The world hums as I sleep in my rainy prison.

Despite all the changes that have transpired, there is a familiar rhythm, an inevitable pattern that emerges if one listens long enough. And listening is all I can do. It has been several decades since I was corporeal. Maybe people are getting smarter, learning from their old mistakes. Maybe they have forgotten about me and I will remain in this wooden box for all eternity, or at least until the alchemy that binds my essence to this stone wears away and I can finally escape into an everlasting rest.

Or maybe I need only one more opportunity to break the pattern that has been my existence these fifteen hundred odd years. Maybe the next person who slips that silver chain over their neck and presses the stone will be the conduit I need to return to a true life. And when that happens, I will finally destroy those who imprisoned me. For across these long centuries, although I have forgotten their faces, I have not forgotten their names.

One day, the box finally opens again.

I, of course, cannot see such a thing in my current state, but I have learned to mind my surroundings enough so I can sense this. I feel a soft hand lift the chain and my stone out of confinement and onto the neck of someone warm. Another hand presses the glamour and my body erupts from it, enveloping the girl who had found me. I can feel her energy pushing against mine. It is mortal, but it is fiery and fierce. A sacrifice worthy of my renewal.

In those brief few seconds, when the two of us merge, I learn what I can about her.

A castellan’s daughter. A daughter of Atlantis through her maternal line. A keeper of a Relic.

Now that is interesting. Much more unique than the usual plebeians who find me.

I try to divine more, but the moment is over, and I must step back and merely watch.

She clasps her hand, my hand, around her mouth to stifle the fit of excitement. To her, I am a magical costume. But she will soon learn the truth. She stares ahead at the other woman in the room with her, and if I still had a heart, it would have skipped a beat.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Her appearance has changed slightly, but I would remember that hair and those eyes in any age, my sister is that striking.

“What do you think, Eliana?” she says. Even her voice is the same.

“I love it, Alea!” says the girl. So that is what she is calling herself in this era. Clever.

“I knew you would,” says my sister. The girl leans in toward Alea, but this, this is too much for “Alea,” and she reaches down her hand to the girl’s neck to withdraw my body back into the stone.

Several days later, I awake again as the girl is running about the island that is her home. She basks in the freedom I give her, to move unseen through the crowded market and through the soldier camps. I would warn her to be a stranger in the midst of the familiar may be exhilarating, but is also dangerous, especially for a young woman. But I do not yet have the strength to do anything other than observe. And wait.

Finally, after a half a year of dalliances, I feel strong enough to exert myself. And thankfully, that is when Alea has decided to return to see her young lover. She enters the girl’s bedchamber through the window and presses the stone while Eliana slumbers. I awake and stare at her, the moonlit sky casting a gentle glow on the room.

“Hello, sister,” she says. “I have been looking for you for a long a time.”

Eliana does not move and I take that as my cue, so I extend myself around the sleeping girl and it is as if I am almost alive once again.

“Sister,” I say, sitting the girl up in the bed. “It is good to see you. I do not remember the last time we shared such a quiet moment together.”

“That is because they have stolen most of your memories,” she replies. “But you, you somehow kept enough inside of you after…”

“After they reduced me to a hollow shell,” I say. “Yes, I was always quite remarkable. Tell me, have you come to restore me to my former glory?”

The sad look on my sister’s face tells me all I need to know.

“Finding this stone took centuries,” she says. “I do not know how much longer it will take me to find the others.”

“I see,” I say. “But I have been productive on my own while you were looking for me. And this girl you have found will provide me with strength enough for now, I think, to continue my work. With the two of us, it will be easy to track down where they have taken my-”

“I’m sorry,” Alea says. “But you cannot have her.”

I laugh.

“And why not? Is this not why you have ensnared her with your charms? You were always good at finding the … oh.”

My sister, ever the romantic, even if it will be fleeting.

“Yes,” says Alea. “Again, I am sorry. But, I will find others. The three of us, together, we will be so formidable. You will see.”

“OK,” I say. “We will do it your way. Because whatever draws you to this girl Eliana, I felt it too. She is special.”

“On that we agree,” says Alea. “For now, though, I must take back my present from her. But know this, we will see each other again soon. I am sure of it.”

My sister is a terrible liar.