[private] i had a name but they took it from me

[lilliana]

Her last memory was of the Pass, a rocky plateau that had connected them to the kingdoms of Beyond. Lilliana and her brother, Malachi, stood on a small peak with a range of mountains surrounding them. They had been arguing, she remembers that much, though recalls little else. The dream itself was sporadic, and often the memories were out of place. There was Aletta, her silver brow furrowed; but why? She would blink, and then she would be alone, looking over lonely ledges. Then there would be Elena, murmuring something about Windskeep and Aesop and having to leave. 

And finally, there was Malachi. 

His mouth would move, and though Lilli had known that the words would be sharp and stern, there was no sound. His face would darken like the coming storm behind them - a late autumn gale that would bring torrents of rain and shake the earth with thunder and lightning. And that was where the memory went strange, where the dream would shift. 

She would try to explain, try to speak, but Malachi’s face would darken and darken, like the shadows from the dark clouds above had cast a mask over his once silver face. She remembers trying to tell him something, remembers that she was the reason he was angry. He was taking his family to Liridon, to a place called the Donietas. They would be protected there, and though she can’t remember why she refused, Lilliana had said no. 

That she would - 

What? What would she do? 

Malachi’s face would contort then, and then lightning would begin to strike. The world lit up in a blaze of white, blinding light and as Lilli would look to her brother, the last thing she sees is that his eyes have changed. They are no longer the soul-searching deep that he shared with their dam but a bright shade of electric blue.

***

The dream happened over several nights. Lilliana would close her eyes and try to rest in this strange place, and yet what would happen beneath her shut lids was even stranger. The memory would play itself over and over again, almost like a taunt, teasing her to remember. She would wake with no more clarity than the evening before, and the only thing that Lilli knew was that the mountains behind her were as strange as the dream she had. Her blue gaze would look behind her, and she would stare up at the purple peaks for something familiar when nothing else was. 

Where was she? 

How did she get here? 

Her chance to finally ask comes. Somebody was ahead, and the slender mare moved off into a trot. She was unmarked - no flame on her shoulder, no kelpie bite across her, no cut on her forehead. There was nothing unusual about her; nothing that marked her for the Immortal she actually was. Her coat glinted fire-gold in the sunshine, and she came closer to the other horse, Lilliana tossed her head to brush the curling forelock away from her face to see the stranger more clearly. "Forgive me," she called out when within earshot. Lilli slowed a little then, and exhaled softly, trying to blow out some of her growing nerves she came nearer. "But I'm looking for the Pass. Something is wrong, and I think I must have gotten turned around somewhere. None of this..." Lilli glanced to the mountains ahead of them, and then cautiously back to the stranger, searching their face as she had done to the unfamiliar horizon.

"None of this seems right."

@Ryatah