The Orbs of Tala

02 | No One Will Know You There

Looking into memories someone was reliving at that same moment differed from searching the ones tucked away. Isla was standing in a corridor of Cris' mind and she could see doors. They were unlocked, but closed. The memories Cris played in his mind stood outside, but she did not want them. She needed the ones behind the doors.

She only had her mind to will them open, then with her senses, she entered like a ghost, witnessing everything, all the while fighting the ones in the corridor because they could be loud, demanding attention. They would attempt to pull her out of the rooms, but with years of practice, she had mastered how to navigate the mind, recognizing the future, the current thoughts, and the memories by how they made her feel.

"You look taller," she heard herself say, and she felt Cris panic a little. She remembered it was that morning.

Instead of answering, he said, "You're needed at the Emperor House now. Emergency."

She went out of that memory room and back in the corridor, meeting other memories that did not interest her, searching for the night prior that one. When she found it, it was not a familiar scene.

She was looking at herself through his eyes. She could sense Cris' frustration. He might be scowling. Her own words echoed as she watched herself talk. She looked weary; her eyes worse than Ivor's drooping ones.

"We can't travel by plane. All Opulent flights are banned at the moment," Cris was saying.

He followed her eyes to the clock on the wall. Three hours before midnight.

"We won't make it."

Cris nodded.

"I don't want you to tell me when I wake up. I'll freak out."

He took the folded paper from the table. "We'll let Ivor tell you."

She sighed, closing her eyes, weary.

"I can tell you about the Curse when you wake up."

She shook her head. "Don't. Just have Lola call me."

"You'll see the dates everywhere."

She looked around her home office and pushed her phone toward him. "I'll be confused, nothing more. Give me my old phone. We'll travel by land to Emperor House." Then she handed him a card case. "And keep this for now."

Then it went blank and Isla was back to the present. She frowned at Cris. "I think that's enough," he said.

A breath of disbelief escaped her lips. She turned to her great-grandfather, then at Lola who came when Isla demanded for her. "This is bloody crazy."

The grimace on Lola's face reminded Isla of the time when Ivor asked her to check the memory of the toilet bowl to see if he accidentally dropped his missing ring there.

Dread was not enough to describe how Isla felt. It was like that time again when they received the news of their father's accident just months after their mother's disappearance.

Her sister walked closer. "Your memory froze two years ago," Lola calmly said, but there was a hint she was tired of doing this. At that thought, Isla's heart raced as everything slowly sank in.

She pointed at Cris, frustration with each word. "I don't understand anything from what I saw."

"Your memory froze at the eve of your 23rd birthday two years ago. Anything after that only stays with you for six months," Lola cautiously said.

"You're saying that I can only accumulate what—six bloody months? Then it happens again?"

Lola reluctantly nodded, biting her lip.