The Long Lost

by Rebecca Woods

  I had not known Leeh for more than a few weeks, but the reserved, kind and friendly woman had made a deep impression upon me. I thought back to her face that had always been so closed, rather like Khalashaya’s. Her paintings of the forest and the planet’s two suns had been beautiful. A woman that had been half Falaira and half Eurikaya.

  I looked down at the grave and felt a fresh wave of sadness. It was hard to believe that she rested in there but it made me happy at the same time. I was glad the Falaira had chosen such a beautiful spot for her.

  “We did not mean for her to die Auriana”, Khalashaya said softly.

  “It grieved me and I am so sorry that it happened”.

  I nodded.

  “How…” I began, but he knew what I asking before I asked it.

  “You met the grave keepers and handlers, did you not?”

  I had spent a day with them and learned about their tasks and had actually found the experience much nicer than I had thought it would be. I had watched them care for an elderly female who had died of old age and for a young male who had died of an illness. Both bodies had been cleaned and wrapped in shrouds before being left to rest, then buried the morning after death with the forest floor as their grave.

  I had not been able to attend either burial as I had been expected in one of the teaching rooms, but most of this part of the city had downed tools and attended. Compared to the Zafiyan way, it was a strangely peaceful experience. From what I had seen of their customs, I knew what would have happened to Gleema Leeh. She would have been cared for in a similar way.

  After a few minutes there, we walked through the forest until we came to the lake; the trees around it were so thick that the lake was almost in shadow in places. This also explained why it could not always be seen from the city.

  The water was a lovely turquoise colour. The same as the stone in a necklace my father had bought for my mother when I had been born. That necklace had been under my pillow in the three twelvemonths since she had been killed.

  Stroking the water delicately were various plants and large petalled flowers. There was a slight breeze that made the plants glide; causing ripples to emanate from each flower and then meet across the water.

  Kicking off his shoes, Khalashaya sat down and put his feet in the water. I was getting more comfortable with water as time went on, I sat down next to him. I took my slippers off gingerly and slowly slid my scarred, burned feet into the water. It was cold, almost unnaturally so, and cooled me down immediately.

  Woodarch dispensed with all ceremony, threw off his cloak, trousers and tunic and jumped straight in, showering me with blue droplets.

  “Going in?” said Khalashaya.

  I laughed.

  “I can teach you to do that” he said, pointing at Woodarch as he swam gracefully from one end of the lake to the other.

  I could not imagine doing that, but maybe one day. One day when the threat of the Eurikaya was no more.

  Thinking of the Eurikaya made me think of Leeh once more; half something she could not help.

  “She was very brave,” even when I did not look at him, I always knew when he was speaking in my head because his tone was lighter and he seemed freer.

  “She had that darkness inside her for her whole life and yet she was full of life...compassion,” I replied, not looking at him.

  “She must have been very powerful,” he said. “Her Falaira half, that is. That power forced the other half down and almost buried it completely”.

  “How does someone become a Molecha?” I asked. “Are they born such?”

  Khalashaya leaned back and let the dappled sun wash over his face. I could sense that, despite his calm expression, he was internally debating what to tell me.

  Woodarch suddenly disappeared under the water, swimming gracefully like a fish.

  “He’s very familiar with this lake,” I said out loud.

  Khalashaya took no notice of my attempt to keep him talking and he looked at me searchingly before looking away. I watched Woodarch resurface and go back under, marveling how graceful he was and how the water seemed to make him happier than I had ever seen him.

  I had given up getting anything further out of Khalashaya when I heard his voice in my head again.

  “Gleema Leeh probably had no knowledge that she was half Eurikaya. They are born, not made and extremely rare. The last time one was seen was in the forests in the last days of the last war. We think the Eurikaya got creative and tried to play the long game,” he said.

  It had been a very long game, I thought.

  I considered again the writing that I had found on my wall when I had found my father’s body. Did that mean I was also a Molecha, was I half demon? Some of the things Khalashaya had said, that first conversation between Woodarch and Khalashaya that I had overheard, the fact that I had periods of weakness, the near miss I had had when that Eurikaya had spared me; all of these things gave me a cold dread that I only just suppressed enough to function.

  Conversations like this brought it very close to the surface, but I really wanted to know more at the same time.

  The suspicion with which I was treated from time to time plus the fact that Khalashaya clearly had not told me everything did make me worry almost constantly about that would happen. It was a low level throbbing that sometimes woke me up at night and had me examining the events of the past few weeks to see if I could have been responsible, even unknowingly.

  “Why do you think she came to find me?” I had wondered this a lot since she had first come to the city. Did she think that I was like her, or was it just the friendship we had built up that made her come to me when she was her most vulnerable?

  He breathed deeply and looked me in the eye.

  “She gave you something...just before she died”. It was not a question.

  I nodded, “I do not know what. I keep getting flashes of young people from a different time. They are not her memories because she is not in them and the time is far before our time”.

  I had come to this conclusion from looking at the clothes and slight differences in the way the sexes related to each other.

  “Keep telling me what comes up”, he said. “But,” and his voice had a tone of warning to it, “Be very careful what you repeat to anyone. The Queen was worried that Gleema Leeh would expose you in her rantings, when we thought you were a Molecha. She did not want the city to see you as a danger when it is clear you are a huge asset to us”.

  I felt proud that he thought of me in that way, but what if I really was a Molecha?

  “She...knew that Leeh would die when you used your magic on her?” I had to know.

  He paused and then must have seen the determination on my face because he looked away.

  “Do not lie to me. No more secrets”. I injected as much iron into that statement as possible. If I was an asset to the Free Falaira then I would be treated like a full member of the team.

  Khalashaya nodded. “She must have done. The Queen knows much more about the Eurikaya, their creation and the Molecha than I thought she did”.

  “It is her role to know more than her subjects,” I replied. I had not seen much of her since the death of Leeh and I missed her.

  “I did think you were a Molecha...it was the weakness, the fact that you are alone in your dream plus the fact that you are innately more powerful than most of the Free Falaira”.

  I breathed deeply, knowing that his answer to this next question was very important.

  “You think this no more?”

  “I do not,” he said, “You are something new, but the Orb has not shown us. It has not said you are a Molecha”.

  He smiled suddenly.

  “Stop worrying, whatever you are, you are clearly one of us and fighting for the same cause. Training you and teaching you more about your heritage has been a pleasure”.

  I felt warm inside at his words. My immense liking for him had never faltered, even when we had doubted each other from time to time. I kept this h
idden however and simply gave him a small smile back.

  Woodarch swam over to us and grabbed Khalashaya by the foot, the momentum of this pulling them both into the water with a huge splash that sprayed me once more.

  Even for us, life could be as sweet as honey.

  The First Ones

  Time seemed to slip by extremely quickly over the next couple of weeks. I still counted the time in weeks but the Falaira marked it very differently to the way I was used to. For example, one of our years was a cycle and a half on Deloran. The days were slightly shorter, which made a sun cycle quicker than a year would be on Earth.

  During this time, I trained more and finally mastered invisibility. Woodarch gave me a strong armed embrace when I was first able to make myself disappear completely and Khalashaya gave me an approving smile. I couldn’t maintain this while moving quickly however, but I had still achieved something momentous.

  It was Prenaslavka however, that got the most pleasure from this, as she was now acting as my main teacher; getting me involved with the children’s lessons more than ever. I did not join the class as a full student, but dipped in and out when I felt comfortable. Prenaslavka seemed happy with this and gave me regular praise and encouragement when I was practicing new things.

  Amongst the things she taught me were basic self defence techniques, how to bring objects to me rather than simply make them move, how to create a light when I was in the dark and how to repel a person running at me and force them backwards.

  My bruises from learning the last challenge had just started to fade when I began getting more and more visions from the thoughts that Leeh had given me. These had abated since that first frightening time, probably because I had been so busy and had no room for anything else in my brain. For this reason, I was unprepared for their onslaught.

  First of all, I was back in the room where the young men and women were training and I became familiar with a lot of the past Falaira. Ericl was an interesting study, he seemed to have a mesmerising hold over the others and was most definitely the leader of the group. Even though I was protected from his luminescence because I was a mere spectre, I could see how his glances, slight touches and unspoken language drew both the young men and women to him.

  With the exception of the young Seniveri woman Aran, who had made fire appear with her arms on my second visit to the past, Ericl was by far the most powerful of the group. I still had no clue with regards to why they met so regularly and what they were trying to achieve. I did know the group was, while not strictly prohibited by the Elders, frowned upon.

  Ericl was a passionate extremely intelligent Falaira and this, as well as his extreme good looks, meant that many members of the female group, Aran included, appeared to be slightly infatuated with him. I of course could sense this, rather than the emotions being played out in public. No, Aran was a very closed book, as was Ericl.

  I became less frightened of the fact that I had seemingly been torn out of my present life and thrown into someone else’s. I felt deep down inside me as if this was preordained, as if the good Lord had meant for me to see what I was seeing. I was just confused as to why.

  The next time I visited them, around a few weeks after the first time, changed everything and made my blood turn to ice with terror.

  I had just enjoyed a late lakeside walk with Khalashaya where we had been discussing the magic I had learned. I realised how tired I was and took my leave. It had been an exceptionally hot day and the night was thick with heat and dust. I took the steps up to where my dwelling with Larcen and the Queen was located and walked up the steps to my room quietly.

  The Queen had been very inaccessible over the last few weeks, since the death of Gleema Leeh, and attempts to speak to her about more than the weather or my activities for the day were politely rebuffed. She was as benevolent and friendly as she had ever been but she was clearly preoccupied with something. I understood it to an extent. A Molecha, unseen for thousands of years, had penetrated the biggest, most magically defended city on Deloran.

  If I lucky enough to rule, the investigation into how that had happened would feel like a very time consuming and stressful role on which a lot depended.

  After I entered my room, I undressed and washed at a basin. My body was growing stronger and fitter as I trained and I found it empowered me and made me feel as if I were slightly more in control; an illusion perhaps, given the nature of the enemy we were facing, but something positive to hold onto with everything I had.

  I dressed in a loose cotton nightgown and got into bed. I had tried the cooling trick on my bedclothes before washing and found that it had held nicely. The cool sheets felt wonderful against my flushed skin and aching muscles and It wasn’t long before I had drifted into sleep.

  I was in my river dream once more, my feet buried deep in freezing cold wet earth that sucked at me, clawing me and dragging me down into its depths. Only the long stick kept me upright. I could see it in even more detail tonight. It came past my waist and had symbols on it that run from the top to the bottom. The top of the stick hooked slightly, as if it were a shepherd’s crook.

  Reeds moved behind me and on either side of me as the chill that hung in the crisp air froze my exposed arms and face.

  I peered across the river and saw the familiar shadowy mass, they were singing and chanting and it pulled me, tempted me, compelled me to join them and become one with the voices. If my mother had not gone to Oblivion, as I was starting to believe more and more, maybe she had gone to this and was there singing with them, calling me home.

  The chanting from the singers was louder tonight; usually it swept its way over the dark, calm moonlit water and found my ears gracefully. Tonight it was a force to be reckoned with. I knew the words they sang and remembered them, though they were not words I had the ability to translate.

  Then I was torn out of my dream, like an illicit page from a book, and placed back with the past Falaira. The contract between my dream netherworld and the moonlit garden my new friends were sitting in could not have been starker. However, instead of sitting together happily or practicing their magic, they looked tense and under stress.

  Ericl was sitting on a wooden bench looking pensive, Aran beside him. She did not look at him but stared ahead mutely, seeming to look at nothing in particular.

  Then, a wooden door that led to the garden opened and Aran’s blonde friend came in, closing the door behind her. She looked worried.

  Immediately, the group rose and pressed around her. There were loud whispers of

  “What news?”, “What have you heard?” and other variants.

  She silenced them with a hand in the air. Her hair was messed up slightly and her cloak was askew as if she had put it on in a hurry.

  “They come” she said, “And they mean to take us”.

  “This is preposterous” said Ericl, pushing to the front. “They are against us learning to use our magic in the way that we were supposed to?”

  He spat onto the grass. The woman closest to him recoiled visibly, he ignored her.

  I had discovered in earlier excursions that I could move forward or backwards at will but I could not go too far. If so, an unseen barrier would contain me, it was very clear what I was supposed to see and what was irrelevant.

  I moved closer to Ericl, taking care to avoid the others. I had experienced the horror of being walked into once. It had plunged me into an arctic freeze unlike anything I had ever felt before, even in the acidic storms often seen in Zafiya.

  Ericl looked older than the last time I had seen him. His eyes were slightly sunken and more lined and he had faint lines on his forehead that had not been there before. I estimated that the visions I had seen over the last few weeks had not covered four weeks of their lives, but about four years. This had been confirmed by Aran appearing heavy with child one week and then svelte and longer haired the next.

  All the while, I had watched their magic grow more and more experimental. They put each other into trances
, levitated and once succeeded in changing the appearance of the blonde Falaira, whose name I had never caught.

  Then the door burst open again, knocking the blonde Falaira forward into Ericl’s arms. As he caught her, a look of unholy hatred washed over his face.

  Two soldiers, females with armour, spears and the turbans that also covered their mouths and noses entered the garden.

  “Members of the Eurikaya,” the one on the right said harshly.

  The Eurikaya? Ice settled in my stomach as I wondered what I was seeing. How could they have named themselves after the Eurikaya, after a race they hated and feared. Unless, but…could it be? Was I learning a fundamental truth about how the Eurikaya had begun?

  Silence settled upon the group.

  “Members of the group named as the Eurikaya. You are placed under arrest for breaching the boundaries of acceptable magic as defined by the Gleema”.

  Ericl stepped forward suddenly and found a spear pointed at his chest.

  “Be careful not to give into your lusts and anger male child” said the soldier on the left. Her voice was deep and strong and her eyes were narrowed in barely controlled anger.

  “Why do you hate and fear the Eurikaya so much?” said Ericl angrily. “We are but young students expanding on our daytime lessons and making ourselves strong”.

  I saw Aran twitch slightly, she looked away from the group.

  The soldier advanced menacingly.

  “Do not try me. Both you and I know the crimes of which you are all accused, what you have attempted to do. It stops here”.

  “You know nothing” spat Ericl angrily.

  The soldiers glanced at each other quickly, and then at Aran, who looked even more uncomfortable.

  It happened in mere seconds. Ericl closed his eyes; suddenly he was the one carrying the spear. He looked at Aran and threw it straight at her before she had time to blink or even plead for her life. It struck home and pinned her to the wooden wall she had leant against.

  I woke up screaming.

  Discoveries

  As my familiar room faded in around me, I realised I needed help processing what I had just seen. I got up and padded over to the shutters, feeling the humid air pressing itself onto me like a force. Opening them, I realised it was still night, the position of the moons indicating that some time had passed. We were now closer to early morning than the dead of the night.