Also, if you have trouble imagining the maces, do a Google image search fore "mace" and you'll probably find something similar.
Good Ol' Fashioned Amnesia
"68 bottles of Palma Potion on the wall, 68 bottles of Palma Potion… take one down, pass it around, and 67 bottles of Palma Potion on the wall. 67 bottles of Palma Potion on the wall, 67 bottles of Palma Potion… take one down, pass it-"
"For the love of Martel, Aya, shut up!" whined Genis.
"And it's not really doing much to help the whole 'thirsty' thing, either," added Lloyd.
"Meh. Fine. Be that way. See if I care." I crossed my arms, then quickly uncrossed them again because it would only make my arms hotter.
"You know," said Colette, who seemed to be virtually impossible to annoy, "I've never heard that song before. Who taught you that?"
I paused, not needing to feign my thoughtful look, as I genuinely didn't remember, having learned it many, many years ago. "I… don't know," was my conclusion.
"Oh!" Colette slapped a hand over her mouth guiltily. "I'm sorry. I forgot. I mean… I'm sorry!"
I waved a hand nonchalantly. "Eh, don't worry about it. Not like I can miss anything, anyway."
"I'm sorry…"
"Colette," Lloyd broke in, "stop apologizing. She said she doesn't care."
"Sorry for apologizing so much."
"Gah. You dork."
"Hehe."
We walked for a little longer in relative silence. Then I suddenly yelled, "It's too damn hot! Deserts suck!"
"Nobody forced you to come," said Kratos irritably.
"Deserts still suck," I retorted, maturely sticking out my tongue, and quickly pulling it back in again because the air tasted like sand. Little do you know, dear Kratty. Little do you know… My mind wandered back to when I had discovered a little more about my plight. We had just reached Triet…
FLASHBACK, WOOT
"SALVATION!"
Many citizens of Triet turned to stair at the young woman who had suddenly yelled as she walked through the town gates and was now laughing maniacally.
Lloyd, who was, at the moment, the only person who had come anywhere near getting used to me, sighed and poked me in the shoulder. "Aya, people are staring."
"Yeah. Your point? People stare at me weird all the time."
"I can see why," muttered Genis, and I laughed again.
"It would be wise not to attract attention," said a tired Raine.
"Ooooh, that's right! Aya shall be good now." I mimed zipping my lips.
"Let's just go to the inn and then talk," said Lloyd.
We did so silently. Everyone else was tired as we entered one of the rooms, but I was hyper and fidgety. Kratos glared at me as I hopped from one foot to the other anxiously. "Must you do that?"
I sighed. "Hey, I've been all cooped up in that stupid under-decorated cell for the past two days. Can you blame me for being restless?"
"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask you about that," said Lloyd curiously. "Why were you in there, anyway?"
Shit. I cocked my head to one side and tried to buy some time as I thought up a reasonable excuse. "You mean I didn't tell you?"
"Well, we were kind of in the middle of trying to escape, so no, I don't think we really got the chance to go into a deep discussion."
"Sarcasm from you, Lloyd?" said Genis. "I'm impressed."
"Sh…shut up."
"Indeed," said Kratos, "I had been wondering that as well. Why would the Desians feel the need to detain you?"
I sighed again. "I asked the same thing. Stupid leader-guy didn't tell me, the bastard."
"How did you get there in the first place?"
I shrugged and opted for the truth on this one. "Beats me. I just kind of popped up in front of the base and they found me before I figured out where I was."
It was Kratos's turn to sigh now. "Well, then, what were you doing up until they found you?"
"Um. I…I don't remember," I lied, then told the truth once more as I explained, "I was just doing whatever it is that I normally do, I think, and then there was this void, then this darkness, then this light, and I squinted and was all like, hey, I can squint, and then this thing… you know… and then I saw the sky, 'cept I didn't realize what it was until I started falling, and I hit the ground, and I'm all like what the hell, because there was all this sand all over the place and this big blue thing behind me, and then these crazy guys in red showed up, and the leader guy asked me what I was doing there, and I said I dunno, so he was all, take her to the detention area, and I was all, what the hell, and then they took me there and I stayed there for two days and the food really sucked." They stared at me and I lamely concluded, "I'm not very good at explaining things."
"So we can tell…" muttered Kratos. Then he said more loudly, "So you don't remember what led up to the void?"
I was impressed he had processed any of that. "Not really, but it wasn't anything unusual." I was just about to play with your lives for a while. Nothing new. I've done it many times before. "I was probably just reading or something."
"Hmm," he said, not letting me know what he was thinking, the bastard.
"Do you remember anything before that?" inquired Raine.
"Like what?"
"Like your life."
Then it struck me, like a wrecking ball to the head. Amnesia. Duh. "…I…no." I frowned and furrowed my brow.
"Nothing? Nothing at all?" asked Colette worriedly.
"Well, bits and pieces, but not enough to really amount to anything."
"Amnesia, then," said Kratos. Good ol' fashioned amnesia. "Do you even know if Aya is your real name?"
I shook my head. "I don't think it is. It was just what I said when the leader guy asked, and I stuck with it. It's probably a nickname or something."
"In other words," said Raine, "you won't be able to find your past through what you remember."
"I guess. I was too busy whining at the guards to really think much. Seriously, the beds are impossibly uncomfortable and the food really, really sucks. So I let them know that. Loudly."
"Figures you would," said Genis, to reconfirm his existence.
I opened my mouth to say something, then paused. "Wait a second…" I bit my lip in false thought before exclaiming, "Eureka!"
"What? Do you remember something?" asked Lloyd.
"I do!" I beamed at them proudly. "I'm sixteen years old!"
"Congratulations!" said Colette as the others sweatdropped.
"I'm afraid we can't help you, then, if that's all you can remember of your past," said Kratos. He glanced pointedly at the others before looking back at me. "We have some…issues to discuss, so if you'll excuse us for now…?"
I nodded and left the room without another word. Hmm, I thought to myself as I exited the building and strolled in a random direction down the street, what to do… oh! Doggy! That solves that! I skipped merrily over to the dog sitting by the oasis, vaguely wondering if Colette had named him yet.
After playing with him for a little while, we both plopped down on the grass. Everyone had gone inside for the night, so the oasis was empty but for us. Woman's best friend, yo. I rubbed the dog's head, watching the stars as if, at any moment, they would pop out of the sky and perform for me the entire musical The Sound of Music. They didn't.
"Aya," said a woman's voice.
"Hmm?" I said absently, half waiting for a tiny speck of light to burst into song.
"I'd like your full attention, please."
"Mmkay." I bemusedly turned my head to look at the dog, blinked, and jumped. "Can dogs talk in this world, then?"
The dog sighed. "No. If you'll notice, this is a male dog, anyway, and my voice is obstinately female."
"Maybe you're a prepubescent dog. Prepubescent boys sometimes sound remarkably like girls."
"I am not the dog, Aya. I am merely using it-"
"-him-"
"-as a vessel; something to speak through, as I haven't yet the energy to manifest myself in a physical form without assistance, or even just my voice, for an extended period of time."
"Who are you, then?"
"I am the soul in your Exsphere."
"So it is an Exsphere, then. But how can it even have a soul? This thing," I gestured to my chest, "just kinda popped out of nowhere. Well, my controller, maybe."
"Yes, well…" The dog sighed. "So did I."
I blinked. "Now that's interesting."
"Indeed. I am not sure if I even qualify as a soul, for that matter… and I do not know why you are here. But I was created, however that was done, to assist you. I can provide for you some basic necessities required to survive in this world, and on this journey."
"Journey? Wait, wait. Back up." I held my hands in front of me in a defensive way. "You mean the Journey of Regeneration?"
"Indeed."
"You already said that, and 'indeed' is my word. But that's beside the point. I'm not the adventuring type. I'd much rather just hang out in Asgard or Sybak or something until I can go home."
"I'm afraid you don't have a choice." As my eyebrows rose somewhat angrily, the quickly continued, "Nor do I. I have told you all I know. All I can do now is provide assistance when you need it. And that reminds me—you'll be needing a weapon."
"But I don't want a weapon!" I complained. "I'm a pacifist! I want to be a healer!"
"But you will need something else when your mana, or TP, runs out."
I frowned. She was right. "A blunt weapon."
"Like a staff? I believe that would be suitable."
"No, Raine's got a staff. I need something different—something smaller and easier to carry around with me."
"How about a mace?"
"Don't maces have spikes?"
"Not all do. Here, let me try something." There was a glow from the crystal Exsphere on my chest, similar to the light in the very beginning, except considerably dimmer and smaller. From it came a beam of light of the same intensity and diameter, aimed at the ground between the dog and myself. There, where the light hit the ground, it grew, forming a shape, one I supposed to be that of a small mace, about 14 inches long. The connection to my Exsphere broke, so that there was only a mace of light before me. Then it split to form another one, identical to the first.
The light faded, and in its place were two—you guessed it—maces, but not of the stereotypical sort that would first come to mind. They each were wooden, a dark cherry; the heads were beautifully carved, in a simple but elegant fashion. While there were no spikes, there were some more-or-less pointy bits: twelve, for each corner of the sort of corset-esque hexagonal prism. At the opposite ends, there were what looked to be adjustable leather-like thongs that could allow the maces to hang from my wrists when not in use.
"Spiffy," I said.
"I thought you'd like them. In any case, you had best head back to the inn before they begin to wonder. And remember, you must follow the Chosen on her journey."
"Okie-dokie." I could feel her spirit leave the poor dog, which now seemed to be quite confused, and withdraw into its Exsphere. "I don't like it, but I'll do it. No point in arguing with an unknown force." With that, I gave the dog one last pat on the head and stood, to return to the inn as suggested. I was actually kind of sleepy, after all that.
"Aya… wake up," came a now-familiar female voice inside my head.
"Mgh. No wanna."
"Get up."
"No."
"You need to get up."
"Five more minutes."
"You don't have five minutes. Get up now."
"Not gonna. Wanna sleep."
"-…-"
"Mmmgh."
"GET UP!"
"ARGH!" I rolled out of bed and made a loud thump as I hit the wood floor. "Ow," I said intelligently.
"You need to hurry." Her presence faded.
"Mrgh." I stood, stretching, and scratched my head for a moment as my eyes scanned the room for a mirror I had been too tired to bother looking for the night before. Finding one, I strolled over to it, still waking up, and peered into my reflection. Aah, the hair will do. It'd only get messed up again in a couple hours, anyway… Then I noticed.
My acne, mild and not terribly noticeable as it had been, was gone.
I blinked, then crouched and experimentally tugged up a pant leg. No leg hair. And even though I hadn't bathed for three days, I didn't smell and my hair wasn't all nasty.
That woke me up well enough. "WOOHOO!" Because video game characters don't have to worry about that stuff... Now wide-awake and cheerful, I grabbed the maces I had left on my bedside table and ran out. I was just in time: they were at the town gate. "Hey, wait up, yo!"
They turned, and Kratos sighed in a very Kratos-like manner. "What now? I said we can't help you."
"But-but-but you can't just leave me here!"
"Why not?"
"Because you just can't!"
"I don't have time for this."
"I'll just have to stalk you, then!"
As Kratos's eyebrow began twitch, Raine interrupted, "Why are you so eager to join us?"
"Well," I said, thinking quickly, "a you're gonna be going all over the place for the whole Regeneration thing, right?"
"Yes…"
"Well, well, well, maybe one of those places will trigger a memory or something!"
Now Raine sighed. "Aya…"
I clenched my fists girlishly in front of me and turned on my puppy-dog eyes. "Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease-"
"Fine!" said Kratos irritably. "We've already got two tagalongs, and frankly, I do not feel like putting up with you annoying me until we somehow manage to loose you."
"YES!" I cheered, jumping and punching the air a little too enthusiastically.
And that was that.
END FLASHBACK
I sighed. "Why couldn't I have caught them at Palmacosta?"