Rising Shards

Ash Althea was tired, hungry, and could barely keep her feet moving. All around her, the world seemed to be breaking away piece by piece. Where were they even going? Could they outrun this?

"This isn't the end, is it?" Ash asked.

"No, it can't be," Myles said. "We don't know where those taken by the ashes go. But when Auren and Serril fell to it, they didn't...it didn't look like they were gone."

Ash trusted her sister Myles more than anyone in the world. But she still couldn't muster a response to that.

"The important thing is that we're together," Myles said.

Sai looked downward, wincing.

“We’ll always be friends,” Sai said. "Right?"

"Right," Esther said. "Always."

Another tremor hit the ground. The sky broke away a bit more.

"This might be it," Charmaine said.

Ash huddled with her friends as her world completely fell to the gray abyss.

When she opened her eyes, a bright light was above her. She was lying on a stiff bed. The walls were white. She groaned as she looked around.

"Subject A is awake," a man said.

"Note the time, please," a woman said.

"11:37am," the man said as he wrote it down.

The woman had a medical mask on, brushing her short blonde hair to the side as she leaned over Ash. Gloved hands felt at Ash's face, opening her eyes and shining a light in them. She was too dazed to stop it.

"Stabilization appears to have worked," the woman said. She felt at Ash's head, and Ash winced at a strange sensation. "Horns, like the others."

The woman reached to Ash's side, under her back. "Tail as well. Results consistent with the other subjects."

Ash started to come to. She hadn't been obliterated by whatever happened to her world, right? She was somewhere. She felt at her head, sitting up immediately. She had two horns now.

"What the hell is this?" Ash asked.

"Don't move too quickly," the woman said. "You're safe, everything is alright."

"Where's Myles?" Ash asked. "And Esther, and Sai, and Charmaine?"

"Your friends are safe, too," the woman said. "It'll take some time to explain everything. I understand you're going through a lot. Would you like some tea?"

Tea sounded good. The man, apparently the woman's assistant, left and returned with a cup of tea. It was honey flavored. Ash sipped it as the woman introduced herself.

"My name is Octa," she said. "I'm doing research on people from worlds like the one you came from. I want to help keep people like you safe."

"Oh," Ash said. This didn't make any sense, but it wasn't like she could just leave.

"People who come from faulty worlds like the one you're from have trouble staying in this stable one," Octa said. "We've been developing a medicine to help with that. I'm sorry we weren't able to ask your permission for it, but we administered a dose when you arrived, which has resulted in some physical changes."

In addition to her new horns, Ash also had a pointed tail, the shape of her ears had changed, and her pupils now looked like slits like a reptile's. Fear hit her stomach when she saw the changes, but Octa explained that if she didn't have the dose, she likely wouldn't have been able to stay in this new world long, nor would her friends. It still took some time for Ash to calm down.

"I guess...it isn't so bad a trade off," Ash said.

"There are other effects to the medicine that we can discuss later," Octa said. "For now, I'm sure you'd like to meet with your friends again, wouldn't you?"

Ash agreed immediately. Her legs didn't feel shaky as she followed Octa to a more open space. There on couches and chairs were her sister Myles, her best friend Sai, and her newer friends Esther and Charmaine. They all had horns and tails like Ash did, too.

"Hey," Myles said before Ash rushed in to hug her. Tears streaked down her face. The sisters had already been separated once before, and that lasted so long before they reunited.   Ash couldn't go through that again.

"We made it," Ash said.

Esther and Charmaine joined in on the hug as well. Sai didn't, though. They poked their fingertips together, unable to make eye contact.

"Sai?" Ash asked.

"Er, about them..." Myles said. "They don't...maybe I should let them say it."

"You can say it," Sai said.

"Sai doesn't remember anything," Esther said. "Any of it."

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