My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror - Chapter 289 (Patreon)

Hilla’s smile faltered and her arms dropped. “What? Damien, what are you talking about? It’s me.”

Damien glanced at Delph to see if the professor was trying to mess with him, but his expression was just as confused as Damien’s was.

“I don’t think I know you. Are you sure you haven’t mixed me up with someone?” Damien asked.

“Damien,” Sylph said. “That’s your mom.”

He blinked. “What? No she isn’t.”

“Unless I was drastically misinformed about something, she most certainly is,” Delph said. He gave Damien a baffled glance. “Did you get hit on the head when sparring Dredd?”

Damien squinted at Hilla. Nothing about her features seemed familiar to him. Confusion and hurt washed over the woman’s face, but try as he might, Damien couldn’t dredge anything up.

“This isn’t a particularly funny joke,” Damien said. “I’ve never met this woman in my life. I’d like to know how Delph managed to convince Sylph to join in on this, though.”

Sylph’s eyes widened as a thought struck her. She put a hand on Damien’s shoulder. “We need to talk. Privately.”

He frowned, then nodded. “One moment, Professors.”

Hilla reached for him, but Damien had already Warp Stepped, taking Sylph along with him. They both appeared at the far side of the clearing, near the edge of the treeline and well out of hearing of everyone else.

“What’s going on, Sylph?”

“Your memory,” Sylph said urgently. “Remember what you told me about your meeting with the leader of the Void? The one without a face. You lost a memory, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I did. But that was a memory! Are you telling me that the woman over there,” Damien nodded toward the group of students and professors in the middle of the clearing, “is my mother?”

“Do you really think I’d lie to you about something like this?”

“No,” Damien said immediately. “But… that’s a lot more than a single memory. That’s a whole person.”

“You don’t remember anything? Can you tell me something about your mother?”

Damien opened his mouth to respond, but no words emerged. He dug through his mind, but there was just nothing there. Damien was certain he had a mother. Everyone did. He had a house too, in Ardenford. He pursed his lips, an uneasy tingle running down his spine.

He dug even deeper, searching for the slightest fragment. There was nothing. There wasn’t even enough to realize that something was missing. If Sylph hadn’t been standing beside him, her hand squeezing his hand with a deadly serious look in her eyes, he would have dismissed the notion entirely.

It wasn’t like the memories that Herald had damaged when he’d first arrived on the Mortal Plane. Damien could tell those were missing – they’d been carved and modified to avoid shattering his mind.

These just simply… weren’t.

“You’re serious?” Damien breathed. “That’s my mom?”

“I stayed at your house. Do you remember that?”

“Yeah. Nolan and Yui and the others all showed up too.”

“And you don’t remember your mom? She was there too.”

Damien scrunched his eyebrows together. Then he shook his head. “No. It was just us, wasn’t it? The house was empty aside from that.”

“No, it wasn’t. Your mom was there. She made us food.”

A dull headache thumped in the back of Damien’s mind.

Henry?

“I’m already looking through your mind,” Henry said, his voice just as serious as Sylph’s had been. “But that woman is your mother, even if I can’t seem to find any trace of her in your mind.”

“Henry recognizes her too,” Damien muttered. He squinted across the clearing, trying to get another look at Hilla, but they were too far to make any real details out. “He’s looking to see if I’ve got any memories of her, but he can’t find anything.”

Sylph squeezed his hand, her eyes searching for his. Damien could tell she was trying to comfort him, but the emotion he felt wasn’t what he suspected she thought he did.

How can I feel sad for losing something I never had? At least, I can’t remember ever having it. If it never happened in my mind, the only one suffering is my mom.

“That isn’t the right way to see things,” Henry said. “This is part of you. From the memories you have – had – of your mother, she was a very good person. You learned a lot from her, and you cared for her deeply. Losing those memories is not good. Humans are nothing more than bundles of memories, tied together by hopes and dreams. Without her, you’ve lost part of what makes you, well, you.”

Is there anything I can do about that? The Corruption and the Void are both knocking at our door, Henry. I don’t have time to think about myself.

“You’re colder. You’ve been getting colder for a while. I thought it was just more of my soul seeping into you mixed in with the constant fighting, but this might account for some of that too. Getting more pragmatic isn’t bad, but dismissing this loss as nothing isn’t the way to handle it.”

So what do you suggest? The memories are gone, Henry. If they weren’t, you would have found them already. You’ve been in my mind for longer than I have, and even though I couldn’t remember what I lost, I do remember how I lost them. They were burned by some sort of Void flame. There’s no recovering that.

Henry had no response for that. Damien could feel him rooting around in his mind, shuffling through memories and trying to fit a puzzle with no pieces back together. He sighed and shook his head.

“Are you okay?” Sylph asked.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” Damien admitted. “Imagine a man walked up to you and said he was your brother that stood by your side every day until you arrived at Blackmist.”

“I don’t have a brother.”

“Exactly.”

“You can’t tell your mom that. It would crush her.”

“Did you know her well?” Damien’s eyebrows rose. “How many times did you meet her?”

Sylph gave him a sad smile. “Just once, but it was enough for me to get to know her. She’s a very kind woman, and you mean the world to her. Please be gentle with how you word things, even if they’re true.”

Damien winced. “Have I really gotten that bad? Henry warned me that I was getting colder.”

“If words had cushion, yours would be metal.”

“Right. Pretty bad.”

Sylph gave him a half-shrug. “I don’t mind it myself. I’ve never been one to dance around when talking. But this isn’t about me. Is there any way you can get those memories back?”

“None that I know. Henry’s working on it, I guess. The only thing I can really think of would be some sort of Void spell to inverse the effects of the first, but I’m pretty sure it’s far too late for anything like that. My memories are gone, not hidden.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Sylph said, squeezing his hand again. “What do you want to do about your mom? Do you want to try to keep distance between you until things can get worked out?”

“No point. If she’s like how you described her, that would probably just hurt even more, wouldn’t it?” Damien shook his head. “It would be best to tell her I suffered an injury that temporarily damaged some of my memories. Those are the words that are least likely to make her sad.”

“So you think it’s temporary?”

Damien’s face darkened. “No. Almost certainly not. But temporary would make her feel better, wouldn’t it?”

“I suppose it would.”

“Let’s head back, then. I don’t want to make this into anything too big, or it might mess up everyone else’s training. I – I think I might need to think on things later.”

“I’ll be there,” Sylph promised. “Tonight?”

“Tonight.”

He sent Sylph back to the clearing and Warp Stepped after her, appearing where he’d been standing before they’d left. Hilla flinched at their arrival, and Delph’s eyes flicked to the side in shame.

“Damien?” Hilla asked hesitantly.

“Mom. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you at first,” Damien said, giving her a weak smile. He stepped forward and pulled her into a hug. “I had an injury that temporarily damaged my memories.”

Hilla pulled him closer, her arms tightening around his back. Damien resisted the urge to pull away. She released him a moment later, moving her hands up to his shoulders and leaning back to peer at his face.

“What happened? How were you injured? What are they treating you with? How long until you’re recovered? Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?”

“That’s a lot of questions,” Damien said, rubbing the back of his head. “I got into a fight with a pretty powerful entity inside my mind. I managed to win, but it messed up some stuff on the way out. My companion is working on fixing things up. I think it should be healed in a month or two.”

“Liar,” Henry muttered in his head. “Even if I figure out a fix, there’s no way it’ll be that fast.”

The Corruption will be dealt with in a few months, one way or another. It won’t matter anymore after that.

“How bad are your injuries?” Hilla asked, moving Damien’s head as if she could try to spot where he’d been hurt. “You’re sure nothing else was damaged?”

“Nothing,” Damien promised. “Things are just a bit shaken up. Don’t worry too much.”

Hilla gave him a suspicious frown, then shook her head and sighed. “Okay. I’m probably embarrassing you. I just worry, Damien.”

“It’s fine, mom. Thanks.” The words felt awkward on Damien’s lips, but they seemed to be enough to sate Hilla for the time. She nodded, releasing him, and took a step back. After a short pause, she glanced at him again.

“You’re sure that you’re okay? Nothing else is wrong?”

“I’m fine,” Damien lied. “Nothing else, and it’s not total amnesia. A few things are just a bit loose. Don’t worry about me.”

“Okay. I’m sorry for that, everyone.”

“It’s quite understandable,” Dredd said. “Any mother would be worried about her child. I’m sure all the students enjoyed their brief reprieve from training, but I fear it has come to an end. Shall we begin, Hilla?”

“Yes, that would be best,” Hilla said. She paused, then glanced from Damien to Delph. “Just one more question. Damien, was your injury caused by or somehow related to Delph?”

“I – technically, no,” Damien said. “Technically.”

“Technically?”

“I’m not sure I’m at liberty to discuss it. It wasn’t his fault, though.”

Hilla grunted. “I see. But he wasn’t not at fault?”

“I’m sensing some targeted questions here,” Delph said.

“I think they’re fair, considering you injured just as many mages as you killed monsters.”

“That’s hardly true,” Delph complained. “Do you have any idea how many monsters I killed on the frontlines?”

“Do you have any idea how much collateral damage you caused?”

“Okay, fair,” Delph admitted. “But I’m confident I wasn’t that bad. Besides, I was your son’s main teacher. Come on, Damien. Back me up a little so your mom doesn’t rip me a new breathing hole.”

“Delph has taught me a lot,” Damien admitted. “And nearly killed me a few times – intentionally, once. But I survived, and I suppose I could have had worse.”

“Gee, thanks,” Delph said. “Glowing praise.”

“If anything, I should be surprised that he survived this long with you as a teacher,” Hilla muttered. “Right then. We’ll be talking later, Delph. You too, Damien. Until then, I’ll get to actually doing my job. Line up for me, kids. Let’s see how badly your instructors have prepared you for a real fight.”

Damien moved with the others, ignoring the glances they sent in his direction, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Sylph and Quinlan, who sent him a worried glance. He returned it with a forced smile and turned his attention to the woman who was apparently his mother, unable to still the unease stirring in his stomach.