995. How Much Do We Know About Frost?

“Why do birds fly?”

These were the first words Cer heard Lailah’s voice utter to the Fragment.

Cer watched memories unfold like she was flipping through a sketchbook drawn by a child. Only that these drawings were real.

How much did they know about Frost?

She knew a lot.

That Frost didn’t come from this world.

That she wasn’t originally a woman.

That they had ties to another world that came before theirs.

And that she had little recollection of her memories.

It wasn’t much.

No. It was laughable. Frost knew Cer better than her own mother.

But did anyone know Frost as well as the people who keep coming after her?

Cer thought she did.

However…

“Am I going to have to go inside again?” The Captured Star asked.

Her eyes were red this time. Back then, her eyes were supposedly red. The golden color didn’t come till later.

Lailah regretfully nodded and escorted her into the black sphere.

“It’s to keep the world outside alive.” Lailah responded.

It wasn’t a lie. Cer was aware that the Captured Star was used as a source of energy to keep Paradisio functioning.

“So that I can see it one day, right?” The Captured Star beamed. “And I’ll find out why birdies fly?”

Lailah put on a practiced smile.

“You will.”

It wasn’t clear which question she was answering.

Various hooked syringes fixed to wires were stabbed into her body. Figures wearing rubber protective suits and helmets showing a real-time feed of their eyes sat her onto a table. There were unwashed stains.

The Captured Star knew what would happen to her.

The harvest. Her blood, mana, nex… it would all be syphoned by the machine to fuel billions of lives.

“Did you always know?” Cer asked her directly.

“Not always.” A golden-eyed version said from behind.

Cer didn’t turn. She could feel her warmth radiating from her back.

She stared and watched as the Captured Star was left unceremoniously inside of the vessel.

“A star’s cycle revolves around death and rebirth. I died lots of times. So, I didn’t get to know that I’d have to be harvested.”

She said cheerfully.

It contrasted with the screams of the Captured Star.

“How can you say that with a straight face?”

“Because it’s alright now. I just have to wait. For someone to find me.” The Fragment stood beside Cer.

The agony of the Captured Star caused Cer to hurl as imagery of her suffering flashed in her mind.

The Nex was so dense that she could even sense what became of her harvest.

Mana went to power the city rather than electricity, which she was told was used to power Earth. How her blood was sent to laboratories and poorer Circles of the City where food was scarce.

“Frost… this is what they did to Frost…?”

“Frost? Who is that?” The Fragment asked.

“Another person from the outside.” Cer wiped her mouth clean of vomit. “Why didn’t you fight back? If it were me, I would’ve rather let the world rot. I can’t imagine what it must have felt. Tch. You remember all of it? All of this!? Every time you had to live and die!? What…

what

kind of process is that!?”

“Mine.” The Fragment smiled, taking Cer’s hand again. “My process.”

She took her towards the tree.

Slowly, the Fragment began to limp. Her apparel became ragged, and black veins ran along her body.

“Hey…!?”

Eventually, she fell.

“Oi! Fuck, I can’t tell if this is part of the memory or if you’re really in trouble!”

She tumbled onto pale grass.

Blood coagulated in her tear ducts. Her fingernails peeled off, and she was left bathing in the artificial light of their manufactured paradise.

“It’s normal.” She gurgled. “… It’s always ends like this. Sometimes, I’m able to run for hours before my body breaks down. On the days of their festivals, there’s nothing left of me.”

The nonchalant nature of the Fragment reminded her all too much about Frost.

But Frost would at least try to break free from her hell.

“Aren’t you frustrated? Even if escape was impossible… You need to fight. A bird doesn’t fly because they just got wings! They fly because they don’t want to be where they are anymore! Why the fuck… do you look so happy when you’re dying? Weren’t you tired of being their battery!?”

“No.”

Huh?

It was an unexpected answer. The red fluid that tumbled down the sides of the Fragment’s cheek were indistinguishable from blood and tears. Slowly, with hand that was crumbling away, she reached towards the skies and imagined a blue sky.

“I don’t think I ever hated it. Not in the same way you think. It was something to look forward to. To keep it all functioning… so that one day, I could see it for myself too. The outside. If the skies really are blue. I was naïve. I always was. But since becoming confined to… the Site Core, you said? Mhm. I’ve learned that there was something worse than being harvested.”

Cer plopped her tail on the girl’s chest.

She grasped it, smiling, like she had managed to grasp the clouds.

“What was it?”

“Being forgotten. My caretaker never saw me in my last moments. I knew I was going to die. Always. But I didn’t want to die alone. It was lonely. I called for her sometimes. I never had anyone, no matter how hard I tried to help the city. Just once, I wished that someone up there, from the outside, would think ‘how is she doing’. Wolf wolf.”

She tried to bark. But she didn’t know if ‘ruff’ was the right word. Seeing that Cer reacted more to ‘wolf’ convinced the Fragment that it was correct.

“You found me. Like the nice person upstairs. I’m not going to be broken and washed away?”

“Mark my words, you aren’t gonna be washed away. Easy for me to say what I’d do in your situation since I always had the ability to fight back. But there should be a limit to your selflessness.”

Cer argued.

The city did not deserve the Captured Star as far as she was concerned.

It was beyond just her being petty because these were technically Frost’s memories. Rather, it was her honest belief. She always gave it straight to children rather than beating around the bush.

The Fragment was no different.

She cradled her head as she knelt beside the Fragment.

“It’s frustrating… That Frost ain’t that different. Bastard almost got herself killed too many times to count. Tch.”

“Is it because I don’t have paws or ears that you’re angry?”

“You just remind me of another idiot. A dumb… good hearted idiot. Yeah. I found you. I’m willing to bet that she found you too. She had yellow eyes, right!?”

“… Mhm. But she was a little… scary.”

“Not even close!” Cer argued.

She couldn’t stand any Frost slander, even if it came from a piece of Frost herself.

Wait. She saw someone outside…? But isn’t she confined. Tch. I can’t contact Nav to ask.

“One second. How did you see her if you’re trapped in the Site Core?”

“Oh! It’s simple! I can project myself across the Site as weird mushy wolf. But she said that my [ >_< ] face was a psychological attack!”

Despite the Fragment supposed to be an inch away from death – at least in the memory – she was talking with enough vigor to put children to shame. Her eyes sparked momentarily, like the encounter was a memory worth immortalizing.

“… Would Frost say that?” Cer wondered.

Suddenly, a crack in space formed above them. The pallid world was dispelled, and they were thrown back into the heart of the Site Core.

Light from the outside world shone through multiple fissures. Cer prepared for battle, her tail wrapping around the child defensively.

Unbeknownst to Cer was that the Fragment now had floppy cat ears, reminiscent of the eyes of a slug.

“To be accepted into the Chalice so easily.”

“.Such an enviable trait. You will make for a fine drill bit.”

The Site Core cracked open.

And they were faced with the gaping maw of the Avatar of Kratt.

“How despicable. It has already taken hold of a form? Disgusting, how it pretends to be human.”

The Fragment’s grip on Cer’s tail increased ever so slightly.

“… I don’t even know what I am.”

She whispered beneath her breath.