1 Waking Up

Gah!

With a gasp, she opened her eyes. Her heart pounded and she felt like she reached the surface after holding her breath for long under a pond.

Her eyes were dry and she blinked hard to get a sense of where she is.

There was the sound of rain falling on the tiled roof and the startled neigh of horses.

The leaky roof above wasn't of much help to stop her from getting wet. The wet stone tiles were cold as ice beneath her back making her shiver.

[Where am I?

Who am I?]

Feeling someone grabbing her legs, she looked down. A couple of men were beneath her feet and they were mumbling something.

[What language are they speaking?]

She didn't feel the need to understand their language as their actions made her startled. Before she could react, one of the men got to her and placed his big dirty hand over her face, covering her mouth.

[No! Leave me be!]

It was suffocating and she couldn't even shout. She tried to bite his hand, but his hold was very tight, she could do nothing.

She heard the window creaking by the gust of wind that blew and there she saw a cat, white as snow. Even in that darkness, she could see his eyes that were glimmering blue as the summer sky.

The horses neighed once more and her eyes blackened for a moment. Images of a battlefield popped up in her mind. The thick stench of blood, the corpses on the battlefield with their guts spilling, the rats, and the shouts of warriors...

It was nostalgic.

As she looked around, at a distance, standing on a heap of dead men, was a tall man with his cape fluttering in the wind although it was drenched in the guts of the ones who tried to kill him. It was as if the cape was acting similar to his spirit that rises in adversaries.

He was covering the sun and she could only see his silhouette.

[Who is he?]

Her heart skipped a beat.

Her dream, if it could be called that, was rudely disturbed when she felt a rough hand reaching between her legs.

[What is he doing? I don't like it... Stop!]

She felt the ground beneath her shaking and it seemed like the men felt it too. But they shrugged and continued to undress her.

At that moment, there was lightning that almost blinded her eye. The cat standing by the window disappeared along with that lightning.

And she saw a wondrous thing in that flash of lightning.

The sound of the rain had stopped and she saw the drops of water stopped falling on the ground. Through the window, in that flash of lightning, it seemed as if someone had drawn a thunderstorm and pasted it at the window.

When she looked inside, the drop of water that was about to fall on her, appeared to float ten inches away from her.

She looked around and the water drops suddenly defied gravity and stood in their spot as if something was holding them in their place.

[Impossible!]

*Drip*

The raindrop that was hanging over her fell on her and she heard the sound of rain resuming.

[Did I dream that?]

Bracing for the thunder, she tried to struggle out of the man's hold. She gripped the man's hand with her hand. But he didn't budge.

[Were my hands always this scrawny? And are these scars?

Wait... How did my hands look before?

Why don't I remember anything? Who am I?]

No thunder followed the lightning, but she heard a thunderous voice of a woman. She had a long stick and started to hit the men hard.

Those men scrambled away.

"...b@stards! Don't they know she is necessary? How could they try to do this when the Brute is on our door? Don't we need a virgin? They almost got our life ruined..." the woman started to curse those men.

[I can hear! I mean, I can understand her! Does that mean I speak the same language as her?]

[Maid Lucy!]

She didn't know how, but she suddenly remembered that woman's name. And along with that, came a rush of memories. She held her head as every memory of maid Lucy hitting her rushed back.

[Me? Did she hit me? But why don't I remember any pain? What is happening to me?]

She was confused and tried to make sense of what is happening to her. In her reverie, she missed the resplendence of the hallways she was taken through.

She was taken to the bath and was given a clean scrub.

Sitting in the wooden bathtub as Lucy cleaned her hair in a hurry, she closed her eyes in a meditative state to make sense of what is happening to her.

[I know certain things, like thunder follows lightning and other basic things like the names of things and certain memories, except for my name. Who am I? Why did I forget who I am? And why do the memories I got seem like someone else's?]

Deep breath in, deep breath out... and repeat...

Slowly, in her mind, she reached a calm place. It was not a place but she reached her deep consciousness. Oddly, it was filled with darkness. And it felt dense as if it was filled with something.

Water, perhaps?

There was nothing and no one at first glance. It was serene and pleasant.

As she observed, she saw a flicker at one corner and she got closer to it. Her limbs didn't move but she floated towards the light. As she got closer, that flicker got bigger and bigger and it shone like a wisp, the size of her palm when she reached it.

She reached out her hand and as if it had a life of its own, the wisp that was bright like the moon, moved away.

[Who are you?]

She didn't know how she came to that conclusion but she had a feeling that the wisp is a person – a soul to be precise.

"Stop dreaming you, wastrel!"

The obnoxious and condescending voice of maid Lucy, followed by excruciating pain in her head as her hair was pulled, made her return to reality.

"What?" She opened her eyes and furrowed her brows as she glared at maid Lucy.

As if her glare was astonishing as the Golom mountain levitating, maid Lucy seemed petrified.

"Wha- how- you witch!" maid Lucy stuttered.

[What?]

She looked to the side hearing a fizzling sound. A mountain was not levitating. It was just the water in the bathtub.

The water from the bath was rising and floating around. it had reached the torches placed on the wall and they almost got doused.

[Okay, what? This is happening just like before. Am I... Am I the one doing it?]

As her thoughts went in that direction, she decided to test it out.

She didn't have to try hard to find the answer. She willed the water to float and reach above maid Lucy's head and it did.

It was not hard for her. It was easy like she is getting out of the tub right now, just by thinking. She is not thinking deeply to do that. She just did.

Just like her limbs do what she wants them to do easily, the water is bending to her wishes.

[It seems like I can manipulate water? Hmm... interesting...]

"You, witch! Stop this! You're going to get us all killed!" maid Lucy spoke gritting her teeth. Her cheeks trembled as she tried to speak in a hushed voice when she just wanted to scream.

"Is that so?" she shrugged.

Judging by maid Lucy's reaction, she inferred that this is not the first time she is seeing something like this.

And with a pang of pain in her head, she remembered the past instances when she was beaten like a dog for doing "witchcraft". She? It was this body that got beaten. There are a lot of scars to prove it.

[Oh... that wisp... Is that soul the owner of this body? Then... who am I? How am I here? Why am I here?]

Her chest clenched.