"Kiri?" I asked softly. This caused the Bladesinger to look sharply at me. Something glimmered inside the glowing pits of blue that were her eyes.

 

"How. . ?" The Bladesinger asked in a strange, echoing voice.

 

"It's Kanata," I said.

 

The blue glow faded from her eyes, leaving behind somewhat normal-looking eyes. The blackness receded from her face and hair, revealing Kiri.

 

"It's really you?" She asked.

 

"It's me," I said. The shadows fell away from the rest of Kiri's body and she rushed into my arms. I hugged her closely.

 

"What happened with you?" Shun asked.

 

"I can show you," Kiri said. She closed her eyes briefly and a blue glow pulsed from her.

 

[Skill 'Memory Sharing' is going to show you a memory. Accept?]

 <Yes>    No

 

I selected yes and my vision was consumed by darkness. It melted away, revealing a scene in a forest. A man and a woman were running through the trees, their clothes ragged. The woman was carrying a bundle that looked like it had a small child wrapped up.

 

The sound of more people running and dogs barking came from behind them. The man and woman burst into a clearing.

 

"Go!" The man said. "I'll hold them off!" He turned to face the many other people who also ran into the clearing. The woman ran away into the trees as the man drew a sword. The other men, who were dressed like bandits, all attacked. I didn't even see what happened to the man.

 

Then the "camera" moved to the woman. She continued running and running.

 

Then she tripped. The baby landed a few feet from her and began to cry. The bandits killed the woman mercilessly.

 

Then they approached the baby.

 

"Hey, boss," One man said. "Waddo we do with the kid?"

 

"Eh, kill it too," A man taller than all the others said. The man who had asked raised up his sword and brought it down. But the sword never touched the child.

 

A shadowy figure moved at a ridiculously high speed and slammed into the man holding the sword. He was thrown into a tree and killed instantly. The sword impaled the face of another bandit.

 

Then the shadow lashed out with tendrils of darkness. All the bandits except for their apparent leader were killed in barely a second. When the shadow stopped moving for a second, the outlines became clear.

 

It was a tall humanoid figure with a strange cloak. Its arms and legs ended in two claws each. On the face were six horizontal, slit-like eyes that glowed blue. They walked right up to the lead bandit and impaled him with an arm.

 

He fell over, dead.

 

Then the figure stepped over to the child. A small scrape was on her left cheek. The figure cast a healing spell on the child and shadows enveloped their small body. The child looked like a tiny version of the Bladesinger when the blackness faded.

 

Then the memory faded away.

 

"That was you, wasn't it?" I asked, referring to the child.

 

"Yes," Kiri said. "The Hollow saved me, but some of his essence was transferred and I became a Hollow Vessel."

 

"Huh," Shun said. "That's. . . kinda cool."

 

"Do you want to join us?" Arya asked, "We're working on the [Recovery] [World Quest]."

 

"Yes, I do," Kiri answered. "This forest is boring."

 

"Could you lead the way out of the forest?" Leston asked. "We need a quick path north."

 

"Yeah," Kiri said. "It's this way." She started walking and we all followed her.

 

It took a while, but we managed to get out of the Forest of Shadows without any trouble. It began to rain, too, which slowed our progress further. It helped that Ariel could use her wings to shield us from the rain, although we had to take Nexus off her back and carry her with Tiran's shield.

 

After we got out, we found a rocky outcrop that made for a good camp. Ariel stayed up to watch and the other eight of us got some rest.