Living History

Information

I wake up slowly. It's been a long time since I could sleep as long as my body needed to, and even when my stomach started yelling, it was hard for me to open my eyes. For just a second I forgot about everything that had happened before. I forgot about Dai and my Mother and Rhenyan and Auroya, and I just felt me and my body completely healed and full of energy.

And then I heard movement in a nearby room. My eyes shot open instinctively, scanning the unfamiliar room in front of me. The room is small, housing only two full size beds, two light colored wooden tables, and two lamps. The walls and floor are all dark brown wood. There's someone in the bed across the room, and judging by the size of the blanket covering them, I'm assuming it's Rhenyan. I watch the blanket rise and fall slowly, and realize I've never actually seen him breathe. Not even after that fight, like I'd seen Auroya breathing when she'd stood between us. When she'd protected me from him.

I stand and walk over to where I feel Auroya's energy. She's outside, sitting on top of the roof of the small cabin. I examine her small but rather buff body as much as I can from the ground. Well, she must be strong if she trains with Rhenyan. I'm about to turn to go back inside before she notices, but abruptly reach and lift myself up instead. Alright. I guess I can do this too. Her back is to me as she looks out over the forest we'd left last night. Sure. How bad can this be? I'll just sit here silently and pretend I'm not.

"Two nights ago," she says quietly. I almost jump, partially because she knew to answer and partially because of her answer.

"I- I've been asleep for 2 days?"

She nods. "You and Rhenyan both."

There's silence for a while. She doesn't seem very talkative on her own. I guess that goes right in with her seriousness.

"Who sent you back here?"

To my immense surprise, she smiles.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Her voice sounds hoarse, but in a different way than Rhenyan's had. Rhenyan had sounded exhausted and completely worn out. Auroya sounded fine now, just with a hoarse voice. I have to admit, I'm curious about that part.

"Tell me anyway."

She glances back at me, then down at the roof, then back out to the trees.

"Your granddaughter did."

My mouth falls open. I had a granddaughter? Like... how many years from now?

"244, precisely." She says softly. I tense, but it only makes her smile wider. "I'm not in your mind, don't worry. You're just easy to read."

"Great." I roll my eyes, and she actually chuckles. I'm not sure what to make of what I'm seeing. She seems so different from the person who yelled at me two days ago.

"It's part of that 'it's complicated' bit." She says easily. She lifts her knees up to rest her chin on, and suddenly she looks very young. I'd assumed that both of them were young from some of their conversations, but I hadn't thought about it until now. She can't be much older than me, maybe 2 or 3 years. And yet it sounds like they've been through more than most mages do in a lifetime.

"So... my granddaughter asked you to come back here to save me?"

Auroya shakes her head. "Not exactly. She told us there was something here we needed to fix. She didn't tell us what it was; I'm assuming she was charmed not to, or had had her memory wiped of it."

"Charmed or..." I shake my head, not wanting to think about what my next words could mean. "Was she... dangerous?"

Auroya's eyes flick to mine, and I have the feeling she knew exactly what I was asking. That's impossible, though. She doesn't know.