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There’s a woman in front of them on the path. Eret doesn’t recognize her.
“...and I saw the rainbow beacons in the distance and I knew it was you, I mean, who else would’ve put so much effort into getting seven beacons for no reason other than making a flag? Oh, I’m so happy to see you, Eret—”
“I’m sorry,” they ask, interrupting her, “I— Do I know you? I can’t remember, I’m sorry, did we meet at a Championship or something?”
“Very funny,” the woman says, smiling a little. “Come on, Eret, I haven’t seen you in so long, we can leave jokes for another day.”
Dread washes over them: her expression is the same as that time they told Foolish they didn’t remember him.
“I’m sorry,” Eret says very carefully, “It’s not a joke. It seems that I don’t remember some people from the time before I joined this SMP, so if that’s where you know me from, I’m sorry.”
They thought it would be the same as with Foolish, confusion and mild hurt on his face, but they’re not prepared for the way the woman’s expression completely changes.
“I’m— What?” she asks, and there’s such a raw pain in her voice, and her hands fly close to her face as she keeps talking, almost like in shock, “Eret, no— It’s me, Elaina, don’t you— Come on, you must remember me—”
“I’m sorry,” they say once again.
***
For a moment Elaina still thinks they’re joking, but then it sinks in — their slumped shoulders, the utter helplessness in their voice, their nervous fidgeting — and she knows it’s true. Her best friend, the person she thinks of as a family — they don’t remember her anymore.
Vaguely, she feels tears rolling down her cheeks, hears the first weak sob coming out of her mouth, like her brain can’t catch up on what’s happening quickly enough. All she can think about is the last day she has seen Eret before they left. Their laughter, the warmth of their last hug, the way they said “Don’t worry, of course I won’t forget you” — all of those memories so vibrant in her mind like it was yesterday.
“Ten years,” Elaina sobs, sinking down to her knees, tears clouding her vision. Ten years of living together, ten years of waking up every day and seeing them, hearing their laugh and laughing back — it’s all really gone, just like that, just because something— Someone—
“How— What happened?” she manages to ask, looking up. Eret stares at her, and she can’t read their expression because of the glasses, those damned glasses they always put on when they were in public because they were so self-conscious. She wants to take them off their face, see their eyes, but she never did back then and she doesn’t do it now, just looks at them pleadingly, silently begging for something, anything, please.
“I don’t know,” Eret answers, and there’s pity in their voice — they always knew she hated being pitied. “Foolish— I mean, there’s another person here like you, and he’s only recently joined the server, so that’s when we found out that I don’t seem to remember people from my past.”
“Another person like me?” Elaina frowns a little. Her shoulders are still shaking slightly, but Eret’s words manage to calm her a little. If there’s someone else who’s gone through the same thing she has, if they want answers like she does, maybe they’ll be able to help, or at least she hopes so.
“I could get you to him if you’d like,” Eret says, stepping closer and offering her a hand to stand up. She takes it.
“Please."
***
It’s been ten minutes since Eret has left the room so Foolish and Elaina could talk properly after introducing them to each other, but Foolish’s head is already spinning. His thoughts are a mix of “finally someone who understands” and “I’m so sorry, I know how much it hurts” while she explains through barely-contained tears how she has known Eret for the most of her life and she was so happy to finally see them, but then—
“It’s all just— Gone, like that. Wiped out. Ten years,” Elaina repeats, and the pain in her voice is unfathomable, like she’s reliving that horrifying moment of realization over and over again in her head, “We’ve lived together for ten years. I’ve considered— No, I consider them a family, but now it’s…”
Foolish thinks that he wasn’t so distraught when he found out, but it’s easy to understand why. He hasn’t seen Eret in twenty— thirty— forty years? It’s been a long time, even if it’s not that much for a god. For Elaina it’s been less than a year since she’s last seen them, and she’s a human.
“I know,” he says softly. “I know how it hurts, believe me.”
Elaina hides her face in her hands instead of answering, her shoulders starting to shake once again. Foolish reaches out awkwardly, then stops:
“Do you need a hug?” he asks. Elaina looks at him in surprise for a second, then nods, so he hugs her, pats her back while she cries. He has only just met her, but he simply can’t stand by and watch her fall apart, and she seems so sweet and caring, especially when she talked about Eret and how she was worried about them when they left.
“Thank you,” she mumbles after about a minute and leans back. She seems calmer now. “Do you have any water?”
Foolish finds a bottle in his inventory and gives it to Elaina. She takes a sip and nods gratefully to him.
“Do you know why it happened to them?” she asks.
“Well, right now I can’t say anything for sure — I didn’t have any time to research the matter properly,” he answers honestly. Seeing as Elaina’s face falls, he hastily adds: “What I think, though, is that it was done by someone with magical abilities, knowingly or unknowingly. This means that Eret’s amnesia is very likely reversible. All we have to do is find out who did this and then go and… talk to them. Or not talk, depends on how friendly they are.”
“I’ll help,” Elaina says immediately. Foolish frowns:
“Are you sure? No offence, but you’re a human without any abilities. This could be very dangerous for you.”
“Foolish,” she says very seriously, “I don’t know where you know Eret from, but they’ve been my best friend for almost a half of my life. If I need to kill God himself to get their memories back, I will.”
There’s something in her voice that makes Foolish shiver. She’s much smaller than him, but in that moment he’s really grateful he’s not the one to cause Eret’s amnesia.
“So,” she says, leaning back in her chair. “Where do you think we should start?”
“Well,” Foolish swallows, trying to get his thoughts together. “As this amnesia is related to this server, I think we should start by asking Dream if he has to do anything with this or if he knows anyone on the server who could use their magic to erase Eret’s memories. He’s in prison right now, though, and we’ll have to go through a lot of security checks — he did some pretty bad things from what I know, no one wants him to escape.”
Elaina smiles coldly, standing up:
“Say no more.”