“Unfortunately Antiquity doesn’t work that way. All of your memories will be fair game.”
“I didn’t know I was signing up for this,” Olivia scowled. “I don’t want anyone rifling around in my brain.” She started to stand, but Zara folded her hand around Olivia’s. She stared down at their entwined hands; shaken.
“Having trust in your future leader is of utmost importance right now, Olivia,” Zara declared; gazing into Olivia’s defiant brown eyes with fervor. “She needs you.”
“Okay,” Olivia agreed quietly. Her body relaxed and her unyielding pride fell away, as she reclaimed her seat on the couch beside me. Obviously, her unyielding bitchiness didn’t get the memo.
“I hope you know that you’re the only one I would do this for,” she informed me. Beneath her defenses, I could see that trusting me was extremely difficult for her; but she was willing to try, so I decided to be patient.
“I’ll try not to stay too long,” I grinned in thanks. “I’ll even take my shoes off so your mind won’t get muddy.” Her hard face crumbled into a smile, and she chuckled in spite herself.
“My mind’s already pretty dirty, so it’s okay,” she laughed.
“Maybe you should take a mop and some bleach then,” Carmen snickered, making everyone laugh and diffusing the tense mood. Zara’s features tightened as she concentrated on the task at hand.
She faced me and I sensed the significance of what I was about to attempt.
“The eyes are the quickest route to memories, so you need to shed your heart of any judgment, feelings, or greed. Your energy has to be pure when accessing someone else’s memories, or it will not work.”
Olivia and I sat up straighter and looked into each other’s eyes. After the longest minute in history, Olivia fidgeted and Carmen cleared her throat to disrupt the uncomfortable silence. I regrouped, took a deep breath and cleared my mind. I could do this! I concentrated my energy on Olivia’s dark eyes and allowed my internal walls to crumble, along with my fear of failing this exercise. I felt a slight pulling sensation on my essence, and then everything around us melted away until her eyes were the only thing I could see. That’s when it happened.
Hazy and abrupt at first, I began to see images flash across my field of vision. Moving pictures starring Olivia’s roommates, the inside of her suite, the same Son she’d gone to the Ball with a couple of months ago, a smiling blonde haired guy, a younger dark haired girl in the hospital, a graveyard at dusk, an older woman, a purple birthday cake with ten candles on it; smiling faces all around. The images continued to pour out of her mind, and I could tell that I was moving farther and farther back into her memories as time went by. An image of a younger Natasha caught my attention and I fought to keep the memory from passing.
The image shifted slightly as Natasha spread a blanket out on the beach in the sunshine. She smiled up at a blonde haired woman with pale streaks in her hair and beautiful blue eyes; I recognized her from one of my mother’s memories - the one where they were discussing my fate. Which meant that this was the second Nereid who had known of my birth. I felt Olivia’s happiness as Natasha and the blonde woman showed her how to build a sandcastle and write her name in the sand. An odd sadness filled my heart, and I tore my eyes away from hers with effort.
“That was way too weird.” Olivia shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut as if my presence had knocked something loose in her mind. A tear slipped down my cheek and I wiped it away before anyone could see it. Unfortunately Zara’s watchful eyes were quicker than my hand.
“What did you see, Stasia?”
Olivia’s eyes zeroed in on me with dread and I smiled to ease her anxiety. “I saw one of Olivia’s good memories. She was on a beach with Natasha and a blonde…”
“Amphitrite,” Olivia finished for me nostalgically. Her voice turned childlike as she described the memory I had seen. “We had a picnic. They taught me how to make really cool sandcastles – the ones where you dribble wet sand on top and make those little….” She trailed off when she noticed Carmen and Phoebe gawking at her, then she cleared her throat and lifted her chin before continuing. “Anyway, it was fun.”
The blonde woman was Amphitrite? Several puzzle pieces clicked into place and I realized that the blonde haired woman I had seen in my vision was the Queen. Nemertes and Amphitrite were the two Nereids whom my mother had trusted with the knowledge of my birth. Two of my mother’s closest friends. Two Nereids I would’ve known had I not been sent away.
“You’ve known Natasha for that long?” Carmen asked curiously.
“Mom was on Thetis’s counsel with Natasha and Amphitrite, so yeah, I’ve known them my whole life. After Thetis died, they’d still come to Charleston to visit.”
“Amphitrite? She’s the Queen of the Nereids, right?” Phoebe asked.
“That’s right,” Olivia spoke proudly. “She should have been our leader all this time. Not Keto.”
“It was a good memory,” I admitted to her quietly. “I wish I could have known them that way.
Thank you for letting me experience it.”
Surprise took her features hostage before giving way to empathy. “I think you will. I mean, you already know Natasha and I know Amphitrite will love you.”
“I haven’t met her yet,” I deliberated. “It seems like if she were so close to Mom, I would have met her by now right?”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that the Nereids are very wise,” Zara shared.
“They are never frivolous with their decisions. If she hasn’t come to meet you yet, I’m sure there’s a very good reason.”
“She’s right,” Phoebe rubbed my arm. “Besides, you’ll definitely meet her on your birthday.
She has to give you her approval!”
“Which brings us back to the task at hand.” Zara’s features became serious and she focused on me with impish eyes. “The next part of Antiquity I want you to practice involves visiting the past through in soul form.”
“Are you talking about…time travel?” I asked incredulously, but she just chuckled.
“It’s no different from your foresight ability,” she clarified. “When you have a vision of the future, your soul travels there. Seeing the past is no different.”
“So I can go back to events of the past?” I asked wide-eyed. “Can people see me?”
“That is the one caveat. During visions of the future, the people involved cannot see you because the events haven’t happened yet. The past is different however. Anything you do or say can and will alter your present.”
“Watch out Marty McFly…” I muttered. When I tried to wrap my mind around time, I failed miserably. I decided then and there I wouldn’t ever go back to the past. It sounded way too complicated.
“What I’d like for you to try is traveling back to just a few minutes ago.” She instructed. I waited for her to start laughing, but unfortunately she didn’t crack so much as a smile.
“And how do I go about doing that?” I asked timidly. Could I get stuck?
“It’s actually the easiest of the visions to prompt. You just have to close your eyes, relax and allow your soul to let go as you picture the event you want to witness again. You may feel slightly dizzy but it won’t last long.”
I leaned back on the couch and closed my eyes. I thought about Finn sitting beside me as we talked about the common denominator in my life; the number three. I felt as if my soul was detaching for a reverie, but I concentrated on the moment I wanted to re-witness. I felt a slight lifting sensation and I opened my eyes eagerly.
