The teahouse wasn't that special, but it was fancifully expensive. I admired the lavish decor while we were shown our seats. If the food was as tasteful as the decorations, I must try the tea. They had their wares sold separately in a cafe up front. If you didn't have the time to sit down and drink your tea, or if you wanted to gift items to friends and family, you could just pop by and buy things. I stared obscenely so at said wares. It was very attractive and far easier to stare at the wares than to think about this meeting.

Li Na and I exchanged pleasantries with our server. I watched Li Na as she set her napkin in her lap and gracefully ordered. It was clear she'd been here before, as she didn't bother to glance at the ornate menu.

I gave credit to my etiquette teacher's hard work and gracefully slipped my napkin in my lap as well. I also closed my mouth and sat up straight in my chair. It was strange to think, but years of her drilling these things made it second nature to sit gracefully at the table.

The poor woman had two separate lifetimes of bad habits to wring out of me. If only she could see me now. I covered my smile with the menu to peruse my options.

I didn't have a clue when it was my time to order. Only one resoundingly clear desire came in: I wanted it all. When the end inevitably came, I was going to loot this place.

It all sounded tasty, so I ordered two separate afternoon tea stands. The different rose tea options were tempting, but a simple black tea would be better, given the assortment of my treats.

The server left with the menus and the two of us were left with only each other.

"I knew you were powerful. I didn't know that you're powerfully connected as well." Li Na said as she eyed me.

I cracked a small smile. "It's not by choice," I said.

"Your fiance is having me watched. I do hope you realize that." Li Na said. She was scanning my whole persona, and it was refreshing to be able to read what she was thinking.

I was surrounded by a ton of cold-hearted marble blocks that never showed how they truly felt. Then again, maybe I was reading her wrong and only seeing what she wanted me to see. My track record wasn't good. Still, it was with hope that I shrugged and said, "Which means he'll find out that I'm alive."

It was time to start actually using my brain. I couldn't afford to act without thinking. I used to brag about my intelligence, but now I was beginning to question if I was just as naive and arrogant as Augustus always thought.

One thing I did know was that Graham was going to find me eventually. I'd rather he find me on my terms instead of his.

Our teapots arrived before she could say anything more. Each of us had our own pot. They even gave us an hourglass to flip when it was done brewing. Li Na and I wanted it strong, so we received only one hourglass to flip.

"I'm not afraid of Graham," I said once the server was gone and the door was closed. There was a brief moment when I saw his true face, and I was shaken, but that moment had long passed. "I'm more worried about how you'll handle him coming after you."

"I'll be fine." Li Na said with an elegant smirk. "He can't touch me. My connections are just as strong as his."

This truly is like some secret underground war of the powerfully rich, I thought with a smirk. This was definitely more the setting of a YA novel than the horror zombie tale I was promised.

"What did you try to do to me?" I said briefly, enchanted by the hourglass and unable to look away from the falling sand.

"There's a patch on your memories and a block on your soul. I had hoped to remove both and help you." She said.

It took every iota of control I could manifest to not freak out. A patch on my memories? The block made sense because I couldn't access my literary abilities. There would need to be something on my soul to prevent that very core part of me from working. I was well versed by now in how this kind of spell worked. But something shielding me from my memories? What could I have possibly forgotten?

I must have said that part out loud because Li Na nodded and said, "I say patch, but there's actually two of them. They're just so close, and one is rather crude and old. The other one is unbelievably strong. When I touched the latter one, that man appeared, and you passed out."

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How interesting, I thought. I began gnashing my teeth in silent fury. It was almost as if he was the one to put the patch on my memory.

I somehow held it together as the server returned with our tea trays. There was a prolonged silence as we started eating and drinking our tea.

The first bite was heaven. Oh yeah, I couldn't wait to loot their wares when the end times came. Cookies, jam, sandwiches and more. Each bite was delightfully textured, and each sip of my tea reset my palette to engorge some more.

My favorite so far was my dandelion butter cookie. It wasn't overly sweet, and it was surprising that I found myself drawn to such a simplistic cookie instead of the rose, apple, or any of my usual favorite flavors. It tasted like home and the nostalgia of the Unruly Forest. I had to bite back tears as the cookie melted in my mouth.

"Is everything to your liking?" The server said coming in at the perfect time.

"It would be even better if I could order some of these cookies to go," I said with what I hoped was a bright, charming smile.

Of course, for the right price, anything was possible, but I didn't have to haggle.

"These were made by a novice baker. They're unpopular, so we can box up some for you." The server said.

Well, that was because people wanted the indulgent flavors they normally turn to, I thought. At least that meant that I could order however many of these I wanted—and I wanted them all. Money really made the world go round, I thought as I watched the server leave.

The server left, and Li Na and I were alone once again.

"So why did you agree to meet me if you knew that your ex was having me watched." She said.

She'd been brewing over this for a while and it was a fair question. "Because I don't care if he comes after me," I said with a shrug.

I wasn't sure if Graham actually cared about me or if he just wanted my father's company. It didn't really matter at this point because I couldn't give two figs about the company, and he couldn't have me. I was leaning on him, really just wanting the company and making sure I was truly gone. There was a time when I might have expected genuine affection for me. I might have never known his true face if I hadn't seen his threats towards Li Na. There was no way he wanted me. That boy wanted power.

"If he had a hand in your father's plane going down…" Li Na said with a strained expression.

"It doesn't matter," I said as I picked up my cup to take a long drag of the deep amber tea. I'd have time to cool off and think about that angle. Mordecai hadn't told me where or how my father was, so everything must be fine like before he'd bring it up to dangle it as bait at the perfect time.

And my father could handle himself. He had precognition before I was born. He'd seen things and seemed prepared enough to send Darius and myself off. It wouldn't be too out there to suspect that he was still alive, biding his time. The work he put into forging new identities and having money for us didn't spawn out of thin air. He was ready for what was to come.

"I'm more concerned about the patches you talked about," I said.

"Well, one is rather old," Li Na said with a faint smile. Something flickered in her eyes, and for a moment, I saw her gaze dart past me.

I stiffened and willed myself not to look. Clearly, we had a newcomer listening in, and this was all she would do to warn me.

"How old. You should speak freely." I said.

Her eyes connected with mine in a question. I nodded ever so slightly, and a small smile graced her lips.

My senses were still burning strong, so whoever was listening wasn't Graham. Maybe someone who worked for him, but it wasn't him, at least.

"How old are you?" Li Na said.

I picked up my cup and mentally tried to do the math. It hadn't been that long since I had a birthday, but time seemed to blend into itself, making it harder to differentiate between my three different lives. Technically, none of them were fulfilled; each was either cut short or paused. I rattled off the age that Dolyn was this year, given the month of my birth.

"That's why the first block on your memory is rather strange. It's over forty years old."

I could feel my stomach drop to the pit of my stomach. Over forty years old? How could I have a block on me that old unless…Was it done as Gwendolyn?

I used the tea to wet my mouth and delicately put the cup down. "How about the other." My voice had maintained its attempt at elegance.

"I've never seen such a refined memory patched. Whoever placed it on you fully intended for you to never recover your memories from twenty years ago." Li Na said.

A block that old could mean only one thing. This happened before I came into this world.

"You said you were trying to remove my limits and help me before that man appeared, correct?" At her nod, I continued, "Did you try to remove the memory patches?"

"I did, and before you ask, the only one I could touch is the more recent one. The older one may be flimsy, but something strange is attached to it. It reminds me of the patch tethering you."

"Tell me about the patch," I said, setting down my cup to add more cream.

"It's what's keeping you tethered to this world. It's also blocking your full potential."

My face must be incredibly easy to read, or it was just another one of her talents because she shook her head and said, "I can't remove any of them. I tried to loosen them up in the hope that you could rip them off, but I was stopped. Whoever made them is stronger than me."

"Can you get an idea of who or what made them?" I said.

"The crude oldest memory patch was done by someone who probably didn't realize what they were doing. The other two were made by the same individual."

It was clear that the one that made the two was Mordecai. But the crude one that was over forty years old was by far the strangest.

Who did I know forty years ago that could accomplish something like that? There was no way Augustus or my grandma could patch something shoddily...who did it?