Word Count: 519

“I pledge my life and loyalty to Cosmos, and to Pieria. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.”

Pieria didn’t know where the words came from, just that she knew them somehow. This would have freaked her out a bit since she’d never so much as thought them before, but it was a bit like how she’d known her name was Pieria and that she was a Page of Cosmos—instinctive in a weird way, but not one that lent itself to much panic.

The fear came from all the other stuff. Hallucinations and monsters and other realms or… whatever had happened the night she became this.

She was Maren and she was Pieria. Neither was greater than the other.

So, as Pieria, she appeared in a wide field of mostly dead grass. Maybe it’d been dotted with wildflowers once. Maybe the twisting, gnarled stumps of wood she saw nearby used to be trees. The most amazing sight was probably the sky above her, awash with so many twinkling stars it momentarily took her breath away.

She stared for a while, then had to shake herself out of it and force her gaze back down. This was important. She didn’t know too much about why, just that it was, and she’d feel horrible if there was something she could do that she avoided simply because she was unnerved. She didn’t know this place, but it didn’t seem too strange to her either. She felt safe here, even if she didn’t know why.

This was Pieria, just like she was.

She walked wherever magic or fate took her, eventually coming upon a pool of gleaming water. It wasn’t very large, broken up here and there by rocks and dead tree roots. Starlight shimmered within the water, half reflection and half something else.

Within the water, rippling beneath the surface, was a golden glow she knew must be the piece of the Code. She felt a bit of relief, though she didn’t know exactly where it came from. Maybe that the Code piece was here. Maybe that it seemed alright, even if it was a bit unstable.

Pieria sat along the edge of the water and closed her eyes.

For a moment it was just her and the starlight and the Code. Then it was as if she dreamed. She saw the field as it must have been long ago—grass swaying in the breeze; the air scented with flowers; the wind rustling through the trees. She felt at peace, as if Pieria itself had wrapped her in a warm, protective embrace. She belonged here, even if she wasn’t sure why.

It seemed to take no time at all for her to fall into the trance, then again to come out of it. One moment she was drifting, and the next her eyes had opened again, and she knew, with the same instinct, that she had done it.

The Code piece here was well again.

But Pieria lingered—just for a little while, letting the sense of calm around her soothe her worries.