The air in the dining room feels too still, as if the world itself had forgotten to breathe.
((Did she just forget that we have been chatting for some time? Was her memory simply wiped out? Why? By whom?))
Cecilia feels a heavy sense of unease weighing on her chest, as if an overarching doom were hovering in the air, about to fall down in destructive might.
"Aelindra… What was your dream about?"
"Huh? I dreamed that… That… Eehhh… What was that dream about again? Anyway…"
Aelindra opened a faint smile, and tears began to swell in her eyes.
"I'm so happy you're back, Mother. I'm so, so happy. I missed you so much…"
((Wait? Didn't you just make that exact same face and say that exact same phrase? What the hell is going on…?))
Cecilia looks downwards in an awkward motion, her eyes moving naturally to the plate with the cheesecake slice that she had been eating, which was almost finished at this point.
Or, better said, it should have been almost finished at this point. But the reality is that it was intact, as if Cecilia had never taken a bite from it.
((When did I enter a horror novel? I didn't sign up for this…))
She thought about taking another bite of it, but she felt Aelindra's stare.
She looked back up to see that her daughter was almost bursting out in tears again. She gave an awkward smile and reached to her again, offering her shoulder. An exact reproduction of the earlier scene.
((I wonder what in the earlier conversation was forbidden. Well, at least she didn't forget about me. I'll have to be more careful about my words in the future. She seems to be a bit confused after the 'memory correction' or whatever that was...))
She patted her daughter, brushing Aelindra's hair gently with her fingers.
"Please, don't ever forget me, my daughter…"
((You are the only tie I have with reality. Now that I found that I have a family, I don't want to lose it…))
"How could I ever forget you, Mother? I've been waiting for five centuries…"
((I don't know what the trigger was, but it's better to avoid any talk about the reality before the Closing of the Servers, just in case. Which would be difficult, given our shared history…
Wait. She did research about it. She had even reached knowledge about the existence of another world and the nature of players, and it seemed like she had knew about it for a long time… Then why did this happen NOW of all times?))
"You are the one who went wandering off the world and forgot about your daughter for all that time."
Cecilia froze.
That was the hard proof that Aelindra's memories had been altered. She didn't forget about Cecilia or her return. But had forgotten about the reasons for her absence.
Which is to say that she forgot every part of the conversation that was about the difference between the reality of the game and the reality of this world.
((Maybe I should drop the subject for now and just act normal and observe… I don't want to trigger another rewriting…))
As she kept patting the head of her tearful daughter, Cecilia's mind drifted away, tracing plans.
((I'll go to my hidden base and find Mina and see what she remembers. There are also Siraaeniel, Ephyrael, and Aenoth…))
In the game, Cecilia had created five follower NPCs. Aelindra was the first one, and she was her in-game daughter, a gentle and curious 'teenager' (dark elves reach the 'teenage' years a lot later than humans, which means not in their -teens).
These other followers were a maid catgirl, Mina, who was tasked with taking care of her hidden base and only left the place when Cecilia took her to level up.
Then there was Ephyrael, a dark elf priest of Ephemeris like Cecilia's character, Morielen. His main task was to help her with floracrafting, the branch of alchemy that dealt with potions, and also to help her with bigger rituals.
Another one was the high elf Siraaeniel, her 'wiki.' His task was to compile all lore information and present it to her when she needed it. He was also a mage with good offensive spells.
Lastly, Aenoth was her meat shield. A dark elf who helped her with tough dungeons when she wasn't in the mood to partner with other players.
((I want to ask about them, but I don't dare to breach the subject with her…))
"Mother… You should go visit Aelindra. She is very worried and has missed you so much."
"Huh?"
"Oh! I mean Mina. What's wrong with me today? You should visit Mina. She had been watching over your place during all those years, thanks to the Golden Pome you gave her."
((Was that just confusion after the memory manipulation? Well, I was hesitating about bringing up the subject, but it seems that it's fine to talk about people from back then. Maybe the trigger is really pointing out the differences between the two realities...))
Being a catfolk, Mina's life span lasted only two hundred years. But one of the last things Cecilia did in the game was craft some Golden Pommes, the highest and most painfully difficult item to craft in the floracraft techniques tree.
It increased the Max HP of the person who ate it by a whopping 150% of its base Max HP, so she ate one and gave one for each follower, as its effects wouldn't stack if someone ate more than one.
She remembered the flavor text saying that it also increased lifespan by about ten times the original. She didn't think much about it in the game, as lifespan was just a lore flavor and didn't impact gameplay.
But in this real world, it would effectively turn Mina's lifespan from two hundred years to two thousand years. Truly an item that a lot of people on Earth would kill to get their hands on.
"I will go there next. And what about the others? Do you know their whereabouts?"
"Siraaeniel is the director of the Academy of Magic in Elenwacht, Ephyrael is the director of the hospital here in Drakenhof, and Aenoth…"
Her voice cracked when she said the last name, and her eyes lowered, with a noticeable hesitation.
"What happened to Aenoth?"
Cecilia understood that there was something bad coming but felt the need to know.
"She became a vampire and went on a murderous rampage. She is said to be holing up in the north of the Velen Mountains. Yet, nobody has been able to find her in the last two centuries, so we have no up-to-date information on her."