Chapter II: Beyond Memories
"The past is something you can never run away from, it will always follow you. Today will pass and tomorrow will be another day to pass."
"AYA.."
A deep unearthly voice sing sang her name.
"Ayaah.."
Her head ached like it is being cracked open into two, her body is sweaty, and she felt like floating... floating in a confused dimension of fire and ice.
"Aya...mo...neth..." The whisper called again. And again.
She felt so hot she was sweating hard yet the voice, the whispers sends shivers on her spine. She was chilling yet her body ache like she was on fire. She held on her mattress tight trying to find comfort on it but to no avail. She was breathing hard. Is she going to die?
She couldn't open her eyes, but she could feel hot tears flowing from it. She couldn't even move like her body is on paralyzed. What happened? What is happening to her?
Then she remembers... She was with her uncle, she was in an excavation site... There are ancient artifacts. The sarcophagus with an ancient enchantment... and the golden bracelet...
An old bracelet that she didn't even tried to touch yet somehow clung itself to her arms and injected it's teeth. It bit her like some ferocious rabid animal. And now like a poisonous snake, its mysterious venom is killing her... And then...
What happened again?
"Aaah!" She heard an agonizing cry. Or is it hers? Her hand clutch tightly on silks around her wanting to hold her throbbing temple, having no strength at all to lift it. What's happening?
Her memories started to get blurry. Like every picture she has in her mind was thrown in a bon fire. It was also on fire. Then like a lightning, something struck her brainpower and this time she was glad to welcome the darkness.
"Why is the princess unconscious still?"
"Her Highness is supposed to get better now!"
"The Princess will not die right? I mean at least not anymore!"
Voices. Aya stirred on her bed. Slowly waking up from a deep slumber she'd been. She's uncomfortable in her position and sweaty. And those voices.. Who are they? Is she in a hospital? Are those nurses?
Uh, what is it again?
"She's waking up! The princess is moving!"
She heard it again. It was followed by another murmur. She cannot comprehend what they are saying. She could hear them but not even a word she could understand. As if they are talking in a different language.
Eyes still closed her face shows her discomfort. Where's the aircon? Then her mind became hazy. She couldn't think straight. What was she thinking again?
Little by little, magically, she could understand the whispers. Like it's not alien anymore. Aya is confused. Their language she heard is something she knew she did not learn or heard before. But at the back of her mind there is a familiarity.
"Call the Agaparo and Agapara, servant! Quick!"
"How about the Majesties?" a female voice asked.
"Y-yes! Of course! They should know about this too!" A frantic answer of a man.
"Right away, healer Hadi!"
She opened her eyes only to shut it again because of a blinding light - blinding light from sunlight that passes through the open window. Muli niyang binuksan ang mga mata at unti-unting ini-adjust ang paningin sa paligid.
Instead of while ceiling which she was expecting to see, she is greeted by white and golden canopy silks above her bed. On her peripheral vision she could see the dangling shiny silks from the walls that adorned every corner of the room with different flower ornamentals she is in.
Nasaan ako?
"Princess! How are you feeling?"
Noon lang siya napatingin sa gilid ng kama niya. A bald man, she thinks in his fifties, rushed to her side. Napakunot noo siya sa suot nito. He is wearing a one shoulder white man dress. Nakalabas ang kanang matipunong braso nito na may mga tattoo.
Just really, where is she?
"Tafali! Tafali!"
Sabay silang napalingon sa babaeng biglang nagbukas ng kurtina na tingin niya ay pinto. Napatda siya sa nakita. It's a very beautiful woman don in a golden gown with blue sash on her waist. And if her heavy jewelries wasn't enough, she had a solid silver and golden headdress with a bird's head and wings stuck out.
" Tafali, Pinagalala mo kami. " Umiiyak na pahayag nito.
Tafali? Anak ko? Nanlaki ang mga mata ko. Sino siya?
She's your mother. The back of her mind answered. Nakaramdam siya ng matinding pagkirot ng sintindo. Maybe it showed in her faced because they started to panic.
"My darling! Ayos ka lang ba?"
She knew very well she was speaking in a language that she heard for the first time but how come she could understand her? Pamilyar na pamilyar. Na tila iyon ang wikang kinalakihan niya. And where the fuck is she?
Biglang pumasok sa loob ang dalawang matanda na babae at lalaki. And like the first two persons she met, they are dress in an ancient way as though they are one of the people who live in the past. A very very long past. Parang mga taong madalas niyang nakikita sa mga inaaral niyang mga labi, artifacts at libro bilang archeologist. Napatda siya.
Ano ulit siya? Ano-bakit...
T-teka.. Sino ba siya?
She tried closing her eyes and despite of creeping pain on her head , she forced herself to remember. She knew herself yet she really doesn't know who she is. She felt different yet she knew at the back of her mind that this is what she is. That she is meant to be in this place and time.
The fragments of her memories were there but it was buried deep inside her mind and something vogue- somewhat like Déjà vu's memories poured out replacing it.
And just like the last time she woke up. Another agonizing scream left her and like the last time, she embraced the darkness that takes over what was left on her consciousness.
She was there, standing in the midst of a dark place and surrounded by broken pieces of mirrors. Her subconscious knew that the images they reflect were of hers.
That the child born on an aristocrat family, the kid on eyeglasses who showed a fascination to history, myths and legends and the teenager who finds joy and adventure when she first time joined her archeologist uncle in one of his site, is her.
Every piece of that thousand broken mirrors shows her life. From her birth till the day she had the bracelet.
A strong wind from somewhere blew and the mirrors move. Turning and showing her the other side of the broken pieces. It shows another set of memories.
Memories that she doesn't recognized but familiar. Images of which seem to be of the ancient past.
There is an infant born as the third child to a king and queen. A little princess that loves and loved by everyone in kingdom of Ur-Nemur and a graceful young lady on top of the temple, she saw it all until the moment the princess was bitten by a king cobra on her right arm.
And just like that, her life altered, a great leap of fate had begun.