From the Vast

Chapter 2: Whispers

The experience of traversing through an unconscious mind was just similar enough to the usual, awake existence to prompt those who had done it to attempt to describe it with regular, commonplace terms, but also just different enough for these same terms to fall far short. The analogy Aria opted for most of the time was a walk through a sparse forest or an orchard, with each tree its own memory, and related memories bundled together.

Of course, this analogy too was woefully flawed. Trees- most trees at least- didn't move or change shape in real time, had reasonable minimum and maximum sizes, and couldn't conjoin themselves with other trees in a way that sounded gruesome to imagine with literal trees, but only made sense in the quasi-dreamscape Aria was now walking through. A dreamscape that even knowing the underlying truth of what she'd have to do, stripped of the layers of abstraction inherent in an analogy, couldn't have prepared Aria for.

It was far from her first time diving into an unconscious mind like that, and even if their owners weren't awake to help guide her towards what she needed to see, she usually had no issue with finding her way towards the specific events or knowledge she was interested in. This one was different. It was... darker, murkier, the usual fog that shrouds asleep minds so thick in here she could barely see even a few feet in front of herself.

This must've been what a comatose mind was like.

With a bit more focus, Aria attempted to at least clear the way in front of herself, pushing the fog back just back enough to have some breathing room before delving in deeper into the murky realm, examining every "tree" she passed by, looking around rather blindly for the child's recent memories. In most circumstances, they'd be the first thing she saw in here, but it was very clear by now that these were not most circumstances she was dealing with.

Her own unease at what she would end up finding in here wasn't helping one bit, fueled steadily by the scattered noises, bits of human speech, and especially distant screams she could heard echoing through this dark, cold place. And from the best of her ability to make out, the screams were coming from multiple voices.

Fortunately for Aria's resolve they weren't too common, lest the whole thing devolved into a haunted cacophony, but when they did reach her, different each time, sometimes sounding painful, sometimes wrathful, Aria couldn't help but feel a shiver after a shiver run down her back and fin.

The sooner she finds her answer and gets out of there the better.

As dark and foggy as this place might've been, it was only a temporary setback- her dislike of empty flattery aside, Aria was good at this, following along the whatever traces of awareness she could sense, bringing her closer and closer to where the child's consciousness faded last. Or more realistically, was abruptly cut off in some way. Unnervingly enough, the closer she got, the louder and more frequent the shrieks around her became, and at times she could just barely glimpse shadowy outlines just at the edges of her vision.

She knew she had nothing to fear- they weren't real, merely a reflection of how the beings that had cast them haunted the poor mind she was wading through, herself only caught in the crossfire of the child's subconscious torturing itself- but hell if it provide an even better motivation to up her pace and get through it all sooner. And considering the hour of the day and the relative emptiness of her stomach, get some breakfast afterwards.

It was hard to estimate just how long it took for her to find what she was looking for, could've been anywhere from minutes to hours- all that Aria knew was that she was becoming desensitized to the unnerving stimuli around her at a pace her aware mind would've found disturbing, before taking one more step and finally seeing it. The sapling of a memory looked almost paradoxical, dead and alive in equal measure, most of the trunk wilting away as the branches and leaves continued to grow. Traumatic start, with an indeterminate conclusion.