Ch34: Acting Strange P2

                                    

                                          
Chapter 34: Acting Strange P2
~34.2~
*****
Another dream.
Kye stirred awake and walked out onto the balcony, leaving her lovers in bed. The sun was not up yet, but there was a faint light in the sky and Sanae was already standing there, leaning over the railing.
"Good morning," she said as Kye leaned against the railing next to her. "Bad dream?"
"Not a bad dream, but a memory dream."
"I see." Sanae looked over at her sister. "I've been having them, too. Mine was from a previous worldline as Chloe Archambault."
For a moment, Kye was surprised. But then she remembered. Every time a worldline finished and when Kye started transmigrating, Alfia took Elysia's memories and sealed them within her own soul half. That's how the seal worked so well and why it was so dangerous for it to be released improperly. Although Kye was the one that experienced the memories first hand, Sanae also possessed the memories the moment she sealed them. Before the seal was released, it had twenty-three worldlines of memories, and part of the twenty-fourth. Sanae possessed every memory Kye had up when she started transmigrating in the current worldline.
"It was from Worldline Delta."
Kye had a sad expression as she recalled the Delta version of Chloe Archambault. "Chloe Delta had the worst life of any Chloe. Orphaned at age eight and joined the military at age ten. Chloe's mental state deteriorated, and she was very unstable by age sixteen. A few months before our seventeenth birthday, the seal leaked, and we remembered some of our old self, not just Elysia Athas, but Alexandria as well."
"Yeah." Sanae didn't want to say what happened next, and Kye picked up on that.
"Fia, that isn't the only time you've had to stop me."
Sanae shook her head. "Perhaps not." Chloe Delta became very angry after receiving those memories and, with knowledge of her powers and how to strengthen herself, she became the strongest in that world by age eighteen.
Despite the soul's ability to think without a physical form, without the brain, while the soul inhabited a mortal body, they were no less susceptible to mental trauma. The soul had a very strong desire to protect the innocent, and the war that erupted in Chloe's world had an extremely negative impact on her. She carried the strong desire to protect the innocent, but with the combination of mental deterioration from years of trauma and the seal leakage, she wasn't able to execute her soul's desire properly.
Chloe Delta had a very dark streak. Not quite as bad as any iteration of Elise Arbell, but bad enough that she could be accused of genocide. Ultimately, Chloe killed every major world leader and eradicated every military, even her own country's leader and military. The innocents scorned her for her behavior, and she became convinced that none were innocent.
That's when Alfia arrived and stopped her. Alfia casted Reorigination on that world, just as Shiori had done in the current worldline. Every time Alfia had to do that, she carried the guilt of killing her sister.
"That happened in every single iteration of Elise Arbell, except you never stopped me as Elise."
"That's because Elise never lost her mind like Chloe Delta. Elise always succumbed to depression, but she never became genocidal."
"No, but she always casted Reorigination. In fact, that was the only life that always played out the same, barring minor discrepancies. Every major event was the same."
"Elise was an anomaly." Sanae said with a sigh. "Elise's lives were similar to part of Elysia Origin's life."
"So you did make that connection."
Sanae nodded. "I made that connection with Elise Alpha, and it stayed true every time. I don't have Elise Omega's memories, but I watched that world closely. The only difference is the rest of the world was there. Elise's world's similarities didn't extend beyond Alexandria. Lord Nacht and Lady Weltwald intervened in Alexandria, whereas Elise spent two hundred million years after-the-fact in every life wandering aimlessly in an empty world. That's the difference. Elise didn't have allies to pick her up at the end." Sanae smiled. "We did."
Kye nodded. "Yes, we did."
A pair of footsteps approached from behind. A very sleepy Alethea joined them on the balcony. ""Hey, love.""
The pink-haired girl looked up, her cat ears and tail on display, and smiled. "Shi-chan. San-chan. I love you!"
The two blondes smiled, and the three enjoyed each other's company in silence for a while. Until Kye spoke up. "Sanae, by the way."
"Hmm?"
"Stop beating yourself up for killing Chloe Delta and others."
Alethea's cat ears twitched, and she gave Sanae an angry look. "You're brooding over that again? You had to do that for me, too, you know. Stop looking at those times like you killed us. You didn't! You saved us from ourselves!"
Sanae sighed, but smiled. "You always know the right way to look at things."
"I worry about you, sweetie," Alethea said as she nudged her head against Sanae's shoulder, one of her furry ears rubbing the blonde's cheek. "You were alone for so long. I know it's going to take time to accept that you both deserve the same things, but at least let us tell you that it's okay. Let us tell you that you did good for us. You were always there for us when we needed you, and now we're here for you."
Kye nodded. "Then kids are even calling you 'mom' now. Yami loves you and goes so far as pestering you to hang out with her. Zen..." Kye trailed off. "Hmm."
"What's wrong, love?" Alethea asked.
"Come to think of it," Kye said. She glanced toward Pendragon Palace, which could barely be seen from her balcony, since their balcony faced the sea. "Zen has been acting like a shut in more than usual. He goes to classes and gets top scores. He talks normally to me in class when I'm teaching, but he doesn't speak to me outside of school unless I speak to him first. When I do get him to speak, it's only direct answers and a tendency to cut the conversation short. Yami mentioned that he's acting weird, too."
"Now that you mention it, I ran into Ranna the other day, and she told me something seemed off. Since Ren and Kenji were born in December, she's virtually had to take care of them herself, only having help from attendants. Zen has been holing himself up in the basement of Pendragon."
"I haven't seen Ranna outside of class. I didn't know that."
"I spoke to Layla about it, but she said she would take care of it and not to worry about anything. And since I trust Layla, I didn't think anything else about it. If you hadn't just said anything just now, I would still not think anything about it, but now I'm worried."
Sanae nodded at them. "We should look into this. I haven't had the years to get to know him like you two have had, but I feel a strong sisterly instinct toward him and Yami."
Kye smiled. "Yeah. I'm worried about him. I want to speak to Ranna before anything, though."
Alethea nodded. "Right. Since today is Sunday, we could invite Ranna to brunch."
With a completely straight face, Sanae looked at Alethea and said, "We should have Oreo Milkshakes for brunch."
"What? I mean, sure?"
As if she was summoned, Joey appeared on the balcony railing. "I heard Oreo Milkshakes."
*****
Revision: 2024-11-6