POV :Harvest Moon

I waved to the princess as her carriage disappeared toward Canterlot.

I walked back inside, where Szarekh was doing the dishes. He felt different from yesterday, like he was lost.

“Mister Szarekh?” I ventured, “Are you okay?”

“Hmm?”

He turned to me, looking almost surprised, “Oh, Harvest, yes I am fine, just thinking.”

He paused for a moment, looking down at the basin, “Say, why don't we take a trip to the library? Then perhaps a walk in the park this afternoon?”

“Sure!” I replied, excited to read some of the more advanced manuals that were in the library's collection.

“Excellent,” he said, though he still sounded strange, “now, how about you go get cleaned up and pack some things to take with you while I finish here?”

I bolted up to my room to gather a few studying supplies into my saddlebags before dashing to the bathroom to wash.

POV: Szarekh

I stared at the dishes in front of me, the hands that held them, and the terrifying, alien memories that came with them.

I still had my humanity, for now, but I worried that it would be superseded by the knowledge and experiences of my Necron form.

I needed time to think, to sort through the flood of memories, organize it, so that I would not lose myself to the real Szarekh.

My original plan had been to send Harvest to play with her friend Dinky, but that would mean her separating from me, and for the moment that was untenable.

So I decided to try the library, where I would be on hand if Harvest had another episode, while also having space to focus on somehow retaining my humanity, and what scraps of my soul I still had.

The library fascinated me, it was housed in a living tree! Its interior was open and welcoming with a ceiling high enough for me to partly stand up.

Around the outer wall were floor-to-ceiling shelves interspersed with doors and a staircase that lead up to a small nook with a view of the main area and another door.

The moment we arrived, Harvest made a beeline for the magic shelves before retreating into the nook and making herself comfortable.

I positioned myself against the span of wall below the interior balcony and turned my focus inward, deactivating my optics.

It is an odd experience, walking through a construct that represents one's own mind, stranger still to see one that was as dichotomous as my own.

My mindscape was the Slaaneshi bastard child of my human apartment, and the interior of a Necron tomb.

As I explored my inner world I began to understand what was happening to me.

My human life was not being overwritten, so much as it was being swept up like a drop of water in an ocean.

My near thirty years of human experience was nothing to the millions of Szarekh's memories.

I wandered for what felt like hours, finding tidbits of useful information, both human and Necron.

Eventually I decided to try and change this world.

I focused on my apartment, its color, its layout, where each piece of furniture was, what paintings adorned the walls.

Slowly, so very slowly, but surely, it began to come together.

Each wall, piece by scattered piece, they knitted together.

Board by board, the necrodermis of the floor gave way to the old, stained floorboards of the home I remembered.

Slowly, painfully slowly, I separated the human from the Necron.

It felt like days, weeks, of pure concentration, that left me exhausted in a way I have never known.

I pushed further, set the world outside my front door to order, and reformed it into a great library, structured it that I could never lose myself in it, no matter how far I wandered, and made its contents mine to command.

But even this was not enough, for as I released my focus, I felt it shift from the order I had instilled.

I allowed it for a time, watching carefully, ready to reign it in.

The changes were gradual, related memories grouping together, knowledge finding its context.

Drained as I felt, I decided a new, more flexible approach was called for.

Instead of fighting the currents and swirls of the memories to maintain a rigid, unchanging order, I began to direct the flow, allowing the memories to move, interact and self-align.

There was no effort this time, but the process would be a long one.

Even skewed as my perception was, I could tell a significant amount of real-time had passed.

I resolved to work on this place at night, treat these memories as the sleeping brain would.

Dreaming. Something I had thought lost to me.

Not lost, as I first thought, merely changed, like switching for an automatic to a stick-shift, the process of organizing memory was now a manual task.

POV:Harvest Moon

I'm not sure how long I spent reading, but the sun was high when my hunger made itself known.

I yelped at the growl my stomach let out.

Marking the title and page number in my notebook before closing the book and getting up.

I stretched languidly, working out the slight stiffness of a good study session.

I made my way downstairs to let Szarekh know it was lunchtime.

He sat against the wall, his eyes dark, head leaning on his shoulder, looking to all the world to be asleep.

I walked closer, before clearing my throat.

His eyes flared as he snapped alert, “Oh, hello Harvest, do you need some help?”

“Nah, I think I'm finished with reading for now, besides, it's time for lunch!”

He looked at the clock on the far wall, “So it is. Well then, I suppose we should see about getting some food in you then, should we not?”

“Yup! Can we get Hay-Burger?”

“Do you know where your parents kept their money? I am afraid I have none for the moment, though perhaps a visit to town hall will provide a solution.”

I felt an ache in my chest when I thought about mommy and daddy, but I nodded, “They keep our bits in a big safe in their closet.”

Szarekh hummed, rubbing his with one of his claws, “I see. Let us retrieve some bits from home and drop off your bags, head to town square for lunch, then stop by town hall, before finishing the day off with an evening picnic in the park? I will make a light dinner for us while you put your things away.”

It sounded like a nice way to spend the day, and a good distraction from the bad thought that popped into my head, “Sure! I can show you where the safe is too.”

“Excellent, let us be on our way, then.”

He rose to his feet, gesturing to the door.

I exited the library with him close behind and we headed back home.

POV: Szarekh

I felt better than I had since my arrival, my mind was clearer and my emotions less wild.

It would seem as though my meditation had set my human memory apart from the Necron, I could more distinctly tell what was human and what was alien.

It would be a constant balancing act, but one that I would gladly undertake, for it meant I could remain me.

I looked at Harvest, her happy smile, the buried hurt in her eyes, and I knew that I would never be able to leave her alone.

Something Necron had formed a bond with her, one that affected me even now.

It took me most of the walk home to understand what it was.

The vow, the promise I had made to her, had become a part of me.

I could no more leave her than I could die.

For a time, I could think of little else but what would become of me when Harvest's mortality took her.

I was lost in a subtle creeping fear, one that the Necron part of me could not seem to suppress.

I was pulled from the rising tide by Harvest's voice, light and free despite the tragedy that befell her.

I knew then that I would find a way when the time came, perhaps a new vow in her honor.

For now though, I put those thoughts out of my mind, focusing on the present.

We arrived at the house a short time after my revelation.

I began preparing our picnic dinner, whilst Harvest put away her belongings.

She made her way to the kitchen after she had finished and watched quietly as I shuffled about, mixing, cutting, peeling, piece by piece assembling her meal.

It had taken only a half hour to finish my preparations.

Once complete, I packed the meal into a basket I had retrieved from a small closet in the hall.

“Harvest,” I turned to my ward, “I think it is time you showed me to your parents’ safe. I know it hurts to think about them, but I know that even now they are watching over you,and that they love you so very much. I know it may not feel like it right now, but it does get better, it will get better. The pain will never truly disappear, but that is not a bad thing, it means that you remember them, and hold them in your heart.”

I had not meant to say all that, but Harvest's teary smile told me it bore saying.

I lowered myself down to embrace her, hoping to ease her burden, take away even the tiniest fraction of the pain I knew she felt.

Author's Note

Here we go!

Another chapter for you all.

As always let me know if you have any questions, any suggestions for things I might improve.

Enjoy.