Disclaimer: You know the drill by now.
IMPORTANT: This chapter is Isulet remembering stuff while she's out cold, so I will have very few mentions of the present.
Isulet stirred and groaned, lost in memories she thought she had left behind long ago.
The village. The village as it was when she was a child. She was looking on it as if she were a stranger looking at it for the very first time. Then her visions changed and she saw her three-year old self walking towards the graveyard. Her mother had been distracted, so Isulet had taken the advantage and sneaked off. Then the three-year old Isulet stopped dead and screamed. She had received her first vision. Then the little Isulet ran towards the wood that skirted the graveyard in a blind panic, she had been so scared. After a while the little Isulet looked up and saw her brother, who she ran to and hugged so tightly she thought he might be squeezed to death.
Then Isulet was taken closer to the present and she saw herself sitting and playing in the yard one day. The youngest daughter of the Sarmatian knight who had moved into the village recently. She strode up to Isulet with a determined expression on her face. She went and stood in front of Isulet, who was busily involved in her rag doll at that point, waiting for Isulet to notice her. When Isulet did notice her she smiled and sat down, accepting the doll that Isulet held out. The two carried on playing together until Morgan's mother came and apologized. Isulet's mother said she didn't mind and the two got talking, leaving the girls to play together. When the young Arthur came in he told Morgan off for taking his sister away from him, and that was the start of their feud.
Next came the glorious summer days when the two used to get up to all their mischief. There was Morgan, paddling her feet in the stream, and then she fell in and went and said that Arthur did it. Next there was Morgan taking her father's arrows and planting them on Arthur. That episode didn't turn out in Morgan's favour as Morgan's father began to teach Arthur how to shoot. Then there was Morgan and Isulet joining Arthur and the other boys on the archery field, and having fun splitting the arrows, then blaming it on the other boys. Next came the horse incident , at which point Arthur wouldn't talk to Isulet for a week. Then came Morgan and Isulet's sword fighting lessons at which they excelled (like in archery). Finally there was Isulet and Morgan's fathers riding out to battle and the very next day, in the heat of the sun Isulet had a vision that the two's fathers had died. Soon enough her and Morgan's families were wearing black.
Then came the raid. All the screaming, and the noises, and the smells. Isulet had woken up from her slumber and panicked. But she couldn't get out, her mother was helping Morgan's mother and so the whole family was with their mother. So all Isulet did was curl up in a small corner with Morgan and pray for it all to end. But it didn't end. All of Morgan's brothers died fighting, leaving Morgan alone with her mother, Isulet and Isulet's mother. Isulet prayed to anyone that it all would end, but the grim reality came when her mother was driven back into the house by a burning cart. Isulet had screamed for her mother, yet she hadn't answered, so Isulet really began to panic. Arthur had managed to reach in and pull Isulet out, leaving Morgan to die in the fire. He didn't do it on purpose but he didn't realise Morgan was still alive.
Then came Isulet's married life. One particular episode stuck in her mind. Arthur was giving her up to her husband after he had knifed her. Isulet was not the most pleased about the arrangement. On the way back the group were ambushed, a woad man had come to her and spoke to her, but he was talking so quickly that she could only make out one word Morgan. Isulet was about to find out what had happened for this man to say her name when her husband attacked and brutally murdered the woad before her eyes, regardless of her feelings. Then when her husband was standing over her a woad woman launched herself and attacked Isulet's husband and killed him. The woman had black hair like Isulet's and Morgan's. Turning around the woman met Isulet's eyes and they locked for a few seconds. Only now did her brain realise that that woman had been Morgan, and that that man had been her husband.
Next Isulet remembered things she had never remembered before. Things like her taking a knife to herself and cutting herself, just to see if she could feel the pain. It seemed that she was completely numb. Arthur often came and sat with her and talked to her, though never getting an answer. It had been the shock of her husband dying, but Isulet knew better. Her subconscious had recognized Morgan and had been trying to get Isulet to understand. Watching everything made Isulet feel strangely disconnected, as if she was just a spectator. That must have been how she was feeling. She knew then that she had lost two years of her life, and her brother had kept it from her.
Her brain clamed her by sending her memories of when she went with the knights. Either Dagonet or Tristan was always by her side, making sure she was alright. They fought beside her and made sure she didn't have to fight if there was a woad ambush. They talked to her when she was upset and they made her laugh when she was unhappy. Those two knights were her family. Arthur avoided her; Isulet understood why her brother was so distant. She had lost her memory, and for a while had lost all memories of him. What was it that had pulled her out of her depression? She asked herself. I don't want to think about Dagonet, it's too raw a subject, but I want to know how I started to remember. Her brain obliged her by sending her a picture of her birthday feast. The doctors said that no-one could give up on her. They didn't. And some of that feast stayed embedded in her mind, even if the rest didn't. After that it was only a matter of time before she had her memory back. Then the first meal she actually remembered she had come all over all shy. Tristan had made sure she sat down next to him and looked after her, and gave her some of his food.
Author's notes: Sorry if it's so short a chapter, but I can't think of any more memories. Isulet is still as old as she says she is. What do you think? It may take me a lot of time till my next update, as I'm going on holiday tomorrow and then I start school the next day. But don't worry, I'm not giving up on it.