To Seek Answers [Arcadia, Ninsianna]

"Think less of myself?"

Arcadia's fists were clenched enough to make her skin feel ready to break under the pressure. None of it was real, what did that make her memories then of the life before her manifestation? Was anyone in her mind even real? Did anything she accomplished even exist or was it just delusion?

"My worth? All of my memories are likely lies, every experience of my life before could be no different than the stories made up by an overactive imagination of a child."

The woman felt the hostility dissipate from her while she reflected on those memories she held dear which turned to ash in her hand and in its place there was just this damned relic.

"All things in the past are only as real as they are allowed to be. Whether truth or fiction, our memories are real to us, are they not? There are none but you and I which have even seen the memory which I have shown you."

Despite her eternal records, Ninsianna understood the realities of the passage of time. The past existed only as a matter of leading into the present. Her memories were helpful only in dealing with what was now happening in her life. Did she treasure those memories of the ones she held dear? Yes, absolutely. But that was because it further defined the time she spent with them in the present.

"The whole of the world has been changed. You know that as well as I. Even my memories, perfectly recorded, are filled with events that have simply never happened. I live in a world where the woman I love has never once stepped foot. If your memories have been deemed meaningless, then create new ones. That is all you can do."

She might have liked to comfort Arcadia, but she also knew that a gentle hand likely was not what would get through to someone like this.