Harm and Harmony

-Chapter 58-

Day: 42

Days Left: 5438

Lives Saved: 0

After Harmony had placed the wisp back down into the basement, she climbed upstairs to see Corinna sat in front of the fireplace, the fire giving her face a warm glow. The young woman glanced back at the chimaera and smiled before focusing back on her white notebook.

"I'm just going through what I've written," she said. "I left my notebook when we went outside. I..." She paused. "I started to forget things."

"It is impressive that you have held onto a lot of your memories this far along." Harmony sat down beside Corinna in front of the fire. "But I think you're trying to remember too much."

"But I'm only trying to remember my family, that's not much, right?" She sighed, staring down at the numerous pages of memories. "I probably should have written down something more useful."

The chimaera shook her head. "You won't forget any skills or knowledge. You'll just forget where you've learned it from."

Corinna smiled. "Good. That's... something."

"But..." Harmony hesitated. "I would imagine that having some memories, good memories, happy ones, that will help you to survive, help you to keep going." 

Resting her head on her knees, Corinna gazed back at the chimaera sideways. Harmony saw something in her eyes, something kind, gentle, calm, but she was uncertain whether it happiness or sadness.

"What keeps you going, then?" Corinna asked. "Your goal to kill the queen?"

Harmony looked away, her body sat stiff and upright. "If you don't have a goal of some kind down here, you'll go crazy. Even if it's unachievable or if it is simply waiting for your sentence to end, having something to focus on..." Her voice trailed away, distracted by something else.

Corinna nodded. "Then I suppose my goal is to wait for my sentence to finish. Once it's over, I can see my family again..." She then said something which Harmony could not hear which the chimaera theorised was due to the binding spell on her wrist.

"Your family must be very important to you," said Harmony.

Corinna grinned. "Yeah!" She looked down at her white notebook. "Very important..."

To Harmony's surprise, Corinna shuffled closer to her, to the point where their shoulders brushed against each other. Showing her notebook, the young woman talked through her family tree, introducing her relatives to the chimaera in extraordinary detail. The tree was very elaborate with every relative's birthday and middle name.

Harmony counted how many members of Corinna's family was on it. There were at least ninety relatives on the tree. Corinna had seven siblings, and even that by itself would be considered a large family. But this was...

"So, yeah!" The young woman grinned. "That's my family."

"Your family is like a cult."

"We're not a cult." Corinna smirked.

"You're in a cult," Harmony repeated.

Corinna frowned, no longer finding the joke funny. "We just have a big family, that's all."

Harmony sighed, her face scrunching up as she realised how difficult this would be for Corinna to hear. "This is too many people. You won't be able to remember everyone."

The young woman's smile faded, and she lowered her head. "So, what should I do? I don't want to forget anyone."

"I would say four or five people would be a realistic number."