He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and Sera froze at his touch.
Relax. He’s not Tyler. He’s not going to hurt you.
Unaware of her discomfort, Aaron said, “I can only imagine.” He smiled sympathetically. “I heard what happened. It must be so frustrating having lost some of your memories. If there’s anything I can do to help, please tell me.” He ducked his head bashfully as he added quickly, “I’d be more than happy to accompany you if you would like?”
Before Sera could respond, he walked away with his eyes on the floor, a dark hue staining his cheeks.
***
Three hours later a headache pounded through her skull. She rubbed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. With a couple of clicks, she finalised the last few details and saved the report.
Ten down, only two hundred to go.
Reaching forward, she placed her thumb against the corner of her monitor and, with a flash of blue light that scanned her fingerprint, it automatically signed her out and turned the screen off. She sighed and rolled her chair away from her desk. Standing up, she stretched briefly, her back cracking from having been in the one position for so long. Grabbing her phone, she exited her cubicle, nearly running into Hazel.
“Hey, Sera!” her friend and housemate said warmly. With a quick assessment, she smiled sympathetically and asked, “Rough day?”
“Ridiculous,” Sera groaned. “Getting there slowly, but I need a break.”
Concern flashed over Hazel’s face but she hid it swiftly behind a cheerful smile. “I was coming to see if you wanted to join me for lunch? I was going to head over to Tregua Park. After the morning I’ve had, I need some fresh air. I figured you could use some too.” Hazel held up two takeaway coffees and offered one to Sera.
Sera lifted her cheeks in what she hoped looked like a smile. “Sounds great.” Try as she might, she couldn’t summon the energy to sound more than slightly interested.
“Let’s go to Donny’s. He makes the best chicken wraps.”
“Sure, sure. Whatever you want. So long as I don’t need to look at a screen, I don’t really care what we eat.”
Hazel chuckled as she slipped her arm companionably through Sera’s. “No problem. Let’s go.” After a brief silence as they wound their way through the half empty office, Hazel asked, “So, how are you going, Sera? Really?” She raised an eyebrow as she studied her friend.
Shrugging nonchalantly, Sera muttered, “I’ve still got some bumps and bruises but I’m okay.”
“You know that’s not what I meant. I will come back to that question, but while we’re on the topic, how’s that scar on your hand?”
“It’s weird.” Sera pouted. “The original wound is completely healed but it’s scarred up in this weird gold colour. And I don’t know how to explain it properly but it tingles underneath the skin. Nothing I do eases it. And the bruise in the crook of my elbow is still painful, too. This will sound dumb,” she hesitated and dropped her eyes, “but I feel like my memory loss has something to do with it.”
Hazel gently took her hand as they walked and turned it over, rubbing her thumb tenderly over the palm. The elevator doors hissed open and the disembodied voice of the MRO’s Artificial Intelligence, Frank, echoed out of the lift. “You have arrived at Level Three, housing the Tracker’s Hub.”
Sera was so engrossed in studying her hand with Hazel she nearly ran into a Tracker exiting the elevator.
“Watch it!” the woman barked.
“Tracker Helena!” Sera leapt back, nearly crashing into Hazel in the process. “I’m so sorry, ma’am. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
The Head Tracker was an ornery woman with grey strands spreading through her black locks and lines etched deep in her face from years in the sun. She was a talented Tracker but now spent most of her days arranging the assignments for the Trackers under her care and giving the occasional training session at MINATH. She glared at the two younger women and grunted.
“Tracker Seraphina. I was just coming up to tell you I received your application to resume field work, but now I wonder whether you are ready. Your head doesn’t seem to be in the right space yet.”
“Please, ma’am, I have to get back out there. Being stuck behind a desk isn’t helping me at all. I know I can do it.”
“The medical team haven’t figured out what caused your amnesia. Understandably, they are reluctant to put you at risk in case it worsens while you’re out on a mission.”
“I’m doing the meditation exercises they’ve given me, and there’s been no sign of me losing any more of my memories. Please, I need to do my job. I’m going crazy sitting in front of a screen all day. I’m sure if I felt more like my old self, my memories would eventually come back. Please, Tracker Helena.” She was begging now but she didn’t care. “I need a purpose. One that doesn’t involve transcribing forty-year-old paperwork!”
Tracker Helena sighed. “All right. If it will shut you up, I’ll sign off on your request. But get your head on straight, girl. I don’t want to regret my decision.” Something caught her attention and she paused, then pursed her lips. Snatching Sera’s hand, she demanded, “What’s this on your palm?”
“You mean my scar? I got it on my trip but I can’t remember how.”
“Hmmm. That’s odd.” Releasing her hand abruptly, as if it had burnt her, Tracker Helena scanned Sera’s face intently before sighing. “I knew someone else who had one of these. They’re long gone now.” Grief flitted across her face, quickly replaced by confusion. Noticing Sera’s searching look, she rearranged her features into their usual scowl.
“Please, ma’am, can you tell me who had a scar resembling mine? Where did they get theirs from?”
Something akin to fear flashed in her eyes, and the older woman lowered her voice. “This is not the place to discuss such things.” Louder, she said, “Meet me at the stables tomorrow afternoon and we’ll go for a training session to ensure you’re ready to return to field work.” Nodding dismissively to the two friends, she turned and strode away.
Chapter Three
Donny, the tauron at the Mandar City Market, passed them their wraps. Sera eyed him in disdain. He might be a talented baker, but last month she’d seen him treat a young homeless boy like he was a rogue werewolf. After the kid had attempted to steal a pastry Donny had pinned him down with his cloven hoof so hard it looked as if the boy was going to suffocate. She’d offered to pay for the food but the half-man, half-bull wanted to teach the boy a lesson. Luckily, he escaped, but every now and then she caught herself wondering about the child.
No, the kid shouldn’t have stolen, but it was obvious he was starving. Where was Donny’s compassion?
Clutching their lunch and coffees to their chest, they left the stall and wound their way through the market. Leading the way, Hazel took them to the Sotor River where they sat down on a bench. Ever since she woke up on the road in the dark with no memories from her camping trip, a black cloud had clung to Sera. The gloom had settled into her bones, making it hard to find joy in anything. Anger constantly rippled just below the surface of her emotions, ready to burst out at any inconvenience.
Fuck this shit. I’m so over this.
She itched the inside of her elbow. The bruise was healing, but she had no idea how she got it.
“Okay,” Hazel began as she took a sip of coffee, “talk to me. We haven’t really had a chance to have a proper chat since you came home. How are you?”
“Honestly? Pretty shit. It’s a surreal feeling to know that over a week passed without having any knowledge of the things that happened in that time. I can see the physical marks on my body and feel the ache in my muscles, so I can’t have just lain in a coma the entire time. The not-knowing is eating away at me. I just know that something important happened but there is no memory.” Tears stung her eyes and she lifted her chin to look out over the river, clenching her jaw in an effort to hold back the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her.
“I realise you’ve been busy with the committee organising the Choosing. You can’t spend your life worrying about mine.”
Hazel’s eyebrows kissed. “Well, I do.” Noticing the shine in Sera’s eyes, she wrapped her arms around her friend and whispered, “It’s okay to cry.”
Buckling into Hazel’s embrace, Sera let go. She wept, allowing the strange grief for her lost memories to wash over her. Sobs wracked her body as frustration took over and she balled her fists against Hazel’s back. The release of her grief was cathartic. Slowly, her cries eased and she took a few shuddering breaths and pushed away, mustering up a watery smile.
Rubbing her back, Hazel asked, “Do you feel a little better?”
Sera nodded and wiped her tears away on her sleeve. Her friend kept rubbing her back comfortingly and suggested, “How about we talk it through. Tell me everything you remember before and after the blank spot in your memory. Tell me about your injuries and let’s see if we can piece together what happened.”
“Well, I left the house Saturday morning as planned. I hiked into the mountains and shot a doe.” Sera frowned in concentration. “I can recall skinning it, cooking a piece for dinner and putting the rest of the venison in a sack in a tree. Then everything is blank. The more I focus on it, the more it’s like,” she waved her hand vaguely in the air, “there’s a wall in my mind I can’t get past.”
“That’s odd that it cuts off like that.” Hazel wore a puzzled expression. “What’s your next memory?”
Shrugging, she said, “Waking up in the dark on the dirt road that leads up to Grave’s Point. I stumbled towards the city lights until Balthazar found me. He brought me to the MRO where the medics looked after me.”
“And what about your injuries? Tell me about all of them, no matter how small.”
“You already know about the weird scar on my palm and the bruise in the crook of my elbow. I have a clean cut on my other arm that I think is from a knife. There’s another scar across my chest that’s healed the same golden colour as my hand. I’ve got some chafing between my legs. I have no idea what it’s actually from but it kind of looks like I’ve been riding for a long time in a saddle, wearing shorts. I have some weird pricks on my hand and chest, as if something held me down with a claw the size of a hand. They’ve almost healed now but I have a cut on the inside of my cheek, which still hurts. Other than that, just the usual muscle tightness that comes from a mountain hike.”
“Can I look inside your mouth, please?”
Sera nodded and opened her mouth wide, tilting her head so the sunlight would expose the injury.
“Shit, Sera!” Hazel exclaimed when she saw the cut inside her cheek. “That looks infected. Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
Sera drew her brows together quizzically. “It hurts a bit, but it doesn’t feel that bad. I haven’t really looked in the mirror much since coming home, so I didn’t realise there was anything wrong.”
Hazel stared at her, horrified. “You and I are going home right now so I can fix you up.”
“But what about work?”
“Screw work. I’ll tell them I had to take you home because you’re sick.”
Sera opened her mouth to protest but her friend held up a hand, halting her grumble.
“I’m not taking no for an answer. Let’s go.”
Chapter Four
Exiting the lift inside their apartment building, the two friends turned right and followed the corridor until they reached Room 113. Swiping the Personal Security Band attached to her wrist against the control panel on the door, Hazel entered first and made a beeline for her work station. Sera followed slowly, but stopped when Perry stalked in front of her and sat down, tail twitching. Perry was Hazel’s cat, a tabby she’d rescued last year. The mangy thing adored Hazel but would take any opportunity to attack Sera – and anyone else who came to the apartment, for that matter. Glaring at the tomcat, she circled warily around him and joined Hazel. Her friend handed her a bottle of white liquid.
“This is a prototype I’ve been working on. It’s basically the same as Heal but it’s edible. Put it on the inside of your cheek and hopefully it will clear up that nasty sore.”
Sera did as she was bid, biting back a wince from the sting as the new version of Heal began its work. To distract herself she watched as Hazel busily pulled down tubs and bottles of various plants, oils and minerals from the timber shelves attached to the wall. Not for the first time, Sera admired Hazel’s desk while she waited for her friend to commence her creation process. It was a beautifully rustic thing, made of rosewood with curved corners and a hint of the original tree’s bark on the edge. There was a hole on the surface where a defect in the timber had been cut out, creating a perfect slot for her mortar bowl. Hazel carefully arranged each container onto the worn desk and rested her pestle in the mortar.
“What are you creating?” Sera asked.
“I’m going to attempt something no one has ever done before,” Hazel said with a wink. “I’m going to try to bring your memory back.”
Sera’s eyebrows shot up. If anyone can do something this complex, it’s Hazel.
Before she began, Hazel picked up a piece of fluorite that permanently sat at the back of the desk and touched it to her forehead, then her lips. Closing her eyes, she held it over her heart and stroked the purple and green crystal. Sera watched on with a slight smile. Every time Hazel performed alchemy at home she followed this ritual.
“I see you smiling, Sera. I know you think it’s silly, but the fluorite helps me focus. Why do you think I’m so good at alchemy?”
“To be honest, I believe it’s because you studied hard at MINATH and practise a lot. What other Alchemist has their own work station at home? But hey, if you feel the crystals help you, who am I to disagree?”
Hazel shot her an exasperated look. “I truly believe they help me to find my inner peace, Sera. Personally, I think you should give them more credit and try using crystals yourself. You might be surprised.”
“Fair enough.” Sera raised her hands in defeat. “Teach me the magic of the crystals, oh wise one.”
Her friend snorted and rolled her eyes but explained anyway. “They’re not magic, exactly. They just help to channel your own energies. Each crystal has a purpose. Fluorite helps me find clarity and focus. I use my prehnite point at work to help me stay calm. I keep amethyst beside my bed to ward off bad dreams. Before my family moved to Mandar City, they used crystals as part of their daily ritual in Soldenheim.”
Sera squinted and asked, “Remind me, Soldenheim is North-East? Across the Kaldern Ocean, yeah?”
Hazel nodded. “That’s right.” As she spoke, she lit a stick of sage and waited for the flame to take hold before gently blowing it out and coaxing the embers forward. “Not many boats travel there these days, so I’ve never met most of my cousins. My grandparents immigrated to Mandar when my mother was only six-years-old and they still use their crystals here. When I followed in Mum’s footsteps and became an Alchemist, she showed me how to harness their power to enhance my experiments.” She smudged the sage around Sera and commanded, “Breathe deep.”
Turning back to her desk, Hazel picked up a container and shook some small blue stone chips into her mortar and used her pestle to crush them. She explained as she worked, “This is azurite stone. Azurite is excellent for boosting your memory.” She placed a few sprigs of lavender into the bowl and set about grinding again. “The lavender helps ease stress, and now,” she grabbed a small bottle of oil, “I’ll add two drops of lemon oil to improve recall. Three drops of rosemary oil to stimulate the mind and,” she unscrewed the lid of a glass jar, “a couple of dried skyberries for mental clarity.”
She paused in her mixing and tapped her chin with a fingernail, lost in thought. With a glance at Sera, she smiled and pulled her
necklace over her head. A tiny glass vial filled with clear fluid dangled by a chain from her fingertips and she whispered, “This is melted snow from the peaks of Mount Gambrier in Soldenheim. It’s supposed to be formed from the frozen tears of Caelhi, the Goddess of the Air.” She uncorked the precious liquid and allowed three drops to drip into the mixture. A feminine sigh rose from the bowl along with a flash of white light. Both women gasped at the unexpected reaction and stared at each other with wide eyes.
Hazel reached out with trembling hands and scraped her creation into an unmarked container. “Look, I’m no expert when it comes to memory loss, Sera, but I truly believe this will help. I hope you don’t mind me using you as a test subject,” she joked with a shaky laugh.
Sera chuckled and shook her head silently, not trusting her own voice to work. She stood still as Hazel wiped the grainy paste onto the centre of her forehead, temples, lips and throat. Acting on instinct, Sera closed her eyes and inhaled, focusing on the intoxicating mixture of scents. She believed in Hazel’s abilities as a talented Alchemist but was unsure if amnesia was something one could recover from. However, that wouldn’t stop her from continuing to look for a way to bring her memories back. Something shifted in her psyche and she sensed an emptiness in her mind.
As if something is missing that was there before…
She probed her consciousness, hunting for an explanation, and felt a tugging sensation to the west. She wanted to cry from the sudden feeling of longing that pulled at her heart. The ache in her chest was severe and nearly dropped her to her knees. A sense of warmth rushed over her skin and she yearned for the touch of the soul that called to her.
Seraphina…
Someone called her name. She needed to find him.
Who are you? she cried in her mind.
It is Arius, your Soulbound. Our connection is tenuous. Where are you? Let me help you!
Sera wept from the comforting presence that filled her thoughts, even though she couldn’t remember his face. She couldn’t stop herself from blurting, I need you.
A Dragon's Body: A New Adult Fantasy Dragon Series (The MINATH Chronicles Book 2) Page 2