In a Civilized Manner

“This is making me quite flustered, you see.”

In the silent white room, Edris and Mia stared at each other.

"That colour does not look good on you," the latter said, eyeing his uniform up and down.

"..."

Did I ask?

Edris scrutinized the pillow with a smile dead inside. The last time he'd seen her was right after the Slums explosion, where Mia Vyris spoke to him in the exact same room—as a canvas.

"May I help you?"

The stillness between them was thick, a palpable tension that Edris couldn’t quite place. Mia’s face, embroidered onto the pillow, finally broke the silence.

“My brother Magnus has gone missing,” she said. The tone of her voice was curt but precise.

“Magnus?” Edris blinked twice.

Magnus Vyris. He was the prodigy archmage of the Zacriya Kingdom and Mia’s twin brother.

The last time Edris saw the pink-haired archmage had been right before he left for Adalan. Magnus had visited him back at Mosky Inn with Dolan Zacriya, passing along an invite for Mia’s afterparty she’d host after passing her archmage exam.

Although Magnus’s disappearance came as a surprise, Edris couldn’t understand what it had to do with him.

Mia sighed, the pillow's fabric shifting slightly to match her discontent. “I got the news from a call with Dolan a couple of days ago. I’ve been trying to reach your mental space since then.”

Edris blinked, both confusion and realization interweaving in his mind. Although he’d spent two whole months in the Labyrinth, it appeared that time had only amounted to less than a couple of days in real life. The flow of time seemed to work quite differently in the two spaces.

Unaware of his internal observations, Mia continued, “I tried to track my brother down by lining up his mental space, seeing where he was from his perspective. Then I saw a picture of you on the wall. Whoever kidnapped Magnus and held him hostage—they know you.

“I heard from Dolan that you were in Adalan and were pretty close with Evans Moon’s son, so I contacted Commander Moon—Vyris family connections, you know—and found out that you had entered the Labyrinth.”

The pillow ruffled slightly as her version of a shrug.

“Anyway, I figured you might know something about this.”

Edris’s first reaction was dismissive. “It has nothing to do with me.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “Of course, I know that.”

“Do you?” he raised an eyebrow. “I could be lying just now, Miss Mia.”

“I don’t trust you, but I trust Dolan,” she said. “And he trusts you. You should see him. Whenever we enter the topic of ‘Oh-Mister-Super-Cool-Traveller-Prophet-Edris,’ he could go on for days.”

Edris had to actively ignore the string of nicknames that were giving him goosebumps. He swallow down the scoff forming in his throat.

The Crown Prince? Trusting him?

Dolan Zacriya’s princely smile flashed in his head.

More like he trusted their mutual beneficiary relationship.

“To think His Highness thinks so highly of me. How moving,” Edris smiled like a saint. He then went on, curiosity piqued. “I may not know much about the situation, but if you provide more information, maybe I could provide some food for thought.”

From the looks of it, Mia Vyris must be in quite a predicament for her to relentlessly seek him out like this. Although Edris wasn’t the type to actively involve himself in situations, a little information gathering wouldn’t hurt.

Mia seemed deep in thought for a moment. Then, her face disappeared from the pillow, reappearing on a tiny wool-knitted doll that animatedly climbed onto Edris’s shoulder.

It was a strange sight—a plushie climbing up his body. Edris had to actively resist the temptation to shake her off.

The doll pointed to the pristine white wall. “You can write on it with your hands.”

Edris reached out, his fingers touching the wall. A splash of colours spread from his touch, his fingers becoming like a colourful brush against the white canvas.

The plushy doll, now perched on his shoulder, guided him. “It might be easier if I just show you the scene I saw with Magnus’s eyes. I’ll recreate it here.”

As if responding to her words, vibrant hues blossomed across the walls, depicting the room with startling clarity. Under Mia’s command, an image of a wooden living room came to life on the Playroom wall.

“...Hm.”

Edris gave the pink-haired plushy a sideglance.

He couldn’t help but be impressed—both with Mia’s artistic improvements and the wall’s usefulness. The last time he was here, Mia was still at the stage where she played canvas herself.

Edris pushed back her “canvas face” to the back of his head.

If the situation had been more timely, he even considered asking her to teach Ace about the whole mental space thing, given that he couldn’t manipulate mana himself.

Under his gaze, the image on the wall began to move, as if replaying a recorded scene. The footage was shaky at times, given it was from Magnus’s first-person perspective. Although no sound came from the walls, the visual quality—although skipping frames—was comparable to seeing the situation with your own eyes.

Edris’s attention zeroed in on the environment, taking in every detail.

In the moving imagery, Magnus’s eyes landed on the back of a small child. The child was very slim and short; her hazel hair scrunched up in two small, low ponytails on each side of her head.

The little girl turned around, revealing a syringe in her hand that was the size of her forearm. However, it wasn’t the syringe that caught Edris’s attention.

“This girl…” he murmured, a chill running down his spine.

Mia, perched on his shoulder in doll form, noticed his reaction. “You know her?”

Edris nodded slowly. “I saw her once, back at Pub Paradise. It was during an investigation of the Slums with His Highness and Celio Moon a few months ago.

“If I recall correctly, she had called herself Shea. Celio told me afterwards that she might have been an Awakened by how she escaped the pub after we set it on fire, but that’s all I know. I never saw her again after that.”

Mia’s doll form tilted its head thoughtfully. “You saw her in Pub Paradise? That tiny girl? Do you remember anything specific about her?”

Edris tapped his lips, thinking. He shook his head a negative.

“The last time I saw her, she’d been a captured servant in the pub.”

Had she grown so fast in such a short span of time that she was now capable of capturing a whole archmage like Magnus Vyris?

Or had she already been this powerful in the first place and only been hiding her capabilities back in the Slums?

“This doesn’t make sense,” Mia muttered. She plopped down her small wool-made body, legs dangling by his shoulder. “How did this ‘Shea’ girl go from being a pub captive to this? What did she have against Magnus?”

The moving painting on the wall continued to replay the scene. The girl approached Magnus with the syringe, her expression unreadable. Edris watched, transfixed, as Magnus’s vision blurred and darkened, indicating either he had been sedated or the connection had been interrupted.

Edris’s gaze drifted across the wall, his attention catching on a postboard cluttered with hand-drawn pictures. If The Real Story of Weisha comprised recorded trifles of everyday life, then the posterboard of drawings here would be like snapshots of contextless situations.

One drawing, in particular, stood out—it was a depiction of him, unmistakable in its details. This must have been the one that led Mia to reach out.

But it wasn’t just his face on the board.

Among the other faces, another had also caught Edris’s eye.

Robin?

He thought back to the creepy man at the underground Slums. As he did so, the silvery, chilling pitch characterizing his laugh reverberated in his ears.

Edris’s brow furrowed.

Who would have thought he’d see him again like this?

He turned to Mia, still in her tiny doll form on his shoulder. “See that one?” he said, pointing at the drawing. “He’s a member of Nest. He was also there during the Slum investigation.”

Mia’s eyes flickered with interest. “Nest, again… Magnus’s kidnapping may have something to do with them.”

“Certainly a possibility,” Edris mused. “In the Labyrinth, we came across him as well. In the case that other Nest members have also infiltrated the world there and even other Labyrinths…”

“Nest never does anything without reason,” Mia said. “The Labyrinth must be to their advantage somehow. I’m still piecing it together, but from the looks of it, they’re up to something big.”

She paused, peering at him with her ruby eyes.

“Come to think of it, what exactly did you experience in the Labyrinth?” Her eyes flickered curiously. “I’ve heard many fascinating things about it. Quite the mysterious attraction in Adalan, if I were to say so myself.”

Edris raised an eyebrow. “Fascinating?”

Mia shrugged. “To a mage, naturally.”

Under her intrigued gaze, the dark-haired man released a sigh.

“To be frank, I’m still quite confused myself,” Edris spoke slowly, carefully selecting his words. “There seem to exist many, many different Labyrinths. The environment was strange, and the rules were strange. There were moments where the Labyrinth seemed… compromised, almost as if it was being manipulated from within.”

“Manipulated?” Mia tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

Edris rested his hands on his hips, his shoulders moving into a shrug. “Just a feeling.”

Although they were acquainted, he didn’t fully trust Mia Vyris. There was no point in sharing unneeded information about the current situation.

To better organize the spread of information, the two started recording their thoughts on the Playroom wall.

The once-pristine white surface became a sprawling canvas of information, from Magnus’s situation to Nest’s various suspected involvements. The more they uncovered, the more the pieces of the puzzle became more… puzzling.

“The biggest problem right now is Nest—we know too little about them.” Mia frowned, eyes narrowing at the web that pointed to various intertwining events. “The Awakeneds’ trafficking in Nolmes, the laveric mine investigation in the Vyris territory, my brother’s disappearance and now the Labyrinths…

“Just how far do their forces span?”

“Across kingdoms, at least,” Edris said blandly. “Maybe even centuries back.”

Along the way, Edris also dropped necessary bits and pieces from Weisha’s diary with Mia, which led them to another wall where the entire timeline of the Seven Conquerors and the Creatos Era was recorded.

“If it is as you say, that Labyrinths represent a distorted reflection of our own reality, one that is carefully sculpted and manipulated,” Mia said, as if breathless. “What if they’re never a natural phenomenon to begin with?”

Edris peered towards the wall.

“The Labyrinths are human creations.”

“But given the scale and power of this phenomenon, the Seven Conquerors are the only ones I can think of on top of my head capable of creating this.” The doll on his shoulder frowned. “Yet nothing about this is even hinted at in the records.”

Was it an intentional omission? Or was it that no one simply lived to tell the tale?

“History is selective, after all,” Edris said.

Mia suddenly turned towards him with a smug smile. “Aren’t you glad I infiltrated your mental space with such good timing? I heard everyone loses their memory on what happens within the Labyrinth once they’re out.”

“I do appreciate it,” Edris said, signalling to the wall of words sprawled before their eyes. “Hence the repayment of information.”

“Information for your own convenience to access later.” Mia gave a curt laugh. “You sure have a way of sugarcoating things to make them sound all selfless.”

Edris chuckled under his breath.

Mia was very clever.

From their conversation, she easily picked up on the tinniest details, linked them to more significant implications, and then used those points to expand on another web discovery.

All the reasons why he had to be careful.

Both Edris and Mia knew it. Their conversation was more than just an exchange of information—it was a tactical battle, each trying to extract more from the other without giving too much away.

At one point, Mia seemed to have deduced something crucial from his guarded responses. She hopped onto a high stool chair from his shoulder and stared at him.

“You’ve already found a way to keep your memories once out of the Labyrinth, haven’t you?” she asked, a note of intrigue in her voice.

Edris didn’t deny it, a slight smile playing on his lips.

“Knew it.” Mia sighed, her tiny doll shoulders drooping slightly. “I wouldn’t mind being the one to help you, you know. Once you were out.”

“How kind, Miss Mia.” Edris gave her a warm, yet sly smile. “Then, on my end, I suppose I won’t tell Dolan that you reached out to me against their orders or that you decided to act alone.”

Mia’s doll form stiffened, then she glanced away with a soft “Tch.”

Edris leaned back, looking at the wall filled with their collective efforts. “You don’t consider working with Zacriya’s factions at all? With the situation looking like this, a team effort might be more effective.”

“Those administrative hierarchies?” Mia rolled her eyes, her voice laced with frustration. “The Expedition Army is already investigating the issue. But with Quine leading the team—you know her, right? Commander Poet. Heard you guys met before."

He gave a slight nod, mind flashing back to the stubborn Commander who insisted on bringing Ace into the actual Dread Chamber back at the Risk Faction to extract his memories.

“Yeah, well, it takes them forever even to get a request approved because the factions are all so damn obsessed with following procedure. And her taking the lead definitely won’t help.” Mia laid out her hands. “I’ll be much more efficient on my own.”

Edris shrugged, knowing better than to argue.

“Anyway.” Her doll face softened slightly, though her determined expression didn’t waver. “I suggest you reach out to Dolan once you’re out. Although it’s only been a few days, more happened than you could think. You would both benefit from an update.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Edris paused. “If I don’t forget.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “Do as you wish.”

Edris merely smiled.

Frankly speaking, he already had enough on his hands to deal with. He felt no need to actively jump into more.

The complications outside the Labyrinth—the mine investigations or the archmage’s disappearance—should be left to professionals, not a traveller like himself.

Edris believed he’d done his fair share of the work.

Though, Mia Vyris did bring up a good point. He’ll have to hop on a call with the Crown Prince sometime. If it’s confirmed that Nest had a leg in all these events, Dolan Zacriya, being on the frontier of investigation, could prove useful in providing him with new insights.

Silence fell upon the Playroom. Amidst his stream of thoughts, the man heard a light cough.

“Guess that’s my cue to let you leave,” Mia said as he lifted his head. She signalled across the room. “Thanks for the information today. I’ll make a copy of this, then get back to you in the real world once you recover your memories. This time, in person.”

Edris blinked. It only occurred to him just now that despite their few exchanges, he’d never met Mia Vyris in real life.

“Sounds good to me,” he said. “Until next time, Miss Mia.”

Just like last time, a door was at the back of the Playroom. He headed towards it and placed his hand on the handle. Right before he pressed down on it, Edris cast a last glance at the plushy and smiled.

Mia’s doll form gave a small nod, only to stiffen the next moment.

“Is something wrong?” Edris said, sensing her irregularity.

He didn’t need a response. Before he could turn the handle, the door busted open, smashing right into his face.

The blunt force sent Edris a few steps back with a wince. Pressing his palm on his burning forehead, he cast his eyes towards the figure at the door, only to flinch at who it was.

“Yukioe?” Edris blinked twice.

He did not expect to see his coworker here.

“You know this guy?” Mia’s focus shifted to the robed man with curly hair. “How’d you get in here?”

Building on the target’s mental space, the Playroom was a modified version of the original space that enabled shared presence. Normally, the space would only be accessible by her and the original subject.

So—what was this situation?

Confronted with their questions, the man froze for a good moment. His eyes, bearing both caution and confusion, shifted from Edris onto the doll on the stool, finally landing on the content-filled walls around them.

“...I could be asking the same.”

The room fell silent. Edris, Yukioe, and doll Mia faced each other in a triangle.

Yukioe ran a hand through his curly hair.

Due to the proceeding of circumstance, he found himself entering Edris's mental space to execute preventional treatment, as the latter was suspected of undergoing Splinter Syndrome.

Yukioe had prepared for many things upon entering, but not this.

“Where in Serenity am I?”