The Forest of the Forgotten

Ellie hadn't planned on saying goodbye to anyone. The plan had been simple: prepare the mirrors, wait for Amnity to finish with the Council, and slip quietly into another world in search of answers about a past she couldn't remember. Clean, efficient, uncomplicated by sentiment or second thoughts.

But Nova had other plans.

She was walking through the market district, mentally cataloging the supplies they'd need for their journey, when she heard a familiar laugh cut through the general din of vendors and shoppers. Pasley's laugh—rough and genuine, the kind that made everyone around them smile whether they wanted to or not.

Ellie found herself drawn toward the sound before she'd consciously decided to seek it out. There, at a fruit vendor's stall, Pasley was haggling with exaggerated drama over the price of summer berries, their weathered hands gesturing wildly while the vendor tried unsuccessfully to maintain a stern expression.

"Pasley," Ellie called out, and immediately regretted it when those sharp eyes turned her way, lighting up with recognition and something that looked like relief.

"Ellie! Where have you been hiding, girl? I haven't seen you in weeks." Pasley abandoned their negotiation—the vendor looked grateful—and pulled Ellie into a brief, fierce hug that smelled like pipe smoke and the wild herbs that grew near their cabin. "You look different. Troubled."

"I'm fine," Ellie said automatically, but Pasley's skeptical eyebrow told her that lie wasn't going to fly.

"Fine like a tree's fine right before it falls in a storm, maybe." Pasley studied her face with the intensity of someone who'd known her since she was small enough to hide behind Eleazar's robes. "What's eating at you?"

Ellie opened her mouth to deflect, to offer some pleasant excuse that would let her escape this conversation. But looking at Pasley—really looking at them for the first time in months—she was struck by a memory so vivid it nearly knocked the breath from her lungs.

She'd been seven, maybe eight, and she'd tried to pick Pasley's pocket as practice. Eleazar had been teaching her the finer points of sleight-of-hand, and Pasley had seemed like a good target—distracted, weighed down with packages from the market. Except Pasley had caught her hand mid-theft, and instead of being angry, had laughed until tears ran down their weathered cheeks.

"You're Eleazar's little shadow, aren't you?" they'd said, still holding her small wrist gently but firmly. "Tell you what—if you're going to learn thievery, you should at least learn to do it properly. Your footwork's all wrong."

And then Pasley had spent the next hour teaching her the correct way to approach a mark, to read body language, to disappear into crowds. Not because they approved of stealing, but because, as they'd explained, "If you're going to do something risky, might as well do it right so you don't get caught and break Eleazar's heart."

That had been the beginning. Over the years, Pasley had become something Nova's formal structures didn't quite have a word for—not quite family, not quite mentor, but something in between. Someone who showed up when things got difficult, who asked hard questions and accepted honest answers, who had taught her as much about surviving in Nova as Eleazar ever had.

"I'm leaving," Ellie heard herself say, the words escaping before she could stop them. "For a while. Maybe longer. I don't know."

Pasley's expression shifted, surprise giving way to understanding and then something that looked like sadness. "The other world. The one that's been eating at you since you got back from wherever you and Amnity disappeared to."

It wasn't a question. Pasley had always been observant, always able to read the currents beneath the surface.

"How did you—"

"You came back different, girl. Everyone noticed. You move different, talk different, look at things like you're seeing them for the first time even though you've lived here your whole life." Pasley's voice was gentle, lacking any accusation. "Or maybe like you're trying to memorize them before they disappear."

Ellie felt something tight and painful lodge in her throat. "I need to find out who I was. Before. Before Eleazar brought me here."

"And you think knowing that will make things better?"

"I think not knowing is making things worse." Ellie looked around the market—at the familiar faces, the stalls she'd been visiting since childhood, the easy rhythm of life in Nova that she'd always taken for granted. "But I'm starting to realize what it means to leave. What I'll be leaving behind."

Pasley was quiet for a moment, their gaze distant. When they spoke again, their voice carried the weight of hard-earned wisdom. "I ran away once, you know. When I was younger and stupider than you are now. Thought I could find something better than Nova, something that would make sense of all the restlessness I felt inside."

"What happened?"

"I found other places. Some worse, some just different. And eventually I came back, because I realized the restlessness wasn't about where I was. It was about who I was." Pasley met her eyes directly. "But I had to leave to learn that. Sometimes you have to go away to understand what you're coming back to."

"What if I don't come back?" The fear escaped before Ellie could cage it. "What if I find out who I was and it changes me so much that I can't be the person everyone here knows anymore?"

"Then that's what happens." Pasley's hand landed on her shoulder, warm and steady. "But Ellie, you're not going to become a stranger just because you learn more about yourself. You might become different—we all do, every day we live. But the you that learned to pick pockets from me, that spent hours in the forest with Amnity, that came to me crying when you had your first heartbreak—that person doesn't disappear just because you add more chapters to her story."

Ellie felt tears threatening and blinked them back furiously. "I'm scared."

"Good. Smart people are scared before they do big things. It's the fools who run in confident that usually end up in trouble." Pasley pulled her into another hug, this one longer, tighter. "You go find your answers, girl. And when you're ready—whether that's in a week or a year or a decade—you come back and tell me what you learned. I'll be here."

When they pulled apart, Pasley's eyes were suspiciously bright. "You taking care of Amnity on this adventure?"

"She's taking care of me, more likely."

"Good. That girl's got more sense than both of us combined." Pasley smiled, but it wobbled slightly. "You tell her that if anything happens to you, she'll have to answer to me."

Ellie nodded, not trusting her voice.

As she walked away from the market, she found herself noticing things she'd always overlooked. The baker who always slipped extra bread to families with young children. The street musician whose songs marked the passage of seasons. The old woman who sat outside her shop every afternoon, knitting and watching the world go by with bright, curious eyes.

All of them part of the intricate web that made up her life in Nova. All of them people she'd taken for granted because they'd always been there, as constant as the trees and the gentle light filtering through endless forest.

She passed the tea house where she and Amnity had spent countless afternoons studying healing herbs and gossiping about nothing important. The bridge where she'd practiced her first successful portal-closing spell. The small shrine to the Mirror Makers, where she'd left offerings as a child, believing they could grant wishes.

Every corner held a memory. Every familiar face was someone who'd shaped her understanding of the world, who'd taught her something about kindness or resilience or how to survive when things got hard.

And she was choosing to leave it all behind to chase answers about a life she couldn't remember, in a world that had felt simultaneously foreign and familiar in ways that still confused her.

The realization hit her with unexpected force as she reached the path that would take her back to her small room at The Hole: she was terrified she was making a mistake.

What if the truth she found didn't bring peace, but only more questions? What if learning about her past destroyed her ability to appreciate her present? What if she returned to Nova—assuming she returned at all—and found that she no longer fit in the spaces she'd once occupied so comfortably?

But then she thought about the alternative: staying here, never knowing, spending the rest of her life wondering about the phantom family she might have had, the phantom life she might have lived. Watching that uncertainty slowly poison everything good she'd built in Nova, until she became a ghost haunting her own existence.

At least searching for answers was a choice. At least it was moving forward, even if the direction was uncertain.

She found Amnity waiting outside The Hole when she arrived, a small travel pack already prepared at her feet. Her expression was determined but gentle, and when she saw Ellie's face, understanding bloomed in her eyes.

"Second thoughts?" Amnity asked softly.

"Tenth or eleventh thoughts, more like," Ellie admitted. "I just saw Pasley. They... they reminded me what I'm leaving behind."

"We can wait. Take more time to think about it."

Ellie shook her head. "No. Waiting won't change anything. It'll just give me more time to talk myself into staying safe and scared." She managed a weak smile. "Besides, you already faced down the Council of Shadows for me. Can't back out now."

Amnity stepped closer, taking Ellie's hands in hers. "We're not running away from Nova. We're just taking a detour to find something you lost. This place will be here when we get back. The people who love you will be here."

"Promise?"

"I promise. And if I'm wrong, we'll build something new. Together."

Ellie squeezed her hands, drawing strength from the contact. Pasley was right—she was scared, and that was okay. But she wasn't alone. Whatever they found in that other world, whatever truths were waiting to be uncovered, they'd face them together.

"Okay," she said, her voice steadier now. "Let's go find out who I used to be, so I can figure out who I want to become."

And with the weight of Nova's memories and the hope of Amnity's love both anchoring her, Ellie turned toward The Hole and the mirrors that would carry them to a world of concrete and noise and answers she wasn't sure she was ready to hear.