest had reformed back into its pristine crisp white. She managed to form an arm and adjusted herself into a more comfortable position, even attempting to fly or to climb with it when Alfreda was asleep, not wanting to see her failure. However, she was not yet strong enough. A few more days perhaps, and Rin theorised that she would finally be able to leave this pit.

"I wanted to apologise for before," Alfreda said.

Rin did not respond, still despondent over her failed escape attempts.

"You were right, you do have a choice," Alfreda continued. "Even if I do not understand- no I do understand it, but I personally would not do so."

"You wouldn't?" Rin mumbled.

"No," Alfreda said gently.

"What will you do when you get out of The Eternal Abyss?"

"If I do. With my sister no longer releasing me, who else would?"

"You must do... at some point. Everything has to come to an end, even this place. Something has to happen to it."

Alfreda gazed up at the sky, at the dark clouds shifting above. "If I do get out of here... well, I do not have a plan. It is dependant on the state of the world and the royal family, and if my sister is still in power and how she thinks of me. Best not to make a plan. I could leave this prison and be moved to a new one. I could go back to my previous life as a princess or... or I could find a new life."

"And you don't think you would want a fresh start?"

"You said it yourself, I have changed a lot since I came here. If I lost that, would I still be the same person? If you had asked me years ago, perhaps I would have done the same as you, to just have a clean slate instead of trying to build from such a horrific past."

"Why the change?"

"My sister..."

Rin frowned. "You would remember your sister, surely."

Alfreda shook her head. "No, it is exactly what she used to do. She would wipe people's memories, her own memories, if she did not want to deal with something. She erased her memories of Miss Warren for instance, she did want to remember hurting her, to live with that mistake, and so she got rid of it, alongside all of the beautiful and good memories of their friendship as children. In doing so, she lost perhaps one of the few things that made her childhood happy and was left with just an abusive and avoidant family." Alfreda swallowed. "I wonder if she had kept those memories, even the bad ones, she would not be so cold and distant as an adult, having forgotten how to have deep connections with others, losing that long friendship she had."

Rin did not know what to say. Alfreda remained silent too, her eyes distant as if in reflection herself.

Rin wondered herself, if she would have been this bad at socialising without the experiences she could remember. If she took one aspect of her past, and not just all of it, would she still be the same person? What was a person in a vacuum?

"Would you have done the same?" Rin eventually asked. "Wipe away every mistake if you could? From people's memories, maybe your own?"

"Perhaps in the past I would," said Alfreda. "I envied that power; I did fear it of course, but I wonder if I would have feared it as much if I was not capable of it myself, or never knowing what was taken from me, what my sister or my father took from me. Stealing memories, or altering them, is... invasive. Anything could happen and no one would remember it." She rolled her head to the side. "I managed to convince my father to not wipe my memories of my brother, but I always wondered if there was anything else he took from me, maybe I had even more siblings."

"Did he?"

"He covered a few mistakes of his, small pieces that hinted at him being a fake King Casimir but nothing else other than my sister's friendship with Miss Warren. At least, no memories locked away from the ritual. But I knew it was wrong, that kind of magic, but I still wanted to keep the curse up to protect myself, to refuse to return anyone's memories. I would never cast the spell myself but I will keep something wrong going since it has already been cast." Alfreda shrugged. "My sister does seem different now though. She realised why it was bad too, why she helped me kill our father. I wonder if she still erases all her mistakes... She can erase anything and everything painful if she truly wanted, leave only the happy thoughts and memories, discard all the pain... if I could use magic down here, I could manipulate our nerves, make it so all we can feel is bliss, numbness to the pain, at the very least I was at that level to do such a spell, maybe take this memory away too."

"Would you?" Rin asked.

"No," Alfreda said softly. "Remembering this is necessary."

"For what?"

"We will get out of here, Miss Rin. I will not let this be my last resting place, I will not let a monster devour me, or madness to consume me, nor will I lose myself. I refuse it."

Rin smirked. "That would have sounded more believable and less lame if you weren't just a pile of rocks"

"And I will not be judged by soggy paper."

Alfreda's own smile slackened, her eyes falling to the ground. "I do not think I ever thanked you for saving me."

Rin swallowed, stopping herself from saying something snarky or to reprimand Alfreda when it was clear with Alfreda's hesitation that she was being serious and profound here.

"I... what you did was quite- it was very dangerous, you could have been in better shape than I am if you had just saved yourself," Alfreda continued. "We could have both died then. Or rather, be perpetually drowning. Without my fire and heat, this form can not work. I would have been a lifeless rock at the bottom of that pond, forever most likely, until someone was curious enough to take me out. And you... I... I need to thank you for that. It was not for long but I remember the feeling, of that endless darkness, feeling heavy and yet nothing all at once, endlessly sleeping and trapped inside my own body, helpless. That lake would have been my tomb."

"And instead you have this one," said Rin, meant to initially be a joke to not sour the mood, but her words failed at the end. "If I had just watched my step we would have made it. We could be walking right now, we could have found the others or supplies to help us, but instead we're stuck down here, too weak to climb out. I have just sent us to another death."

"The difference is we can make it out of here," Alfreda said gently. "If you had stayed in the Raining Marshes, you would have disappeared entirely being made out of paper. There would be nothing of you left. I doubt we would be able to piece you back together again like before. But here... we are safe, we are dry, we just had to be patient with a bit of luck. Is this a horrible situation to be in? Yes, it is. But it could have been far worse. What you did you get us both of there... it is not something I will forget... thank you."

A small smile spread on Rin's lips. "Thank you," she mumbled.

"What for?" asked Alfreda.

"For... talking... and listening..."

Alfreda also had a small smile. Her eyes lowered and drooped, her energy for the day expended and she fell asleep. Rin stayed awake for awhile longer, able to shift her body and crane her neck upwards to see the sky. She struggled, and it was exhausting, but eventually she managed to move her arm upwards as if she was reaching out to cloudy sky and to the moon, she felt the slight tug, that whisper of a voice in the back of her mind, the blood moon on its course but Rin easily pushed it back, and gently sighed, letting out a long breath, the papers forming her body gently whistling as she did so, opening and closing like gills all across her body. She felt every sensation, as if the air breezed right through her, as if she was nothing and yet everything, a part of the wind itself and would be taken up with it. Rin let her hand down and adjusted herself for another slumber, eager to finally wake up and climb out of the pit.