Chapter 68 - Remember (Part 3)

This time it was not a kaleidoscope that took me, but pure energy that enveloped me.

I saw images flash, countless numbers of them just passing by in front of my eyes.

I was a spectator, and I was the person involved. I was a bystander, and I was the participant. My identity was in question and everything was spinning out of control.

I saw so many things in a row. So many images flashing by so fast that I could barely understand them and yet I could feel every detail in its immensity. The colors, the smells, the voices, the emotions, and the thoughts that I had were conveyed in all their vividness.

I saw my birth.

I saw my mother’s happy, gratified face as Frizelda held me up and exclaimed, “It’s a boy!”

I saw my father - smile splitting his face - lean forward and tentatively touch me before I bit his finger and he hissed in pain.

I saw my brother standing awkwardly at the edge and making faces at me as I turned curious eyes toward him.

I felt my father hold me tenderly and then raise me up and bellow out so that the entire castle could hear - “My son! Faustus Dray-”

Then another image took hold and played in front of me.

I was wobbling on two feet as I determinedly walked to my favorite person.

Almost falling down, I clutched her tight and her smiling face with blond hair that was long and sea-green eyes looked down as I blubbered, “Si-”

And then another image replaced it where I fell and I was crying and a black-haired young boy - the same one I had seen fighting with sticks - was patting me on the head and saying, “We do not cry so much! We cry only when we are truly hurt. This is nothing, this is nothing!” Then he got up and exaggeratedly fell down and I started laughing.

Another image flashed past.

A giant of a boy was carefully examining me and grinning as I looked back at him. Then he opened his hands and piles of sweets and pastries fell on the cloth underneath. Looking at him with sparkling eyes, I called out, “Brother!” and then began inhaling the sweets.

“Aaron,” I cried out.

The image changed again and this time; I was fleeing from the kitchen with a huge box in my hands which contained... ducks?

Behind me, I heard the roars of an enraged man, and turning, I saw a scarecrow thin man screaming, “Give me the ducks. I’ll make them for you till you’ve had enough, but just give me the Baling ducks!”

Sniggering, I changed course, and then the image shattered.

Thomas.

Then a dark night came and my heart began paining frantically and the black-haired boy was holding me close as he whispered, “Don’t worry. Hold back the pain. Hold it back. It can’t do anything to you.”

Then I cried out again for the green-eyed girl and the boy held me tighter as he said, “They’ll bring her back. Don’t worry. Don’t you worry, little guy!”

“Ares,” I murmured.

Then my vision changed, and I was confronting a big brute of a boy who had tears flowing down his face as he charged at me.

Frozen, I couldn’t move, and he started hitting me with punches and kicks while crying out, “Give them back! Give them back! Why do you get to have them while I don’t?”

“Harold..” I thought.

Then I went through many scenes of being beaten and slowly, the number of people who joined in the bullying increased, but my parents kept silent and I would cry at first, but then Ares would remind me that this was nothing. This was truly nothing.

It was nothing and yet everything to me.

Especially when the bullies were beaten off and a triumphant blonde girl turned to me in happiness that changed to concern, which filled me with warmth.

Then came piercing pain and a forbidding feeling and the images stopped flowing before darkness replaced them.

Frozen, I floated in the darkness until images lit up again around me and played faster than before.

I saw myself being beaten by Harold again. I saw the girl scare him and his friends off. I walked back to the castle with her and met my mother, who cleaned me up and sent me packing.

I watched as I saw my brother being knighted and I remember feeling so proud of him.

I heard Sir Leonidas tell me about the Battle of Pyrrhia, and my insides boiled with excitement.

I observed myself fighting desperately against Harold as rage-filled me when the sea-green-eyed girl was hurt.

I viewed myself as I turned red as a tomato when talking to the girl on top of the cliff.

“Watcher’s rest,” I whispered to myself.

My body began feeling warm as I saw myself being accepted by Sir Leonidas as his disciple and begin training under him alongside the girl.

My heart began painfully contracting as I accompanied the girl to an old woman’s house. “Avia,” I thought.

My blood began boiling as I saw a drunken man teach me and the girl tips and tricks of his trade.

Everything began paining even more as I saw myself walk into the training room and stop stupefied, as everybody in the room wished me happy birthday and gave me gifts.

Murmuring out, I named them in turn.

Mother, Frizelda, Sir James, Sir Leonidas, Aaron, Ares, and the girl who I could not name no matter how I tried.

Then I saw the preparations for war that were going on and I saw Mister Wagner, Edwin, and Thomas who were giving it their all.

Feeling a sense of foreboding creep over me, I watched as I went out of the castle and met a boy who led me to a place where I was ambushed.

I watched with rage as the boy, Paul, stabbed me in the side, and then I watched in silence as the silver rank, Deianira, cut me apart.

Then I felt the relief that flooded me as my father’s strong back stood in between me and Deianira.

I survived. Was the thought that was running through my head before oblivion claimed me.

Then I woke up with a start and saw the events in the King’s chambers, the coup of Alastor's, my parents and so many others fate’s unknown, the sacrifice of Sir James, and our escape outside the castle where we waited nervously for everybody to reach.

The image shattered and then reformed into continuous images that bombarded me continuously as I felt the relief of seeing my brother alive, and then the battles that followed.

Then everything went black and a single image floated in front of me.

I saw the sword coming toward me; I saw Ares behind me; I saw the girl crying out; I knew I could dodge the sword. I knew, too, that Ares would die if I dodged it. So I stood, and I took it, twisting so that the locket would deflect it. But I failed, and it stabbed me through the heart.

I remembered floating in the black space as time passed, and I fell into a warm embrace.

I remembered the fragments of light that woke me up and I saw myself shatter them and hear voices and images, much like I was right now.

Then I saw her again.

I watched as she raised a dagger to her neck, and I screamed again much as I did then, and with a jerk, my eyes opened and I was filled with urgency.

Kicking powerfully, I swam to the surface of the lake, and breaking through, I heaved in deep breaths and then swimming to the banks of the lake. I turned back to face it and shouted out as loudly as I could.

“I am Faustus Drayke and I will return. Wait for me... Sia!”

The words echoed for a long time.

I was not there to hear them because I had already left. To face my next challenge. For a girl waited and I could not let her wait for too long.