Walking the entire edge of campus, the veil doesn't break anywhere. If anything, it felt stronger by the minute. Amiel follows close behind. Getting closer to where Eirian was, I can see trees fallen onto the ground, and parts of them shaved off.
"Just another thing Eirian seems to be right about." I kneel over the tree, examining it. "Who would climb up this high just to shave a few trees? It doesn't make sense."
Amiel doesn't say a word.
"Got something to say?" I asked, hoping for some answers.
"Not too sure, but this might not be human." He placed his hands on his chin, and he looked over my shoulder.
"What else would it be then?"
"Not one-hundred percent sure, but this might have been a moose."
"A moose?"
"Yeah, this shavings happens from when they rub their antlers against it. Even though it's higher than usual, that's a moose's doing."
Not being able to hold it anymore, I laughed. "Eirian got scared by a moose!?"
"Seems like it."
"A moose?! Oh, I am going to make fun of him when we get back."
"Mooses aren't as harmless as you think. They may be passive most of the time, but if push comes to shove, they can get aggressive."
"Still, a moose!?" Calming down, I took a deep breath. "Either way, that's one less problem to worry about. Now we can just focus on that veil thingy." I pointed back to it.
"I guess so."
I wiped off the snow from my knees. "Still leaves one thing unanswered, the reliving the week thing, you think it's true."
"I say it can go either way now, seeing as some of what he has some truth to it. "
I look up to the sky, seeing snow starting to fall. "How about we head back and get the full story?"
---
Arriving back at the medical center, it was now fully snowing. Eirian seemed to be fully awake, and to our surprise, waiting for us.
"So?" He looked up to us as we walked through the door.
"You were right..."
"Told you!"
"Don't get too hasty there, you were only kind of." Trying to hold back a laugh, I said, "The other part, not so much."
"What do you mean?"
Amiel, intersecting the conversation, said, "What he means to say is that you were right, there is a veil around the whole campus, but there was not someone else here. What you thought was someone else was a moose."
"A moose?" Eirian tilted his head.
Bursting out in laughter, I let out, "Yeah, a moose! You were scared of a moose."
"You can't be serious." Said Eirian.
"Totally serious, the shavings of a tree, that was a moose. Even though they were higher up than usual, that was a moose doing."
"But the veil part that's true, right?"
"Sadly, yes, we are stuck here," Amiel replied.
Eirian paused, "So do you guys now believe me when I say that we are reliving the same week?"
As I calmed down, I joined the conversation again. "Kind of... Eirian, you have to understand that it's a hard thing to believe, but we won't dismiss it. So we will keep it in mind going forward. For now, tell us everything you remember."
As Eirian told us about the dreams he'd had, the journey to the edge of campus, and meeting Eira, nightfall came as we sat at the entrance to the medical center.
"This Eira girl, is this someone completely different from who you believe to be in the forest?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Things seem to be going a bit differently from before, probably why we didn't meet her."
"And these dreams, they seem a bit out of the ordinary?" Amiel added. "How did you describe them? Peaceful, almost divine?"
"Exactly," Eirian replied once more.
Amiel turned toward me, "If we believe this whole idea of reliving a week, the last thing that happened was that dream, could that be the reason he remembers things and we don't?"
I placed my hands on my chin, staring at the ground, as if to think of something, "Might be... fuck, all of this doesn't make sense." I can't help but place my hands on my temples. As I turned to Eirian, I asked, "What seems to trigger these dreams of yours?"
"I don't know, sometimes it just happens, although there is a voice that tags along with the dream, usually. They would repeat a phrase. What was it? 'Remember me." Yes, they would repeat that."
"Remember them? Remember who?" Said Amiel.
"Who knows? To be honest, I only thought of these dreams as nightmares up until now." As hope felt lost, something came to mind for Eirian. "Wait! I do remember something else." He reached for his coat, dug in his pocket, and pulled out a book—the officer's book. Slamming it on the counter, where we were all gathered around, he pointed to the star-like crest at the center of the book. "In my dream, there was this star that stood on the altar, along with some words. What were the words? Think dammit. Oh! 'Offerre, et accipies virtutem,' the words on the altar were 'Offerre, et accipies virtutem.' The same type of writing I saw on the altar was in this book."
"Offerre, et accipies virtutem?" Amiel questioned. "What does that even mean?"
"'Oferre,' it sounds like offer, maybe to offer something?" I added, "As for the rest, your guess is as good as mine." Getting up from the counter, I stretched after sitting for so long. "Look, this is good, we have something to go off of." I can see Eirian's eyes light up after hearing someone believe him. Not letting this go to his head, I added, "but this is still a stretch, so what we will do tomorrow is search for this girl, Eira, was it? Maybe finding her, if she does exist," I said in a quieter tone, "can help us. This would also lead us to believing this tale of regressing a bit more."
A weird silence takes up the room.
"Thank you." I turned to find Eirian with a smile on his face after not seeing one for a long time.
"Amiel, is this fine with you?"
"Not like I can go anywhere, as long as we get out of here, as soon as possible, that's fine. But if after a day of searching we don't find her, we move on from the idea of regressing a week and try searching for other clues. I don't want to waste my time here on a crazy 'past life' that might not even exist."
Eirian replying before I could, said, "That's fine."