Something Wicked This Way Comes

Chapter 4

Antigone hated waiting. She'd always hated it, even if she didn't remember why she hated it. She just knew she did.

Douxie scolding her hadn't been very fun either. He'd looked so much like... someone she used to know. She couldn't quite remember their face, or even their name. But Douxie had very much sparked something like a memory. She also knew she missed whoever it was that she couldn't remember.

There was so much beneath the surface, so much she could almost remember, but it always slipped away before she could hold onto it. She hated this.

Strickler, the winged green troll who she'd met a few hours earlier, was waiting with her in this "gymnasium". He'd said he was the divine king's father, but they really looked nothing alike. Well, she wasn't one to judge families on what they looked like. After all, hers was-

Antigone frowned. That memory had been right there, but as soon as she'd tried to focus on it, it disappeared.

"Are you alright?" Strickler asked, looking concerned.

"Yes," she said with a sigh. "It's just... Douxie reminds me of someone. I just can't put a face to who it is. I know they're important, but..."

"Your memories may come back with time," the green troll suggested. "After all, if the master wizard's speculations are to be believed, you've been dead for a very long time."

Antigone huffed. "What I can't figure out is why I'm back? I don't... feel dead."

"There are many strange powers in this world," Strickler said. "Beings we can't even begin to comprehend. There are a great many things that could have brought you back."

She frowned, picking at the pleats in her skirt. Whatever was blocking her memories still allowed her to remember some things. Like how different everything was in the twenty-first century compared to Athens two-thousand years ago. She could still recall the smell of the olive trees in the summer sun, and the way the dirt felt under her bare feet when she ran. So, she did know she was from a different time, she just couldn't remember anything specific. It sucked.

"If I may speculate?" Strickler asked.

Antigone looked up at him, brow raised. "About what?"

"You."

Slowly, she nodded. "Sure."

"I do believe you were born a very long time ago," he said. "Your dress, name, and first language are all dead giveaways. Your accent is distinctly Grecian in nature. Athenian, more specifically. And you're a wizard who clearly is not shy about using your magic."

Antigone stared at him blankly. "And what does this tell you?"

"That you're from Athens, Greece during a time where the gods were highly active. You lived in the heart of Grecian magic, yet you're familiar with the Arcane moreso, so I don't think you're a Greek half-blood, nor an ex-deceased follower of Hecate. Whoever taught you magic would have been familiar with the Arcanum, so they wouldn't have been a native of Greece." Strickler stated all of these things like they were facts, not mere speculations. "A parent, perhaps. But whether it was your father or mother I can't say."

Antigone pursed her lips, scuffing her leather sandal's heel against the cold metal of the bleachers they sat on. "I hate not remembering anything about my life before. I'm sure that there's something I know, but have forgotten, that could help you all."

Strickler sighed, gently patting her shoulder. "Don't stress yourself out trying to remember. I've always found it's better to focus on the here and now.