If you want to see the disclaimer look at the first chapter.
Long time, no post! Sorry about the long wait! I lost my first draft and then my computer time was restricted. I will try to get the next part posted before we go on vacation. You can expect it next week or sometime in the middle of August. Thanks for your reviews! I wasn't sure if anybody was really reading this! I'll apologize for the cliffhanger in advance. It's not a big one. Now, to continue the story…
Chapter 3
"Cera? Are you sure you're okay?" demanded Cye at dinner for the fiftieth time.
The girl clenched her hands around her napkin and ground her teeth. "Just fine, Cye," she growled. "Please don't ask again, I'd hate to hurt you."
The ex-warlords, Ronins, and Mia stared at her in shock. Had Cera just threatened Torrent?
Avoiding their eyes, Cera dropped her gaze back to the food on her plate. I still can't believe this started out as roast potatoes, she thought. Then she blinked. Roast potatoes? Eekk! They're back!
Cera jumped back, knocking over her chair and startling everyone present. "Okay, I take it back. I'm not okay!" she said as she quickly dragged the chair back into position. She fled up the stairs. Moments later the others heard her bedroom door slam.
Cera flopped on the bed and starred at the ceiling. She pulled the small recording device from under her pillow and turned it on. "My life is one huge confusing mess. First, my presence in the kitchen and frustration with the absence of the ingredients needed to make the few recipes I half-remember causes other foods to become them. Then the refrigerator turns into a large concrete flowerpot. How do I know I'm the cause of this? I don't. It's just a feeling of familiarity. Like this is something I should be used to, only, I'm sure I should have it under control.
"Next is the fact that after the refrigerator's transformation I collapsed from exhaustion. Some power I have is doing this and I think I wore myself out unconsciously. That's why I'm linking the … the… the occurrences to me. Oddly enough the idea that I have powers or special abilities of some sort doesn't alarm or excite me. It just feels… It feels right.
"Now I have more to think about. That… was it a dream? Hallucination? Vision? Memory? Whatever it was it threw a lot of names and images into my head. They're like what happens when cornstarch and water are mixed in the right amounts. They seem to have form, but when I try to pick a bit out to look more closely it melts through my fingers.
"Hmm… The names… Cera Date. That's me. My real name is Sincerity, but I've been called Cera for as long as I can remember. I'm reasonably sure that that name is not my only name. Rainbow Elemental Deception. So, I'm convinced that part of me is that rainbow-haired girl I saw. But how? I'm also sure that Deception of the Rainbow of Elements, Cera of Deception, and Dark Lady of Deception are also me.
"My life must have been really strange. Dark Lady of Deception? Who called me that and why? That voice didn't sound like a friend who might be teasing me. What is the Demoness Quartet? There were more than 4 voices. Who is Despair and why was she considered crazy for suggesting joining Talpa—who is Talpa? Who did I lie to? Who was ashamed of Dementia and why? Who is Destruction and why did she think we'd be better off in the Nether Realm than in the Mortal Realm? I can guess that the Mortal Realm is Earth, but what is the Nether Realm?
"Are Dementia, Despair, Destruction, and I the Demoness Quartet? Who are the Ronin Warriors? Why is the Demoness Quartet supposed to destroy Dais, Cale, Sekhmet, and Kayura? How are they traitors? How do I know my overactive imagination hasn't simply taken parts of fiction stories I knew before and made the story of my life out of them?" she sighed and reached to turn off the recorder. She flipped the switch, paused, and then turned it back on.
"I just don't know. I'm so unsure of myself. It is in my nature to watch other people. I notice things. Things like Sage's unwillingness to spend time alone with me, Kento's suspicions that I might poison him, Ryo's disappearing acts, and the fact that Rowen thinks of me as some sort of experiment. Cye is the only one who treats me normally, but I somehow feel that he is compelled to try to trust everyone. Mia is nice, but I don't know how she really feels about having me here. Now there are four more people to observe. I still don't know their names and me intuition is telling me that I'm going to be in trouble when I do find out. There is something very odd going on here. For one thing, almost half of the people in this house have weird hair. It's a cool-weird and not a freaky-weird. I'm also sure it's natural! Another thing is that green-haired guy's eyes. He reminds me of a snake. I don't mind snakes though—he seems like one the way Cye makes me think of dolphins." Cera heard sounds outside the door and turned the recorder off again. Leaving the tape recorder on her bed she went to investigate.
Cautiously she opened the door and looked about. There was no one is sight except for the large white tiger she knew was called White Blaze. She grinned at him, relieved that she didn't need to talk to any other humans yet. She thought again how odd it was that she could feel safe in tiger's presence. He wasn't exactly tame, she knew. The big cat moved past her into her room. Cera closed the door and tuned back to the recorder on the bed. Cera settled down on the floor with her back against the bed and rewound the tape. As she began to play back her recorded thoughts and feelings the tiger came and lay down next to her. He rested his head on his paws and looked at her with intelligent brown eyes.
"—if the doctor what right, what could be so bad in my past that I would choose to repress part of my memory? Even subconsciously… But maybe they're right. I don't feel particularly bereft. It's ridiculous to think that I'm used to amnesia and there is the obvious blow to the head, but I don't feel…"
She reached out to White Blaze and began to slowly rub behind his ears. He seemed to appreciate the attention. She fast-forwarded the tape a little.
"I met Ryo's tiger today. He seems more friendly than most of the boys in this house. Speaking of boys, why are there five of them living with Mia anyway?"
Cera turned device off and put it back beneath her pillow. She had just resolved to discover the secret the boys and Mia were hiding when the tiger began to growl softly. She froze and was swamped with a sense of approaching danger.