A\N: As a warning for this chapter, there will be blood and dismemberment written, but nothing in Berserk-level detail. To be fair, I probably should've enabled it long ago when Anne accidentally had a knife stuck in her stomach. Although she's a slime girl and was only faking the wound in front of Mary, I'm sure it was still uncomfortable to some.
[ Dream Realm - Viviane ]
"Before we go over what I know, what year is it outside here?" Nimue asks her guests as they stand near the lake, their feet washed by the gentle motions of her waters while the fog continues to surround them.
Mary and Daniel glance at each other before the latter answers. "2021."
Nimue jerks, her eyes widening. For the several seconds, she stares blankly, taking into context how long it's been.
Soon, guilt redresses her lips before she turns to Viviane. "You... you said centuries, but you were trapped for almost two thousand years?"
The elder slime scoffs, shaking her head. "Makes you wonder, huh?"
Nimue frowns. "Chi—I mean, Viviane, I am..."
"Look, we've talked enough about me," Viviane cuts. "Tell us about you."
The fact that her daughter has forgotten much of their time together needles Nimue, but she nods. "Yes... very well. I don't suppose our history in Britannia is known?"
"Britannia?" Mary repeats before straightening. "Oh! Right, I guess it would be called that back then."
She clears her throat. "As far as I've learned in school, we don't have every record or detail, but I think people smarter than me figured most of it out. Then again, you and Viviane turned out to be actual figures in history instead of mythology, so maybe we don't know anything."
"Mythology?" Nimue cocks her head. "Were we written somehow?"
Viviane groans. "More than you know. As embarrassing as it is, it's helped to give me some clue to the past. So far, I understand that I was somehow Merlin's apprentice, he was supporting Uther Pendragon, and I was also... acquainted with Arthur somehow?"
She only recently learned that piece from the cabin memory.
Unexpectedly, Nimue smirks. "Is that so? I understand it as you having quite the crush~"
Daniel notably stiffens at this possibility while Viviane stares flatly. "Even if that were the case, I certainly don't feel it now."
Nimue shrugs. "Well, either way, I wouldn't know much about your time over at the castle. I made sure to avoid people in general, but against my advice, you wanted to help Merlin with his studies... ahem, if not to train with a certain boy."
"Let's not go there, at least not yet," Viviane pleads. As important as it is to understand her past relationships, understanding Nimue takes priority given she's already somehow existing within her.
The enchantress hums and settles down, motioning to the water in front of her.
"To start, I was born in a village in the South of Britannia during Roman occupation. We were Romans in that regard, but my father came from a long line of Druids that had lived on the land prior. He was the only one there to raise me since my mother passed away not long after my birth."
Everyone else perks up at this connection to Druids that have been mentioned before.
'If Victor's book talks about Druids as well, that's not just coincidence,' Daniel follows.
However, they don't trust Nimue enough to mention it, never mind whether they can even find the former professor's publication within this fog. It was either lucky or suspicious for Mary to stumble upon Merlin's book during their chase, but they can't rely on the same chances for that to happen again.
He tightens his hold on Merlin's book. Would they even get to see if it offers anything beyond being a shield?
It would all depend on Nimue as they keep silent, watching an image stirring in the lake by her reminiscing. Peering through the fog that clings to the water's surface, the group can see a heavily bearded man with dark gray messy hair, smiling warmly.
"Hehe, Father!"
A younger Nimue shouted happily from the liquid perspective, only slightly distorted as she rushed to hug him. He chuckled endearingly amid the glow of a rustic interior crafted between stone and logs.
The image disperses as Nimue waves a hand, continuing more sadly. "However, Druids were frowned upon in Roman society with the spread of Christianity, so my father had to keep his beliefs to himself. Still, when we traveled for trade, we'd stop by to these sacred stones that had been used by ancestors where he'd talk about the spirits in the sky."
Her lake follows, resonating with her father's voice. Notably, the scene shows the Stonehenge ruins as Nimue stood next to her father, watching the sparkling night sky while camping.
"My daughter, what do you think of those above?"
Humming, the past Nimue looked upward. Suddenly, her perspective adds color against the gray fog that muddies with the group's outside viewing.
"They provide... guidance?"
"I wonder about that," her father mused before snorting. "Once, our ancestors would have read the skies from this ring to help guide our way and others. On my way alone here, I would sometimes check, wondering if I'm raising you right, but... I wonder whether we're simply fitting our hopes on beings too high for us."
"Is Mother up there?"
"I'd like to think so, because that way I can always have something to look up to. Still, it's hard to know, Nimue. If we reincarnate back to this world one day, she may have already long passed through and descended into a new life."
The young Nimue's hands enter the lake's image, reaching to the sky. "Either way, I hope I get to meet her!"
"Ha ha, even as a cow?"
Huffing, Nimue's hands dropped as she returned to her father's soft eyes. "No way! D-don't even say that! I... I'll stop eating meat then! You're not allowed to hunt!"
The father laughed more heartily as the fire crackled between them. "Right, don't worry, child. In the end, we all return to nature. Trust that your mother is around, ever changing. She and I love you very much."
Daniel shuffles, finding the father's words hitting all too close to home. Although he's no druid, he likes the symbolism of believing Amy was somewhere in the stars she studied. However, in some sense, one could say her spirit has gone through a cycle back to Earth, shared between Anne, Viviane, and Mary.
"I don't know what to believe about the nature of life and death, especially since I turned into a remnant. I might lose myself and become another given time, but nothing of that sort is how humans envisioned being reborn," the present Nimue adds as the image of her father fades. Once the lake returns to normal, she closes her eyes. "What I do know is that there is something greater than us. Our existence is proof of that, but it also becomes a problem, seeding the beliefs of people to extreme degrees."
Opening her eyes, they narrow sadly. "Those beliefs are what killed my father."
The sound of a wooden bucket dropping came from the lake. Within it, the memories continue to surface up, showing a greater fire crackling, illuminating many homes on fire. Amid the flames, shadows of men chuckled, hollering with shameless power.
"Father...? Father!" the past Nimue cried, shock etching a more mature voice as she ran from the bucket of water she dropped. Her view shook as she pushed forward through smoke, tears dimming the perspective.
"Oh ho, what's this?" one of the raiders raised with a tricky tone, stepping in front with a sword dragging along the dirt. His features are barely visible thanks to the fire behind him, but the intent was plain. "You the old man's daughter?"
"Wh-where is he?! I don't know what you want, but we don't have anything of value!" Nimue shouted, joining the nearby chorus of screams in the distance from other houses.
"Yer father? Ha, ain't it obvious, lass?" the raider chuckled, motioning to her home. "I'd say we're just passin' through and in need of food, but we got a special request to clean up this place. Have ta do god's work sometimes, ya know?"
"Especially if god pays well!" one added.
"Ha ha, right?"
Amid the dark chuckles of the past, the lake ripples as the emotions held by the past Nimue stir its waters.
"N... No... Why?" she croaked.
"Aww, I wouldn't worry about that now. Besides, I see some value right in front of me. Don't resist, and maybe we can make it a good value for you too, huh?"
The other raiders burst out laughing again, drunk of any empathy, as more cries mixed with the flames, neighbors and friends slaughtered without reason. It pushed the girl to falter, breathing heavily to the ground as her knees buckled.
"Father... Please... Please, what do I do? What do I do?" she mumbled weakly, watching the raiders tread closer with eager eyes shining from their shadowed faces. Her view wavered as she tried to lift a little, knowing she should run at the very least, but an invisible weight held her down.
How could she even live if her father was gone?
"Now lass, let's not be so dow—"
The teasing voice of the raider halted abruptly as a sharp wind passed between them. Just as abruptly, a line of blood slowly trails down the man's neck, his wide grin stuck. Even looking to her memory on the outside, the changed Nimue can't follow the swiftness of the cut that had been, but her younger version was too distraught to even analyze. Her eyes are locked on the man, following more lines of red down his body before it sprayed across her and the ground like a fountain.
Her body was stiff to the fresh blood, stunned silence marking her and the other raiders beyond the distant pains and flames. The sliced man soon dropped, his head toppling down his body like a boulder falling from a crumbling mountain.
"What the hell?!" one raider shouted, causing all the nearby that witnessed their fallen to raise their guard.
Watching this sudden decapitation from the lake, Mary is the first to breathe in sharply between the group, holding herself as she cups her mouth. "Urp..."
The current Nimue doesn't say anything, having revisited this moment countless times in her head. What could she have done differently to save her father? Perhaps even live as a human?
She doesn't know. At this point, it was so long ago, she feels like she's watching a different person.
As for her past self within this swirling replay, Nimue's vision turned fuzzy, moving in and out while raiders turn their the attention to a crunch of grass.
"Who the fuck are you?!"
Ignoring the surrounding warriors, the new presence breathed. "Are you Dervacus' child?"
Nimue stiffened. With people dying around her and seeing more blood than she had ever seen back then, she was practically a stone. Even so, she managed to shift her eyes to the back of a robbed woman who faced the raiders.
Shoulder-length, ash blonde hair flowed with the embers in the air. With the first dead invader nearby, she was clearly the one to protect Nimue, but oddly, there wasn't a sword on the protector, much less one that could've lobbed a man's head so cleanly.
A crow echoed through the black smoke, gliding its way and perching across the woman's shoulder. She doesn't react, although neither Nimue nor anyone watching this scene could see any other features than her hair.
"I asked: Are you Dervacus' child?" the woman repeats without looking behind, her gaze focused on the raiders.
"Y-yes!" Nimue somehow blurted out, her throat hoarse as she leaned forward. "H—help! M-my father, he's...!"
"Yer going to pay for that, you bitch!" one of the men interrupted, not bothering to wait for an answer as he charged towards them with an axe.
No time for conversation, the woman raised an her hand and two fingers. In response, the crow perked, cawed loudly, and pushed off her shoulder, flying towards the man with swift speed.
The interfering bird caused the charger to hesitate for a split second, but by then, it was too late to even throw a curse. In a single swoop, the crow swiped smoothly across the man's neck, its wings cutting through flesh like butter.
All observers, including everyone watching the memory in the present, widen their eyes. By then, none of the raiders could do anything as more birds flocked out from the woman, their seemingly feathered bodies forming out of her arms in a rise of blue slime before solidifying into black, splitting off.
Watching this from the lake, everyone finally understood.
"This is... your predecessor," Viviane whispers with stun, locked in as crows filled the already dense air in front of the younger Nimue.
"Yes," Nimue simply answers, a slight bitterness drawing from her eyes.
Her younger self watched, unable to breathe. Each invader across the village screamed, one by one, cut to pieces by special crows they didn't have time to anticipate or understand.
As the dying raiders filled the air in place of their victims, the predecessor of Nimue brushed one crow that flew to her side, twiddling across her hand.
"I owe your father a great debt, but unfortunately, my time dwindles," she speaks , unbothered by the unfortunate air. "I couldn't save your father, but if you're his child, then you are also mine. The least I can do is help protect you... and trust you to succeed me."
Nimue couldn't register anything of the woman's words or relationship before her mind failed, passing out to the ground before she might see her savior's face.
Was it saving? In truth, the current Nimue questioned whether it would've been better to die.
The predatory call of the crows still picked at her heart, whether she had it or not.