Day: 3660

Days Left: 1820

Lives Saved: 20

The drop was not as sheer as other portal drop points were in The Eternal Abyss but if you did not land correctly there was still potential for breaking a limb or maybe even your back. Once the platform underneath their feet had vanished, Cori had conveyed instructions to Elis as they were falling on their landing strategy and they both landed and rolled on the hard ground, only badly bruised rather than injured. Cori remained lying on her back, looking up at the sky and seeing the light from the portal disappear, allowing herself to fully come to terms with the reality of what had just happened before following her plan for saving her children from her cousin's clutches or that upstart stranger who wanted revenge.

Elis was heavily breathing beside her, reeling and trying to hold back vomit from the experience of going through a portal for the first time and how disorientating it was alongside falling from such a height. He sucked in a breath, with a pained hiss as he stumbled up to his feet, his eyes darting around the wasteland, searching for threats before deeming it safe and helped Cori up to her feet. He let go almost instantly after doing so, finding the physical contact beyond that unnecessary and Elis looked away from her again.

"What did you do?" Elis asked eventually, though it was not unkind. "What spell did you cast on me?"

Cori swallowed, hesitating before speaking at least she tried to speak but nothing sounded until she realised what a habit she had made to conjure her voice with magic since her throat was so painful. She swallowed again soothing the inevitable pain that came with speaking, "it was to keep your memories, to slow down the curse. I could not get rid of it entirely, but you won't forget anything, at least not for a few decades."

"And what about yourself?"

"I already have a eidetic memory, this curse is nothing to me. It'll take a good few centuries before it does anything significant."

"No, I mean..." Elis sucked in a slow breath. "You were so close to dying from how much magic you had used, and yet you chose to cast it."

Cori forced a little smile, almost shrugging but deciding that was perhaps too casual of a response to this kind of a situation. "The Eternal Abyss will keep me alive and I cannot use any more magic down here to worsen my condition."

Elis' eyes trailed along Cori's face, without her mask hiding her condition, her health out in view for all to see, her neon green eyes, the pulsating veins all over her skin, the emerald light looking as if they could burst and kill her at any moment. It was all across her body, hidden underneath her clothes and gloves. "Why did you do it? You could have died..."

"You would have forgotten Freddy and Elise," Cori struggled to speak, her throat having grown so hoarse. "I have a plan in getting out of here since I doubt we have a precise prison sentence."

"You do?" Elis' voice cracked. "We can get back to them?"

"I cannot guarantee its success but it has potential."

"What do we do?"

Cori shook her head. "Not out in the open, they can hear us. I'll tell you when we have more privacy. But for now, we need to focus on getting supplies to defend ourselves."

"Until we get monster masks." Elis nodded.

"No, I highly doubt we will get any masks, and if we do, we should definitely not trust them. We may need to venture to other sectors and wait for ones there. In the meantime, I know the Land of the Lost in this sector. We get supplies and weapons there."

"And what about food?"

"In Sector 38 there is a village of people who help other prisoners, they provide shelter, food, water, medical care..."

Elis winced. "And would they be willing to help us?"

They both looked down at themselves, though neither had their masks or crowns proving that they were royalty, the rest of their attire was not exactly screaming regular person who was not a part of the system that imprisoned people in The Eternal Abyss.

"Let's get some new clothes," suggested Elis.

"Yes, agreed," said Cori. "After we reach The Land of The Lost, it will take a few days travel to Sector 38, though perhaps longer..." She sighed, knowing that she would be the reason why it would take longer due to her health condition. She was already so fatigued from what had happened in the last few hours in spite of The Eternal Abyss maintaining people's stamina.

The two headed in the direction of The Land of the Lost with ease as Cori with her excellent memory had a visual of the entire map of Sector 39 and 38 that was under her control, or rather used to be and now was under new rulers. She had a few recollections from other sectors from watching the broadcasts, mainly ones that her sister Alfreda was in in case Cori had to pull her out and release her. Release her... Cori did not know what might have happened to Alfreda, if her order had gotten through for Alfreda to be released or was cancelled and which option was safer for her. If she had been released, she would be returning to a country that hated her, linking her to their father who was responsible for so much grief, something that Cori had tried to undo only to make things worse. Alfreda was pretty innocent in everything, all things considered, which she would love to hear, Cori was sure, but that did not mean everyone else would view her as such. They might give her the same punishment and dump her back into The Eternal Abyss or whatever Sophia was now enduring. But what if Alfreda was still here? Cori could go see her at least, they could help each other, or would Alfreda hate and despite her what she has done?

Cori tried not to dwell on it, on how many people wanted her dead at the moment before in the real world and in The Eternal Abyss, especially as if she wanted to meet Alfreda down here, she would likely be by someone else's side who Cori was definitely not looking forward to reuniting with.

Day: 3661

Dex sucked in a slow breath, looking down at the notes he had made on his phone, preparing himself before entering the room. Hendricks stood before the numerous screens displaying live footage recordings of The Eternal Abyss, of Sector 38 predominantly, but Hendricks had also set up screens displaying what was happening in the sector where The Warren resided, likely keeping track of Corinna as well as Dex's other friends.

"Morning," Hendricks said, not looking away from the screen, his eyes steely focused on the city.

"Morning," Dex replied, equally distracted as he approached the screens and saw the city, seeing the damaged walls and the chaos still stewing after a few days after the attack.

"It looks like it'll settle soon," said Hendricks reassuringly. "There is just disputes on new leadership but it is coming to an end."

Dex hesitated. "Any sign of..."

Hendricks shook his head. "None of them."

Dew swallowed, bowing his head.

"Don't worry," Hendricks said gently. "Just because we can't find them, doesn't mean they're dead, well Eternal Abyss version of dead. They are likely hiding or are no longer in the city itself."

"Can we get other cameras?" Dex pointed at the screen to the forest surrounding the city.

"It takes a long time for permission from the country running the sector and we would have to provide sufficient reason to do so. We're not exactly everyone's friend at the moment. Your Duchess has actually done well in damage control after the imposter's stunt."

"She's not my duchess." Dex rolled his eyes.

"No? Not so chummy after she revealed her true colours? My, what a surprise."

"Definitely not." Dex remembered how Sophia Vipond had mind controlled the Warren-Earl-Best family like she was playing with toy soldiers. "I'll never trust her again."

"Well, we need to keep her singing in order to stay in control. If the rest of the world realise that she is just a puppet then they will either end this rebellion and put her back on the throne or perhaps even take over the country themselves."

Dex made a lazy noise of a response, hating how much politics had come into his life when he was hoping for something more simple after being released. His hand reached for his phone in his pocket, remembering the list of demands he wanted from Hendricks, practising them on his lips before beginning. "Now that the people are in control, we can make a real difference, we can change this country for the better."

"Exactly," said Hendricks. "Once we are a bit more stable, I have some ideas."

"I have some ideas too."

"Yeah?"

Dex swallowed. "It's about The Eternal Abyss and the prisoners."

"Yes, I had thoughts about that, and don't worry, it is one of our top priorities," said Hendricks with added excitement. "We'll be going through every prisoner sent down from our country and reviewing their case to see if there are any more that were falsely imprisoned or who have had their sentence unfairly extended and should be free already. Cases like yours that were justified, or were rigged, since it was mages and nobility, people with powerful friends who were deciding the crimes. And anyone who was sentenced by the imposter royal family of course. I was wondering if that was something you would be interested in, Dex? Do you want to be in charge of that? I can't think of anyone else as perfectly suited to that as you."

"You want me to decide who to release?"

"Yes, and you'll be working with that uh... organisation too, the one that helps released convicts rehabilitate into society, that helped you. As much as I agree that a lot of these criminals deserved to go to The Eternal Abyss, once they have done their time they should be released, not gambled on and have their sentence extended for some noble's mild amusement. The memory curse..." Hendricks sucked in a breath. "That aspect will need some consideration on whether to continue that. The whole debate on whether the person is still the same person without memories, are you technically torturing and punishing an innocent person?" Hendricks sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "That's another thought for a different day."

"Actually, I thought that could..." Dex almost faltered, almost giving up his idea before he continued more confidently. "I think we should no longer use The Eternal Abyss."

Hendricks tore his eyes away from the screens and looked at Dex directly, repeating slowly, "no longer use The Eternal Abyss? And what would we do with our criminals?"

"What they used to do in the ancient times." Dex shrugged, already losing his newfound confidence. "Put them in cells, you now the ones you get put in temporarily before they dump you into The Abyss. Or the ones in police stations whilst awaiting bail."

"How many cells do you think we would need to build? Do you know how much that would cost? Crime is only going up after the curse was broken. Now that the country is no longer under the fake King Casimir's thrall, they have free will, which unfortunately comes with crime."

"You're going to keep throwing people in there after what you went through?"

"I wasn't thrown into The Eternal Abyss-"

"No, you thrown into a concentration camp, where you were tortured and denied human rights-"

"The difference is, Dex, I did not deserve that, but they do." Hendricks pointed at the screens displayed the prisoners of The Eternal Abyss. "They are killers, Dex, rapists, paedophiles, thieves, kidnappers those who have caused people harm, and you want to free them and house them? Give them free food and shelter after what they did? If we do this, it will cost us money, criminals will cost us money. How much do you think it costs us to send to The Eternal Abyss? Yes, it takes some money to open the portals before their natural occurrence time, but after that? Nothing. Giving them food, building shelters, was entirely optional. And then recording everything, giving them monster masks was to make them entertaining, to profit off of them."

"Since when did you care about making money? This is about principle, we're supposed to better than them."

"I care about money because that is unfortunately how you run a country, how everything works. Would I love a different system where I can snap my fingers and everything is magically done? Yes, but this is reality. We need money to run the country and The Eternal Abyss, the prisoners that we send there, are helping the country. If we house them in cells in the real world, they are nothing but a hindrance. We have to choose who we prioritise. So, Dex, what should we do? Do we use the money to feed and support our people who have done no wrong, or do we spend it all on housing murderers and rapists?"

"I-"

"What changed, Dex?" Hendricks said softly. "I watched your footage of your time in The Eternal Abyss, to make sure you were the right person to trust. I saw what you did when you discovered that... What was his name? Bryce, that was it, when you discovered that he was in there for rape, that he had tricked you and lied about his brand."

"He had just tried to hurt my friend." Dex gritted his teeth.

"And Corinna did a wonderful job of stopping him and rendering him harmless, but that was not enough for you. You thought he deserved more punishment, right? You buried him alive and took away his memories."

"It-"

"And what about your refusal to help all those water nymphs? Your friends believed that they were worth saving but you thought differently. You didn't know what their crimes were and generally nymphs are of the worst kind."

"It-"

"And let's not forget about Schreier Junior. You found out he was imprisoned for possession of horrible pornography and you did not hesitate to reveal it to everyone, wanting to cast him out without a fair trial. All those people, you took justice into your own hands, that their punishment for being in The Eternal Abyss was not enough, that they deserved worse. You thought they did not deserve food or shelter, basic human rights, or as much as you can get in The Abyss. So, Dex, what changed?" Hendricks asked with abrupt and jarring softness and patience as he waited for an answer.

"I do not regret the choices I made," Dex said truthfully. "Whilst in The Eternal Abyss, all my action were based on survival and the protection of my friends. I was luckier than a lot of other prisoners, on who I met, on my situation having comparably an abundance of food and shelter. To welcome prisoners whose crimes would threaten the group would be a mistake. Bryce had already proved that he had lost everything and would get revenge. Even in that state after Corinna fought him off, I would not have ruled him out of attacking again, and I suppose at the time, I thought erasing his memories was a mercy, but then burying him alive, no, that was cruelty. With the water nymphs, we needed to preserve food for ourselves instead of feeding and housing water nymphs whose brands we could not see. I had suggested simply taking them out of the water so that they can eventually heal to survive on their own, so that they could potentially leave The Abyss. But giving them our food? At that point we already had so little."

"And the others? The ones you cast out of The Warren?" Hendricks asked softly, his arms folded.

"To protect people." Dex bowed his head low.

"And what makes it different now? If you felt all of that was justified?"

"I... It's complicated. I suppose it is because I do not have to sacrifice much myself. I would not lose anything personally if we could afford to do so. I can afford to take the high ground, to have new moral standings, to be more merciful, to take those risks. But I know, I always knew that this system was unfair. You take criminals who had done wrong, yes, but they will continue to do wrong in The Eternal Abyss. Will they regret their choices, to feel guilty and pain at what they had done? Yes. But will they get better? Become better people? To survive in The Eternal Abyss you have to sacrifice a lot of your humanity. I was lucky, and did not have to resort to too much desperation and cruelty compared to others, but the system does nothing to help these people, it just makes them worse, and they will stay there for longer than they were sentenced for. Do I believe that everyone is worth saving, worth helping? No. I don't. But there has to be something better than what we are already doing."

Hendricks was silent for a long moment, his eyes looking from Dex to the numerous screens of The Eternal Abyss before him. "I believe that, yes, not all of them deserve our help, which is why we will be releasing those who do fairly. But we need The Eternal Abyss for this country to function. But we can change how our country runs our sectors. We can provide more food, we can ensure no one gets any sabotaged masks."

"Right," said Dex, a little hope within him still lit from this small gesture.

"But we are limited in what we can do without drawing suspicion."

"Yeah, okay..."

"I do agree that smaller crimes, petty thefts and such don't deserve The Eternal Abyss."

Dex nodded, though inwardly thought how that wasn't exactly controversial to think and not as big of a claim that Hendricks was playing to be, his intentions just to appease Dex after rejecting his proposal.

"We can discuss this further another time," said Hendricks as two members of the rebellion came into the room to relieve him of monitoring duty. "Let me know if you want to accept the job."

"Will do," said Dex.

"Your friend Oscar is on his way back tomorrow, as do all the rest of those we released. We'll ensure they get a warm welcome."