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The first time Aulus mal Asina experienced an Echo vision he didn't recognise it as such until much later. It happened after he had gone to bed, so at the time it simply felt like a nightmare that was more intense than usual.
He found himself in a city he didn't know but which felt familiar for some reason. Tall buildings stretched up towards the sky, far larger than even the skyscrapers of Garlemald, but unlike his home there was no metal to be seen anywhere in their construction.
What happened then was what turned this odd dream into a nightmare.
As he gazed up past the buildings he saw the sky turn a dark red before his eyes. Clouds gathered and meteors began to fall, tracing bright streaks across that inky backdrop. Looking back down at the street, people were running, shouting, screaming to each other.
And then came the monsters.
Out of nowhere they started to appear. Horrible beasts the likes of which he'd never seen before, not even in nightmares. They rampaged through the city, leaving utter destruction in their wake. He wanted to run. But where would he run to? He didn't know this place. Where would be safe?
"Asklepios! Over here!"
He turned at the use of his name and saw a robed figure waving him over to a narrow side street. His name? No, his name was Aulus. Who was Asklepios?
"Quickly!"
He dashed over to the man and took his hand. He knew him. Hephaestus. How did he know his name? Before he could dwell on it, the man dragged him down between the buildings and a pile of rubble fell behind them, blocking their way back. Hephaestus paused to catch his breath, then pulled him into a tight embrace.
"Where wert thou? I thought..." he heard himself say, not recognising the voice or the cadence of speech.
"I'm here now, aren't I?"
"As you already know, experiences imprint upon the soul — the incorporeal aether — of those who live them," Emet-Selch explained. "Once that person dies, their soul returns to the aetherial sea and that imprint is washed away. However, some memories leave a mark so deep that even this process cannot remove it."
"So what you're saying is..." Aulus began. It was all starting to make sense now.
"The memory of the Final Days left scars on our souls that millennia of death and rebirth have failed to remove."
"That's what I saw...?"
"Yes," he said, frowning. "Thanks to your artificial Echo." There was a pause. Aulus knew Emet-Selch hadn't approved of him giving that power to himself. Foolishly, he'd thought his concerns had been overblown but he was now finding out that he was right. He'd been having visions with unnerving regularity. He'd also been losing time — suddenly blacking out while working and only coming back hours later with no idea of what he'd been doing. The visions were always the same — a city, robed figures, a meteor shower, and horrific beasts. The Final Days, as Emet-Selch had called it. But there were other details that interested him. In every one of these visions he seemed to embody this man called Asklepios. Could he have been the complete and unsundered soul that he was just one fragment of?
"Did you know a man named Asklepios?"
Emet-Selch gave him an odd look then, his eyes narrowing. "I was wondering when you would ask me about that."
"So you did know him?"
"Yes. Your souls share the same colour." He knew what this was Emet-Selch-code for. He was right. This man was who his soul had originally belonged to.
"What was he like...?"
Emet-Selch smiled faintly, reminiscing. "An awful lot like you."