The low intonation in my throat caught, then immediately dropped into an airy, slightly higher pitched sound as my body slipped into slumber, though my mind remained largely awake. Over the years I had perfected a method of allowing for vivid, interactive dreaming that I often used to work through tough or demanding situations. The dream state allowed me time to not only play back conversations or events to analyze them, but run through different scenarios of solutions and evaluate what the consequences of each would be. It was an often invaluable trick, though I had never been able to reliably control what dream would come along first, though usually if something big or important was on my mind it came through with no problem. I had anticipated the dangerous situation with Toria’s rash decision would have no trouble being first on the block, but annoyance flooded my senses as I felt the nostalgia of an old memory wash over me. It seemed that the older I became, the more my unconscious mind wanted to replay the past and there was little I could do about it rather than just passively watch and hope the next was the scenario I was looking for. I dared not interact with memories, I did not want to taint or alter them in any way in my waking mind.

“Aurora.”

I had been asleep, the bed beneath me crude and stiff, though in my youth it had not bothered me and I had never known better.

“Who are you?”

My mother’s voice was panicked, knocking me fully awake, blurry vision clearing to reveal my mother sat next to a flickering candle and a strange, shadowed figure standing in the corner before her. I snapped into instant recognition of the event and it’s timing was a bit worrying. I was not particularly known for prophetic sight of any type, that had much been Evonia’s purview, but this exact memory seemed to be a bit on the nose for its timing.

“Who I am will likely not be revealed to you,” the man said with slight chuckle at the end.

It was a deep, commanding voice, it griped my young heart, I had not been used to interacting with his kind at such a tender age. Fear flooded my tiny body and I found myself wanted to call out to my mother for soothing, but some strange force kept me silent and unable to move.

“That is not an answer at all,” my mother whispered harshly. Her eyes flickered over to me and my still sleeping sister. “You can’t just sneak your way into a room with a mother and her sleeping children and expect not to explain who you are and what you’re doing.”

“Do not worry about them.” The gesture flicked out his hand and motioned towards my sister and I. “I have ensured that we can have this serious conversation uninterrupted.”

Mother rose to her feet, but jerked back as she tried to step forward, as if pulled back by an invisible hand on the back of her bodice.

“As I said,” the man intoned, “there is no need for you to concern yourself with your children. They are whole, fine, and will find themselves very well rested in the morning.”

My mother cast a fevered look in my direction, eyes wide, but slowly sat and looked towards the man with hesitant acceptance.

“You’ve been very clever keeping yourself hidden for this long, Aurora. It has taken the baron a very long time and a lot of resources to find you.”

Even in the low candle light I saw my mother stiffen and start to tremble. The child version of me felt a pang a fear in her chest, I couldn’t remember the baron or what it had been like to live in his manor, I had been far too young, but my mother’s constant fear of going back was enough to impress the fear upon me.

“It’s been so long that I doubt he would recognize his children and I’m sure you remember how important his children have always been to him and the deal you struck.”

“That deal” my mother spat, having found her strength again, “was not much of a deal, I did not have much choice in the matter.”

“That is not how the baron describes it,” the man said, his voice softening ever so gently at the edges, “but men who come to my kind often are not the moral pinnacle of their society. It’s a shame really, we get a bad reputation largely based on those who seek us out, not our own actions. Is all part of the deal I suppose.”

“You’re here to take my children back,” she whispered, a haunting sense of dread in her voice.

The man stepped from the shadows just enough to let the light outline his sharp features. My eyes widened at how unnatural he appeared. It was not as if he looked so much different from any other man I had ever seen, but he radiated something I did not know how to place at the time.

“That is what the baron has bargained for, though he has poorly worded his request and that’s quite the folly for him.” The man’s gaze turned from my mother until his eyes directly stared into mine. “I might have been inclined to let the failure to secure the terms slip, my family is getting quite the deal out of my finding you, but it seems your youngest has a rather intriguing ability. Go ahead and stand up, little one.”

As soon as the words left his lips a weight lifted from my body and I gulped in a deep breath of air. On weak legs, I slid out of bed and stood, feeling much like one does standing up out of a pool of water after floating for a while.

“It’s not every day I meet someone who has slipped their consciousness through my weaving, especially one so young. What is your name, child?”

“Mari,” I answered, surprised at how clear and normal my voice was despite how much I was trembling on the inside.

“Mari,” he said, the sound rolling over his tongue in an accent I couldn’t quite place. “Well Mari, you must be a very special little girl. Try to stay upright.”

Before I could question what he meant, I felt a shudder run through my very core and every bit of the skin on my body tingled, every hair raising into hard goosebumps. I bent over at the waist and my knees shivered, threatening to tumble me to the ground, but for some reason I felt like I had to heed his words and locked my legs to keep myself standing. As quickly as the sensations bombarded me, they retreated, leaving me breathing heavily and my brain swimming. My vision was was murky and cloudy, the light from the candle blooming and obscuring everything else I could have seen. I heard my mother gasp and start to speak in panic, but sharply went silent.

“You have much potential,” the man said, “it would be wasted with the baron.”

The man paused and waited for me to straighten up and my vision to clear, then he stepped forward, crossing the gap between us, dropping to one knee so that he could be closer to my level. Even though he did not physically touch me, I could feel some kind of force pressing against me, like the air around him was thicker or different from the rest of the room.

“It will also be wasted here.”

Without a word about it, I felt that strange pressure slither around and behind me and Evonia cried out softly in her sleep.

“Two talented little girls,” the man murmured as the pressure slithered back into place. “It seems the baron has dropped a delightful opportunity in our lap.”

“What are you going to do with them?” my mother said weakly. She sounded defeated, like she already knew that no matter what she did or how much she fought this man was the one who would have his way.

“Don’t be so sad,” the man said with a chuckle as he stood to turn back to her, “I see a beautiful and powerful future for your children. Is a pity really, I can sense your potential as well, but it is likely far too late to manifest them much for you, but your girls are young, they have plenty of time.”

“Potential? What are you talking about?”

“You will learn with time, my dear.”

In an effort to provide comfort, the man reached out and placed a hand on my mother’s shoulder, though it was met with a shiver.

“I see no reason why you cannot come along with them, though make note that I cannot promise that you will be able to stay with them, that is not my call to make. Do not fear though, our destination is not the baron’s estate, the fool only said that we are to find and bring you back, he never specified that bringing you back meant to him.” The man pulled a folded piece of parchment from his front breast pocket, unfolded it, read over the lines, and nodded to himself. “I am technically following instructions to the letter, but not the spirit, but the spirit doesn’t matter in these types of deals.”

“Where are we going?” Evonia whispered, having been woken up.

“A wonderful place,” the man said with a smile, “a luxurious castle with servants and all the finery that I believe you crave.”

Evonia let out a happy gasp and she scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping herself up in the blanket in her excitement.

“Really?!” she cried.

The man let out a low chuckle. “I see things are quite settled.”

“I suppose I don’t have a choice,” my mother whispered.

“This is all certainly for the best,” the man continued, “I think this is precisely the situation my king has been searching for and I cannot think of a better outcome for all three of you.”

As unceremoniously as the dreamed memory began, it faded away. I wasn’t sure if something had been done to erase the rest of the night or if I had simply forgotten the rest of it over time. I probed the memory at the edges, not wanting to alter anything accidentally and found a profound sense of void, leading me to believe that it had been intentionally done away with. The demon probably did not trust to leave a complete trail of events in the beginning, would have been dangerous to have us having known too much before he knew whether we were expendable or not. Pragmatic, though I did not like the idea that my memory had been tampered with, it opened up the terrifying idea that it had happened more without me being any the wiser.