I was shocked I was capable of lifting such heavy objects.
I hefted the container onto my back and staggered forward, carrying it toward a huge wall that rose like a mountain before me.
I dumped the container in front of it and scaled up its slippery side.
Ahead of me, the wall stood two hundred feet tall, maybe more.
No way I could scale it, I thought.
And yet, the past version of me hurled himself at it without hesitation and scaled it one handhold at a time.
A dozen horned aliens trailed behind me, each struggling just as I was.
I reached the top and felt dizzy as I peered at the drop on the other side.
“Jump and roll! Jump and roll! Jump and roll!” the commanding officer bellowed.
I held my breath, shut my eyes, and did as he ordered.
The wind whistled past my face as I fell, fell, fell…
And landed. Hard.
My knees took the worst of the impact as I rolled off the momentum.
The huge horned creature was there in my face, a glint in his eye and a grin of respect on his face.
“Congratulations, you’ve completed basic training. Now go get a shower and something to eat. The real work begins at dawn.”
The real work?
My lungs burned and my body ached.
And this was only training?
The memory faded as the mist unfurled and led into another.
I stepped back from the memory and found the mist already shifting, assuming the form of more memories, so many that they seemed without end.
So many to go through, so many yet to experience…
I gritted my teeth and pushed myself forward to learn from them all.
It was the only way I could recall what I needed to learn from my past, so I pushed forward into the mist and the shifting sands of time.
It took some time to work through the first few memories, each one an important part of me, but at this rate—and with the time here working differently to that out in the real world it was difficult to know exactly how much time had passed—it was going to take me forever to work through everything.
As curious as I was to know about myself and my past, I didn’t need to watch it all right now.
I yanked myself from a touching memory at the bedside of a dying friend back into the infinite halls of recollection.
I cast an eye over the frozen still images of each memory, ready for me to slip inside and assume the role of the main character.
“This is too slow,” I said out loud. “I need to learn more about what brought me to Earth, why I was there and what I need to do next.”
There was a momentary pause and then a shift, like a ripple, as the statues morphed into different scenes.
The line was still endless and drifted into the distance so far I couldn’t see the end of it.
The nearest scene now wasn’t the one that I’d pulled myself from, it was another, with a small bedroom and a man that had distinctive features like mine.
He had to be my father.
I felt a connection with him that I couldn’t describe.
He sat beside me on the bed and looked at me with concerned but understanding eyes.
When I asked my question out loud about wanting to know more about the reason I was on Earth, the mist had re-ordered my dreams so this one came up first.
Did that make it the most relevant? I wondered.
I slipped into the memory and joined my father.
The scene was quiet and personal, my emotions jumbled up and confused.
“One day, the time will come when you will go to track down your fated mate,” he said. “That day will be the biggest event of your life. She—or he—could be on a planet anywhere in the galaxy. There’s no way to know who she is or which species she is. She could be right next door or as far from us as it’s possible to get. But she will be out there. She might know you exist or not even be aware of our entire alien race or its fated mate culture. Either way, it will be your job to find her and bring her back to the Citadel so you might marry her.”
“What if she doesn’t choose me? What if she wants to stay on the planet where I found her?”
“Then you must accept her decision. We are the M’rora and we do not force others to do what we wish them to. That impulse belongs to our dark twins, the Shadow. We M’rora have a long and dark past. When a M’rora is born, he is born divided in two. The good and just M’rora, and the dark and twisted Shadow. He is identical to you at birth, but with his upbringing, he becomes the monster all Shadow are. He has the same drive and impulse to discover his mate. It is your job to prevent him from doing so.”
“What happens to my mate if she’s discovered by the Shadow first?” my younger incarnate said.
My father’s expression turned dark.
“You are too young to learn of such things. But you will learn. I promise you. You must go to school, complete your training, and prepare yourself for the battles you will have in the future. There are many M’rora who go out to find their fated mates and never return. I would not want you to be one of them. There is no shame in failing to bring your mate back with you, the only shame is in not trying your best.”
My younger self felt nervous and unsure.
“What if I don’t manage to bring her back? What if she doesn’t choose me?”
“There are other options. Each of them good and worthy. And do not fear. You will always have the love and respect of your mother and me.”
He reached over and took my hands in his and squeezed them.
His smile was reassuring and proud.
I felt honored and relieved my father thought so highly of me.
The memory froze for
