Stars Of Our Lives

The Sorceress Minus The Stone

I was in a house.

A memory, I thought. No, not a memory. 

It was too real for a memory. It was another vision, like when Morgana had pulled me into her mind before.

The house was one I had never seen before. But the newspaper on the counter told me we were in Arcadia. The space was clean and homey. Modern and sleek.

"Ugh, come on."

I turned, seeing Claire sitting at the dining table. She was significantly smaller. Her face so much shorter and less mature. Her hands were void of scars and calluses. Her feet were kicking with boundless energy. The streak in her hair was bright blue again, not stark white.

She looked so innocent. Untouched.

I wondered how long it had been since I'd looked like that.

"Math is so stupid," She muttered to herself. There was a set of papers spread before her on the table, her little hands scrawling across them with a pencil.

"The common curse of mankind," She continued to mutter. "Folly and ignorance, be thy - no, thine - wait. What is it?"

Setting down her pencil she reached across the table to grab a small, thick book set there. The title read Troilus and Cressida in big letters. The name 'William Shakespeare' in bigger letters.

I knelt beside her small form, watching her thumb through the book. "Claire?" I said.

She didn't look over.

I waved my hand in front of her face, but she barely even flinched. Reaching up, I pushed two fingers against her shoulder, but felt not contact. No pressure. As if I wasn't truly there.

Maybe I wasn't.

"'The common cure of mankind'," She read. "'Folly and ignorance, be thine in revenue'. Be thine in revenue."

It made me smile a little. That after all she'd been through, while her body was being twisted and puppeteered, she was here. Doing math homework and quoting Shakespeare. She was home.

And as much as I wished she could've stayed like this, we had to go.

"Claire," I said it louder this time. "Can you hear me?"

"Ugh, why does Ms. Janeth always assign so much?"

I sighed. There had to be a way to talk to her, but if I wasn't even really here -

Wait a minute.

Claire, I said it to her mind this time. Can you hear me?

Ten year-old Claire jumped back from the table with a cry. She spun back on her heels, whirling around as she scanned the room. "Huh?"

It's me, Claire -

"The heck!" More spinning, her neck craning back as she looked for the source. "Who's there?"

It's Aja, Claire. Remember me? I'm your friend from Trollmarket.

Her face softened, a flicker of memory in her eyes. ". . . Trollmarket?"

With a deep breath, I pushed the rest of the way into her mind, breaking the seal locked around it.

When her head turned, her eyes landed on me. "Aja," She said.

I gave her an encouraging smile. She didn't smile back.

Her eyes ran over the room again, but instead of urgency, it was a mix of shock and heartache. "None of this is real."