The Starry Maiden

Dizzy Daydreams

Astraea

The Memory Corridor is gone...

And... This scent... I know it. It's familiar to me... But where do I know it from?

It's like... A spice market.

There is a voice too, with each second it sounds less distant.

"I still don't understand why they would just have her in the Memory Corridor... What could they have wanted?" The voice, I know as well, but the voice and the scent aren't from the same person.

I pull my eyes open and meet a pair of glacial turquoise eyes looking down at me.

These eyes... It's been too long...

"Yusuf..." He gives a full and stunning smile as I say his name. He has set me down on the steps leading out of the tank and is sitting with me holding me upright with on hand behind me on my waist.

I try to bring my hand up to his face, but my body won't listen to me. A rush of memory comes to me, as I remember how I spent the last while of my life. I try again to hold his face in my hand, but I only manage a pitiful twitch, then as though he were reading my mind he takes my mind and moves it to his face for me. After a quick test to make sure that I can at least hold my hand up, he places his hand on my cheek. Feeling the warmth of his hand there I can't help but press my face against his hand. The sensation of his hand there brings a flood of memories and emotions and I just close my eyes hoping that this is all real.

"My Light... I..."

"I know, Najmay." I open my eyes to see his lips widen into loving smile that melts all of my anxieties away for a moment before I hear the voice of my brother speaking.

"But I just don't get it. If they had wanted to torture her for information there are hundreds of other ways to do that. And if they wanted to turn her to their side why stick her in some containment tank like a science experiment? And then, why the Memory Corridor? Surely studying her could have been done with her simply unconscious." Zephyr rants out all of his questions in a string of continuous talking without leaving any breath space for someone to answer at all. There is a strain to his voice. I look behind me at the tank. They would have entered the room and seen me inside the tank... I imagine that is why he sounds as though he is holding back a surging rage.

"They... They wanted to pry my memories out... They've been drugging me so that my mind would be manipulable. So that they could view my memories through the Memory Corridor..." I say as loudly as my voice will allow; I feel completely drained. My entire body aches and I can barely keep my eyes open. I try to slowly lower my hand but instead it simply slumps to my lap as I attempt to turn and fully face Zeph. Luckily, Yusuf is still on his mind reading streak and helps me turn to see my brother.

"Is that even possible? I thought that the Corridor was meant as an in-between to help ease people into the memories..." Zephyr exclaims perplexedly.

"I suppose if there were no memories loaded then it would just show whatever happened to come across the mind of the person inside the Corridor..." I hear the voice coming from near Yusuf's ear.

"Rebecca?" I say towards the comm link I now see in Yusuf's ear, "My, aren't you just settling right into the shoes of a modern Assassin?" I comment to Yusuf, my voice coming back to me little by little.

"I find myself both surprised and not surprised at the same time that you can hear me..." Rebecca's voice says over the link, "Through a comm link in another person's ear... That should only be barely loud enough for them to hear..."

"It's definitely not easy to pull one over on this girl..." Yusuf jokes before chuckling like he always does.

"Rebecca?" I ask towards the earpiece.