The crowd looked at Athalia in shock. "She dares to speak so brazenly to the one the Magic 8-Ball chose?" they thought. Those who were further from the 8-Ball's range of effect looked at Athalia intently.
"All of you, listen to me for a moment. What has this man actually done that is amazing?"
"He brought light and gave us our shadows back," the crowd responded. "He brought an end to the chaos, darkness, and pain."
"No, he didn't. The Magic 8-Ball did all of that." Athalia turned to Azarias. "When you drew out the light and shadow and made those movements with your hands, how did you know what to do? You've just told us that you have essentially no idea what is going on, so that doesn't add up. It's clear to me that the 8-Ball was simply controlling you to spread its miracles, and you have no agency yourself, nor any real competence—you've been stumbling over your words and making strange expressions; it seems like your mind is unable to handle the 8-Ball's power. Now you ask us to trust you? So you can do what, exactly? After hearing that prophecy, you might have some importance, but how can we know your intentions are aligned with the Magic 8-Ball's?"
Azarias sighed. "You're right about the bringing of light and shadow earlier; it felt like I was in a trance. I only truly felt like myself by the time I started asking for names. As for the 8-Ball's prophecy about me, it barely makes any sense. I don't know what truth I'm supposed to tell you, or why that truth would make a great story. The part about three lives doesn't make sense either. Coming to a new world and starting over with new people could be called another life, even if it's not as much of a new life for me as it is for all of you. But that would only make it my second life. Why would it be my third?"
Athalia looked at the crowd again. "See? He doesn't know anything. Even if we come from Earth, his knowledge of Earth won't help us here. It could have been any of us that kept our memories."
Most of the crowd was still skeptical of Athalia. "Just because he doesn't know what's going on doesn't mean he isn't the subject of the prophecy, or that the prophecy isn't important. He is the Magic 8-Ball's vessel, and you can't forget the importance of that. If he shouldn't be the one to lead us, then who should?"
Athalia smiled. "He's not a vessel; he's just a wielder."
Before anyone could react, she dashed forward and snatched the 8-Ball out of Azarias's hands. She looked him in the eye as she stood face to face with him.
There was a gasp of shock. Then, the gazes which had looked upon Azarias with awe began to shift to Athalia, perhaps without them even realizing it.
Athalia triumphantly shook the 8-Ball in the air, then asked it a question. Writing about this after the fact, she got very lucky, since the success of this act depended on her accidentally figuring out the activation mechanism.
Her question was, "What are you?"
Text appeared on the blue triangle. "I am the Magic 8-Ball. I am not a living thing, but you can still ask me whatever you like."
"Are there any special requirements to asking a question?"
"Anyone can ask. Just shake me and say your question."
"Who is more important, you or Azarias?"
"…I am more important."
"Are you capable of lying?"
"I am not."
"Is Azarias capable of lying?"
"Yes, he is."
The crowd gasped. Athalia held the 8-Ball high as she walked away from Azarias. With the combined effect of the 8-Ball's direct influence and the answers to the questions Athalia had asked, almost everyone followed her, leaving only a small group. The ratio had been flipped.
Azarias didn't protest. He sighed and brushed the dust off his robe. "At least I'm not being swarmed; I can't stand having lots of people touching me."
I watched Athalia as she led the group to the other side of the plateau, away from the pile of bodies. She set the 8-Ball down in the center, removing her wielder's influence, and everyone started to take turns asking the orb questions.
The 8-Ball's influence seemed to have little effect on me. I was near Azarias and didn't feel the urge to go anywhere. This was a great time to interrogate him.
"What is your full name? Everyone else had a last name, and a few even remembered having three names—mine's Enza Peregrine Fenamore. How many do you have?"
"A last name carries the weight of multiple people. It's impersonal; if I ever give myself a last name, I want it all to myself. As for a middle name, it's conceptually impossible to have one if I don't have a last name."
"I thought you wanted to be a leader, someone who does indeed carry the weight of multiple people."
"Sure, but the group represented by a last name isn't the kind I want to lead. On Earth, last names are assigned by family; even if you're head of the family, you're symbolically a subsidiary of the last generation. If I manage to win the people over, maybe I'll take a last name that represents all of us; one that is built on effort rather than lineage."
I wondered where my own last name came from.
Who are my family members? Do they miss me right now? Maybe they saw me disappear right in front of their eyes.
Then, any worries for my family faded. I don't even know them, not anymore at least. Maybe this is cold to say, but why should I care, especially when my current situation is certainly more dire than just seeing someone you care about disappear?
I asked Azarias, who was drumming and tapping his fingers against his side, "What do you plan on doing next? How are you going to win them over?"
He replied in a quiet voice, "First, I have to hope the 8-Ball can't answer all their questions. If its knowledge of Earth matches or surpasses mine, I'll be useless to them. I imagine my status as the one the 8-Ball selected hasn't entirely lost its weight, but that might not be a good thing. They could see me as a threat instead of a resource. Unfortunately, all I can do to prove I'm telling the truth is talk, since there's no obvious way to contact Earth right now. There's a lot of them and only one of me, so if everyone stops trusting me and gets worse intentions, I can't defend myself."
"And what happens if you win them over?"
"Whatever this place is, I don't want to stay here. We're all going to get out of here."
"Why do you want to leave?"
"I have too much to go back to."
"What about the rest of us? We don't have any memories to care about."
"That's why I hope there's some kind of latent danger in this place that will force everyone to take the risk of trying to escape with me."
"That's rather honest…"
"What kind of person would lie?" he said while smiling lightly.
"If you care about your life on Earth so much, why not just leave on your own?"
"I have a feeling it won't be that easy. Even though we haven't explored this place yet, I bet everyone's efforts will be required."
"But you're not doing it for the sake of anyone else?"
"…
"Just me. Who knows, maybe when I get to know all of you, I'll start caring."
"What about the Magic 8-Ball's prophecy? It didn't say a word about leaving; it seems to have other plans for you."
"The prophecy is a big problem for me. It said that I would tell them the 'truth', but I don't know what the truth is. Maybe I should have acted more mysterious from the beginning in order to string them along towards escaping, with the promise of telling them the truth at the end. Bringing myself down to their level might have worked against me."
"You already used your first chance, but maybe you can put on a show of pretending you suddenly remembered the real truth, and then go through your plan of leading everyone on."
Azarias smirked. "Why are you giving me advice? What's your angle?"
"I'm just observing. I don't have a motivation, at least not yet. And I don't trust you; let's be clear about that. But I still feel like being over here… That person named Athalia seems kind of insane."
Azarias laughed. "Yeah…"
He cleared his throat. "But anyways, I don't think your advice will work unless I steal the 8-Ball back. And even if I do that, it'll probably get taken away again since there will always be people further from the range of effect."
"So you noticed the effect it has as well."
"Yeah; it seemed like I was having too easy of a time convincing them. Then the 8-Ball was taken from me, and I put two and two together."
"I have a suggestion for you."
"And what's that?"
"Show them another miracle."
"...What kind of miracle?"
"Not one from your memories, but one that exists in the present."
"And how should I go about that?"
I gestured toward the Chasm. "Look over there. Can't you sense all the unknown beauty?"
Azarias smiled. "This scenery looks kind of beautiful to me already, but yes, I can feel it. We should go explore, shouldn't we?"
I nodded. "But I'm not coming with you. I'd rather remain where it's safe."
"You're the one who had the idea. You're coming with me; I'm not giving you a choice."
He spun around to look at the others who remained on this side. "All of you here, what do you say we go exploring?"
The group looked at each other. Their expressions said, "Sure, why not."
He turned back to me, his expression saying, "If they're coming, why not you?"
I continued to protest as he dragged me by my wrist toward the edge of the canyon, with the others in tow.