The Sword and The Shadow

When Annelotte first woke up, Leguna wore a relieved smile on his face, though he still seemed concerned. It was alright as long as she regained consciousness.

But he never would've expected the first words she said to be that. His heart almost skipped a beat audibly as the smile froze on his face. Even though he knew Annelotte almost never joked, Leguna grasped the last lining of hope and forced a smile. "Annie, you must be a little dazed from being out cold, right? How could you not know me? It's me, Leguna…"

She looked oddly at him, not really sure what to make of his expression. He didn't look displeased from being given the cold shoulder at all. Instead, there was even a hint of begging in his expression.

Annelotte didn't understand why he acted like this, but she just plainly didn't know him. Annelotte didn't like to go with the flow, so she shook her head. "I don't remember you."

She rubbed her temples and suddenly realized that she didn't know anything.

"Who… am I?"

Leguna's face paled like paper in an instant. It was as if those words dealt mortal wounds to him, someone who was among the strongest humans alive. His body softened and he slumped into his chair.

Annelotte looked oddly at the youth before her and asked, "What's wrong?"

Leguna kept silent.

"What happened to me? Why am I here? What happened?"

All those questions were met with silence. She wasn't that talkative a person, to begin with, so she asked another question every time she figured the previous wouldn't be answered. It took her half an hour to ask those questions and she noticed that each one made the youth pale even more and added to the despair on his face. She noticed that by the time she asked her last question, Leguna's face didn't have the slightest hint of the color of blood any longer.

"If you're not going to answer me, I'll go out to ask around," she said, after seeing his dead eyes.

"You--" Before Annelotte left, he finally spoke. His voice was so hoarse and sounded like rusted gears cranking. "--Do you really remember nothing?"

Annelotte tilted her head and furrowed her brow as she thought, before shaking her head with disappointment.

"I don't remember anything."

His tears unconsciously flowed out when he heard it.

"Can you tell me anything?" Annelotte asked.

"Myr!"

Leguna roared, using his impetus to make it as loud as possible.

The first one to rush there was Eirinn. She didn't know what was going on, but she could hear the despair and fear in his voice.

"What happened?" Eirinn asked, "Sis Annie, you're awake?"

"Annie?" Annelotte repeated, "Is that my name?"

Eirinn cupped her mouth as she gasped.

"Sis Annie, what happened to you?"

"I'm not sure… I don't know anything."

Eirinn was struck with instant realization. Though she had wanted to say something else, a commotion could be heard from outside the room.

As if he had heard Leguna's cry, Myr rushed into the church not long after. Thanks to the spell limitations in Melindor, Myr couldn't just teleport into the church.

"What are you crying about?"

Myr yelled with a volume comparable to Leguna's voice. It was an odd combination with his small body.

"Grandmaster Myr, come look!"

Leguna cried when he saw Myr. He didn't care about Annelotte's surprised look and pulled her before Myr. Annelotte had wanted to struggle. It was only normal. Who wouldn't when a stranger started pulling you around? But she gave up the notion for some reason when she saw his expression.

"Quick, look!"

Even though Leguna was a high-order assassin, pulling Annelotte for some tens of meters made him breathe raggedly.

"Big Brother Leguna, don't panic," Eirinn said as she came over.

"What happened? Isn't she awake now?" Myr asked.

"Mister… can you tell me who you are?"

Myr's body shuddered.

"Do you really not remember?"

"I… think I have amnesia."

Myr's expression turned grave.

"I promise my medicine couldn't have caused this. Her memories were probably lost when her diatagi was damaged."

"Then what do we do?"

"Let's go. I'll use my spells to give her a check," Myr decided, "As for you, kid, go wake up that little girl. Maybe she knows something. And you, half-elf, fetch Marolyt… well, maybe a little later. He's drunk. Letting him see this might trouble us to no end."

"Alright," Eirinn said.

"But…"

"I pledge on my name this definitely wasn't caused by my concoction," Myr said solemnly, "The recipe is ancient and wasn't created by me on the fly. Countless experiments have proven that it doesn't have any side effects. Wake the little one up and we may be able to find something out."

"Alright." Leguna suppressed his fear and tried to grasp at other strings of hope.

"Come with me, girl. I won't harm you. If you want your memory back, follow me," Myr gently said.

……

Myr brought a chair over and had Annelotte sit in front of him. He didn't use any spells related to memory like Scry since it was quite torturous to the target and the last thing he wanted was for her to come to harm. So, he chose to use simple questioning to identify the situation.

It had been decades since he reached the point of quasi-myth. Back then, he was quite unwilling to give up, but eventually, the sands of time ground away the last of his ambition. He had come to accept that he wouldn't be able to enter the myth realm. So, for the past few decades, he stabilized his power while indulging himself in other fields of magical research. As such, he was quite knowledgeable about diatagi and memories and few could claim to be his equal.

Myr got some goatskin paper and a quill out and dictated a spell on them. The writing implement could then note down what he wanted by his will.

Is it a modified version of Magus's Hands? Annelotte thought to herself.

"I will ask you a few questions," Myr said after he finished his preparation, "Don't feel pressured over answering them. You can tell me directly if you can't remember anything. Only by responding honestly can I have an accurate assessment of your situation."

"Understood," she said with a nod.

"What's your name?"

"I don't know, but I recall they called me Annie."

"Do you remember anyone's name? Any will do."

"No, I don't remember anything."

"What is this?" Myr asked as he took out a transparent crystal from his pocket.

"A mana storage crystal."

"What are its uses?"

"Magi can infuse mana into them and release it when it is required."

"What are magi?"

"Lifeforms with high quantities of enthymema who can use it to influence the movement, state and arrangement of magic particles in themselves and the environment." Annelotte gave the dictionary definition of the word from a tome she read. She then added, "In other words, people who can use spells."

"Are you a magus?"

"I don't have any memories relating to being one, but I can tell from the magic knowledge I can recall that I am one."

"What level spell is a fireball spell?"

"It's a level-three evocation-type spell."

"Do you know how to use it?"

Annelotte dictated the spell without warning.

A hot object appeared in front of Myr, but he didn't look surprised in the slightest. He needed her to use a few spells to identify her ailment, after all.

A second later, it exploded