The Dream Shifter

Chapter 207

Yori widened his eyes sharply to a realization. "It's wrong!" His breathing returned to normal and he stood up freely. He stared back in the hall near the desk, finding attendants of varying ages and heights talking to everyone. "The events are wrong! Yumi didn't have powers then! This is a false memory, but why? Was it a trick by the woman?"

Suddenly, something pulled Yori away from the ground, buildings and even the world. It all quickly fell out of sight. His world fell into darkness. Yori floated away to an end that he did not understand. The void he found himself contained in had a strange unfamiliar feel to it. Even in all of the confusion from before he felt certain that he was still in his world, for lack of a better word. The sense of his world no longer existed. He truly felt disconnected.

The veil ripped away from his eyes and bathed him in light. Green hills and forests surrounded him with a small town coming into sight. None of it was familiar to him. 'What's happening now? This can't be a memory of mine?'

A young girl ran up to a house in the block of homes that Yori found himself standing in. She met an older boy, in his teens, and they ran back out into the stone road. All he heard was the boy calling out to the girl. "Slow down, Athene!"

The veil ripped away from his eyes and bathed him in light. Green hills and forests surrounded him with a small town coming into sight. None of it was familiar to him. 'What's happening now? This can't be a memory of mine?'

A young girl ran up to a house in the block of homes that Yori found himself standing in. She met an older boy, in his teens, and they ran back out into the stone road. All he heard was the boy calling out to the girl. "Slow down, Athene!"

Yori reached his hand out towards the two children as though he wanted to stop them, but knew them to be too far away. Watching the two run off down the road through his fingers made him feel as helpless as he did confused. The scenery did not seem familiar to him and the children were no one he remembered. If the houses looked Japanese, then he could have thought the rural quality to be from a countryside town he visited when he was younger. However, they did not match anything in Japan. 'They look European…sort like…'

His eyes widened in shocking realization as he took in the town in more detail. The thatched roofs for some homes, stone masonry for others, each he saw before. The architecture looked identical to where they had just come from. He could not believe his eyes completely. It did not make any sense to him that such a place would be in his mind. Recent memory or not, it did not add up. '…this is Atlantis!'

"What's going on?!" Yori shouted to the sky. His head tilted towards the clouds as though seeking an answer from them. It seemed stupid to expect a reply, but if the woman created the illusion then she might have answered him. Silence told him that he should feel awkward for the scene. He flipped his eyes side to side a little paranoid someone in the illusion saw him, but that did not seem to be the case. It felt to him that the children were the only others in the world.

He ran off down the road after the children. 'If it's just us then there must be some meaning to this! I have to figure this mystery out!' Yori searched down alleys and around homes with no success. He knew that they had to be around the town somewhere. Desperation built in his muscles urging his legs to move faster to find them. Everything around him was foreign and he wanted answers. 'If I find them maybe I can figure this all out!' It turned into his only hope. He had left a fake memory to fall into what he could only assume to be an illusion created to confuse him. He did not even know if they stole everything from his mind. The woman claimed to have full access, but Yori questioned how truthful those words were after what he saw.

Wandering around the town gave up no answers for him. The children were nowhere in sight. The town itself did not seem anymore familiar to him after the search. He hoped that enough looking might reveal the town they stayed in briefly, but nothing about it he recognized. He only had two outcomes from his investigation. 'Either this is a completely fabricated memory meant to be the next stage in the interrogations or this is a composite of my memories to create something new, which also might be the next stage as well.' Each option had their merits, but Yori did not want to settle on one until he understood his situation better.

With the town exhausted, he went out into the fields. While he hoped that they did not double back at some point, the only remaining place unsearched was beyond the town. Yori knew that a lot of unexplored ground existed outside. Therefore, he just pointed himself in a direction and went rather than over thinking the problem.

"Looks fairly generic," he sighed with disappointment. He knew that he should not have expected anything to look familiar to him. If his hypothesis was correct as he was in Atlantis, then he did not have enough time in the land for anything to be familiar. One hill and one tree looked just like every other one. "Hopefully, they're around here."

Yori walked aimlessly for a time that he could no longer count. He did not even know if any sense of the word, time, existed. The sun did not seem to change regardless of where he went or for how long. He wanted to give up his fruitless search, but trudged on with only the hope of answers at the end.

In the distance, the voice of children pulled Yori away from his line of sight. He had found them at last. He ran as hard as he could in the direction not wanting to be late and find them missing. Over a hill and in a large field of flowers, he found the two children he saw before. They sat in the field picking flowers and laughing. He felt the scene oddly cliché, even for an illusion. "You can't be serious…what sort of meaning is this supposed to have?"

Uncertain on how to continue, Yori took careful steps not to disturb the two if they could be aware of his presence. The two seemed in their own world with not a care to anything else. Closer to them, he started to make out their conversation.

"When's your daddy coming home, Athene?"

"I don't know. Mommy says that's working hard for the King."

"My mommy say's the King's bad!"

"But mommy says without the King we'd all die!"

"But if the King is gone there will be another King."

"So even if the King is evil, we'll get a new King that's good?"

"Definitely!"

'What do they mean?' Yori paused outside of the flowers. He remembered the conversation he eavesdropped on in the village the night before had similar words. It did not add too much to him yet, but it coming up again made him certain the King had a greater significance to the country than Ayumi let them to believe. He could see her desperation, but she never explained herself. He needed to understand the role the King played. 'Why will everyone die if there's no King? The land will still be here even without the King. So what happens? And an evil King and good King?' Yori pressed his hand to his forehead feeling his mind going in circle just like before. 'Nothing is making any sense. This is all too vague! I need a clear answer!'

Yori turned his cautious away and started in for the children. Even if he was in an illusion there seemed to be the chance for answers to what Ayumi hid from them. He had to know. He did not care about the risks. "Hey! You—" Before Yori could say anymore an explosion drowned out his words. The children stood up looking straight at him in shock. He felt as though their stunned faces accused him of the noise, but he quickly learned otherwise.

The girl started to cry running part way through the flowers before stopping. "The town's on fire! Mommy!"

"…mom…" whimpered the boy unable to move from his spot.

"Mommy's in danger! I have to find her!" She began running again passing Yori as though he did not exist. The boy chased after her once he realized that she ran off.

Ash, screams and heat so uncomfortable that it made his skin crawl washed over Yori. He had not turned around yet, but it felt as though the town stood behind him. He knew it not to be possible, but he looked over his shoulder. "What?!" When he saw the town burning close enough to glaze his eyes he staggered back facing it fully.

Townspeople fled in all directions from the spreading fires. Whatever explosions started it, the center of the town held a large crater. Stone and earth debris laid strewn everywhere. The blast that occurred sent pieces into other homes wrecking more outside of the radius. Cries and screams of pain echoed through the roads from the injured or dying. Anarchy existed and no one knew why.

"What's happening? Why is the town burning suddenly? Is there an attack?" Before Yori could get any answers the town shift on him. He found himself standing back at the home when he first saw the girl. She cried knelt in front of what remained of her house. Something crushed half of the walls and the roof collapsed inward. Beams of wood stuck out while a large chuck of stone rested within what used to be the primary room. Yori saw blood thrown around the walls and debris with only a hand visible. He averted his eyes away understanding the scene too well.

"Mommy! Mommy!" A black veil ran over Yori wiping away all of the horror that surrounded him. The girl disappeared and all he heard was her voice repeating. "Come back! Mommy!" Her voice soon faded away to the other unknown voices.

"It's that girl!"

"The one that survived!"

"She's from the town that they attacked!"

"The rebels…"

Yori felt the voices pounded in his head making him wrench his eyes closed. He could not shut out the voices. 'Rebels? What's…happening…ugh…sister…'

"Welcome to the Military Academy! Your conscription papers have already been processed. After you finish your basic training you will report to the Academy for Meso Prosecho. Good luck, Cadet Athene!"

"Yes, sir!"

"You hear she's from the town that rebels wiped out during the rebellion?"

"They say she's the only that survived!"

"Who are you?"

"I'm the new graduate from the academy. I've been assign to the South Gate."

'Academy? Different voices…from before…' He wanted it to end. He did not know much more his mind could take. It all moved too fast for him.

"Right, I heard about you from the Captain. Can't believe they're sending us children now."

"I'll pull my own weight, ma'am!"

"You better. Rumors are you the prize of the Academy and that even General Alexander himself says you have great promise. You better live up to such accolades."

"I will, ma'am!"

"You act confident, but we'll see how long that lasts. I don't know what Command is think putting an eleven year old in charge of a squad, even with your marks. I'll be watching you, Second Lieutenant Eudokia."

'Eudokia?!' Yori's opened once more with the pain suddenly ignored. He knew that name. 'That's Ayumi?! What's going on?' The void disappeared for him as though in response to his request. He found himself standing before a tall stone complex. Stone columns lined the outer walls acting as support and decoration to the inner main walls. The structure spread out in grander size than he had ever seen in illustrations of the Ancient Greek buildings. It made him wonder if perhaps similar structures did exist, but time took them away.

However, he knew he could not focus on the building. Yori turned his eyes down to the courtyard they stood in. Soldiers walked on patrol at the outer perimeter, but none of that mattered. Before him, he found something that he did not expect to see. A young child, in the White Atlantean Military uniform, that seemed to match Ayumi at a younger age stood in his sight. Across from her, the tall woman that he remembered seeing in the white room. "What's going on? Why am I seeing this? Is this real?!"