Months passed and Mylidara felt like she was losing more and more time with each passing day. Her strange suspicion turned from an itch to a burning pain throughout her whole body. That’s when she confronted her husband.

  Myniko looked ragged with bags under his eyes and worry on his face. Mylidara couldn’t believe how she had missed the degradation of her husband’s physical and mental health. He denied things at first, but she kept pushing until his exhaustion lost to her persistence and she instantly regretted it. Just as she feared, he had been using his ability to erase memories on the people of the village to protect them from dire news.

  Strange voices had started to bleed into the minds of those who possessed mind classes. Psychic messages from unknown people calling for aid. What started as a whisper was now a shout in the minds of the strongest Silk Lake had to offer. Every night when the moon started to rise the voices would start. Some were pleas for help, others were screams of agony, and a few each night were last words.

  It was horrific. Hearing strangers die and being able to connect to their last thoughts without being able to help in any way was torture of the highest degree. Silk Lake was suffering with the weight of the deaths and that’s why Myniko started to destroy memories at the cost of his own mental fatigue.

  Mylidara screamed at her husband with hot tears in her eyes. Red, flushed cheeks started to cramp from how long she yelled into the night at the idiot she married. She told him that one man can’t take on the weight of something that everyone must bear. Part of her felt violated for having her memories taken. She had lost what felt like weeks in total and she could tell that her mind had taken some residual damage from the continued strain of his skill. She only stopped screaming when her voice was hoarse and her eyes felt like anchors.

  When she woke, they had a proper discussion to catch her up on what she had forgotten. The situation was even worse than she first thought.

  “They always come when the moon starts to rise and won’t stop until the moon is at its peak. Dozens of voices at any given time are screaming out in various stages of distress. I’ve tried to communicate back and only once has it caused a momentary lapse in their suffering.”

  “Where are they? How far?”

  “I can’t tell. Pressure from above always comes with the voices. Focusing becomes increasingly difficult as the night progresses. Even after they stop, sleep eludes me.”

  Mylidara took her husband’s head into her hands and then placed it against her shoulder.

  “Don’t go through this alone. We can figure it out together.”

  “You don’t understand, my love. Each time I’ve told you, you last a couple of nights before begging me to help you forget.”

  “Don’t listen to me this time. We will figure this out together.”

  Myniko was asleep before she even finished her sentence. She let him take his break from the exhaustion while her brain raced with hundreds of thoughts on the newest plight the village was met with.

  “Only when the moon rises. Pressure from above. Are they on the moon?” She thought out loud before calling for a meeting.

  Synexus watched more memories flash by as the plan was devised. No longer would the rest of the mind chosen of Silk Lake have the option to forget. If one was to suffer, then they would all suffer. Each night they all gathered under the moon and sat in circle. Each night they opened their minds and waited for the voices. Weeks passed like this with them leveling up until their skills evolved and they were able to filter out the emotional and find the rational.

  With their minds synced, Synexus heard the screams for that week and even he wanted to forget. Cries of pain from who knows what torture. Screams of loss from kids, spouses, and parents. Last breaths. Last words. Pure hell streaming through their minds every single night.

  A sense of relief washed over him as the memories progressed to when Mylidara and the others were able to control the mana in the skill better to refine what they heard. Between the dozens of class chosen specializing in mind magic, thousands of the voices could be filtered through in a night. Finding one that could communicate still took nearly five weeks. Oooling ended the search although Mylidara wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or a curse.

  “Please we require assistance! Millions are dying. We need help!”

  “We hear you, what can we do?” Mylidara sighed thinking it would be another lost voice that she couldn’t assist.

  “Contact. I’m a third-generation ling. State your generation and name.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Uh, I suppose first generation Mylidara?”

  “Well met, Omylidara. First generations are rarer by the day. Is the Mylidara lineage on the third or fifth Olargira sector?”

  “Just Mylidara. What is your name?”

  “Third generation ling. Oooling. Does lineage Mylidara not follow the Olargira naming laws?”

  “Oooling, we have been hearing the cries of your people for months now each night as the moon rises. Our clan resides in Silk Lake. I’m unfamiliar with Olargira.”

  “You are unfamiliar with our great ancestor? We live on its back. Silk Lake is not within proper naming laws.”

  “On it’s back? Do you mean that Olargira is the planet you live on? We live on Motholo.”

  “I’ve not heard of this Motholo. Our great ancestor is circled by Ooligira and Oooligira.”

  “Moons perhaps? We only have one moon named Moth as it circles our planet of light.”

  “Regardless, we require aid. Can you help us?”

  “What is it that you need help with? What is happening to your people, Oooling?”

  “The Swarm.”

  “What is the Swarm?”

  “Mind eaters. Small beasts that ride into battle in the millions. Whole cities are laid to waste in minutes. Thoughts devoured. Anything organic simply ceases to exist. Do you truly not have them there?”

  “Those sounds horrifying. We have not encountered them. Sounds like an insect of some sort.”

  “Small beasts, yes.”

  “What can we do to help?

  “We need soldiers to fight. Only strong minds can hear our call. Those with the ability can withstand the effects of the mind eaters for longer than those with weak minds.”

  Mylidara shared her conversation with Oooling with the rest of Mind Circle of Silk Lake. After some discussion they thought it probable that the O’s, as Myniko was calling them, were on a neighboring planet. Travelers from other worlds had occasionally passed through Silk Lake and they had thought their tales fantasy, but with the System everything seemed possible. One of them could manipulate emotions while the other could alter memories. Soaring through the stars didn’t seem to be out of reach. However, if they accepted that the O’s were off-worlder’s then what could they do? Silk Lake didn’t have any ships made for travel to other planets. Mylidara wasn’t sure that Motholo had reached that point yet. Besides the occasional traveler, the only contact with the greater world they had was with the two cities within a day’s travel from them. Neither of those cities showed any sort of way off world.

  Oooling desperately pleaded with Mylidara and the others in the Mind Circle to send aid or provide a safe haven for his people. Through the interactions, she learned that the O’s were all highly intelligent and most had some sort of mind ability through their racial skills. Oooling’s was to transmit thought for both his thoughts and the thoughts of others. He described it to Mylidara one night as pulling a line into his mind with a thought connected or blowing a thought away from his own mind. From there, the Mind Circle and Oooling hypothesized that Moth, the moon of Motholo, was somehow working as an amplifier for their abilities or the thoughts were bouncing from its surface down to Silk Lake. The most important thing the circle learned, however, was that the O’s had been able to study a vessel made for vast travels from a traveler that had met their end in the wilds of Oligira. That’s how the basis of a plan was made.

  Oooling’s people would start work on a craft that would be capable of reaching Motholo in exchange the people of Silk Lake would provide as many people with strong minds as possible to fight the mind eaters. Mylidara still felt unsure about the whole situation. For her it was odd that, according to Oooling, the entire O’s race had strong minds except the mind eaters still could affect them. How would it be different from their mind chosen? Myniko on the other hand told her they couldn’t deny the request. Silk Lake and the people of Motholo had a duty to help those in need. If they let the O’s be wiped out than the mind eaters could come for their planet next.

  Synexus never got those answers because Mylidara never got those answers. The O’s were somehow able to build the vessel needed within six months and it took another four for them to complete the journey to Motholo.

  A seventh generation pon showed up giving them a glimpse at the neighboring race of people. White, lifeless eyes acting as focal points across their blue skin. Elegant horns topped their head and a beautiful robe cascaded down to cover Ooooooopon’s body.

  With barely a wave of his hand, the mind warriors of Silk Lake were lining up to board the vessel. Mylidara cried and begged her husband not to go. There were too many questions unanswered. She told him it was dangerous and that they could find another way to help. He simply held her and attempted to quiet her mind.

  “Mylan would go. He would help.”

  “No, he would have made too many jokes to the O’s and they would have denied him access to the ship for it.” She chuckled before adding, “stop comparing yourself to the dead.”

  “You’re right. You’re always right. Take care of Mhlanir until I get back. We need to try. We need to save them. I love you both and my thoughts will always be yours.”

  She was going to respond to his soft whisper when a pain spiked in her head. Her body fell into the cold mud while her hands cradled her head. She only stayed conscious long enough to hear one last sentence from her husband.

  “I’ll lower the barrier if I come back. Otherwise, I don’t want you to suffer like you did with Mylan. I know how much that hurt.”

  Synexus finally woke up in his own body, and he could feel the turmoil that Mylidara was in. He had fixed her brain as best he could by mapping out the scarred section and attempting to rebuild them exactly as they were. None of that compared to the barrier coming down and her having to come to terms with the memory of what her husband had attempted to do for her. He had no idea that it would lead to a life of misery for her. A life of constant questions and yelling into the wind for answers. Myniko didn’t account for his wife and daughter having to live through life never knowing what happened to him.

  People die every day. Loved ones go missing every day. Of course it hurts those that care for them. Of course, those people want answers. Mylidara and her daughter are getting the news that not only did their husband and father go missing nearly 500 years ago, but that he is probably dead and if he is then there would be no answers for them to gain closure.