Miss Salda pulled out a chair at the table and waited for me to sit down. It unnerved me to watch her glide across the room to retrieve a perfect black box. She set it down, and revealed a dusty purple rock inside. When I first looked at it, it just looked like a purple rock that you could get at a crystal store at a mall. Then, I saw a light shimmer inside it. It was like seeing into another world. I tried to snatch it out of the box, wanting to take a closer look. Miss Salda snapped the box down onto my finger.
I yanked them back and shouted, "Ouch! Why did you do that?"
"No one touches that before I explain the consequences of what we are about to do."
"Are you going to tell me or not?" I asked.
"This stone is a tool that my people used for thousands of years to retrieve their lost memories," she said. "There's one catch. Many times, things are lost in our memories because they are not meant to be found. What you may discover might be far worse than not knowing."
I put my head in my hands and thought about my choices. She was right, there might be a lot of things I don't want to know. However, there is one thing I needed to know. My dreams had been bothering me ever since I woke up from the hospital, and I needed to understand if they were real or not.
I closed my eyes and steadied my voice. "I want to do this."
"Okay then, my darling. You had your choice." Miss Salda took my right hand and gently placed it on the memory stone.
The pounding in my heart quickened, and I breathed heavily. I felt like tipping over the edge of a cliff.
"Relax. Close your eyes and let your thoughts take over."
The image of the necklace floated into the back of my head, and it started to glow. I knew something was off when my fingers slowly started to disappear. The next time I looked down, I couldn't see the lower half of my body anymore. However, the necklace was clear—clearer than I had ever seen it before—and there was a silhouette behind it. I blinked, trying to make out the figure, when I felt an energy pulling me in.
I shot my arms out to keep my balance and landed in a bedroom. Looking down at my right hand, the croquet ball on the bed was twice the size of it. I gasped and almost choked on my own voice. It sounded like a squeak, instead of sounding like my normal teenage baritone. Tilting my head up, I caught a woman sitting in an embroidered chair putting on a necklace while looking at her reflection in the gold mirror. I found the shape of the necklace so familiar… It was the necklace in my dream!
Who is she, is she the princess? I wondered. Why did she have the necklace from my dreams? Was she my mother?
Unless… The woman in the chair turned around, her curly brown hair danced around her shoulders.
Suddenly, my memories returned! It was my mother!
I was so shocked that I couldn't speak, but my mother began to talk in her soothing voice.
"Samael! You have grown so much taller since the last time I saw you. Where do we even start?" My mother smiled at me.
I could feel my eyes getting watery and I forced myself to speak, "What happened to you, mom?"
She walked across the room and sat in front of me. "This is just your memory, my sweetheart. I died a long time ago."
I broke down and sobbed. All this time, I honestly knew she had died somewhere inside me. Hearing it, though, made it real. My mom took my hand in hers.
"How did it happen?" I asked.
Mom hesitated. "I… I don't know if it's time to tell you. Do you have the necklace?"
"Uh, isn't it around your neck?" I pointed to the necklace.
She shook her head. "This is just a memory of yours. If you don't have the necklace, then we have a bigger problem than I thought."
"I never had the necklace. I don't even know where it is. I don't even know where I came from."
"Then, let's start there." My mother stood up and guided me into the long hallway.
"Where are we? Are we at the castle?" I asked, acknowledging all the portraits of the monarchs hanging on the sides of the hall.
"We are at home. You live in the castle," mom responded.
Every single time she opened her mouth, my mom shocked me. What was she possibly going to reveal next?
"Who am I exactly?"
"You are the Heir of Magio." My mother smiled at me.
I shook my head, not fully comprehending what she just told me. As the memory stones did their work, my childhood at the castle became clearer. I could remember bells ringing, like church bells. I could remember the scent of baked pheasant and suddenly, my mouth watered as I remembered the taste of it. I even remembered my mom's smell—lilacs. I knew she was telling the truth. "What about Salda? Isn't she the true leader?"
"No, no. Salda, along with Philips, were the regents. They were to rule until you came of age."
"What? That's impossible." Something like this couldn't be happening to me! I traced every word she said back as my memories kept returning. The stone was working overtime. My head was packed full of my life. Each moment, another piece of my life returned to me. Then, as if a wall in front of everything else, I saw one face. One man.
"What about my father?" I questioned.
She pursed her lips. "Well that's the problem."
"Is he dead too?"
"Dead?" My mother laughed a bit, uncomfortable, and quiet. "Your father is far from dead. Your father is the governor of Urbo de Renaskiĝo. Your father is Dr. Isaac Scollan."
"Scollan!" I thought for a moment. That was . . . Oh no.
"Dr Isaac Scollan who runs the hospital?"
"That's no hospital." My mother turned her eyes down and refused to look at me.
"What do you mean?" I was freaking out and grabbed her. "Tell me what you mean!"
My mother's eyes flashed almost black as she glared at me. I dropped her arm and stepped back.
"It's a prison," she said. "For people like you and me."
"Why would he put me in prison?"
"To harvest your powers."
I couldn't even speak.
"Your father is weak and petty. He killed me to get to you, and unless you get that necklace, he is going to kill you too."