Elysia in Another World (Part 1)

Ch25: System Error P3

Chapter 25: System Error P3
~25.3~
*****

Adele carried Kye to their residence at the palace in Arslade. They always used a door-shaped portal to go to the council chamber, so it wasn't a long trip. She gently laid her down. She had fallen asleep in his arms along the way, and she didn't want to wake her after what she went through. Alethea helped Sanae over to the bed, where she laid down with her sister. Sanae was desperately worried for Kye and didn't want to leave her side, despite having also experienced the same pain.

Alethea and Adelle then joined Michelle, Layla, and Hannah at the table on the far side of the room before saying anything.

"I've never seen her like this."

"I still can't believe the fear I saw in her eyes," Hannah said. "For such a strong girl - one who immediately leaps into danger without a second thought - to so adamantly refuse to do something out of fear... I'm baffled."

"Their hair..." Alethea said. Kye's and Sanae's hair color faded from blonde to white.

"Stress induced hair color loss," Hannah muttered.

"Just like... when she split."

"You remember that?" Michelle asked. "I don't have memories of other worldlines."

"I soul dived after figuring out silver mana and dug my way into them. I remember everything, even the Kingdom of Alexandria, but it feels like there are some holes." She shook her head. "That's not important right now. Their hair is turning white, just like before. Elysia's hair was originally blonde, but the stress from the soul split turned it white."

Layla said nothing and simply pulled up a chair next to the bed. Kye's breathing was uneven and fast, as if having a nightmare. Sanae wasn't as bad as Kye, but her heart rate was higher than normal. Layla wrapped them with healing magic and readied herself to stay like that for as long as necessary.

"What can we do?" Alethea asked. "This is uncharted territory for us."

"And that's saying something," Michelle added. "Even back when you two were-"

She stopped short when Alethea shot her a sudden glare.

Hannah shook her head. "Support her as best you can. I'll prescribe therapy sessions later. She'll likely need some time before talking about it."

"You think it's mental?"

Hannah nodded. "Without a doubt. I've spent much of my ten million years working with LGBT patients. Many of them, especially trans patients," she eyed Alethea, "benefit from therapy. Sometimes just talking about it is enough. I expanded into broader therapy and saw any patient that needed help, regardless of background. This should be no surprise to you lot, but after ten million years... there's not much you don't see in your profession. I've done basically everything medical at this point, not just mental care."

Alethea hesitantly replied, "Hannah, you have an advantage we don't."

She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"We've lived billions of lives. One million lives alone adds up to several tens of millions of years or more, and some of those lives can be very long. We've got you beat by such a large degree it's not even remotely close. Yet, you have lived your ten-plus million years as one person and have grown and mastered your trade to a degree none of us have ever done, at least as mortals. Only Shi-chan has lived a life longer than that. Elise Arbell lived for two hundred million years. Our immortal lives before are different altogether, but when you get past our immortality and our mana, we're really not much different from regular people. There are many things we've mastered via repetition - living the same several decades of life many times over - but there's only one thing we have truly mastered... killing."