Into the Source
For a moment, peace. A silence and calm Aurora had never experienced before.
But then, the Watchers came. From all sides, the whispers turned to shrieks. A thousand different voices speaking at her, into her. It was past the point of noise. The sounds echoed inside her mind, inside her brain, until there was no more thought. Just sound, then pain.
And then silence, again.
Aurora was suddenly shunted into memories of her childhood. Elementary school, then earlier. Things she had no business remembering. Playing in a crib. Then lying in a cradle. The memories felt like they were being yanked from her mind, perused, then shoved back inside.
Every part of her life replayed itself at rapid pace. The raw emotion of each scene came with full force, lasting just moments before the emotions of the next came to replace it. From childhood through to her training at the Dawning. All the way up to the screeching in the way. The attack that sent her here.
Just when she thought it was done, her mind wrenched and it started anew. Her life in fast-forward. Again and again. Aurora began to feel less like a person with each iteration. Instead, she was just a collection of experience. A deterministic reaction to a series of events. Seeing her past, the future seemed clear. Who she was, what she would become. There was no “Aurora” just... just...
Her body came back into sudden awareness as she landed hard on her back. Eyes, ears, skin, all came back into function in a rush of pain and pleasure. Vision stabilized into a white ceiling. A causeway. A dark figure stood nearby, out of focus.
Aurora realized she had just stopped screaming. Her throat was raw and she gasped for breath.
“Aurora? Can you hear me?” a familiar voice asked. Aurora tried to respond, but her mouth wouldn't work. The figure knelt close, resolved into a face. Raeth, their expression creased with concern. They turned to someone nearby, out of sight. “She's still alive. We need to get her to the Dawning. Now.”
The sensation of being lifted, then moved. Her wracked mind tried to make sense of it. Tried to compile her current experience while holding on to the revelations she had witnessed. So close to the truth. So close.
Tears dripped from her face as consciousness fled.