Camellya

She awoke from her dream.

The sun broke over the horizon, casting a warm glow across the Black Shores. It was the dawn of another ordinary day. Camellya opened her eyes, stretching leisurely atop the treetops. Her movements were graceful, and a fall would be unthinkable. Even if she did slip, the vines would cradle her fall. She loved sleeping like this, away from any disturbance or people.

"What a beautiful morning," she mused. She felt stable, in mind and body, and the thought of needing the medical pod seemed distant. This was a good thing.

She knew {PlayerName} was to remain in the Black Shores, preparing for {Male=his;Female=her} journey to Rinascita. The prospect delighted her, for that meant more time to talk, laugh, and spend time together.

She gave {PlayerName} a gift, a bracelet designed to monitor frequencies, just like the one {Male=he;Female=she} had given her before.

It was the first gift she had ever prepared for someone.

"How peculiar!" she mused. To wonder about someone's safety, or whether they even existed... it was truly a novel feeling! Surely, it meant that she cared about their life. Such thoughts were foreign—she had never cared about her own life, or that of others. But after leaving the Stellar Matrix with {PlayerName} and discovering her identity as Lady Flora, she had begun to see things in a subtle new light.

Still, she had no intention of following {PlayerName} to Rinascita. Their views on certain aspects of Solaris' history differed, and just as she did not intend to meddle in {Male=his;Female=hers} choices, she didn't feel the need to explain her own. In fact, to spare {PlayerName} from the added burden, she had kept some truths hidden from {Male=him;Female=her}. In the Stellar Matrix, she hadn't completely lost all memories of her past.

Yes, her past… Camellya squinted, a soft hum escaping her lips as she contemplated her next move. She wanted to investigate further on her own, biding her time until the moment felt right to share what she knew with {PlayerName}. She had little faith in the organization built on this shore, and even less in the Tethys System. Aside from {PlayerName}, she had little trust in anyone else.

Once, as Lady Flora, she had shied away from entanglements, unwilling to watch {PlayerName} sacrifice {Male=himself;Female=herself} for the greater good. But now her perspective had shifted. She saw little resemblance to the Lady Flora of her past.

She had followed {PlayerName} travels from Jinzhou till now.

A singular force, always moving forward, gathering a diverse array of companions along the way.

She understood that this was still not her path, yet she no longer resisted observing it. Just as one pebble meets another, sending ripples across the water's surface, she embraced the idea of being a "variable" in this dance. Now, the joy she derived from their connection was profound. She felt no trace of the usual boredom creeping in, nor did she wish to erase thoughts of them. Instead, her thoughts often drifted to {Male=him;Female=her}, yearning to learn more about {Male=his;Female=her} adventures and share more delightful games. It was then Camellya realized that these thoughts had already left painful yet pleasing marks on her soul, long before she ever noticed.

Feeling suddenly inspired, she activated her Terminal and drafted a brief message to {PlayerName}, set to send just before {Male=his;Female=her} departure. The bracelet allowed her to check on {Male=him;Female=her} anytime, so there was nothing to worry about. Though Solaris was vast, she believed that if they were threads in the same story, their paths would surely cross again.

At a time when {PlayerName} was none the wiser, that's when she would surprise {Male=him;Female=her}!

As she envisioned this delightful moment, a melody escaped her lips. Vines twisted around her arms, climbing upwards, as tiny buds began to bloom at their tips.

Suddenly, a thought struck her.

"I will give {Male=him;Female=her} a flower."

As this idea took root in her mind, it consumed her completely. She had to find {PlayerName}—now! The flower, born from her very being, would neither wither nor decay unless she perished. She was stunned by her own eagerness and felt a flicker of sadness. As she reflected on it, a dull ache interrupted her thoughts.

With a sigh, she chose not to dwell on it. For… Yes! A smile graced her lips as she resolved to keep that flower blooming for {PlayerName}. She would do her utmost not to die too soon.

Camellya leaped from the treetops, joyfully headed toward {PlayerName}, her cherished seed of fate.

She awoke from her dream.

The walls of the medical pod sank into darkness. Enveloped in heavy silence due to sound dampening, Camellya blinked and turned her dry gaze to the right. The indicators on the Terminal screen had returned to normal. The shackles around her wrists and ankles had loosened, yet she still felt weak, forcing her to remain lying in the narrow confines of the pod.

She tried to recall what had happened. She forced a precarious composure trying to remember, but the lost memories felt like a bottomless black hole—gazing into it revealed only darkness. Her memories had fractured once again.

Having been with the Black Shores for only a year, Camellya had recently passed the test to become an official Bloom Bearer. She now enjoyed greater access to the Tethys System's archives of information.

Before her arrival there, she had wandered across Solaris for a long time.

The cave where she first awoke showed no signs of other people, only twisted plants climbing the walls. Barefoot, Camellya waded through the water until she emerged into the open air, discovering a desolate village. Her foot struck something—a stone slab bearing the faded inscription, "Petalfall Village."

It took her a long time to escape that abandoned place. When hunger struck, she hunted wild beasts for sustenance. When thirst overtook her, she drank from mountain springs. It took her several months to traverse the dense forests and finally arrive at a place bustling with people. Only later did she realize that the village had likely been forgotten for hundreds of years.

Even after returning to civilization, Camellya's memories remained blank, unstimulated by her new surroundings. She felt like an untamed animal, living on pure instinct. The rules and regulations of the human world were foreign to her, but she wasn't frustrated—using her Forte was enough. To her, power was an instinctive weapon, and she wielded it freely, carving her own path through the Lament-scarred land.

Initially, everything in Solaris fascinated her. However, as she gradually learned more, boredom set in quickly. Arriving at the Black Shores had been an accident, yet Camellya felt a strange familiarity with it. A year later, she found her name in the Tethys System and learned that she had once lived and worked there, known then as Lady Flora. It was odd how she had forgotten everything yet still remembered the name "Camellya."

Driven by curiosity, she began her investigation of the Black Shores, eager to uncover her past and the stories of Lady Flora. What had truly happened to her?

As those thoughts surfaced, a sharp pain pierced her head again, and the flower in her chest suddenly swelled, darkening to a deep purple. The sharp thorns of its veins threatened to tear through the medical pod. Fragments of memories flickered in her mind—Ah, Lady Flora had forbidden her from recalling the past. Camellya let out a muffled scream of pain as the restraints tightened once again around her limbs, and a loud alarm blared. Medical personnel would arrive soon.

Yet, she knew there was little they could do. They had already examined her carefully, concluding that her Overclocking symptoms were unique and untreatable, manageable only through restraint. Death could offer relief, but in her current condition, she couldn't even simply die.

All she could do was wait, wait for the grace of death. This passivity chafed at her spirit. If she couldn't decide the outcome, she at least wanted to control the process.

"I'll follow my instincts until death finds me."

"It hurts!" she thought.

Despite her agony, Camellya laughed loudly.

She awoke from her dream.

Lady Flora opened her eyes, feeling the cold air brushing against her fingertips, making her hands and feet slightly numb. She dawdled in her seat for a moment, slowly sitting up to take in her surroundings.

The vehicle had come to a halt in a cave, a refuge from the snowstorm outside, where an endless silver expanse of snow stretched before her. Frost flowers drifted gently from the sky, landing delicately on the tip of her nose. Shivering, she huddled deeper into her thick clothing.

She was not the kind of plant that could withstand the cold.

"Where did the leader go?" she asked after taking a few sips of water, turning to the Bloom Bearer in the front seat. "I didn't see {Male=him;Female=her}."

"The leader? {Male=He;Female=She} went west. {Male=He;Female=She} said something interesting had turned up and wanted to take a look."

"Why didn't {Male=he;Female=she} take me? I am {Male=his;Female=her} guard, after all!" she complained under her breath.

Her fellow Bloom Bearer chuckled as he drove, barely glancing away from the steaming soup. "You were asleep! You haven't been sleeping well on the journey, always shivering in the cold. {Male=He;Female=She} didn't want to wake you while you finally caught some rest."

Grumbling quietly under her breath, Lady Flora pouted and swung the door open. "Anyway, I'm off to find {Male=him;Female=her} now!"

The Bloom Bearer waved her off, clearly used to the dynamic between Lady Flora and their leader.

Leaving the warmth of the vehicle, Lady Flora dragged her feet across the snowy expanse, memories of their first encounter in Petalfall Village flooding back. She had known they would come to this snowy plain for the mission, and despite her dislike of the cold, she knew the time spent with the leader of the Black Shores would be worth it. Most of the time, she opted to accompany {PlayerName} on various errands, leaving her footprints across the tapestry of Solaris, from bustling towns to unknown alcoves, safe havens to treacherous lands. Lady Flora relished this existence, brimming with the thrill of the unknown, and {PlayerName} had an uncanny talent for transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary.

She didn't mind the threat of danger. In fact, she rather enjoyed it. To her, danger signified change, and change led to excitement. She did find, however, that with her leader by her side, she stifled her impulse to seek out trouble for fun.

Danger...

Camellya raised her hand, the delicate chain on her wrist catching the light. The bracelet monitoring her Rabelle indicators read as normal. She squeezed her wrist and exhaled softly. "Good, everything is as it should be," she thought. "If I start spiraling out of control, {Male=he;Female=she} would have to look after me. It would derail the entire mission."

She hated losing control.

In recent years, Lady Flora had been haunted by bizarre and fragmented dreams. They felt like memories of a life she had never lived. In these dreams, she was always searching for {PlayerName}, but the two never found each other. Each time she jolted awake, a disquiet settled over her, the mental turmoil seeping into her very being. She was often forced to report to the Black Shores medical facility.

The thought soured her mood.

She needed to find {Male=him;Female=her} as quickly as possible.

Shoving those tangled thoughts aside, she focused on pinpointing {PlayerName}'s frequencies. After crossing two hills and a frozen lake, she finally spotted a blurry figure in the distance.

"Camellya, how did you sleep?"

{Male=His;Female=Her} golden eyes sparkled with warmth, and she couldn't help but smile back.

"Hehe… With my leader by my side, of course I had the sweetest dreams." she heard herself reply.

She awoke from her dream.

The interval between unconsciousness and consciousness became shorter with each passing day. Lady Flora was starting to find it hard to tell where her dreams ended and reality began. She couldn't even recall when this disorientation had started.

Memories surged like turbulent waves, crashing into her mind and wreaking havoc on her senses. Pain ripped through her body, relentlessly and unforgivingly. She opened her mouth to scream, but Overclocking had turned her throat into a gnarled, coarse root, silencing her cries.

After struggling to take just a few faltering steps, she collapsed onto a muddy riverbank, trembling, her fingertips spasming uncontrollably.

How many times had this happened? She stared blankly at the dark night sky above.

A void of chaos swirled within her, yet there was one thing that stood out in sharp relief: {PlayerName}.

She remembered everything now.

Who she was, who {PlayerName} is, the reason for her being, Solaris, and the Lament…

Before the madness of Overclocking engulfed her, those memories were always buried deep, locked in the depths of her being. Each time she awoke, she lost all recollection, left only with an aching void. As time passed and her body weakened under the strain of Overclocking, glimpses of her mission and roots would resurface, only to vanish again in an endless cycle.

How many times had it happened? Lady Flora had no answer.

Civilizations crumbled into dust, only to rise anew; life faded, only to blossom once more.

She was witness to the ebb and flow of Solaris, yet remained forever a wanderer in her own mind.

"{PlayerName}…" The name slipped from her lips like a prayer.

They had never truly met or exchanged words, and now, with her memories fading, she couldn't even tell if they were friends or foes. Yet somehow, the next time she awoke she knew her instincts would lead her to seek {Male=him;Female=her} out. It was not a tender yearning. It felt more like the weight of a heavy chain, one Lady Flora could not resist.

Yet she felt no hatred for this chain.

The rustle of leaves shattered her reverie. Wearily, she blinked, and the red camellia unfurled, its vines piercing through the Tacet Discords lurking in the shadows. Yes, this was her instinct, her essence, the core of her being... Even as she teetered on the edge of forgetting everything, she could always rely on her instincts.

In truth, beyond her instincts, there was nothing left for her to hold onto.

"Next time, if only I could truly get to know {PlayerName} and share a conversation with {Male=him;Female=her}."

Lady Flora mused hazily. Perhaps the Tethys System would lead {PlayerName} to her since she had already revealed herself in this mission.

Lady Flora closed her eyes and surrendered to the darkness as the pain peaked.

The lake's cool water swelled across her cheek, the camellia withering as its vines retreated into her body.

The autumn night breeze blew through the leaves, caressing her as she lay by the lake. To the north, the villagers of Petalfall Village would soon awaken from their dreams, calling to one another as they prepared to set out on a new day of fishing.

She awoke from her dream.

The wind howled fiercely at the rooftop's edge as she stretched, squinting down at the lively streets below. Vehicles crisscrossed the roads, their taillights forming a vibrant, fiery chain. Resting her chin on her hand, she began to hum.

It was a song she had learned from {PlayerName}.

Of course, she hadn't heard it directly from {PlayerName} {Male=himself;Female=herself}, she had picked it up secretly.

They might not be enemies, but their relationship was far from friendly—at best, it was a one-sided acquaintance. {PlayerName}'s presence had caught the eye of various factions, including her own organization. Yet, that hardly concerned her, nor was it something she could afford to contemplate.

She was merely a "chosen seed," a "flower" that bloomed for the sole purpose of hunting {PlayerName} down. Most days, the injections left her in a fog, drifting through a semi-conscious haze, with only her instinctual yearning for a certain person carved deep into her heart.

The substance she was administered had a sharp, acrid scent, dragging her reason into a mire, robbing her of clarity and self.

Her thoughts whirled chaotically, like a bomb on the brink of detonation, forced to reset just before the countdown expired.

But she didn't care.

Outside of {PlayerName}, little else piqued her interest. Sometimes, {Male=he;Female=she} felt like a mere silhouette against a blank canvas, an outline of a stranger. The portrait was drawn from fragments of information she had painstakingly gathered—they were so close yet had never truly met. She didn't know what {Male=he;Female=she} looked like.

It was said this distance was necessary to evade the Tethys System's tracking. Contact was forbidden.

But how she longed to meet {PlayerName}!

Perched dangerously on the edge of the building, she laughed at the fantasy. Vines entwined around her arms, climbing higher, their delicate buds slowly unfurling at their tips.

Suddenly, a thought struck her.

"I'll give {Male=him;Female=her} a flower."

The moment the thought emerged, it consumed her entirely. She envisioned the moment she would find {PlayerName} and present this gift—a blossom sprouted from her very being. It would neither wither nor decay unless she perished. But just as quickly as it came, the thought vanished into the chaos of her mind, leaving no trace behind.

Little did she know, centuries later, the scene before her would vanish in the Lament. She would wander endlessly through a labyrinth of memories until one autumn morning, by a lake in Petalfall Village, where she would finally meet {PlayerName}, there to rescue the village from Tacet Discord attacks. From there, she would join the Black Shores and share a few hundred years together before {Male=he;Female=she} would eventually leave her. She, too, would leave the Black Shores, only to be reunited decades later in Jinzhou. All those futures had yet to unfold, just as possibilities slumbered within seeds, waiting for fate to blossom.

She leaped from the building, her vines weaving through the city's structures, searching for {Male=him;Female=her}.