AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You don’t like it.” Rychel stared at me. “That’s smart. It’s not a good idea to become enamored with magical objects that hold untold power.”
I looked at her meaningfully.
“Oh, I’m not enamored,” she assured me. “Just curious.”
“Small difference,” I snapped.
She laughed. “I’ll be careful. I promise.” She eyed me curiously. “Why are you here, by the way? I assume it’s not because of the grail. You’re not going to tell Sephone I stole it from the treasury, are you?”
“Certainly not. Sephone can go fuck herself for all I care.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Not enamored with our fair queen either, huh?” Rychel snickered. “She’s not particularly warm and cozy. So what then? Not that I’m complaining. I’ve lost track of how many days I’ve been down here alone...”
“I had a few questions,” I admitted. “I wasn’t sure who else to ask...”
“I am a wealth of knowledge,” Rychel said cheerfully. “Ask away.”
I tapped my foot nervously. “Well, first, I had another dream. It was... very vivid. I think it was a memory.”
“We talked about this before. True dreaming is very rare.” Rychel studied me. “But... it’s possible. You seem very certain.”
“I wish I could be.” I took a deep breath. “When I met Orcades, she looked at me. She looked into my head somehow, Rychel. And then she touched me and said the word ‘Remember.’”
“And? Did you?”
“Not right away,” I admitted. “But now... I think I’m starting to. I think this dream was part of what she did to me. She made me start to remember things. Is that even possible?”
Rychel tapped a finger to her lips. “I don’t see why not. If you had repressed memories...”
“Repressed?” I said sharply. “I didn’t repress anything. At least, not voluntarily.” I wracked my mind, trying to remember exactly what Orcades had said. “She took Excalibur. She called it something else though.”
“Iron of the Goddess?” Rychel suggested. “Ferrum deaeperhaps?”
My eyes lit up. “That’s it! That’s what it means?”
“That’s what the Valtain prefer to call it.”
“Perun’s Blade. Vela’s Blade. Excalibur. Iron of the Goddess. Too many names for a single sword,” I complained. My face hardened. “Whatever it’s called, Orcades wanted to kill the Siabra with it. I think she thought I was planning on taking it back to you. But I had no idea who the Siabra even were then.”
“Her mistake,” Rychel quipped. “But that doesn’t surprise me. She led Valtain’s armies, you know. I suppose when she failed, she was punished with imprisonment. At least, that would be my guess.”
“Why are my memories only starting to come back now when Orcades touched me weeks ago?” I demanded, knowing it was unfair to expect Rychel to have any real answers. I thought of something else. “She said someone had made a mess of me. Of my memories. My head. What could she have meant?”
“Maybe you haven’t been repressing anything. Maybe there are things in there someone didn’t want you to remember,” Rychel said thoughtfully. “But who would have done that?”
My own mother. But I couldn’t say that out loud.
“The dream I had last night... The answer may have been in there. But I don’t know if I can trust the dream.” It was all so frustrating.
Rychel looked sympathetic. “Ultimately, until you dream something that’s verifiable, only you can decide whether these are true dreamings or not.”
“You said there was one other person you knew who had the gift of true dreaming. Who was it? What did they do with it?”
“Did I call it a gift? Some might call it a curse.” Rychel sighed. “They were like you. Unsure if what they dreamed was true.”
“And then they realized it was?”
Rychel nodded slowly. “But only when it was too late to change what occurred. After that, they learned to block them out. I haven’t talked to them about this in a very long time, you understand.”
