Clockwork Girl

Chapter Six: Memory Orbs

FIVE YEARS LATER

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You know, dying is easy, almost a mercy. I don't remember much after I hit my head, but they told me in the recovery area that I had been at the foothills of the Red Mountains, curled in a ball. No one was able to find me. Many people, including Gods, were looking for me.

But, it was someone unexpected and in a way that should have been impossible, that did.

She sat in in the chair next to mine, asleep, jaw agape. She was the first thing I saw when I woke. Long silver hair with fine features, the length of her arms covered in delicate artwork depicting stars and all manners of flowers. They looked like watercolors, only permanent.

When I pushed myself to sit up, I could hear the rushing of footsteps outside the door of the incredibly white room I was in. The door pushed open, four people entering all at once, startling the sleeping girl in the chair, one even ushering her out.

"Wait! Is she okay? Did you tell Anisse?"

No one answered her. All eyes were on me. Questions about how I felt, if was hungry, hurting, disoriented flew at me. They could hardly wait for an answer before firing off the next. Thankfully, I kept up until the door flew open and a pair of strong hands pushed past the four...doctors?...that were very intent to examine me.

"Aisha..."

A tall woman, very beautiful with long black hair and skin as white as snow cream, stared at me. I couldn't recognize her. She seemed sad about that for a moment, but then she smiled when she saw I was confused.

"We will travel to get your memory back from the naiad as soon as you are better," she said, moving to the chair the tattooed girl sat in. "It is a long trip but..."

"Queen Anisse, please, are need to evaluate her to make sure she is properly healed and fit," a tall elven boy with a neat blonde braid told the lady...my mother...my mother!

"Fine, fine, Tep," she nodded. "Make it quick. Don't overwhelm her."

Tep looked back to me and read off the machines numbers to the other three. They looked significantly younger than even him, maybe 10 or 11. Then again, I am sure I looked to them like a kid, too.

"Aisha, you will be fine, but we are going to slowly get you ready for release," Tep said directly to me. "There is a lot you will have to learn about, but your mother assures me that you are a quick study. After the initial 24 hour waiting period, and there are no other issues, I will sign for your release."

I thanked him and, with his troop behind him, walked from the room.

My mother, on the other hand, only scooted the chair she sat in closer to me upon their exit.

"Why didn't you make it to Woodsvale? I don't even understand how you got to the Red Mountains. And, is it any wonder no one could find you all this time? You had your Silence ring on. I supposed, in hindsight, it was needed, but it certainly did recovery no favors."

"I did make it to Woodsvale," I told her. "I just...I didn't know what I was supposed to do there or where to go. Ruse found me and he said he was taking me home."

"Who is Ruse?"

I waited for a smile, a little tell that she was joking. None came.

"He was the person you sent to find me and bring me home. Did something happen to your memory, too?"

"Aisha...I don't know anyone with such an odd name and if I were going to have someone come find you, it would be a sentinel, not...whatever a Ruse is."

Well...crap.

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My mother, Queen as it is, could not stay the entire time with me. She did leave me with a device called a Portal in order to browse around and learn about the world around me. There is a great deal of technology here, stuff I didn't see when I was in Woodsvale. But, I used it nonetheless.

I learned the place I was being kept was called The Dragon's Eye. The formation of it was originally to be a group of kids that trained up to be serious dungeon and monster raids. A lot of the kids are swordsman, marksmen. But they do have personal healers like Tep, growers like this boy called Percy, spell writers like Pan and Aria. All of the kids are around my age, too. Not sure how to feel about that one.

When it came time for my release, my mother did as she promised me, and took me on a long journey (to me anyway) to retrieve my memories. It was a trek through Mythos, down to the sea, full of beautiful naiad that I just could not believe could be real.

One asked my name and I correctly answered. Then, and there, on the white sandbank, the naiad guarding the orb full of my memories handed them over to me.

"Be well, Aisha," she smiled. "Safe journeys back to Krast."

The trek back was just as long and I kept turning the memory orb over and over in my hands. What if the memories were bad? What if I was a spoiled brat of a princess? What if I had done really cool things like smoke good leaf with someone? Or even alone? What if...there were a lot of those.

My mother must have noticed because she told me, "You can decide if you want them back, but whatever you choose, it's not going to erase the new memories that you have created for yourself. How did you survive? Did you? You must have if you made it to Woodsvale and then died thousands of miles away..."

"I learned how to be a fisherman," I told her. "I would catch all kinds and sell them. It was easy to be good at it, too. No matter what I caught, it would sell."

"Very enterprising," she grinned. "But, you were to go to the castle. We both know it was impossible to leave you any kind of memory or instructions in case you were caught by Smaud."

Smaud, I had found out through a Portal search, was the high lord of necromancers, the one they all answered to. Not that it mattered much now. A great deal of searches returned that a person by the name of Moya Briggs, stand in Queen of Easter for all of two hours, made the executive decision to use a sophisticated targeting system to target each individual necromancer on the planet. In one push of a button, those necromancers were ejected from the planet with a swift trajectory toward the sun.

I saw a picture of her; the silver haired girl asleep on the chair when I woke up. Only in the pictures she was dressed well in a fancy dress, her hair braided, and a mischievous grin on her face. Her father, Lord Briggs of Woodsvale, at her side.

"Why should I have gone to the castle," I finally asked.

"Queen Cynthia would have protected you and the World Trade Alliance would have been created," she says as if I should know this without absorbing my memories. "It would have been simple. You get to the castle, tell her that we needed the help, she sends it, you marry Elion, and then the council would go as planned."

"What? Why would I have to get married to someone for that? Was he already my boyfriend?"

"No," she huffs in a way that tells me she wants to laugh, but cannot. "He was arranged for you."