Rudimentum: Oracle

Chapter 12

The time for lies was over. But she did not want to hurt him. Her eyes welled with tears. She searched the fire for an answer but found only her hands gripping her knees.

William stepped back, seeing the indecision in her averted eyes. His voice trembled, and he swallowed hard. "You knew all along, didn't you?"

She nodded, still not meeting his gaze. "I did. It can be reversed." Her throat ached.

William narrowed his eyes. Here was the woman who had been his rock, his anchor, stopping him from drifting into the emptiness. His heart thrashed against his chest, the flood of emotions overwhelming his mind. His chest rose and fell with heavy breaths.

Then another question darkened his mind. He clenched his fists believing he already knew the answer. He looked at her. "Do you know how to make it?"

She wanted to turn further away. To not look into the eyes she had betrayed. But he deserved better than that. She raised her head and found his eyes were like a storm over the sea, every question crashing like a tidal wave. The rain grew heavy but felt non-existent on her skin. "Yes, I do."

Swift fidgeted uncomfortably. This was not what he had intended. Lightning flashed above the trees as if watching the scene unfold. "We should get inside—" he began.

"Why did you never tell me? Why did you never offer to do it?" he said, his voice laced with anger.

Elysia stood. "You said to him yourself that who you were then does not matter."

"Well, I lied all right?" he shouted. "It matters. You don't know what it is like to think back and remember nothing. It leaves a hole that just grows bigger and bigger."

"I thought you were happy with us, with who you were," she said having to shout above the thunder and rain. "The potion is too risky. It has been tried before and it has only worked half a dozen times. I have been trying to remedy that every chance I got, but before I could, Mordrake destroyed nearly everyone I held dear except for—"

"But what have I got to lose, Princess? I have nothing."

The words flew out in his rage, shooting through the rain, glinting like daggers in the moonlight. He had no idea what he had said until he saw the tears in her eyes. The tears that were mixing with the rain.

Elysia stood startled. She didn't know when she had started to cry but she could no longer control it. Her entire world cracked with the thunder and oozed with the rain. The troupe struggled to get things out of the wet, but they all fell away. She remembered her father, her mother, and her brother. Her kingdom and all the people she cared for.

"What have you got to lose?" she said. Perhaps he didn't care for her the way she did for him. He was fulfilling his duty to her father and nothing more.

The thought broke her heart.

"Elysia, I didn't mean," he began but she cut him off.

"No! No, I will tell you what you have to lose," she said pointing at him. "Your life for one. There are only three outcomes to this method. First, you regain all your lost memories, fine you can leave us and pursue those in your past. Second, you lose all your memories again and forget us all. And third," she paused and stopped herself from sobbing. "And third, you die. The overflow of memories causes your brain to go into shock and bleed, and you will die nearly instantly. Before we even have a chance of trying to save you."

They stared at each other, their faces dripping with rain. The comb in her hair glinted like a shining eye.

From out of the trees an arrow whizzed by. William had no time to move. It sliced across the corner of his left eye. It planted itself in the ground not far from Swift who jumped back as cries rose from somewhere in the troupe.