"Soul weapons are memories given form, structure, and weight. Stronger memories, good or bad, forge stronger weapons. First, choose a memory and hold it in your mind. Once you've chosen a memory, focus on every aspect of it. Every sensation and feeling. Feel how it impacts you, how it shaped you. Then, shape it in turn." Shiori stared at them expectantly, as if her brief explanation was all they needed.

Jun didn't think it was that simple. What made a memory stronger? Did it have to be one of the ones she lived through in her Trial? All of those memories were fresh in her mind and evoked powerful emotions. Choosing one, she held it in her mind. The way Brad's voice sounded. The smell of the cafeteria. The sensation of food covering her body. The emotions she'd felt then. Anger, sadness, and anxiety.

She thought about how she'd just withdrawn from people even more and tried to avoid attention. She wanted nothing more than to be a ghost, to avoid attention that might bring her more pain and humiliation, and it worked. She didn't have friends, except for Ash, and even then they rarely spoke while her friend dated Brad.

Holding onto the memory, she could feel it resonate deeply with her, could almost hear it whispering a form to her. She pictured a sword, jet black with jagged edges and spikes. Something clicked deep within, and opened her eyes to see the sword she pictured floating in front of her. The weapon was all jagged edges and jet black with just the faintest hint of red. Even more so, it radiated pain, anger, and malice. She could easily see the sword ripping through anything it met. Including herself. The blade was a forest of spikes that could not only stab her enemies, but herself. The grip was covered in tiny needles that would make it hurt to even hold. The embodiment of double-edged. Just picturing herself picking up the weapon in front of her sent a shiver of fear down her spine.

"What?!" Jun asked, but only silence greeted her. Looking around the room, she saw Shiori and Inari sitting in meditative positions with their eyes closed. Next to her, Sara and Cecilia did the same. Turning back to look at the weapon, Jun felt an overwhelming sense of curiosity. Was this a soul weapon? What would it feel like to grab it? It looked painful, but would it truly hurt her if it was just part of her soul? Jun started to reach for the weapon, only to hesitate and look at her mother.

"Shiori?" she called out expectantly, but her mother didn't move, almost as if she were frozen. As Jun looked closer though, she realized that Shiori wasn't just staying still, she wasn't breathing. Panic gripped her heart as her head whipped to Inari, only for it to squeeze harder when she saw that Inari too was still. Sara. Cecilia. Everyone but her was frozen. The only thing other than her that moved in the room was the sword she summoned subtly bobbing in the air. Was something attacking them? She needed to protect everyone! Screwing up her courage, Jun reached out for the weapon, ready for the needle-like barbs of the hilt to bite into her palm.

"Taking up that weapon would be a mistake." A voice called out from behind her as a simple barrier covered the weapon, blocking her before she could grab it.

Whirling around, Jun reached for her mana as she turned to confront the new voice. A smiling woman leaned over the back of the couch she'd been sitting on. Casually, the woman swiped an errant blue lock from her face, tucking it back behind her ear where it was lost in a mess of black hair. Vibrant green eyes looked at her, twinkling with amusement as Jun stared, dumbstruck. It was the woman she saw through Shiori's door. Caught off guard by the newcomer, Jun hesitated until she felt her mana rush to her call and started to pump the magic into her spells.

"Peace," the woman said, standing and stretching slowly before hopping gracefully over the couch to sit between the frozen forms of Sara and Cecilia, casually avoiding the snare Jun manifested behind her. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Jun ordered the snare to grab the woman from behind as she started to coalesce barriers all around her to block her escape. Like striking snakes, her snares lashed out from behind to wrap around the woman.

Her smile widening, the woman stood up as Jun's magic dispersed, her mana pulling out of her spells on their own and retreating back into her channels. "What?!" Jun reached out for her mana again as the woman took a step towards her, but it refused to respond. Thwack! Jun flinched as she felt a light flick in the middle of her forehead.

"You're still young and have much to learn," the woman said cheerily, her hand still held out where she flicked Jun. "Anyways! Like I said I'm not here to hurt you, but to help. Follow me!" Without waiting for her to respond, the strange woman casually turned her back and headed for one of the doors.

Hesitating, Jun looked at the strange woman's back and back to the savage looking sword. She tried to call her mana again, but it didn't respond, and whatever barrier stopped her earlier still covered the sword completely. Trying to shake Shiori and Inari did nothing, the two refusing to budge as if they were made of stone. Sara and Cecilia proved equally unresponsive. Looking at the door the strange woman went through, Jun shrugged. She already felt lost with what was going on and she couldn't think of anything else to do, so why not follow the strange, clearly powerful woman who seemed to know much more than her?

Jun expected to find the woman waiting for her outside the room, or at least a clear trail telling her where to go. Several hours of searching had her mentally kicking herself for that assumption.

Exploring the palace turned up room after empty room, strange objects that hurt to look at, let alone get near, and a distinct lack of people. She'd gotten lost dozens of times but always eventually managed to find her way back to the others, only to find no changes to them. She'd even tried dragging the others, but no matter what she did, she was unable to budge even a single hair on any of their heads.

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All the while, the sword she summoned sat behind a seemingly impenetrable barrier, one impervious to damage despite her hitting it with random things she'd found for an hour, and her magic frustratingly refused to respond no matter how many times she called it.

That just left searching.

As Jun searched, she lost track of time in the palace. Weirdly, she never got tired, nor did her body ever demand she find something to eat or drink. A relief because in all of her searching, she never once saw anything that looked edible. Not even a decorative fruit. Even the palace grounds seemed oddly barren, with pretty looking flowers, shrubs, and trees, but nothing that seemed like it would be food.

After what felt like days, or weeks, or perhaps only minutes, Jun had memorized the palace, and yet she still hadn't found a trace of the strange woman nor managed to do anything to free the others. On what felt like her thousandth search of the palace and grounds, she finally found something different. Wandering down a garden path, she passed by a shrub she'd found perhaps a hundred searches before, but noticed something different. A slight smudge of dirt and a branch ever so slightly out of place. Stopping before the bush, Jun crouched down to get a better look, and that's when she found it. A hidden path, one she hadn't traveled down before.

Excited, Jun pushed the branches of the bush aside and hurried down the winding path, tripping over roots and stray rocks from a path that was clearly never meant to be found. Brambles and whipping branches snagged at her clothes and blocked her way, but Jun ignored them and pushed on until her persistence brought her to a small clearing with a small camp. A single small tent stood at the edge of the clearing, while a cheerful looking campfire blazed unattended. Books, tools, and other odds and ends lay scattered about, giving the camp an air of comfortable messiness, but Jun's eyes snapped to the strange woman who sat next to the fire.

"Took you long enough, Jun," she said, not looking up from whatever she was doing.

Jun jumped at the sound of her name. "How do you know my name? Who are you? Why is everyone frozen? What's going on?" The questions tumbled out of her mouth in an excited jumble as she closed the distance to the denizen of the camp with hurried footsteps. A complex mix of emotions raged in her chest. Anger, fear, suspicion, but most importantly, curiosity.

The woman finally looked over her shoulder at Jun, her eyes like two gleaming emeralds that seemed to reflect the dancing light of the campfire. "Let's just say that I'm a friend. As for why everyone's frozen, that's on you. This is all in your head after all."

"All… in my head?"

Instead of answering, the woman stood up from the fire and motioned for her to follow. Remembering the last time she hesitated, Jun was quick to follow this time, falling in behind the strange woman as they left the camp. Jun expected to see more of the unkempt garden she pushed through, but the scenery seemed to shift around them with every step. Stepping off the packed soil of the garden, Jun's foot came down on powdery sun-baked sands, then another step found her slipping across packed ice as a stinging cold wind bit into her face. Ice became sucking mud tinged red with blood, then brine covered wood, cobblestones, asphalt, steel. Every step brought her to a new confusing scene that she didn't have time to fully understand before it changed again. The only constant was the strange woman she followed through the ever shifting landscape.

Finally, the woman came to a stop, and the landscape stopped shifting behind her. Jun stepped through ankle high grass, stopping next to the woman before a familiar looking stone monument. The sound of waves crashing against the cliffside below filled her ears. In the distance, Jun saw a strange wooden vessel floating above the wind-tossed waves as tiny figures scurried across its deck. Together with the unnamed woman, she watched in silence as the vessel slowly rose into the air until it was nothing but a speck against the clear blue sky, before it vanished into the distance.

"She still hasn't forgotten," the woman said with a sad smile, breaking the silence. "Memories are precious things that define us. Our souls are shaped by what we hold close, by what we choose to remember and allow to guide our actions. Some memories are happy, others bittersweet, still more hurt to hold onto. You can choose what defines you, so choose who you want to be, not who others tell you to be."

"What do you mean?" Jun asked, turning to look at the woman, only to find herself back in the room with the others, the brutal looking sword still floating in place. The sword seemed to call out to her, whispering of the power it would grant. She just needed to embrace her misery and then she would have the strength not only to prevent it from ever happening to her again, but to inflict it on those that deserved it. People like Brad. Bobby. Charles. Ivar. The thugs and slavers that attacked her. The nobles and everyone who had ever wronged her.

"You can choose what defines you, so choose who you want to be, not who others tell you to be."

The power to protect herself was enticing, but she didn't want to be shackled by her pain. She didn't want Brad to have power over her. Her pain already poisoned her past life. She didn't want it to keep poisoning her new one. Following her instincts, Jun pushed the sword and the memory that forged it away. As if the weapon were just a dream, it faded away as Jun felt something sharp and heavy disappear from deep within her chest. She took a deep breath, as if she were truly breathing for the first time, and looked around the room at those closest to her. Her eyes locked onto Shiori's frozen form, and a memory came to her.

A firm hand hugged her close, banishing the cold of winter with a warm embrace and just a few words. "I'm your mother." Three simple words, but they carried worlds of weight and meaning. Three simple words that made her feel truly accepted for who she is, not who she was expected to be. Simple, but powerful. A form came to mind. A pair of arms embracing her. A body standing before her and harm, keeping her safe.

A comforting weight settled on Jun's arm as she opened her eyes again. A shield sat strapped to her arm, but it wasn't the simple hunk of wood and steel she was used to. Instead, the shield was a pale bluish white oval covered in faint etchings that looked like they might be a cupped hand Short blades extended from the tips of the fingers, five in total, like claws that promised violence upon anyone that tried to harm what the shield protected.

As Jun looked at the strange shield, time started to flow again, and she looked up as Shiori opened her eyes, her mother's ears twitching as the catkin looked at the shield she held and smiled. "A beautiful soul weapon kitten."

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