Chapter 4

This time her dream self was walking endlessly and tirelessly through a garden. It was nice, and a castle loomed overhead. She desperately wanted to meet this wildmage she had heard so much about. People here seemed to speak to her as if she was a the wildmage, but the last person she had spoken to (the one who had led her to meet the real wildmage) seemed confused and upset when she was waking up. Did she vanish? Or was something else wrong? It seemed like this dream place she constantly visited went on with time while she was awake.

She ran now, seeing what looked to be a stable. As she got closer, she smelled horses, and was flying through the air (after having tripped over a pile of dung), smack into a girl who was wiping her hands on a rag seemingly after polishing something.

Daine felt like she was being pushed in a cold lake, with a waterfall crashing down around her head. She was being flooded with memories that weren't hers, painful ones and happy ones. She sank to her knees and buried her head in her hands, trying to deflect the hopes and fears. When she was sure she could stand she arose on wobbly knees…and couldn't find the girl. She had vanished. Daine looked down at her hands and found her self gripping a blackened rag. She saw someone else's shirt, which had a familiar smell. And the voices of the horses were much more prominent. She entered the stable, and found herself saying, "Hello Darkmoon, I'm sorry I forgot to bring you a snack." Daine faltered. She had no idea where that name had come from, and then one of the memories that had flashed by her closed eyes told her the answer.

She pictured a short woman with closely cropped red hair telling Daine that this was Darkmoon, as her other horse Moonlight had died. The woman in her memory had a strange likeness to the woman she had met previously-her husband's name was George, and she was Alanna.

Daine was shaken out of her reverie when an arm was slung around her waist. Someone was kissing her neck. She spun around so fast, that the stranger was knocked into a nearby pile of hay.

"Daine! What was that for?"

She stood with her hands at her hips squinting at the unknown man, who was gathering himself with as much dignity as he could, and then standing, towering above her.

"Who are you?" she demanded furiously.

The man looked taken aback, and Daine suddenly felt ashamed. "N-Numair?" she ventured quizzically. He stepped towards her holding his hands out looking over her carefully. She didn't seem any different, her hands were all dirty, her long hair tied in a horsetail, and was just apologizing to Alanna's horse. But even though his arms were open, she didn't go to give him a hug, didn't offer any explanation of her behavior. So he closed the gap between them pulling her close to his chest. Daine's thoughts were in turmoil. In one part of her mind, he was her professor, in the newer part he was her lover and had been ever since they had gotten back from the realms.

"Are you brooding about your parents again?" asked this Numair who wore breeches and loose white shirts and funny boots asked.

"What do you mean, parents?" she spat. "My mother was killed in a car crash." Then it dawned on her. Her mother was not killed in a car crash…she was killed in a fire, set to her house in a little village called Snowsdale.

"Um, Daine, I think you'd better come with me." She tried to ignore the unfamiliar memories that surged through her as he pulled her along, and fought the urge to turn around and kiss Numair. She was dragged through stone passageways, until they reached the top of a staircase, where there was a bronze plate reading Numair Salmalin. He pulled her through the fancy door and sat her on an unmade bed, where she was swamped with memories of her and Numair. She got under the covers and he left. She heard him running down the stairs and yelling for Alanna. More memories. They were nearly along with the timeline of her own life except she was younger when almost everything happened. She started being taught by this alternate Numair when she was fifteen. And now…they were lovers apparently. She heard voices.

"I'm telling you, she didn't remember me!"

"That's impossible!"

"It's the truth!"

Alanna walked through the door with a very concerned and frustrated Numair behind her.

"Alanna!" said Daine.

"See Numair?" said Alanna, turning to him, "She remembers me."

"I'm sorry then." He replied stiffly. Alanna left, chuckling.

Daine went up to him and hesitantly put her arms around him. He smelled nice, kind of soapy, and kind of woodsy. He pulled away and sat on the bed. "Why did you do that?"

"I honestly don't know." She sat next to him.

"Magelet?"

"What did you just call me?" she questioned sharply. Then she blinked and remembered. "I-I mean, yes?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "Why did you forget? Why do you only remember some things when they are triggered?"

"I can't tell you Numair. I want to, but please, you remember that I don't know, er, remember everything just now, and help me. Otherwise other people will get suspicious too."

"Fine." He said shortly. Suddenly a mischievous glint showed in his eyes and he kissed Daine full on the mouth. "That trigger anything?"