“What does it mean, Gabriel? To break a mind?” Amidst the swirling fractals of the Kaleidoscope, Raphael waited for a response.

  Gabriel looked away, his dark green eyes softening into sadness. “When a mind breaks, a universe shatters,” he replied. “All memories set aflame. All goals forgotten. Unable to make sense of the past or even imagine a possible future because the present is as infinite shards of broken glass.”

  Raphael watched but said nothing, leaving only the sound of the vortex, like crystals colliding softly in the distance.

  “All connections in life,” Gabriel went on, “by love or by hate, become devoid of meaning. Family, friends, even the world itself! As though reality simply should not be.”

  “Well then, answer me this, brother,” Raphael spoke, having gathered himself. “As I’ve watched a great many suffer the earthly miseries. Is it truly worse than death?”

  Gabriel nodded, brushing back a lock of fair colored hair. “A mind-breaking is far worse.” He answered. “Death is bound by rules. But to a broken mind? Rules do not hold. Nothing is solid anymore. Nothing…real.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Truly,” Raphael agreed. His steely eyes piercing amidst the alternating shadows. “Though I do believe there is a human trauma that equals what you describe. Something just as confusing and no less painful.”

  Gabriel glanced at the lenses to his left, witnesses to a living ocean of memory.

  “The moment of birth,” Raphael explained. “One who has lost the ability to process reality is like a newborn baby, crying out in confusion. The cold touch of a stranger, their only comfort. It is the truth of their kind that the most traumatic experience all mortals face isn’t dying; it’s being born.”

  It was then that Gabriel recognized his friend had been building to something important. He urged him on. “You have my attention, brother. I see. What troubles you?”

  Raphael stared into the fractal mass, his own image mirrored back at him in pieces. He sighed and answered.

  “As we stand here speaking now, there is a man in Athens, Ohio, whose mind was broken. Weeks ago, in fact. Yet, somehow, he remains alive and functioning.” He paused, giving Gabriel a moment to process.

  “The cries of his wife were so filled with anguish that I couldn’t have ignored them, if I’d tried.”

  Neither spoke as reflected light shone all around.

  “Now,” Raphael continued, “I have observed them both through the Kaleidoscope, as I have many before. But there is a uniqueness to these two. And I need you to look with me, so that we can determine, together, exactly what is happening.”

  The heaviness hanging on every word was a weight both warriors felt. And Gabriel stood silent as his brother-in-arms finished with a warning.

  “I believe something important, something… dangerous, is being born.”