The nightmares started on the second night.
Ren woke screaming, thrashing against bedding that felt like chains, his mind drowning in memories that weren't his. Fire and blood and the cold satisfaction of watching enemies die. Children crying. Women begging. Men breaking under torture that went on for hours, days, weeks—
"Ren! *Ren!*" Kira's hands were on his shoulders, shaking him back to reality. "It's a dream. It's just a dream. Come back."
"I am Ren Ashford." The words came automatically, the grounding mantra the system had suggested. "I am Ren Ashford. I was a paramedic. I saved lives. I am Ren Ashford."
The memories receded slowly, like a tide pulling back from shore. They didn't disappear, they never would, but they settled into their proper place, becoming background noise rather than overwhelming static.
"Varen's memories?" Kira asked, releasing his shoulders.
"Yeah." Ren wiped sweat from his forehead. "The system said there might be... what did it call it... identity confusion. I didn't realize it meant I'd relive his entire life every time I closed my eyes."
"I've heard stories about Collectors who absorbed too many dark fragments. They lost themselves completely, couldn't tell where they ended and the absorbed memories began." Kira sat back, her expression unreadable in the dim light. "How much of him is in there?"
"All of him. Every moment, every thought, every... everything." Ren closed his eyes, and immediately regretted it. "I know what his first kiss felt like. I know the name of the dog he had as a child, before the Order took him. I know exactly what he was thinking when he burned your village."
Kira's breath caught. "And?"
"He wasn't thinking anything. It was routine. Just another collection gone bad, another example that needed to be made." Ren forced his eyes open, meeting her gaze. "I'm sorry. I know that's not what you wanted to hear."
"No. It's exactly what I wanted to hear." Her voice was steady, but her hands were shaking. "I always wondered if he remembered. If somewhere in that armored shell, there was a person who knew what he'd done, who felt something about it. Now I know the answer."
"Nothing. He felt nothing."
"Until the end. Until you took his fragment and all that stolen power turned against him." She smiled, thin and hard. "I hope those last seconds lasted forever. I hope he felt every death he ever caused, all at once, with no way to escape."
Ren didn't respond. He'd experienced Varen's death through the memories, had felt the agony of thirty-one fragments tearing free, the terror of losing power that had become indistinguishable from identity. It had been horrible.
He wasn't sure it was enough.
They were camped in a shallow cave about three days' journey from Thornwood, deep enough in the wilderness that pursuit was unlikely. The next town, a trading post called Millbrook, was still two days away. Beyond that, Silverfall waited with its merchant, its assassins, and its hidden fragment.
"You should try to sleep more," Kira said, settling back into her own bedding. "The dreams will fade over time. Your mind just needs to learn how to sort the memories properly."
"Did you read that somewhere, or are you making it up?"
"Making it up. But it sounds plausible, doesn't it?" She closed her eyes. "Goodnight, Ren."
He lay awake for a long time after, staring at the cave ceiling, feeling Varen's memories pulse like a second heartbeat in the back of his mind.
---
Morning came grey and drizzling, the kind of weather that made travel miserable but also made tracking difficult. They broke camp quickly, eating dried meat and hard bread while walking, putting distance between themselves and the past.
"Tell me about your world," Kira said eventually. "Not the big stuff. The small things. What did a normal day look like?"
Ren thought about it. Already, his memories of Earth felt distant, like recollections from a dream. The vividness of Varen's experiences made his own past seem washed out by comparison.
"I'd wake up around five AM," he said slowly. "My apartment was small, one room really, with a kitchen corner and a bathroom the size of a closet. I'd make coffee, check the news on my phone. That's a device that... it's hard to explain. Like a magic mirror that shows you information and lets you talk to people far away."
"We have scrying crystals. Similar idea."
"Maybe. My shift would start at six. I'd drive to the station, drive means operate a metal carriage powered by exploding liquid, and check in with my partner. Different partner every day; schedules rotated."
"Were any of them friends?"
"Some. Mostly we were just coworkers. People doing a job together." He paused, surprised by how much he was sharing. "The calls were unpredictable. Heart attacks, car accidents, overdoses, violence. You never knew what you'd find when you arrived. Sometimes you saved people. Sometimes you just held their hand while they died."
"That sounds difficult."
"It was. But it felt meaningful. Like I was doing something that mattered, even if no one would remember my name afterward." He laughed softly. "Ironic, isn't it? I spent my life helping strangers, and the only thing that came of it was being killed by a truck while saving another stranger."
"That's not ironic. That's consistent." Kira ducked under a low-hanging branch. "You lived the way you died. There's nobility in that."
"Tell that to my cat. Probably starved to death waiting for me to come home."
"You had a cat?"
"His name was Gregory. He was an asshole." Ren smiled at the memory. "Scratched every piece of furniture I owned, yowled at three AM for no reason, and occasionally brought me dead birds as gifts. I loved him more than most of my relatives."
"Sounds like a proper companion."
"He was." The smile faded. "I wonder what happened to him. Do you think... when I was pulled here, did my body stay behind? Did someone find it? Did they take care of Gregory?"
"I don't know." Kira's voice was gentle. "Does it matter?"
"Probably not. I can't go back, even if I wanted to. Earth isn't on the fragment map." He touched the Compass on his palm, feeling its steady pulse. "But I think about it sometimes. The life I left behind. The people who might be wondering where I went."
"Anyone specific?"
"Not really. My parents died years ago. I had an ex-girlfriend who hated me, a brother I hadn't spoken to in forever, and a handful of friends who were really more like friendly acquaintances." He shrugged. "I was alone, mostly. By choice, I told myself. But maybe that's just what lonely people say to feel better."
Kira was quiet for a while. When she spoke again, her voice was thoughtful.
"My village was full of people. Hundreds of them, all tied together by marriage and friendship and old grudges. I couldn't walk ten steps without someone wanting to talk, to gossip, to share a meal or a complaint." She shook her head. "I hated it sometimes. Felt trapped by all those connections. I used to sneak away to the forest just to have a moment of silence."
"And now?"
"Now I would give anything to have one of those annoying conversations again." Her jaw tightened. "Be careful what you wish for, I suppose."
They walked in silence after that, each lost in their own memories. One set earned through living, the other taken through violence. The forest gradually thinned around them, giving way to cultivated fields and the distant silhouettes of buildings.
Millbrook appeared on the horizon around midday.
It was a modest town, maybe a thousand residents, clustered around a river crossing that served as a trading hub for the surrounding farms. Nothing like the grandeur Ren had seen in Varen's memories of larger cities, but solid. Prosperous. Safe.
"We should be careful here," Kira said, slowing their approach. "Word of Varen's death will spread fast. If the Obsidian Order has allies in this town—"
"They don't." Ren accessed Varen's memories, searching for information about Millbrook. "Varen considered this area too minor to bother with. No fragment holders, no strategic value, no tribute collected. The townsfolk probably don't even know who he was."
"That's reassuring." Kira glanced at him with something close to unease. "You know, it's a bit disturbing how easily you access his memories."
"I know. But it's useful." He gestured toward the town. "There's an inn called the Crossed Swords, on the main street near the river. Clean rooms, decent food, and the owner doesn't ask questions about her guests."
"Varen stayed there?"
"One of his knights did, once. The memory is fragmentary, probably not an important one, but the details stuck." He started walking again. "Come on. I want a bath, a bed, and maybe some alcohol strong enough to keep the nightmares at bay for a few hours."
"Now that sounds like a plan I can support."
---
The Crossed Swords was exactly as Ren remembered, or rather, as Varen's knight had remembered. A sturdy building of wood and stone, with a common room on the ground floor and private chambers above. The owner was a heavyset woman named Marta who evaluated them with sharp eyes and asked no questions when Kira paid for two rooms.
"Separate rooms?" Ren asked as they climbed the stairs.
"I snore."
"So do I, apparently."
"Then it's for the best." She stopped at her door, her hand on the latch. "You should spend some time tonight going through Varen's memories deliberately. Find the useful information: contacts, safe houses, fragment locations. The more you can extract now, the less you'll have to wade through later."
"And the nightmares?"
"They'll happen regardless. Might as well get something productive out of them." She opened her door, paused. "If they get too bad... I'm next door. You can knock."
"I thought you didn't want to be woken up."
"I don't. But I also don't want to explain to the innkeeper why my traveling companion screamed himself to death in the middle of the night." She smiled, taking the edge off the words. "Sleep well, soul-man."
Her door closed.
Ren stood in the hallway for a moment, feeling the weight of Varen's memories pressing against his consciousness. Then he entered his own room, locked the door, and prepared to descend into someone else's past.
---
He sat on the bed, closed his eyes, and let the memories come.
It was easier than he'd expected, like opening a book rather than being swept away by a flood. The deliberate exploration gave him more control, more distance. He was an observer now, not a participant. Watching Varen's life unfold rather than living it.
He found useful information scattered throughout the years.
A map of Eldrath's major cities, with annotations about which ones contained fragments. A list of Collectors who had passed through before him, their names, their powers, their eventual fates. Details about the fragment system itself, learned from interrogating captured Collectors or piecing together clues from absorbed memories.
Most interesting was information about the Arbiter.
Varen had been obsessed with understanding the entity that had created the fragment system. He'd collected every scrap of knowledge he could find: legends, myths, scraps of truth wrapped in layers of rumor. According to his research, the Arbiter wasn't a god in the traditional sense. It was something else. Something older.
*An Administrator*, the memories whispered. *A clerk in the bureaucracy of reality. It processes souls, sorts them, sends them where they need to go. But somewhere along the way, it started keeping pieces for itself. Started playing games with the souls it was supposed to be managing.*
*The fragment system is one of those games. It shatters souls, scatters them across realms, and watches them struggle to reunify. Those who succeed become something more than mortal, perfect soldiers for a war that's been building since before time began.*
*A war between what?*
The memories provided no answer. Even Varen, with all his stolen knowledge, hadn't been able to discover what the Arbiter was preparing for. Only that it was coming. And that completed souls would be on the front lines.
Ren opened his eyes.
**[MEMORY INTEGRATION: PARTIAL]**
**[USEFUL INFORMATION EXTRACTED: SIGNIFICANT]**
**[IDENTITY STABILITY: MAINTAINED]**
**[CONTINUE EXPLORATION: YES/NO]**
He chose yes.
The night was long. The memories were longer. But by dawn, Ren had a much clearer picture of the game he'd been forced to play.
And he'd started thinking about how to change the rules.
**[NEW INFORMATION UNLOCKED]**
**[KNOWN FRAGMENT LOCATIONS IN ELDRATH: 7]**
**[KNOWN COLLECTOR CONTACTS: 3 (STATUS UNCERTAIN)]**
**[ARBITER LORE: FRAGMENTARY BUT SIGNIFICANT]**
**[NEXT OBJECTIVE: REACH SILVERFALL, CONTACT COLLECTOR NETWORK, ACQUIRE FRAGMENT #7]**
**[WARNING: LONGER-TERM STRATEGIC PLANNING NOW POSSIBLE]**
**[WARNING: THE ARBITER IS WATCHING]**
Ren dismissed the notifications and went to find Kira.
They had a lot to discuss.
