MIND SHIFTER

Chapter 6:The Memory Projection

As promised, Karl had me doing concentration exercises for a few days. Chris was still on bed rest. I met him every day and we talked about classes and how he could get off his boredom. I asked him to start singing which he thought was a joke. I did not think about it like that. He was good at playing musical instruments too.
Anyways our punishment was put off for the time being as one of us could not work. I was super tired at the end of the day with all exercises Karl made me do. I was dreading his exercises.No one knew what happened to Chris, except a selected few. My friends thought he was down because of the flu. Lexie and Lucas were still in their invisible fight and I ignored them, most of the times. The theory classes were making me work to change physical aspects of objects which I did not find difficult now.
We got our first weekend off because of 1-month completion. Everyone was planning to do something on their days off. Apparently,we were in a different world because when Chris recovered, we had to start working.
I met him at the kitchens to find many dishes unclean, with food spilled everywhere.
"LET'S get this party started.”
We worked straight for 3 hours and got it all tidied up.
After eating lunch, we went towards gardens. I swept all dried leaves while Chris tended the plants. It took me a solid 2 hours. I was happy when it was done.
I was resting when the sky darkened and the wind started howling.
The ground was once again covered in leaves and all dirt blowing up from everywhere.
"Seriously.i just cleaned."I shouted in disbelief.
Chris started cracking up on seeing me.
"It's not funny. I have to clean again."
"You gotta admit this is funny."
I stepped towards the gate of garden and banged my foot on a rock. Just my luck.
It was a pebble. It was weird looking. Ignoring my pain, I crouched low and inspected it. It was white and seemed like others but something made me focus on it. I did not know why I could not leave it there. I picked up and called Chris.
"What's that?"
"I think it's a rock but I don't know, it feels weird to me."
"Let me touch it."
As soon as he touched it, a surge of energy went through me. When I opened my eyes, something felt different. The trees were different. And the environment was ghastly. I found Chris by my side.
"What's happening, Chris?"
We then saw a lady walking towards us. She walked by us without paying any attention. Then a man came towards her.

"You know you are doing everything wrong. You have to let people use dark energy. Why do you want everyone doing lame magic? Changing colors stuff. We can control anyone."
"Don't you see Samey, people would not use it in kind. That kind of magic will only cause harm. Would you like someone controlling you, your actions?"
"I am saying people should not be kept ignorant. These things would revolutionize our world."
"Only because you are immune does not mean everyone has to suffer. You cannot be controlled. But you controlling someone, it goes against everything natural. Everyone has free will to do whatever they want. Yanking that away is a sin."
"You are always proper. I just want people to practice this stuff.it could come in handy."
"I know what you are trying and it is not working on me. You want your own secret army who would follow your commands to death. It was one thing when we were young. Now, this is sickening. It's not happening Samey. If you so much as talk to someone about this, you will be banished."
She stormed inside leaving him alone. The man had an odd twinkle in his eye. He looked like a good person but listening to how he made her leave, I understood he was a maniac.
He leaned down, picked up a stone, stared at it and enclosed in his hands.

We were back to our present in a jolt.
"That was terrifying.what was IT?"
"I think it was like a truth stone which showed memory of a person."
"A Memory Stone. I have never heard of it."
"We need to research."
"What do you think of our encounter with Samey and Sameyra?"
"It was like a battle of wills. And looks like Sameyra had no patience in dealing with her brother. "
"You are right. We found things about them in such a short time. Twice.It does not feel like a coincidence anymore."
"You are right, Aria. This is not good."
"It looked like he had something major planned. And knowing him from whatever we just saw, it wouldn't be anything good."
"I hope everything changed or we would not be living in this kind of world, right?"
That question was in my mind, the whole dinner. My parents asked me if anything was wrong.
"I am just tired."
" We know we are being hard. But you are a princess. We want you ready for anything when you are crowned."
"I understand. It's nothing. I will be okay after I rest."
Sleep eluded me and I kept seeing the queen and her rebel brother. Why was he so bent upon using his power on others?
Did he want to rule and dethrone Sameyra?

The next morning found me tired,very tired. I got ready and went for breakfast. My parents commented that I looked no different from yesterday. I ate breakfast with them, chatting happily about everything. Then again, I worked with Chris and later, we sat in the garden exhausted.
"Are we going to talk about the Memory stone?"
"What's there to talk?"
"It's just that we never heard of It, Chris. We do not know how it is made, how it works or anything."
"I think it has the same mechanics of Truth stone. We infuse our energy so that the bearer tells the only truth. Truth stone focuses it's energy outside so the bearer is affected."
"And Memory stone must have energy focused inwards so it holds memory. It only makes us see what it contains. Then how did we enter the memory?"I asked.
"Who knows? Maybe it was made as if it could alter our perception. "
"You are right. If it is this case, then this is some advanced projection. That guy was really something and way more powerful."
"You are right. Then, how come, no-one ever sees this?"
"Anyone could have activated the stone. Or there is some kind of protection if we were only able to access it."
He took out the stone which was in a paper bag. He touched it. Nothing happened. I took it from him.Nothing.I concentrated for a long time.No change. Defeated, I gave him the stone back. He was frozen the moment he touched it. And once again we were trapped in the memory. This time I tried to see the things I missed out in the conversation. Like how,Sameyra was agitated.
When we were out, I understood how the stone worked. It needs a mind projector to activate it. And Chris is a mind reader allowed us to enter the memory.
We agreed on that. I wanted to give it a try. I picked up a pebble and imagined me working today. I focused those thoughts on the pebble and imagined projecting those thoughts into the stone. When I was done I gave Chris the pebble.
It worked. I took it from him to see for myself and I got nothing.
"I think it was a one-time thing. It did not need us both touching at the same time to work."
He observed."We need to work more then."I said dryly.
"Do it once again. You can make it powerful so that we can watch that memory again and protect it."
"I am tired now. Let's check if there is any kind of information in the library."
We checked many books without any result. I moved towards different sections and checked out rulers before my father.
I sat beside Chris."You would think there would be much information about Sameyra. But there is nothing I can find about her. Isn't this odd?"
"Are you sure? You could miss some book or books."
"You can try searching then."
"If you insist."
He came back an hour later with a frown on his face.
"What are your expedition results?"
"You are right. How come no one wrote anything about her? She was a good queen if that memory is to be believed. And only the royal palace talks about her. Do other citizens know about her?"
I shrugged. This was a mystery. After no conclusive results on both the queen and the elusive Memory stone, we decided to leave.
I ate dinner in my room as my parents were in a council meeting.
I decided to unwind myself by watching some movie. I found myself unable to concentrate due to recent events. I could not reach any conclusive results without all facts anyway.
I thought about how we did not have much information about Memory stones, the queen who was spoken as a distant memory and her forgotten brother. Did no one think about finding something about them? There should have been some information somewhere about them. These things were giving me a headache. There would be no harm in searching archives if there were any. As far as I knew, there were no relatable books in the main palace. Or in its vicinity.
There could be some books, by chance, in the main library. And the sad part was that it was closed. And even the princess had no access to this. Which meant I had to sneak without alerting any officials and most importantly my parents knowing what I planned. This could seriously end in heavy punishment and lecture, accusing looks from Chris who would certainly accompany me and get injured knowing my bad luck. I could ask someone to help. It would lead to questions being asked, then my mentor disapproving and finally my parents forbidding me. So, I decided, the sneaky plan was what I would go for.
I had to stop making dangerous plans.

Author's note:
Hey everyone :)
Thank you very much for reading.And a huge thank you for those who voted.I really appreciate it.
And if you liked this,please consider voting it and also commenting.