"We have to find them."
"And do what? Throw a reunion party?" Ereck asked rhetorically.
"We should remind them about us, about themselves," Jayce replied.
"And how do you plan on doing that, prince of Brawns?"
"The same way I remembered, with the help of the spell."
"Perhaps you have forgotten the fact that the spell only works on oneself and besides, none of you is strong enough to cast it. Yes in the past you have cast spells way stronger than this but right now you all are as weak as an infant."
"Then how did it work on me?" Jayce was confused by Ereck's statement.
"Because of me you Brawns, I let you into my consciousness and that's how you were able to read the scripts in the first place," Ereck explained.
"Why did you of all people let me in then?"
"I was bored. I needed someone to talk with."
"You were bored…" Jayce was trying to fathom the situation that he was in when his phone rang. The sound of it startled him.
"Good morning, Mr Pierce," Jayce answered the call.
"Morning Mr Clark. Do you mind telling me your current whereabouts?"
"I… I just came for a walk, sir I'm on my way back to the campsite."
"Please hurry Mr Clark. We leave soon,"
"Don't worry sir, I'll be there in 20 minutes."
"Good."
"Shit, how far are we from the campsite Ereck?"
"I'm not your assistant, figure it out yourself," Ereck answered.
"Damn it," Jayce thought there was no point arguing with him and so he used his phone for navigation and ran through the woods as the map showed 45 minutes estimated time till his destination. Lost in his memories Jayce ran the whole way to the campsite and when he reached there his eyes were searching for two people, Mark and Samantha.
"Have you seen Mark?" He asked one of the students.
"He was headed for his tent a few minutes ago," "Thanks." Jayce rushed in to see Mark.
"Hey, Orion," Jayce said.
Mark was working on his machine when he looked up to see Jayce all sweaty and his attire was covered in dust. "Who? And what the hell happened to you bruh? Did you stumble into a cave or something?"
"Um… Kinda yeah." Jayce smiled.
"What? Really?"
"I'll tell you about it later" He was delighted to see him. "How have you been, frater?"
"Wait, you speak Latin?"
"Uh… I googled..." Jayce stumbled upon his words. "Anyway, what're you up to?"
"I was just cleaning it. That reminds me, I've tested everyone here. Only 3 people remain untested, Samantha, me and Amy and now I'm convinced that something's odd about you."
"What are you talking about?"
"Your aura dude."
"Oh that, have you told anyone about it?"
"No, not yet. Why?"
"Let's just keep it that way, I don't want to become someone's lab rat."
"But what if it's something serious?"
"I'm sure you can figure it out all by yourself… can't you?" He smirked.
"Of course I can."
"It's decided then, you figure out what's wrong with me but until then no one can find out about it."
"You're acting weird, but okay. By the way, you should get a shower. I think we'll be leaving in 20 minutes from now."
Jayce then realized that he was covered in sweat and dirt, "You're right. See you around, O--Mark."
"How did you become so quiet Ereck?" Jayce said in an almost audible voice. "Ereck? You there bud?" He didn't get any response from him. Jayce just thought that Ereck was ignoring him or zoned out and so he went to take a shower. When he got out of the shower he had to rush things as he just barely made it in time. When he was on his way to the bus he got a text from Samantha. "Where are you, J?" She wrote to which Jayce replied, "On my way, A."
In the bus, Samantha was sitting with Emily, a friend of hers, and so Jayce went to Mark who was sitting with Kevin. Seeing Jayce, Kevin left the seat mumbling "Jerk…," Jayce heard it but he didn't act on it and just sat with Mark. They gave each other a look and smiled then waited for the bus to start. The bus hadn't even travelled a mile when Jayce fell asleep, Mark wanted to talk to him but seeing him asleep he went back to his phone.
Orec was training with his sword when the queen entered the arena and said,
''Orec, are you busy, son?''
''No, mother, what brings you here??''
''I just wanted to know if you'd be willing to go pay a visit to Shacratia…''
''Sure, I will leave at next dawn, but mother, may I ask you what is it about?''
''Nothing to be concerned about. It's good to pay a visit to our neighbours every once in a while. It helps to keep our relations strong. And while you're at it, I would appreciate it if you could swing by Medria as well.''
''Yes, mother. What of Aron, mother?'
"What about him?"
"Do you mind if I take him with me?"
"You already know the answer to that, son, Brawns must always have at least one of its heirs within its walls."
"Yes, mother."
"Now get some rest before you leave for Shacretia tomorrow."
The bus hit the brakes and Jayce hit his head with the seat in front waking him up from his dream, "Ouch!". Mark laughed a little.
"Not funny, dude, it hurts," Jayce said.
"Come on, sleeping beauty, we're here," Mark said while he got up from the seat.
"Already?"
"Yup, you've been asleep the whole ride,"
"Yeah… I didn't get much sleep last night,"
"That's alright, by the way, you're coming to my place this weekend, right?"
Jayce had a confused look on his face,
"So I can figure out what's odd with you."
"Right, that… yeah, sure"
Outside the bus Jayce found Samantha waiting for him and Mark on the side, "Hey, Samantha," both of them said.
"Hey, guys, what're you two doing this Friday night?" She asked.
"Nothing much, why?" Mark replied.
"Good... I wanted to invite you guys to this party that I'm having," She told them.
"Party, but what's this party for?" Jayce asked.
"It's my birthday,"
"Oh, great!" Mark spoke.
"Yeah, it's actually on this Saturday but I'm throwing the party on Friday night and I'd like you guys to join."
"We'll be there," Mark spoke.
"Brilliant, I'll see you guys tomorrow then. Bye." Samantha said.
"I'm gonna take my leave as well, Jayce, let me know if anything happens with you, to you, whatever." Said, Mark.
"Okay, I will," Jayce replied and then they both went to their homes.
Jayce was starving when he reached home as he hadn't eaten anything since the morning, he washed his hands and an apple and just when he was about to have a bite Ereck spoke, "Hello, prince," it startled Jayce and he dropped the apple.
"Ereck, what the hell dude," Jayce yelled.
"What? No more 'good to see you old friend'?" Ereck mocked.
"Dude I've been calling you since this morning and now you come up and startle me like that?"
"Yeah, I didn't want to answer your stupid questions, so I went to sleep."
"But you don't sleep, you can't."
"Aren't you gonna pick that up?" Ereck said.
"Whatever… Can you help me remind Atria and Orion about their past?" Jayce asked Ereck but he didn't get a response.
"You a-- never mind, I'll just figure it out myself." Jayce sighed.
"Well, good luck then, prince."
Jayce spent the following days trying to figure out a way to remind his friends about their past. At first, he looked up the internet but he didn't find anything relevant to his situation. Days passed with no luck but then on the Thursday afternoon while browsing the internet for some audiobooks, he found a storybook, 'The three kingdoms.' it was titled, he clicked on it to see the description.
"The three kingdoms is a fantasy story that illustrates the civilization and culture of a world divided into three kingdoms and how they fell giving rise to the new era which is the current world that we live in."
Jayce found it very familiar to his past and thought that it was some biography of his past life and so he bought the book for $9.85 and read it instantly.
After reading the book he found that it was fiction and far from the truth. It was just a storybook for children but this book gave him an idea. He looked up the author and related books on the internet, after a few hours of research, he found a few matching books and so he wrote them down.
The next day he skipped university and went to the library to read the books that he had shortlisted the previous day. After reading the first two books he was almost convinced that he was not gonna find anything in there. In the third book which was titled, 'Orec', he read that a brave queen made a small monumental shrine in the loving memory of her ally who died saving their world from a tyrant named Marec. She made the shrine on the spot where she first met Orec.
Out of all the books that he read, he found it the most relevant to the actual history and because he was so desperate at this point, he went home and spent hours on the internet trying to figure out where all their kingdoms are now. When he finally figured out where all the kingdoms are in the current time, it didn't take him much longer to figure out their first meeting point. He narrowed it down to a radius of about 5 kilometres around the California Memorial Stadium. He was about to go out and scout the place when Ereck spoke, "The hell have you been doing all day prince?"
"None of your business,"
"Where do you think you're going?" Ereck said.
"I'm going to find a way to remind them who they are."
"Yeah at 11 at night and I can feel the hunger that you have. Go eat something, I don't want our body to grow weak,"
"Why do you care?"
"You're really gonna go at this hour?"
"Yes," When Jayce got up from his chair he felt dizzy.
"Fine, I'll just... go tomorrow." and after eating the leftovers from lunch he went to bed.
The next day, it was the 28th of November, Jayce woke up and started his workout only this time he did it more vigorously after which he rushed his breakfast then took a rental car and went out looking for the shrine. The South of the stadium was developed and had no shrine around it, the North had some shallow woods so he drove around it looking for any ruins of a shrine, then he went to the Southeast quadrant. After looking around he parked his car on the side of the road and went into the woods on foot. He kept wandered mindlessly for hours, it had been a few hours since noon and Jayce's stomach was growling with hunger when he got a call from Mark,
"Hey, Mark."
"Hello, Jayce. Are you okay? You've been awol for two days now." Mark said.
"Yeah, I'm good. I was just taking some time off to finish some of my errands."
"Okay then, I'll see you at the party tonight?"
"Oh, that's today… yeah sure."
"Bye."
"Bye."
"This isn't working, the shrine could be anywhere here," Jayce said out loud.
"I told you it would be a waste of time, and who to say if it's even here or not. If she ever made such a thing. After all, you're getting all this from children's fantasy books." Ereck spoke.
"I had to try… I have to… I have to keep looking..."
"Suit yourself then, prince."
The Sun was about to set when Jayce gave up. He walked a little further for one last try and there he found an old almost ruined shrine, the outside of which was barely holding up but when he stepped inside, the pillars and the walls stood strong though covered in algae and fungi. The shrine was bigger than it looked from the outside and it was made from limestone and the floor was covered with pentelikon marble. Its walls were covered with beautiful wall paintings that somehow had survived against time. At the centre of the room, there was an inscription on top of what looked like a tomb, however, Jayce was not able to read it like he was able to in that cave. But he knew it was made by Atria as he recalled seeing her once writing the same language. He was overjoyed to have finally found the place.
"Now what? There's nothing you can use to remind them of their truth, you can't even read anything here." Ereck pointed out.
"I can't, but she will be able to read it."
"Have you forgotten that she doesn't remember anything from her past? How is she gonna read it? I can't even read it."
"You can't because it's not meant for you, I saw her writing such language once and when I asked her what it was she told me that only the person who it was written for or the person who wrote it, can read it and once read it, vanishes. So if it's still here then she must have written it for one of us, and since I can't read it, either Orion or Atria herself must be able to read it. I have to bring them here."
"Hmm, and how are you planning to do that? We are miles away from home."
"I'll figure that out on the way. Right now let's go home and eat something."
After taking a quick shower at home Jayce was on his way to Samantha's when she called him,
"Hey, you alright?" she asked.
"Yup and I'm on my way to yours. I'll be there in 5 minutes."
"K."
When Jayce got into the party he went straight for food but Mark stopped him on the way, "Hey, where have you been all these days?"
"I told you I had some errands to run. Can you move aside, I'm starving." Jayce said in a rush.
"Okay, I'll be over there," Mark said, pointing towards a couch at the corner of the room.
"Yeah, I'll come to see you as soon as I eat something," Jayce said and left for the kitchen. There he found Samantha talking with her friends. He stopped there to see her for a moment, she was wearing a beautiful blue dress that night, then went and grabbed some barbeque chicken and bacon cheddar potato skins on a plate and started eating like it was the last meal of his life.
"Slow down you wildling, it's not gonna run away from you," Samantha said, coming from behind.
Jayce was a little embarrassed, "Umm…yeah… I was just starving..."
"Don't be embarrassed, it's okay to let go of your inner animal sometimes." She mocked him.
"Want some?" Jayce offered.
"No, you don't take food from the mouth of a grisly."
"Ha, ha. Are you done yet?" Jayce asked.
"Not yet." She smiled.
"You look stunning by the way."
"Thanks, but where's my present Mr Clark?" She said teasingly.
"Present…"
"Crap, I totally forgot about it." Jayce thought.
"Umm… you know I just thought what can I give you that no one else would think of? And so I decided to..." He said.
"You forgot about my present." She said,
"I did not."
"I was kidding Jayce, you made it here, that's enough of a present." She laughed.
"What're you doing tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow, I'm gonna sleep till noon then order brunch and eat it while watching 'Sherlock' on Netflix all day."
"So nothing,"
"That's not nothing, I'm a very busy person Mr Clark."
"Mhm, very busy indeed anyway, you know that Adele is performing tomorrow at The Greek Theatre, right..."
"Ugh, I know, I tried so hard but I couldn't get a ticket for it. I was so pissed, Adele is going to perform here and I won't be there to see it. Makes me wanna cry."
"Well, in that case, I'll pick you up at 6."
"For what?"
"First dinner then…"
"Then what?"
"Can you guess it?"
"What? You're talking like you're gonna take me to Adele's performance. Wait… no, you have the tickets!" She spoke in excitement.
"Yes," Jayce confirmed.
"Oh my god! I'm going to see Adele! Thank you so much, Jayce."
"I'll pick you up at 5:30 tomorrow, don't be late Ms Brown."
"Are you kidding, I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Alright then, I'm gonna go check up on Mark. See you around Samantha."
"See ya."
Jayce then went back to Mark. "Hey, you wanted to talk to me?"
"Yeah, I just wanted to confirm our meet up tomorrow evening," Mark said.
"I have something better. You can get all of your answers tomorrow night." Jayce proposed to Mark.
"You're kidding, right? How are we gonna know about your dual aura in just one night?"
"I'll just introduce you to some people who have all the answers to all your questions. You're just gonna have to come with me tomorrow."
"Are you serious?" Mark asked and Jayce nodded in agreement.
"Alright, I'm in."
"But first I need a favour from you."
"What?"
"I need two tickets for tomorrow's Adele's show at 'The Greek Theatre'. Can you do that?"
"Dude all the tickets have been sold out for that concert already, how..."
"I know. But I have to get those tickets by hook or by crook to show you the truth."
"What truth are you talking about?"
"My auras…"
"How's that related to this? And didn't you just say that you were gonna introduce me to some people who have the answers?"
"Yes, but Mark, trust me. If I get those tickets, both of us will get what we want." Jayce said convincingly as he looked into Mark's eyes.
"But why do you think I can get you those tickets?" Mark asked.
"Because if anyone can, it's you." Jayce held his hand
"Pff… fine I'll see what I can do but no promises and this better be worth it."
"It is."
"Okay then, I'm gonna go and try to get your stupid tickets. See you tomorrow." Mark said as left the party.
"Goodnight." Mark said, "Goodnight."
Soon after, seeing Samantha busy with her friends, Jayce left the party without saying bye to her. Jayce was halfway home, driving the rental car when Ereck said, "What are you planning to do?" which startled Jayce and he briefly lost control of the wheel.
"You dumbass, you have to stop doing it." He said.
"Doing what? It's you who has to get used to it, I can't do anything about it."
"Can you just… I don't know…"
"Doesn't matter, what are you planning to do?" Ereck repeated his question.
"Tomorrow I'm going to take both of them to the shrine and there I'll see Atria and Orion once again."
"But do you think Samantha trusts you enough to follow you into the woods?"
"Good point. I'm gonna have to make some arrangements for that."
"We'll see," Ereck said before going quiet again.
The next day, it was about 11:35 a.m. when Mark called Jayce. "Hey, Jayce, I secured two tickets to the theatre for tonight as you asked."
"I knew you'd get it."
"Yeah, yeah. So when do I pick you up?" Mark asked.
"For what?"
"For the show tonight. The tickets are for us, right?"
"Not quite. I need you to meet me by the California Memorial Stadium after the show."
"What? Why? What's the other ticket for then? What are you scheming, Dude?"
"Trust me, Mark, tonight you'll have the biggest discovery of your life. Just do as I say."
"Suspicious but fine, I'll see you outside the stadium around 9 p.m. You better not make me wait."
"I won't. And I'll pay you for the tickets soon."
"Alright, see you."
"See you, Mark."
"How did you know Mark will get the tickets?" Ereck asked.
"I knew he would. It's Mark after all." Jayce replied.
"Now what?"
"Now we wait."
"You know I can look into your mind anytime I want to, right?"
"You can but where's the fun in that Ereck?"
"Fine."