"Are you kidding me?! SleepyHead, this is not the time to be sleeping, wake up... !!!"
Aaaah!!! Arféiniel screamed as she woke up.
What kind of joke is this? A voice in my head?
"I'm not just a voice in your head. Look at me, I'm right in front of you."
Indeed, before her stood a little boy, about five years old, with the same mark on his forehead as hers. That's it, she thought, I've gone mad!
"Naughty!!! We're not crazy."
"If I'm not crazy, then what are you? Are you in my head? Am I the only one who can see you?"
"Yes, I'm in your head. Yes, you're the only one who can see me. And no, you're not crazy. I am... I'm simply here to help you. Your guide, if you prefer. And you absolutely need me. We don't have time to waste, you need to recover your memories."
"Why is this so urgent and important? Where is Mikhaïl?"
Knock knock knock.
"Yes, come in," she replied.
As she turned her head to see who knocked, a beautiful woman entered the room. The moment Arféiniel's eyes met hers, she instinctively knew who this person was: her mother.
She wasn't sure what she was feeling. She had never known parental love, or love at all. For as long as she could remember, she had always lived alone.
In this life, at least, she had Mikhaïl.
"Your friend is no longer here. He had to leave, but he left a message for you. He asked that you not worry and take care of yourself."
Her voice… So soft and soothing, thought Arféiniel, who could only watch this stranger.
"Hello, my child. You must feel a bit disoriented after everything you've been through. May I sit next to you?"
Still unable to utter a word, Arféiniel simply nodded.
Her mother, seeing this, couldn't help but laugh as she sat beside her.
She resembled her so much: the same oval face, the same slightly almond-shaped brown eyes, the same slightly curly black hair. Only their skin color differed; her mother was fair-skinned, while Arféiniel's was slightly tanned—probably from her father, she thought.
Before she could say anything, she found herself in her mother's arms, who gently stroked her head, whispering apologies for not finding her sooner. She knew her daughter had lived alone and must have many questions. So, she began telling her the story of what had happened 30 years ago, on the day she disappeared.
Throughout the entire conversation, Arféiniel remained silent, simply listening, trying to understand what had happened. One thing she knew for certain: she hadn't been abandoned.
She remained in bed for three more days, under her mother's strict supervision. During that time, all she thought about was regaining her strength and planning her next steps. She took advantage of the time to reconnect with her newly found family—her father, her sisters, and her brother—and most importantly, to learn more about the small spiritual being that existed only in her mind.
He claimed to be a presence in her head, a fragment of the power she once possessed. He had no name, so she decided to call him Namua, meaning "guide."
Namua had taught her much about herself.
Although her physical body was purely human, her essence—the soul within her—was not. Namua's awakening wasn't a mistake; she had programmed it herself to happen at the right time. Except she didn't remember.
His mission was to guide her on the path of her past and help her recover her lost memories.
**
It had now been three months since Arféiniel had been on the island of Rurutu, and she knew she couldn't stay much longer. She had to leave. Mikhaïl had vanished, and she hadn't heard from him, which was starting to worry her.
Everything was ready for her departure.
PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...
PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...
PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...
In the stillness of the night, the warriors' horns began to blare. The dark sky, just moments ago, turned a fiery red. On the highest peaks of each mountain, the watch fires were lit. The alert for an aerial attack had just been given.
Panicked, Arféiniel dressed in her combat attire and rushed to her family.
"Quick, we need to take cover! We don't know what's coming!"
"No, Arféiniel, calm down, nothing will happen to us."
"What do you mean, nothing will happen to us?"
"Come, step outside, and you'll see."
And indeed, she witnessed something incredible. Ever since the alarm had sounded, no one around her was panicking. Everyone was stepping outside in their nightwear, faces turned skyward, observing a point in the sky.
"NIEL…" Namua shouted in her head.
"Do you feel it too? That energy?"
She did feel it, resonating within her. As the ground trembled, she saw an enormous statue rising from the ocean—a stone statue.
"What is that?"
"We call them TIKI. They are stone statues carved by our ancestors. They believed they were guardians, our protectors."
"And do you believe that?"
"We are devout believers. We believe in a higher entity we call the SAVIOR. We don't believe in the stone statues, but it is true that they protect us. For the past 30 years now!"
Arféiniel was stunned. Savior? 30 years? Were these coincidences? Too many, in fact.
But she had no time to dwell on it, as the massive TIKI clapped its hands, creating a magnetic force field that spread over the Australes Islands.
"How many TIKI are there?"
"There are five, one in each archipelago."
"What exactly is happening?"
"Every time our country is threatened, the TIKI activate automatically. We don't know how it works, no one does, but we all agree that it's for our own good and that we mustn't do anything to interfere with this mechanism."
"How is it that the rest of the world isn't aware of this?"
"We don't know either. We've come to understand that we're the only ones who can see the TIKI and the protective field. And honestly, in 30 years, the system has only activated a few times, always for false alarms. We've never truly been in danger. So, the secret has remained safe until now."