The low intonation in my

  throat caught, then immediately dropped into an airy, slightly higher

  pitched sound as my body slipped into slumber, though my mind

  remained largely awake. Over the years I had perfected a method of

  allowing for vivid, interactive dreaming that I often used to work

  through tough or demanding situations. The dream state allowed me

  time to not only play back conversations or events to analyze them,

  but run through different scenarios of solutions and evaluate what

  the consequences of each would be. It was an often invaluable trick,

  though I had never been able to reliably control what dream would

  come along first, though usually if something big or important was on

  my mind it came through with no problem.

  I had anticipated the

  dangerous situation with Toria’s rash decision would have no

  trouble being first on the block, but annoyance flooded my senses as

  I felt the nostalgia of an old memory wash over me. It seemed that

  the older I became, the more my unconscious mind wanted to replay the

  past and there was little I could do about it rather than just

  passively watch and hope the next was the scenario I was looking for.

  I dared not interact with memories, I did not want to taint or alter

  them in any way in my waking mind.

  “Aurora.”

  My self in the memory been

  asleep, the bed beneath me crude and stiff, though in my youth it had

  not bothered me and I had never known better.

  “Who are you?” my mother

  whispered hoarsely.

  Her voice was tinged with

  panic, knocking me fully awake. I slowly cracked open my eyes just

  enough to reveal my mother sitting next to a flickering candle and a

  strange, shadowed figure standing in the corner before her.

  My present mind into instant

  recognition of the event and it’s timing was a bit worrying. I was

  not particularly known for prophetic sight of any type, that had much

  been Evonia’s purview, but this exact memory seemed to be a bit on

  the nose for its timing.

  “Who I am will likely not be

  revealed to you,” the man said with slight chuckle at the end.

  It was a deep, commanding

  voice and it griped my young heart. I had not been used to

  interacting with his kind at such a tender age. Fear flooded my tiny

  body and I found myself wanted to call out to my mother for soothing,

  but some strange force kept me silent and unable to move.

  “That is not an answer at

  all,” my mother whispered. Her eyes flickered over to me and my

  still sleeping sister. “You can’t just sneak your way into a room

  with a mother and her sleeping children and expect not to explain who

  you are and what you’re doing.”

  “Do not worry about them.”

  The gesture flicked out his hand and motioned towards my sister and

  I. “I have ensured that we can have this serious conversation

  uninterrupted.”

  Mother rose to her feet, but

  jerked back as she tried to step forward, as if pulled back by an

  invisible hand on the back of her bodice.

  “As I said,” the man

  intoned, “there is no need for you to concern yourself with your

  children. They are whole, fine, and will find themselves very well

  rested in the morning.”

  My mother cast a fevered look

  in my direction, eyes wide, but slowly sat and looked towards the man

  with hesitant acceptance.

  “You’ve been very clever

  keeping yourself hidden for this long, Aurora. It has taken the baron

  a very long time and a lot of resources to find you.”

  Even in the low candle light I

  saw my mother stiffen and start to tremble. The child version of me

  felt a pang a fear in her chest. I couldn’t remember the baron or

  what it had been like to live in his manor, I had been far too young,

  but my mother’s constant fear of going back was enough to impress

  the fear upon me.

  “It’s been so long that I

  doubt he would recognize his children and I’m sure you remember how

  important his children have always been to him and the deal you

  struck.”

  “That deal” my mother

  spat, having found her strength again, “was not much of a deal, I

  did not have much choice in the matter.”

  “That is not how the baron

  describes it,” the man said, his voice softening ever so gently at

  the edges, “but men who come to my kind often are not the moral

  pinnacle of their society. It’s a shame really, we get a bad

  reputation largely based on those who seek us out, not our own

  actions. Is all part of the deal I suppose.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “You’re here to take my

  children back,” she whispered, a haunting sense of dread in her

  voice.

  The man stepped from the

  shadows just enough to let the light outline his sharp features. My

  eyes widened at how unnatural he appeared. It was not as if he looked

  so much different from any other man I had ever seen, but he radiated

  something I did not know how to place at the time.

  “That is what the baron has

  bargained for, though he has poorly worded his request and that’s

  quite the folly for him.” The man’s gaze turned from my mother

  until his eyes directly stared into mine. “I might have been

  inclined to let the failure to secure the terms slip, my family is

  getting quite the deal out of my finding you, but it seems your

  youngest has a rather intriguing ability. Go ahead and stand up,

  little one.”

  As soon as the words left his

  lips a weight lifted from my body and I gulped in a deep breath of

  air. On weak legs, I slid out of bed and stood, feeling much like one

  does standing up out of a pool of water after floating for a while.

  “It’s not every day I meet

  someone who has slipped their consciousness through my weaving,

  especially one so young. What is your name, child?”

  “Mari,” I answered,

  surprised at how clear and normal my voice was despite how much I was

  trembling on the inside.

  “Mari,” he said, the sound

  rolling over his tongue in an accent I couldn’t quite place. “Well

  Mari, you must be a very special little girl. Try to stay upright.”

  Before I could question what

  he meant, I felt a shudder run through my very core and every bit of

  the skin on my body tingled, every hair raising into hard goosebumps.

  I bent over at the waist and my knees shivered, threatening to tumble

  me to the ground, but for some reason I felt like I had to heed his

  words and locked my legs to keep myself standing. As quickly as the

  sensations bombarded me, they retreated, leaving me breathing heavily

  and my brain swimming. My vision was was murky and cloudy, the light

  from the candle blooming and obscuring everything else I could have

  seen. I heard my mother gasp and start to speak in panic, but sharply

  went silent.

  “You have much potential,”

  the man said, “it would be wasted with the baron.”

  The man paused and waited for

  me to straighten up and my vision to clear, then he stepped forward,

  crossing the gap between us, dropping to one knee so that he could be

  closer to my level. Even though he did not physically touch me, I

  could feel some kind of force pressing against me, like the air

  around him was thicker or different from the rest of the room.

  “It will also be wasted

  here.”

  Without a word about it, I

  felt that strange pressure slither around and behind me and Evonia

  cried out softly in her sleep.

  “Two talented little girls,”

  the man murmured as the pressure slithered back into place. “It

  seems the baron has dropped a delightful opportunity in our lap.”

  “What are you going to do

  with them?” my mother said weakly. She sounded defeated, like she

  already knew that no matter what she did or how much she fought this

  man was the one who would have his way.

  “Don’t be so sad,” the

  man said with a chuckle as he stood to turn back to her, “I see a

  beautiful and powerful future for your children. Is a pity really, I

  can sense your potential as well, but it is likely far too late to

  manifest them much for you, but your girls are young, they have

  plenty of time.”

  “Potential? What are you

  talking about?”

  “You will learn with time,

  my dear.”

  In an effort to provide

  comfort, the man reached out and placed a hand on my mother’s

  shoulder, though it was met with a shiver.

  “I see no reason why you

  cannot come along with them, though make note that I cannot promise

  that you will be able to stay with them, that is not my call to make.

  Do not fear though, our destination is not the baron’s estate, the

  fool only said that we are to find and bring you back, he never

  specified that bringing you back meant to him.” The man pulled a

  folded piece of parchment from his front breast pocket, unfolded it,

  read over the lines, and nodded to himself. “I am technically

  following instructions to the letter, but not the spirit, but the

  spirit doesn’t matter in these types of deals.”

  “Where are we going?”

  Evonia whispered, having been woken up.

  “A wonderful place,” the

  man said with a smile, “a luxurious castle with servants and all

  the finery that I believe you crave.”

  Evonia let out a happy gasp

  and she scrambled to her feet, nearly tripping herself up in the

  blanket in her excitement.

  “Really?!” she cried.

  The man let out a low chuckle.

  “I see things are quite settled.”

  “I suppose I don’t have a

  choice,” my mother whispered.

  “This is all certainly for

  the best,” the man continued, “I think this is precisely the

  situation my king has been searching for and I cannot think of a

  better outcome for all three of you.”

  As unceremoniously as the

  dreamed memory began, it faded away. I wasn’t sure if something had

  been done to erase the rest of the night or if I had simply forgotten

  the rest of it over time. I probed the memory at the edges, not

  wanting to alter anything accidentally and found a profound sense of

  void, leading me to believe that it had been intentionally done away

  with. The demon probably did not trust to leave a complete trail of

  events in the beginning, would have been dangerous to have us having

  known too much before he knew whether we were expendable or not.

  Pragmatic, though I did not like the idea that my memory had been

  tampered with, it opened up the terrifying idea that it had happened

  more without me being any the wiser.