Fall of Autumn, Week 5, Day 3

The world shifted, and I was in an empty, eternal sunrise. Pinks, oranges, and purples streaked a clouded sky, and the world was reflected across the water at my feet.

Before me was a table and a golden System notice levitating above it.

[Select Start to begin!]

[START]

I looked around, took in the quiet, and was thankful I had Eunora in my head. Silence met that thought, even though I knew the woman had yet to exhaust herself. So I searched for her, deep within my mind. I looked in every nook and cranny, every stray thought. I couldn't find her in my head.

It seemed Twilight could lock Divine Skills.

I paused. "It can lock Divine Skills? Then—"

[Tight Lips] was a Divine Skill. [Tight Lips] that stopped me from voicing my thoughts, that stopped me from acting on my knowledge, that blurred my own mother's face. That stole her name from me.

At that thought, tears pricked my eyes.

Because I could see her. Her long blonde hair, her soft features, the way her hard eyes became gentle only for me.

I could remember everything about her.

"Mom," I cried, relief filling me. "Dad."

The man who raised me, the man who taught me my letters, who took me to the park, who showed me the meaning of strength and love.

"Magda!" I gasped through my sobs. "Conrad!"

Their names fresh and whole, their faces, the angles that matched my own—

My own!

I took a shuddering breath.

In my head, there was a memory, one of the last memories I had before the storm that came from within the Dome. I was looking out a window, staring up at the tear in the sky that was crackling and rumbling. But I could see my angled dark eyes, my pale skin, my sharp cheekbones, my blonde hair cascading around me. It was marred with the visual outside of the—

Of the storm within the Dome.

Within. The. Dome.

"I knew it!" I screamed, rage boiling in my gut. "I knew those wretched Gods took me. I knew it. Like everything else, Brel and Grel took my fate, just as Scylla said."

But even that fact, the anger it brought, could not overcome the relief at the haze of my memories being lifted.

At the haze over my own name being lifted.

"Lise," I whispered. "Liselotte."

And I could say it.

Out loud.

Without a snap or a crack resounding through my head.

"I have it back." I took a deep breath. Then another. So long as I was within an instance of Twilight, I would have it. I could say my name. I could remember my name.

Did that mean when I left, I would forget again? That the images would blur and fade and my name would be locked away all over? Would I be forced to relive the grief of losing my mother, father, and my—

"Emmett."

His green eyes filled my vision, they were all I could think of. The shade of nature's grass, never found within the Dome, but lining the outer edges of the glass walls. It was beautiful.

And before me was the golden System notice.

[Select Start to begin!]

[START]

I took a while before I began. How could I? Everything had changed.

I remembered.

[Fill the vial to the line.]

I stared at the glass tub before me.

"That is not a vial," was all I could think to say.

[Fill the vial to the line.]

The golden notice grew slightly as I looked at it, but instead of dwelling on it, I held my palm out over the glass tub. It was thrice as large as I was. I focused my mind, visualizing in my mind how many shadows were needed to fill the tub.

Enough to overwhelm a blight. Or two. Or three.

I took a breath and pushed at the place within me that was where [Shadow Conjuration] usually originated. As darkness rushed from my palm, I realized the lack of shadow within the tub. There was a light emanating from the glass, eradicating any natural darkness from it. I pushed my shadows out faster in an attempt to counteract the glow and stop it from damaging my mana-infused darkness.

[ERROR! Vial overfull. Failure condition one detected. Strike recorded.]

I blinked, looking at the tub, lined with squirming tendrils of shadow, and couldn't figure out what—

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

[Fill the vial to the line.]

I groaned, watching as the tub's glow grew to blinding levels, erasing my shadows and revealing an etched line about halfway up the side of the glass.

I held my palm back over the center of the 'vial' and channeled [Shadow Conjuration] again. Only for the shadows to flow at the exact same rate as before.

"Wait—no—stop!" I grunted just in time. About an inch above the shadows was the etched line.

[ERROR! Vial underfilled. Failure condition two detected. Strike recorded.]

"That's ridiculous," I said, frowning at my palm. "It's not working like normal."

I closed my eyes, taking a steadying breath, and when I opened them I read the next notice.

[Fill the vial to the line.]

The etched line hadn't moved, but my shadows were destroyed once again.

I hummed to myself.

"They're going too fast, and I have to be careful, or I'll cut it too soon. So, I need the rate of flow and the rate of fill." I sighed. "And I have to do the math by hand. [Quick Calculation] isn't working here. Okay, one more time, let's give it a go."

It won't work this time, but maybe I can catch one of the rates.

I held out my palm, pulling on [Shadow Conjuration] and watched intently as the shadow tendrils rushed out and filled the tub in a pit of darkness, so black it blocked out the light of the tub's glow.

[ERROR! Vial overfull. Failure condition one detected. Strike recorded.]

I took a sharp breath, cutting off the flow, and stumbled forward. My head swirled, but it couldn't have been lack of mana —that had been the case since the start. This was something else.

It felt similar to the knowledge from [Quick Calculation] and the pain from [Tight Lips] mixed together. Yet neither the knowing or the notice appeared.

Okay, I thought, it's a simple calculation for flow rate. Let's start with that. I have the time it took —roughly 17 seconds for it to fill up the tub to the etched line. How many units should I assign to the tub?

I leaned against the tub, already quickly emptying of the darkness, and estimated the number of gallons the tub could hold. Cubic meters would not have worked in this situation. It was too small of a tub, and the flow was too fast.

In my mind, I layered gallons within the tubs. One by one, I built it up to the etched line. About halfway. I got to roughly 39 gallons.

"Flow rate is simple; it's volume over time. So 39 gallons over 17 seconds." I closed my eyes, mentally calculating the division. "So about 2.29 gallons per second. That is easier to visualize than just a vague 17 seconds."

When I opened them, another notice was floating above the tub.

[Fill the vial to the line.]

Only, the tub was suddenly larger. And the line was higher. I groaned.

"Let's do our best, Nora," I sighed.

Inside, I wondered how, even after regaining my name, I felt comfortable calling myself Nora. How, now knowing I was meant to be Liselotte, I could still allow myself to be little Eunora's replacement.

But little Eunora wasn't coming back.

And a woman named Liselotte was no more.

It was just me.

I powered [Shadow Conjuration]. The shadows flowed. And I counted slowly.

One.

Two.

Three.

.

.

.

Thirty-three.

"Stop!" I cried, trying to cut off the flow at the exact moment but, yet again, seeing the same result.

[ERROR! Vial overfull. Failure condition one detected. Strike recorded.]

"Garbage!" I said, frustration overwhelming me.

"Why is it being this way?" I groaned.

"Fine, if math isn't working, let's do instinct." I hissed.

[Fill the vial to the line.]

.

.

.

[ERROR! Vial overfull. Failure condition one detected. Strike recorded.]

"AHHHHHH!" I screamed, overwhelmed by how easy it was to overfill the tub. It didn't even make sense! I was so close to the line. Why wasn't it stopping?

[Failure conditions met! Trial ending. Better luck next time.]

My hands were still shaking. Five times in a row, I failed at controlling [Shadow Conjuration]. I had never expected it to be a finesse Skill. But the trial clearly told me it was.

[Congratulations! You have completed a Twilight Trial! Now ranking your performance!]

[Times Over Filled: 4]

[Times Under Filled: 1]

[Time Taken: 10 Minutes]

[Rating: F]

[Experience modifier applied based on Divinity.]

[Congratulations! Your Skill [Shadow Conjuration] has received a 0% Advancement to the next level.]

[Notice: Use of Twilight for [Shadow Conjuration] is locked until all other Tiered Skills have been tested in Twilight. Please Advance all Tiered Skills to unlock [Shadow Conjuration] again.]

[Due to F Ranking, Twilight offers its Consolation. HINT: Shadow exists most prominently in the greatest light.]

I stared at the golden notice, before thinking back to how that could possibly apply.

The tub was glass, and it was glowing the whole time—

Oh.

"The etching," I said, pulling at my braids lightly. "The etching had a shadow too. I could have conjured from there and let it flow down."

I sighed, trying to force my frustration down.

"It's fine, Nora, it's only one of your most used and important Skills," I grumbled, before seeing a pillar manifest within the eternal sunrise.

It wanted me to leave. It wanted me to go back to the world where I couldn't even know my own mother's face. Couldn't know the full extent of my job in elsewhere. Couldn't think of my own name.

Liselotte. Lise. Liselotte. Lise. I repeated it, like a mantra. Like a hope and a dream rolled into one.

I couldn't live in Twilight. The spirits could no longer follow me here. I was alone, apart from the other Lights of Dawn that could come and go.

"I can come back. Some of the other Trials surely stop Divine Skills as well." I huffed. "And even if they don't, I just have to get through the tiered Skills and come back to [Shadow Conjuration]."

I nodded to myself.

Yeah. That was a good plan. And I'd get better at [Shadow Conjuration] before then. I'd practice filling items in the estate with darkness to exact levels so that next time it would be a simple thing to dominate this Trial.

More and more things to do. Studying, Skill practice, it is all piling up.

I let myself fall into the memory of my family in elsewhere one last time.

Tracing the lines of Emmett's hands, of my mother's smile, of my father's shoulders, I took it all in. I wondered, if I had not consumed my Divinity for [A Shade of Dawn], could I have forced my memories back?

Could I have used a Domain that overwrote [Tight Lips]? That restored me to who I was?

No, I decided. I'm too far gone to be Lise. Too shaped by Maeve and the Gods and the Dawns. Too angry, too broken, too much of Nora is within me now.

At that, I stepped out of the trial.

I felt two things happen at once.

One, I felt the presence of [Eternal Communion] Eunora.

Two, I felt a wall rise in my mind. No longer could I see my face—nor could I call my name.

"—," I tried anyway, only for empty air to come out.

Tears threatened to prick at my eyes.

But I couldn't afford to allow them to fall. Not here, not in Twilight.

Because—

"Nora."

It was Third Day.

The day Theo came to Twilight.

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