Mark of the Rising Sun

When we reached home, I went to my room. I wanted to talk to Hope alone and digest some of what had occurred in the soothsayer’s house. So, you’re a warrior of light, that’s a bit more than a familiar don’t you think? I asked Hope.

My parents told me that I had to learn the truth of our origins for myself, that my destiny would be revealed when I met my human. They never explained too much to me. However, it was very important that we meet and form our bond.

So, we’ll figure it out on our own. We have the book; we know that there are others like us, and that we are not alone. We must find the others; I don’t think we can do this alone.

I agree, but we don’t know where to start looking, I think it is best we wait and let fate step in.

You believe in that fate stuff?

After all that has happened, how can you not. We are part of a war that has lasted for millions of years, and we were chosen. That wasn’t by chance. Haven’t you ever felt drawn to something, that you were important?

I stayed quiet for a moment. To be honest, the events leading to my infection had seemed to be out of my control, as if I had been drawn there by something more than my own curiosity. The event at work, and then at the bombsite, had been fixed, I had been led on strings to my destiny.

My silence was enough for Hope, You see, fate brought us together, and it will draw the others to us as well. Just have patience; everything will work out in the end.

There might be something worthwhile in the book for us to find. I am going to spend some time reading it.

You do that, but I doubt you will find anything important yet. I believe it will be useful in time, but only when we need it to be.

Hope was right of course, the book was a good read, but it didn’t reveal all of its secrets at once. The parts I could read immediately, only gave a history of the wars, and the basic information about the forces of darkness and light. Basically, it told me what the soothsayer told me, and it went more in depth into history. It was interesting stuff, but didn’t give me any insight into what to do next or how to fight. It was infuriating.

I decided next to work on my memories. I was sure that those images that flashed by were pieces of my memories, and they were there somewhere despite what my parents said. I spent a lot of time by myself searching my mind for hidden nuggets of truth in the depths of what made me, me.

I searched high and low, in every nook and cranny of my psyche. For the longest time, I could find nothing, but then a light at the end of the tunnel. There, as far back as I could, I found a wall that didn’t match the rest of the décor. Without giving it much thought, I started attacking it with force, using mental weapons to drive cracks into the wall. As the wall weakened, more images broke out. I didn’t give up; I was determined to see this through. I got more aggressive with my attacks, relentlessly pursuing the goal of destroying the wall.

When all was said and done, there was nothing but rubble left of the demolished wall, and there on the other side were all the memories that I had shielded from prying eyes all those months ago. Free of their confinement, they all rushed me at once, fighting for dominance in my eyes, wanting to return to me. Overwhelmed by the sudden rush of information, my mind could not handle it. I screamed, and almost went mad with all the images trying to take priority. It was a blessing when darkness descended upon me and I blacked out.

I stayed in that catatonic state for several days. My brain had overloaded, and needed time to heal. During that time, I knew nothing but madness and confusion. I don’t think I was awake in that time, but swimming in my subconscious, trying to find the freedom to find my way out of the mess I had created. The harder I struggled through the many memories, the more confused I became. Hardly anything made sense in this world of muddle.

The day came where I came to. Mom and Dr. Aimes, were hovering over me. “What happened, where am I?”

Dr. Aimes answered, “That’s what we would like to know. You have been in a coma for almost a week now, and I couldn’t find anything wrong with you. We brought you here to watch you and see what happened next.”

“Well, Dr. Aimes, I was overwhelmed by all my memories. Apparently, before the council erased them all, I put up a wall and hid a good number of them behind it. When I broke down the wall, they all rushed me, and caused the state you noticed me in.”

“Woo boy, that would explain it alright. Only a witch could have done something like that. You must have already got your powers at that point, but nobody noticed in time. A rush of memories can overload your system and cause problems. Frankly, I am surprised that you are in such good shape, they could have driven you mad.”

“They almost did,” I admitted, “but, I have a greater destiny. I can’t go mad now. I am needed.”

She looked confused, but didn’t push it. “Anyway, I noticed a mark on the back of your thigh that wasn’t there the last time you were here; do you know anything about it?”

That was the confirmation that I needed, I had the mark of the rising sun. I had a destiny to fulfill. “Yeah, I know it. Someone told me about it. It’s not important.” Ha, that was a lie. It was very important, but she didn’t need to know that, this was my business.

“Well, if everything is okay now, then I guess you are free to go. I’m glad that no permanent damage had been done to you. We were worried.”

Mom and I left the hospital, with mom being sullen and quiet. “So you remember all of it now, everything that happened?”

“Most of it, I kept the important memories, and let them take the rest. I was just desperate to have something. I didn’t even know for sure I had done it. Sorry to have worried you guys. I just needed to figure it all out.”

“It’s okay, we’re just happy that you are alright, you made us worry. I guess it’s for the best though, everything is as it should be again, and we don’t have to start over from scratch again.”

“For sure, I felt like those memories needed to be released, and the sooner the better. A loss of memories could be used against me in the fight to come. I don’t know how, but there is probably away, like if they tried to free them while we were fighting. It would have made me vulnerable long enough for them to kill me.”

At home, alone in my room, Hope had more words for me. You had me worried, don’t do anything like that again. I couldn’t help you; I tried, but couldn’t reach you at all. It was horrible wondering whether or not you would ever regain consciousness.

It’s not my fault, I had to know everything, and now I do. Don’t blame me, blame the people who erased my memories in the first place. I am just glad to have them back again. There is nothing like having a 4 year gap in your memories where some of the most important things in your life happen.

We continued talking well into the night, not realizing that we had done so. Eventually the talk drifted into dreamland, because even in sleep, we were connected. The dreams were rather pleasant, the dream of the future having left me since I had finally got the message across. It had been a warning of things to come, and I needed to be ready to face the evil that would one day come to call.