Lost Identity: Eloria Series Book 1 | ✓

47: The Third Figure

7/26/3028

Ilta and Martin returned with their kill—three relatively small and underfed rodent-like animals. It certainly wasn't enough for us to be full, but at least our stomachs wouldn't be grumbling in the middle of the night.

When Martin caught my eye, I noticed that he walked with a confident swagger. Ilta must have filled him in on Elossai's sudden maturity. What a major ego boost.

"Hey," Martin said with a flirtatious wink.

I shook my head and let out a half-hearted chuckle. Okay, maybe I was slightly amused. "You wanna talk about something?" I feigned ignorance. Martin smirked, remaining silent. He wanted to let me suffer a little—his form of pay back for earlier. "Did she tell you?" I pried.

"Yeah," he answered, waggling his eyebrows. "I always knew I was smooth with the ladies, but I didn't know that I had an effect of that magnitude."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't flatter yourself. This is Eloria, and Elossai doesn't get out much."

"Hey, I can get plenty back home if I want to."

"That's what everyone says when they can't," I teased.

To be honest, Martin isn't a bad looking guy. He has many good qualities going for him and is funny, physically fit, and charming—sometimes. I just didn't want to further inflate his ego.

"Oh, really? What about that blond a month ago who came by the restaurant a few times a week?"

"Did you get her number?"

"I got more than just her number," he said with half-lidded eyes.

I cringed. "I don't want to know anymore."

"Alright, alright," he said, patting me on the shoulder to placate me. "I'm gonna go see what Elossai's up to."

"Don't talk to her about her transformation, please."

"I won't. Promise," he said, walking off.

I kept an eye on him just to observe how he and Elossai were interacting—I wanted to make sure Elossai wasn't uncomfortable. Fortunately, Martin played it cool. At first Elossai appeared shy and reserved, but Martin put her at ease and soon they resumed conversation as usual.

I sat by myself, quietly eating my share of the roasted rodent meat. When I finished gnawing off every bit of flesh, I picked up the bowl of water Ilta had given me and was astonished when I saw the reflection of Sye-Liene in the water staring back at me. I glanced up from the bowl only to find that I was in darkness. Again.

"Look, Sye-Liene—can't you just go back to your own body?" I sighed. "I'm getting tired of this."

From the reflection, Sye-Liene grew out of the bowl, like a fast-growing sprout, and was now standing in front of me. I flipped open my locket and touched the corin stone without a second thought.

"Believe me," Sye-Liene said, "if I could return to my body, I would."

"And I suppose you want me to help get your body back for you?" I asked.

She smiled and fluttered her eyelashes with a false innocence.

"So that's the catch," I said.

"It is for your benefit as well, Ellis. You say you are tired of hallucinating—I tire of having to wait on you," she said flippantly.

"I want to ask you something," I said, bluntly. I wanted to redirect the conversation my way.

Sye-Liene's eyes grew wide, like she was surprised that I wasn't interested in what she wanted. "What about?"

"Keiran."

"Keiran?" Her voice raised a few unnatural pitches.

"Yes. Keiran. He was your boyfriend, remember?"

She cleared her throat. "Of course I remember."

"Why didn't you tell him about the corin chest or your uni-elk cloak?"

Sye-Liene stalled for a moment, flipping her blonde curls behind her. "A corin chest is an illegal item. It isn't something I could freely talk about in conversation."

Not even to someone you cared about? Not even to someone who loved you?

"I'm sure that you miss him a lot," I said. "How long has it been—six years since you last saw him?"

"Yes... Yes, that's right," she replied, looking a little uncomfortable. Sye-Liene had always been calm and collected but here I was seeing something different. Was she uncomfortable because she was afraid of accidentally revealing something?

I waited for her to add anything more, but she didn't.

"Well, I'm sure you're just dying to talk to him," I prompted.

"Of course, of course..." Sye-Liene looked down as if sorting her thoughts.

"Would you like me to relay a message to him?" I asked.

I expected to hear some concern for Keiran or a desire to seize any opportunity available to communicate with him, but that wasn't what I saw. It was as if I had to hold her by the hand and guide her.

"Yes, I don't see why not. Tell him that I miss him and shall see him shortly," she said.

Her apathetic response felt so cold and wrong.

How can she have nothing to say to him when he cared so much for her? If only I were her and I was the one Keiran yearned for, for six years!

I was suddenly jarred out of the hallucination and Keiran was next to me, shaking me by the shoulders. "Ellis, are you all right?" Keiran asked.

"Huh?" I uttered.

Keiran's eyebrows furrowed. "You weren't responding."

"I was speaking with Sye-Liene," I said, with my head down.

"Really?" His eyes became animated with interest. "What did she say?"

"She said that she misses you and shall see you shortly." I finally looked up at Keiran.

He was hanging on the edge of his seat, so to speak, like he was waiting for me to say more. He looked confused and searched my eyes. "Is that all she said?"

I nodded. "That was all that she wanted me to relay to you. Aside from that, she also explained that she didn't tell you about the cloak and chest because it wasn't something that she could freely talk about in conversation."

"There was a lot that she intentionally kept from me. I wish she would have trusted me with that information."

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

He looked down, his eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. He shook his head. "No, there's got to be more to it." A moment later he sat up straight. "It's late, Ellis. You should get some sleep."

***

Sleep brought me back into that gray, door-less room once again. The three mirrors appeared, two mirrors behind me, reflecting Sye-Liene on the right and Lise-An on the left, and the lone mirror in front. I knew very well that I had to do something here; but what?

I approached the final mirror and stood in front of it. Just who was supposed to appear in this mirror? I wondered if it was someone I had met before? I waited for something to appear in the mirror but, like always, nothing did.

"What am I supposed to do here?" I said out loud.

I looked behind me at the two mirrors with Sye-Liene and Lise-An. Sye-Liene was motioning for me to go to her while Lise-An stood there, staring blankly.

Maybe I had it all wrong. Maybe the third mirror wasn't supposed to reflect someone else. Did I really want to see someone else in the mirror anyway? No.

At that moment, a third figure appeared in front of me.

Myself.