Esther’s Last Memory

The gilded doors of the shrine opened automatically as Xander made his way up the marble stairs. A bright golden light flooded his face as he put a foot in the doorway. It was so intense that he had to shade his eyes with the back of his palm.

[Welcome to the Shrine of Kiya]

[Let the light guide you, O weary traveler.]

Gradually, the light dimmed, and Xander peered through his fingers with squinted eyes. The shrine was made entirely of polished white marble and had six Doric pillars with figures of winged infants supporting the ceiling.

On the other end was a rectangular altar with intricate carvings on all sides. Standing in front of it, with her back turned towards the Dreamwalker, was a woman clothed in radiant white raiment.

As Xander approached the mysterious woman, his Chronica started glowing inside his jacket, and the chiming grew louder.

"Is this your nightmare?" Xander asked.

The woman slowly turned around and looked at the Dreamwalker with eyes glistening with tears. It was the same woman whose body had been found hanging from the ceiling.

"You've found me, at long last. I thought you'd never come," she spoke softly, her voice bearing a somber melancholy.

"You didn't exactly make it easy for me," Xander sniped.

"I didn't want to trouble you. But this world is not under my control. I am trapped here, same as you." The woman took two steps forward and touched Xander on his left shoulder. "Such a fine young man. I wish we'd met when I was alive."

"I hate to break your heart, but you're not really my type," Xander quipped. "I'm sorry for what happened to you," he added as an afterthought.

The woman smiled at this and pulled her hand back. "I'm glad you came. I was starting to think I'd fade into the darkness without being heard again."

"Just doing my job," Xander replied, looking straight into her eyes.

There was a slight pause in their conversation as the woman stared back at the Dreamwalker, longingly. The sorrow buried in her heart was reflected in her downcast eyes.

It was Xander who eventually broke the cold silence. "I need to know what happened. Who killed you, and how?"

The woman shook her head. "I don't know who killed me. All I remember is going to bed last night and...never waking up."

"How's that possible?" Xander furrowed his brow in confusion. "You're inside a Death Nightmare. There's no way you died of natural causes. Someone murdered you."

"I just remember a hot night and my throat drying up. Maybe I should have opened a window," the woman sobbed. "I really don't know what happened."

Every Dreamwalker knew that a person's Last Memory never lied, but they often answered in confusing riddles and rhymes. However, this was the first time someone's Last Memory refused to divulge the details of their death.

Xander couldn't tell whether she was intentionally trying to blur the truth or if she was actually clueless about her death.

Now that he had found the Last Memory, he could finally get out of the Nightscape and go back to the real world, but if he returned without the answers, he could forget his payment.

Instead of giving up, Xander tried to rephrase his questions to elicit a better response. "Did you have any enemies? Someone who'd love to see you dead?"

The woman shook her head.

"Did someone break into your house last night? Did you hear something unusual?"

The woman shook her head again.

Things were starting to get frustrating now, but Xander wasn't ready to accept defeat so easily. Taking a deep breath, he sighed, "Alright, let's start from the beginning. My name's Xander Nyxon. What's yours?"

"Esther...Rayne," she answered.

"Do you have any family?"

"Just my uncle," she replied softly. "He is a good man."

Everything checked out so far. She wasn't lying to him, but it didn't help his cause. Xander knit his eyebrows and started putting all the pieces together in his mind.

The presence of a completely articulate Black Knight, the mention of the dreaded deity Shamura and the appearance of a Dread Lord were all indications of a sinister conspiracy at the heart of this murder.

Though Esther seemed like an ordinary middle-aged woman, Xander had a hunch that she had much darker connections. However, what he couldn't figure out was why her Last Memory was unable to remember the manner of her death.

All the questions Xander had asked so far led him to nowhere meaningful. Everything about this woman's murder was shrouded in mystery.

Tired of shooting darts in the dark, Xander got straight to the point. "What do you know about Shamura?"

The woman looked utterly confused by the question.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she replied in a feeble voice.

Xander noticed that her presence was fading. This Last Memory had lingered long enough and didn't have much time left.

"Alright, were you ever a part of any cults? Maybe someone in your family? Or perhaps you had any special relic or book in your possession?"

The rapid volley of questions left the woman dazed. "My mother was a Priestess of Cynthia. We never associated with any cultists," she spoke after a while and showed Xander her right wrist which had a six-sided star imprinted on it.

This revelation made everything even more confusing. There was no way a family devoted to Goddess Cynthia would ever have any connections with the dark deity Shamura.

Suddenly, a thought flashed in Xander's mind. Perhaps this woman had been killed as a sacrificial offering to appease Shamura. But he couldn't be sure about it without any solid evidence.

Thinking long and hard, Xander asked, "Were you having any strange nightmares before your death? Something repetitive?"

"No nightmares," she replied, shaking her head. Then as if struck by an afterthought, she looked up at Xander. "There was this vision though. In it, I think I saw a ruined temple...and a statue of a three-headed dragon in front of it."

"That's a temple dedicated to Mordred, the Lord of Terror. What else did you see?"

She was about to answer when suddenly the ground started trembling. The walls of the temple cracked from side to side, and a portion of the ceiling collapsed behind the Dreamwalker.

"No no no! This can't be happening now!" Xander cried out in frustration. "Tell me, what else did you see?"

She tried to answer, but all she managed to utter was a monosyllabic whisper. The pillars holding the ceiling in place sloped their heads to their foundations as the shrine was hit by another tremor.

Chunks of debris started raining down all around Xander. The Dreamwalker kept begging the Last Memory for an answer, but the woman's body turned transparent. She was about to fade into nothingness when Xander grabbed her by the hand.

Pulling out his Chronica, the Dreamwalker chanted aloud, "Free me from this nightmare as I free this Last Memory from death. Into the light. Into the light. Into the light!"

Soon the ceiling came crashing down, and the shrine collapsed into a heap of rubble.

***

"Xander? Xander? Talk to me, damn it!"

The Dreamwalker opened his eyes on the other side, gasping for air. His clothes were drenched in sweat, and his lips parched with thirst. As he slowly looked around, his eyes fell on Detective Locksley.

"Welcome back. You good?"

Xander nodded and took the detective's hand. "Never better," he sighed, pulling himself up.