What happened?

Nicole's pov~

I was supposed to leave, I was certain he was speaking rubbish. I was certain he needed professional mental help as he was quite obviously unwell but I still accompanied him to his study to take a look at this 'eye of the storm thing.'

Of course, I was not expecting anything from him or the 'artifact' that was supposed to make me change my mind. He took me to his study and for some odd reason, I could still feel my powers. After so much time that had passed, I had imagined that I would no longer have any control over it but that was not the case.

The study was filled with books that looked like they had not been opened in a while. He went behind the desk that was positioned at the end of the room, close to the window and brough out an orb looking sphere.

"Here it is." He smiled but it was not the calm and collected smile I hated, this smile was more eerie, making him seem more insane than I thought he was.

"And what will that do?" I asked, eyeing the orb suspiciously.

"I do not know why but it seemed to have captured that last moment. The moment when Athelia burned me to death. It's all in here."

"I see."

Why did I follow him again?

"Come," he beckoned to me, "come and see."

I was still standing by the door, the air in the room was filled with dust. The orb in his hands cast a faint glow, getting my attention. He was still by the desk, waiting for me to successfully enter the room.

"Come and see," he urged me again, his demeanor completely different from the one I knew.

I did not move. I was not stupid. The room could be booby trapped and no matter what kind of confidence I had in these powers, I still needed to take precautions. Whatever was in that orb thing, whatever so called proof he had, I was not about to walk into his hands like an obedient fool.

"You bring it here," I said instead.

He did not react, his smile did not drop, he just simply stared at me in a way that sent chills down my spine. When I first arrived here, he was calm, just like he always, just like how I had known him for the past years but since telling his ridiculous story, his entire expression changed.

He was no longer calm, his eyes screamed something else, something I could not quite get my hands on. It was like he was two completely different people, the person who was in front of me at this moment gave off a completely different aura.

He was just smiling, just staring at me but yet I was shaking in my knees, there was something creepy about him, about his stare, about his smile.

He took slow steps towards me, the orb in hand and his eyes never leaving mine. The look on his eyes greatly resembled the look of longing he gave me when I first arrived at his residence, only now, it was more eerie, more determined.

He finally reached me and raised the orb up to my eye level.

"Look into it." He whispered, his eyes gleaming with expectation.

I looked into the orb but nothing happened, it remained still. I glanced up at the village chief who was still smiling creepily and I looked back at the orb. Something was happening. Some kind of light erupted from within the sphere and in it's depths, an image appeared.

It was the village chief's residence but out in the courtyard, a young woman with long, silver hair was in the frame. It was my mother, I would never misrecognize that silver hair anywhere, it was one of the things I inherited from her.

She stretched her hands forward and in an instant, a young man who looked like a younger version of the village chief got into frame, struggling against an invisible enemy. My mother released blue flames and within seconds successfully burnt the young man. He fell to the floor and another young man got into frame once the fire my mom had summoned had died out. With the intensity of the fire, that young man had surely not survived but if the village chief was telling the truth and that young man was in fact him, how did he come back to life?

I kept my gaze on the orb but there was nothing for a while, the other young man who had run into the frame after the fire was quenched desperately tried to wake the burnt young man but it was to no avail. He was dead. My mom simply stared at the scene, with no emotion on her face, then as if she knew something was watching her, she gazed up, locking eye contact with me.

The sudden turn made me jump backward and the village chief chucked, then the orb went dark, like pitch black until it went back to its normal state.

What the heck was that?

"You," I shifted my gaze to the village chief, "explain."

"I was hoping you could explain it to me. You can return to me, my lost memories. The one I suspect your mother took from me."

"If she took your memories, how do you know so much about your past?" I asked. If he indeed lost his memories, or if his memories were really taken, there was no way he would have known about how he met my mom or the fact that she was a god. It simply made no sense.

"Because I remembered bits and pieces. Thanks to this orb."

He still was not making any sense to me.

He continued. "If you notice it well, she stared up, she was not staring at you but at the person that was there at that time."

He was right, someone had managed to record the entire thing on that artifact. But who?

"What is that thing, anyway?" I asked. "That orb?"

He looked at the sphere with a look of melancholy, "I have no idea. It belonged to my father."

His father. I had just realized that his father was never mentioned during the fight at his residence.

"What happened to your father?"

"I do not know. He was gone by the time I woke up. When I awoke, I was in my father's bed, with a fresh new set of memories."

"What do you mean new memories?"

"My story had a lot of holes, did it not? A lot of things just did not add up, right?" He smiled, it was a calm smile. I was just thankful he was not looking creepy anymore.

"That is true." I admitted.

"That is because I do not have my full memories yet. But I told you most of what I remember. When I awoke after that day, I had no recollection of what happened. It was like it did not happen. In my memories, I became the village chief two years prior after my father died and I was never friends with Peter, your father. And Athelia, well, she was an orphan girl who was Peter's neighbor and the two quickly fell in love."

That was also the story I was told growing up. My dad always took pride in the fact that he managed to get my mom to fall for him because according to him, she was the most amazing thing to ever happen to his life. My memory of my mother was a happy one, she seemed normal enough, nothing like a god.

My head hurt, just this morning, I was excited to finally become a chosen and leave the island but then I almost died at the hands of a monster and now my mother was a god? My entire world was falling apart and my brain and body could not keep up.

"What does any of these have to do with the cave and the monster and the festival of the goddess?"

"I do not remember why the tradition exists. It is one of my repressed memories but it was still there, your mother did not erase that order from my memories."

"What order?" I asked, my heartbeat getting louder and harder. My vision was blurring and my ears were ringing. I was exhausted, I wanted to rest, I needed to sleep.

"Send any twenty women of your choice from the village to the cave every year on the festival of the goddess."

I understood nothing. What this man was insinuating was that my mother knew about the great injustice that was happening and still let it happen. She watched hundreds of women being sent to their death and yet she did nothing about it.

Why?

Could I even trust what this man was saying? My mother could never do that, she would never. She was so happy when she was chosen, I saw her face, I know my mother. She would never watch as innocents are being led to their death, as food for a creature.

"I'm sure you are struggling to come to terms with it but I need you to believe me."

I glared at him. "Why should I do that?"

"Because she told me never to pick you as one of the candidates, she threatened me to never pick you. But I did, because I knew that you were going to be the answer to everything."

My vision got worse, I was losing consciousness. I could not collapse, not there. Not when I did not get a single information. Not when I did not understand why my fellow women had to die so unjustly. I could not just collapse like that.

But I could not keep myself awake any longer, I finally caved in and fell to the floor, the impact knocking me out immediately.