Lord Edan had been gone for a week when a second messenger from the King arrived at the house. With Lord Edan not there, Sirah accepted the message. Edan was requesting that she send Mila and Alik to attend him at the castle while she, Radin, and Taran remained home to tend to the house and daily business. The messenger had arrived with both of their horses in tow, so Mila and Alik were not left walking.

‘This is what the master was talking about the other night. I wonder, how did he know?’ The Voice thought to themselves when Sirah told them they were to travel to the castle.

Edan and Eva had moved to a larger suite when it was determined that they would be staying longer than originally planned. The new suite included two small bedrooms, one for Mila and one for Alik, and a separate study for Edan to do the work that was being asked of him.

By the time Mila and Alik arrived, there was a palpable tension between Eva and Edan. They had been able to verify that Eva’s mother was, indeed, the ancient Queen Breena the second. Edan had told her about Kyden’s health and premonition and was insisting that she stay and help the Kingdom. Eva accepted the fact that her mother was the Queen and felt bad about the current state of affairs, but insisted that she still return to her own children as soon as possible.

One afternoon, about a month after she had first arrived at the castle, Eva was looking through a book in the library when she came across a spell that would lock away unwanted memories. When she saw it, she glanced at the phone she always kept nearby. ‘I have been here for nearly six months now and still am not any closer to returning. If I can lock away the memories, maybe I could be happy just staying here with Edan.’ She decided to take the book with her so she could consider her options and study the book further.

A few days after finding the book, Eva decided to go for it. The book said that the person the spell was used on may not remember it so with that in mind, Eva wrote a note for Edan explaining what she was going to do and why she was doing it. Starting early in the morning, she sat on the bed with the book in front of her and went over the instructions one final time. Once she was satisfied that she knew what to do, she placed her folded letter on top of the book, picked up her phone, and fell into a trance.

She was back in the room standing next to her well. Memory bubbles were drifting around, replaying everything from her life. Eva reached out with her sense to find the phone and once she had, called all the memories of the kids to her so she could funnel them into the phone. Before passing each bubble on, she inspected it to make sure it was one with the boys and pushed any that weren’t back up to continue floating around.

It felt like it had taken hours, but Eva was finally sure that she had captured all the memories and laid a seal on the phone. As long as she left it turned off, the memories that caused her so much pain and heartache would no longer bother her.

She opened her eyes and look down at the phone in her hands. Normally she would turn it on, but she had the strongest feeling telling her not to so she set it aside. Having forgotten what she was doing, Eva went to find Edan, leaving the book on the bed, open to the last page she had looked at.

“Edan,” Eva popped her head into the study where Edan was working. “Do you have a minute?”

Looking up, annoyed at being interrupted, Edan asked her to wait until he had finished the task he was in the middle of. When he had finished, he walked out of the study to find Eva sitting by the window, just admiring view. “Yes, Eva?”

Without turning away from the window, “I was going to ask if you remembered what I was supposed to be researching in the library today – I can’t seem to remember. But sitting here thinking, I remembered that a few weeks ago you had said something about me and the King having some sort of connection – I can’t remember what it was right now, but I realized that I haven’t yet met the King. If we have some sort of connection, shouldn’t I meet him?” Eva finally turned to gaze up at Edan.

“What are you talking about?” Edan all but yelled. “You’ve been doing your own research in the library. And I’ve tried to get you to meet with the King, but you have always refused because you didn’t’ think it was worth it since you weren’t planning on staying here longer than you had to.”

“Oh,” Eva turned towards the window again. “I’m sorry, my Lord. I seem to have forgotten.”

“What did you do this morning?” Edan was suspicious of her sudden forgetfulness.

“I don’t know,” Eva looked back to him. “I remember waking up this morning, but then I don’t know what happened until I found myself sitting on the bed with my phone in my hands. I wanted to turn it on – I guess more out of habit than anything – but couldn’t bring myself to do so. So I set it down and came to find you because I know I was supposed to be looking for something in the library but can’t remember what.”

Edan went into the bedroom and returned with the book that Eva had been looking at previously. Reading the note Eva had left and the page with the instructions on how to lock away memories, understanding dawned on him. “Eva, do you remember anything about your life before coming here?”

Eva thought back and explained that she remembered everything pretty well until about ten years prior. After that, she could only remember bits and pieces clearly. Other things were fuzzy and a lot of it seemed to be completely forgotten. She remembered most of everything since she had arrived at his house, but even then, some things were fuzzy or, like that morning, blank.

Sitting in the chair opposite Eva, Edan quietly contemplated what this would mean. “Do you still desire to return to the world you grew up in?”

After a moment’s thought, Eva replied, “No.”

*~*~* Break

Edan didn’t require much of Mila or Alik. He had requested they come to the castle as much for their help as to give them the opportunity to see the castle and the city. Alik spent his mornings tending to their horses and helping around, learning from the others. Mila spent her mornings making sure the living quarters were tidy and learning from the castle staff. They both had the afternoons off and could spend them how they pleased.

The Voice was enjoying the time in the city. Each afternoon, they went down to walk the streets and observe the people to see if they could find any decent recruits.

The tension between Edan and Eva was also perfect. With Eva’s emerging powers, the Masters had said either to bring her to their side or be rid of her by assisting her return. Either course of action would be much easier with the two of them not getting along.

As the weeks went by, the Voice fed the tension, making a comment here to Eva about how unfair Edan was being or a comment there to Edan about how Eva didn’t actually care about anyone besides herself. Things were going great until one day Eva seemed to have just forgotten everything. When everyone gathered in the sitting room for lunch, Edan explained that Eva had decided she no was no longer going to try and leave.

That afternoon, while down walking around town, the Voice was quietly seething. They found a small pub and sat in the corner to go over the situation and come up with ways to make it work. When the Voice was about halfway done with their drink, an older man walked in with a sword on his hip. This man wasn’t from the city if he was carrying his weapon around – the Voice wondered if he was any good with that sword. The Voice waved the man over and paid for his drink and food.

“I’n’t it a bit hot to be werin’ a cloak like that’un?” The man asked as he sat down.

“I’m fine,” the Voice replied. “What is your line of profession, my good man?”

“Sell sword,” he answered around the food in his mouth.

“Good, I would like to hire you then.” The plan formed quickly in the Voice’s head and they spelled out what they required of the man. Once he agreed and they settled on a price, the Voice handed him a ring the masters had given them and explained that it had to be kept covered until the time to use it came. After the man agreed, the Voice returned to the castle to prepare.

*~*~* Break

The day after Eva lost her memories, Edan took her to see the King. Edan had met with Kyden the prior afternoon to explain what Eva had done and discuss what they should do next so he was not unaware of Eva’s lost memories.

“Good Morning, Lady Evailia,” Kyden greeted as the servant escorted them into the room. “How are you feeling this day?”

“Good Morning, Majesty.” Eva curtsied. “I am great this morning, thank you for asking. And how are you?”

“I am wonderful! And very happy that you have finally agreed to meet,” Kyden motioned for Eva and Edan to each take a seat.

After a bit more small talk, Edan placed Eva’s phone on the desk in front of her. Eva looked between it and him, unsure of why he had done that. He then handed her the note she had written before her spell. “We want to make sure that you know what you did and give you the option to undo it. If you choose to stick with the decision you made, we will honor that, but do not want this to be something you are unaware of.”

Eva read over the note and looked at the phone again. After a moment’s thought, Eva shook her head. “I locked away memories that were painful and causing trouble. I do not want to remember, at least not right now. Maybe in the future, but I just want to be happy for now.”

Edan looked at Kyden who nodded and tucked the phone and letter away safely.

Kyden then asked Eva about her mother – what she had been like, if the pictures of her really did look like her, what had happened to her. He then moved on to Eva herself – what her life had been like, what her mother had told her about their world, what she wanted to do with the rest of her life now.

By the time Kyden had run out of questions, the servants informed them all that it was time to prepare for the evening meal.