The Black

Six

She had no idea who she was, she knew she was a girl, but her life had been one of pain and confusion. She knew that the pain had been ongoing for a long time, but how long she did not know. Suddenly she had some clarity. She could remember some of her life, a little girl on the farm. She was the pride of her family, the youngest daughter, she was exempt from the tax, so she would be with the family for her entire life. She remembered playing, taking care of the animals as she grew older, her parents so proud of her. She remembered her brother being removed while she still barely knew him. Then a sister, who was so pretty, and everyone had said she was.

She remembered going to school for the four years allowed, being with the other kids. But she was soon ten years old and had to work. As a last child she had been promised to the much wealthier family down the road. They were exempt from the tax due to a grandfather who had done something. She did not really know, or at least at this point remember, which made her mad. She felt something else though.

There was a voice, a small voice, not overwhelming, but she felt it could be so she needed to listen. It was telling her something. She felt more than saw the man with the voice, and he was telling her how to take hold of something. She looked for what he described, but the pull of memory and what her life was like kept pulling her back. She was then being taken to the testing center, it was required for all children, no matter if the tax took them or not.

She was then looking at what appeared to be a rope, or strand of cloth, or something like that. The voice told her to take hold of it, and she did. When she did she felt much better, he then told her how to hold it, how to tie it to her, and how to make sure that it was a part of her all the time.

With the taking of the rope, she felt much better, and the fragmented memory suddenly hit her full bore. She almost let go of the rope, but somehow the man helped her hold on to it. She then knew about the test, and she was then taken from her family even though she was exempt.

She felt the voice again, it was telling her how to do things. To access the rope for stable thought, then to access her inner strength for doing something that he wanted her to do. She was tired now, it was hard to think at this point. She had been so confused and in so much pain for so long, this was hard to do. Somehow the man felt that, he showed her how to tether the rope to her, so that she could then go to sleep. She did what he told her, tried it and when she started to drift off it remained a part of her, she was happy, the man clearly was happy, he told her how good she had done, and he told her that she needed the rest, as she had not gotten any real rest for so long. She knew that, and slowly drifted into blessed night, she did not dream at all for once.

The Bridge of the ship was the same as it had been before the battle. The man however was not, he seemed to have aged twenty years, he had lines on his face, and his eyes were somewhat sunken. Right now his eyes were closed and he looked to be asleep. His hand rested on the arm of the chair where the power had come from, but there was no power flowing, that was clear enough. His hand just rested there for some reason. If someone had been watching him they would have seen the wrinkles slowly receding, it was like he was aging in reverse.

His eyes started to open and the girl with the old fashioned clothing was beside him. He looked around, and the girl said, "She is stable, resting now."

He replied, "I know, it was not as easy as I remember."

"It never is with you. It has been a long time since you had to do that, and when you did before it was not with someone who had been drugged for what has to be years," the girl replied.

"I know that too, but it just always seems to be easier when I go back over those memories," he laughed a little. In fact all of the memories seem to be easier than I believe they were then."