When the past catches up

[oele]

The Ylian child suddenly wakes up. She is sweating heavily and the cold wind of the early morning lets her freeze. It is still too early. The most citizens are still asleep. Only a few who went drinking in the night are now heading home. She sits up and wraps her arms around her legs, trying to get something comforting in this gesture. It had been one of many nightmares she had been having lately.

Again and again being woken in the middle of the night, feeling the loss of someone dear to her or being thrown into an unknown area. Unwellcoming, cold and confusing. When she was too afraid to sleep she had been using some potions so that she wouldn't dream. But all potions she had, had been used already. She considers asking Mariana for another potion for a moment, but then dismisses the thought. She doesn't want to bother the fenki, too afraid she would be loosing her as well.

For a long time she hadn't been feeling like this. She had pushed her feelings into the darkest corner of her mind to be able to concentrate on surviving. As her life has gotten easier and she had found her place in the city, she has started remembering. Memories had returned to her, good ones and bad ones. And as the time passed she had noticed that she could less and less clearly remember the good ones.

Her precious stone. Qile had sealed one of her clearest memories into the Sapphire crystal. Sometimes she drowned herself in the memory, trying to forget the other part of her past. But it always catches up to her and then it will torment her again.

She yawns tiredly. Question after question are filling her head. Why did those things happen to her? Why did the adults act like that? But whenever she asks, she doesn't get an answer. It is as if even the adults don't know the answers.

She looks up as the sound of a pair of shoes stop in front of her. An unfamiliar voice mumbles something along of "beggar" and hurries off. She sighs softly and gets up. Today again she'll be probably searching for Mariana. Or she will run into Timil and his mother again, the person she has mixed feelings for. Or there will be someone else she knows. She doesn't think much about the future. She never does. There is no reason to.

She leans against the cold wall and listens to the surroundings. Now that the city was waking up, the faint sound of the smithy could be heard. She heads off, randomly selecting the streets she is walking along. Not yet does she know that there is someone looking for her. She wouldn't care anyway.

[eardstapa]

[Sorry if there are spoilers here - if you want anything deleted just let me know ]

The woman's clothing looked familiar, but it was not until much later, in the plaza, that E recalled why. Small wonder Sopheap Urien's manner handling the rotting old clamod corpse in the tavern resembled that of a professional healer, or at least someone accustomed to dealing with sickness and death. And here she was, this healer, searching Yliakum for a lost child, one Olwen Avila Teagan, to fulfil the wishes of a dying or dead father. E didn't know whether to believe the story; Soph seemed sincere, but then so had poor Paulandra when she had unwittingly been under the influence of a mind spell. No, especially in these violent times, when revolution and murder seemed more intertwined than ever, E couldn't simply lead anyone to Oele before asking the child about her past, a past E knew was dark and troubling to Oele. In Yliakum, so much could lie beneath surfaces...