Martlet traversed a forest road deep within Clover’s memories as she searched for answers. No matter how dangerous the Clover had proven himself to be, she refused to believe that this was normal for a child, even if he was human. The road between the tree twisted and turned, gravel covered up by ash and dust in places. She could feel Clover’s presence somewhere in this place, but he remained silent, distant. Even after she had absorbed his soul, there was a barrier within where he fought to keep his thoughts separate from here. It didn’t matter how much he fought her now though, she was determined to get answers; whether he cooperated or not.
She trudged on in silence as the dead trees around her loomed overhead when she heard snow crunching from behind her. Instinct flared as she turned around ready to send magic crashing into her follower even in this ephemeral place, but she stopped cold in her tracks spotting herself standing some 20 feet away. It was herself as she was before the serum, t.
Standing in the road with a smile the doppleganger called out, “Clover it’s you, I can’t believe it!” As the fake spoke Martlet was confused, was this one of Clover’s memories? She almost sounded… happy to see the human. “I’m so glad I found you!” The memory ran forward as Martlet kept her guard up. Something was wrong here, she didn’t remember anything like this happening. Then it happened, as the other martlet went to hug her, she had terrible pits where her eyes should have been, “Found you. Found… you. F O U N D Y O U”. Martlet Lept back as ice gripped her heart, the memory before her quickly shifted into something nightmarish, her face tearing open revealing a massive eye bulging from her skull.
Martlet’s heart raced as the terrible thing shuffled towards her, then from around her she heard more voices faintly mumbling, “found you, found you, found you.” a chant from all directions as more of these terrible memories, hundreds of them started dragging themselves towards her from the trees. Clover’s memories shambled closer as the chanting grew louder with their numbers. Martlet took off soaring into the sky trying to make sense of things, but as she launched above the trees, up and down suddenly flipped, sending her tumbling into a crash landing, the forest melting into something new around her.
As she pulled herself to her feet she recognized the place instantly, it was the rooftop she fought Clover on.