The memory started playing.

From the looks of it, it was a simple one. Princess Orchid walking in a garden, a tall man by her side. The garden was similar to the one in the palace, one that Anna knew by heart due to how many times she’d had tea with the queen in them.

"You should take a break from work, my chaos. We could visit the South. Deryn has uncovered a new research about the Old World. We can attend his lecture." The man said in a familiar voice.

Drax.

He looked softer around the edges of his face, although his dual colored eyes still held the seductive charm Anna recognized from the previous memories, he looked happy. Content. His long hair was tied into a messy braid, and his clothes were simple— a blue silk shirt and dark pants and boots. He looked elegant and very handsome.

Together, the pair was a striking one. Princess Orchid in her regal clothes and silver hair and jewels, and Drax in a simple but tasteful outfit.

They walked side by side, their shoulders lightly brushing.

It was the one time Anna saw Princess Orchid relaxed in her memories so far.

"The South? I don’t like visiting often. Their worship is dreadfully boring."

Drax laughed. A mellow, silky sound. "You’re the first person I’ve met who hates being worshipped. Why is that?"

"No particular reason. And Deryn is such a bore. He prefers to talk and talk about books but he’s never step foot in a lab. He’d never understand anything."

A light drizzle started. Princess Orchid glared at the sky with eyes so icy the rain would have frozen into pellets of ice.

"Easy now," Drax purred, lacing his fingers with hers. She looked away from the clouds and met his eyes. "We’ll go to the South. In three days, deal?"

"What exactly do you want to do in the south?"

"Spend time with my lovely wife? Is that too little to ask?" He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her knuckles. One after the other. Each kiss lasting a little longer than the previous one. His eyes never strayed from hers. "What do you say to that, my chaos?" He murmured, his eyes shining with an ulterior motive.

"I suppose I’d need Deryn’s new research. It could be the final piece of the puzzle for my project."

"The Assistant project ?"

Princess Orchid smiled. A real smile. "You remembered."

Drax straightened, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand delicately, like he was stroking the petals of a flower and was too scared to bruise it.

"I remember everything you tell me, my chaos. Have you given it a name yet?" He pulled her flush against him, gazing down at her with a soft expression.

"You pick one. I’m not the best at naming things."

"Leila."

She laughed. "You didn’t even pause to think...Leila? You don’t mean..."

Drax’s eyes softened even more. His hand on the small of her back came to rest on her stomach. "Yes. It’s poetic, don’t you think? Naming your little assistant after our daughter?"

The memory ended.

AI Orchid’s angry sigh brought Anna back to the present. "No. No. Fucking no! Where is that stupid—"

Before Anna could speak, another memory began playing.

And another.

And another.

And another.

Anna didn’t know where she began and where the real Orchid began.

As the memories played, something inside her began to blur. Something deeply fundamental to her sanity, something she had held onto every single day since she came into this cursed world.

She lost count of the memories.

Deep down, she knew that the System or AI Orchid, one of them, was punishing her. There was no alternative explanation for forcing so many heartless and downright cruel memories on her at once.

By the time the memory containing fixing the detectors came along, Anna felt like her consciousness had been put in a blender and reduced to brain goop.

She had no idea how much time passed.

At one point, didn’t even know where she was.

She stopped fighting. The memory went on for what felt like an eternity.

I’m going to die. Anna’s thoughts echoed the same sentence.

I’m.

Going.

To.

Die.

****

The next time she opened her eyes, silence was the first thing she registered.

Then a warm hand stroking through her hair.

Then something hard and warm...but also soft under her head.

The thing moved, and a voice came from above her. "Your highness? Are you awake?"

For three seconds, she was completely out of it. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked above her. A handsome face came into view, soft features framed with dazzling golden hair.

Golden hair. Green eyes. A perpetually glib smile.

Anna gasped and shot upright.

A wave of dizziness knocked into her, causing her to groan and grab a hold of her head. "Fuck..."

"Have some water, your highness."

Anna’s head turned around slowly, like a malfunctioning robot, till she glanced at him.

It took one second for everything to fall into place.

"Was I laying on your lap?" She asked, her voice cold and merciless.

"Yes." He replied, either oblivious to her anger or deciding not to care about it.

Anna sighed. "Look, Tristan, what on Gods beautiful earth made you think it was okay to do that?! What the fuck is your problem?! I’m married, okay? Married!"

Tristan blinked, confusion on his face.

Anna found it weird. Like someone had taken one look at a picture labeled "confusion" and perfectly replicated the look but without the emotion.

"I didn’t mean anything by it, your highness. The General tasked me with looking after you until you awoke. Matter of fact, no one else agreed to do so. They were all terrified you’d wake up and take their heads and...I understand why."

Hot white shame rushed through Anna’s body. The heat crept up her chest and settled in her forehead. The pain throbbed through her skull before radiating down her entire body.

He was just following orders...I’m the one that thought something else.

"Fuck." She hissed. "Still, it’s weird as fuck. I don’t like that."

"My apologies. The bench was hard and I thought you’d appreciate a softer surface. I wish I had a pillow, that would have been more comfortable."

Anna grabbed the detector and reached for the toolbox. He quickly pulled it closer and held it out for her. He looked excited, like a puppy playing fetch with its favorite owner.

"You don’t have to do that." Anna said as she took the toolbox from him. "I’m awake now. You can go join the others."

"I can’t do that."

Anna opened the box and took out a screwdriver-looking tool that had a magnet at its tip. The information from the memory flowed into her mind, almost like magic. Like she’d downloaded it as a .ppt and was watching it play out in full time. Her hands moved automatically as she began dismantling the detector.

"I don’t need a bodyguard." She scoffed. He held out the water bottle over her shoulder. Anna contemplated for two seconds, wondering if it was poisoned. She decided that he won’t be so stupid to attempt that, not with Leon and a bunch of soldiers mere feet away. So she took the water and drank it.

"I’m not a bodyguard. My orders were to watch over you, destroy any threats, and escort you to the settlement once the detector was fixed."

Anna hummed absent-mindedly. "Do you always talk this way?"

"What way, your highness?"

Anna turned to him. "Like you swallowed a dictionary."

Tristan laughed.

Anna blinked, surprised at the sound.

"My apologies," he said with a smile.

Anna shook her head and went back to her task.

In five minutes, the detector was back online.

It was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. There was no circuit board inside, just a mass of glass tube wires and tiny glowing stones. The outside was plastic, but it didn’t feel like plastic Anna was used to. Anna was curious about the tech and how Princess Orchid engineered it.

Then all the memories rushed to her mind and her stomach twisted in on itself.

She swallowed bile, reminding herself of her current task. Help the settlement. Then figure out a way to avoid the System’s task, or work around it somehow.

"All done." She announced, rising to her feet.

Tristan moved wordlessly, packing away her tools and cleaning the space up in less than thirty seconds. Anna swallowed her comments.

He’s just doing his job. Nothing to see here. Absolutely nothing weird.

They walked out of the car. A few feet away, the detector began to beep.

Urgent quick beeps going off one after the other. She glanced at the screen, a frown etched on her brow. Patterns displayed on the screen, all manner of lines and curves and dots.

Anna didn’t have enough information or original memories to know how to read it, but she knew that something was wrong.