Memories

Amie was underwater, struggling to stop herself from inhaling, while the woman in white floated above her. The woman noticed and assured her, "It's okay to breathe, this is not normal water."

Amie let out a massive exhale and promptly inhaled the strange liquid. To Amie's surprise, she could breathe just fine, "What is this? Who are you?"

The woman replied, "This is lunar water and my name is Sequana, the goddess after which this river is named."

Amie couldn't believe she was swimming in the same river as the one she followed to the mysterious grove. She was even more stunned that she was talking to an actual goddess, "What... what's happening?"

Sequana explained, "Amie, listen carefully, I don't have much energy left. The gods of this world are slowly losing their powers and dying. We are no longer as strong as we once were and once this world loses it's last god, it will die. Human mages used to be in charge of preserving ancient knowledge of the mists that flow through these lands. They used to be able to redirect all types of magic to flow in harmony, but now those rivers have become dissonant. They have no flow and their energy is in a constant state of chaos.

"I am unable to teach you the lost knowledge. With each passing day, my memories have filled with more fog and death is not far now. Remember the mist and waters are living and you will find your way."

Amie said, "I don't understand. Why can't you control the mist?"

Sequana was beginning to fade away, "It's too late. You'll find your way as your parents did."

Amie shouted, "Wait no come back! My parents! What about my parents!?"

It was too late, Sequana faded into the surrounding waters. Amie felt grief strike her. Her mind was flooded with memories of her parents, but it wasn't just her memories. The memories of Sequana started to invade her own precious memories.

She saw Sequana laughing with her mother over some unheard joke. She saw the first time her mother and the goddess met her father. Amie could see her parents' lives flash before her eyes through the eyes of Sequana. Amie came to the last memory, where she was a baby being held by her mother. Her parents brought her to Sequana to be blessed. The memory faded, and darkness took it's place for a moment.

Suddenly, light started to pour into the lunar waters. It was coming from the direction where Sequana had just taken her last breath. It was beautiful. Thousands of wisps of light exploded, lighting the water to reveal its true form. Amie found herself outside of the waters, floating in the darkness while a lunar phoenix formed in front of her. The phoenix flew into Amie. Her eyes were blinded by light, then darkness overtook her.

***

Some time passed before Amie found herself lying down in the meadow she wondered into earlier. She laid there staring at the stars above, tears welled in her eyes. It was hard to breathe, like a large brick was resting on her diaphragm and chest. She wanted to cry, but couldn't figure out how to. She was stuck in that moment before the flood of tears, when all hope feels lost, when darkness pervades every thought and there's no release from the clutches of a pain impossible to describe.

In time, fireflies began to flood the area, or at least that's what Amie thought. She wiped away the tears that hadn't had the chance to leave her eyes yet. When her vision cleared, she sat up to discover the fireflies were actually white stellar mist, gently floating in the meadow. The sight was so peaceful, a feeling of tranquility washed over her.

The mist slowly began to move into the woods behind Amie. The further the light got, the more compelled Amie felt to follow it. She got up and, just as an unknown force caused her to walk into the meadow, the desire to follow that same feeling led her away from the meadow and back into the woods.

Amie followed the mist as it slowly disappeared. Once it was gone, she found herself next to the river again, just outside of the oak grove. Looking back into the grove, she had a feeling she was never going to find that same meadow again. The magic of that land had been lost.

The river in front of Amie did not look like the lunar waters she had just been swimming in. It looked like plain, ordinary water. She could no longer see any mist in the area, and began to follow the river back to the ordinary world she came from. Once she reached the tunnel, Amie went back through to the bottom of the stairwell leading to the top of the tower, where her ordinary bed awaited.

Amie stopped herself from climbing the stairs for a moment. She looked back at the way she came from and was tempted to go back through that tunnel and to freedom, but she knew she wasn't truly free. If there was one thing Amie was incapable of doing, it was sacrificing her loved ones to escape. She let out a sigh of longing, turned back to the stairs and trod up the steps to her room.

Exhaustion overwhelmed Amie as she reached her bedroom. She collapsed on her bed and didn't stir at all until midday the next day, when she was violently shaken awake by Jacques and Julia.