“Autumn, let me in!” The girl's muffled voice came again.

Autumn. . .

Like I knew I needed air to breathe and food to keep myself from starving, I knew the girl could help me. She could make the twisting pain stop.

“What is-” The beast began to ask its question a third time.

“Her! I need her. Please.” I begged, my voice echoing shortly and strangely off the walls of the empty marble pool.

The beast stared down at me, unmoving. There was little sign of what it wanted from me or why it wanted to know my name, but I did not feel like it intended to hurt me. A droplet of water fell from the ceiling and plunked onto one of its ears, sending it into quick twitches. At that, It turned its deep blue gaze away from me and disappeared behind the edge of the pool

Brighter light reflected off the steam momentarily, showing me the blackened ceiling and water covered walls before dimming away to the sound of a heavy door being closed.

“Shit. What happened?” A dark haired girl appeared above me and said.

She wore a white dress with dark red stains on one shoulder and her almond shaped eyes were pinched with concern. She threw her legs over the edge of the pool, like Isla had off the dock, and slid down the slight curve of the marble.

“Hey,” She extended the word, like she was comforting a fallen child. Sitting as close to me as she could, she spread her legs and placed them on either side. “Talk to me. What’s going on?”

Tears welled in my eyes at the sound of her voice. One of the sorceresses around the crystal? No, she was a midwife. That’s why she looked so concerned. I had just become a mother. “Do you know where they took my baby? I haven’t even given her a name.”

Her dark eyes went wide.

Something had happened to my daughter and she didn’t know how to tell me.

No! She had seen something creeping up behind me. The steam filled air would only offer the already invisible canines further concealment. I whipped my head around, rose to a crouch, and tried to sharpen my aura. “The wolves! They’ve found us!”

The girl gently pulled me back to the floor by my shoulders and leaned me back. There was comfort in her touch and I let myself settle into her as she gathered my wet hair into her hands, the same way I had done with Isla.

“There’s no wolves. There’s no baby. Those are memories,” She said softly, wringing warm water down my shoulder. “You’re safe. You’re with me.”

That couldn’t be true. I had just heard their growls and whines. One had nearly snapped the bones of my ankle with its jaws not a moment before. My thoughts spun in the vicious whirlwind, feeling like they would be carried away and leave my mind empty, but I repeated the girl’s words to myself. No wolves. The wolves had been in The Houndsman’s woods. I was naked, at the bottom of an empty marble pool, and using a girl I thought I might know as a chair.

There were no wolves. I believed her.

But then, where was Gresh? I had been torn. I needed help or I would bleed out. Where had he gone after I had seen him spill his hot blood into the mouth of our daughter. No baby. I thought suddenly. My hand went to my stomach and I pressed a finger into the skin below my navel.

There was no pain. I looked down. There was no blood. There was no baby. I believed her.

They were memories.

“Are you Autumn?” I asked, seeing the blue beast prowling through my peripherals and back into my full sight. Its eyes did not so much as flicker from me the entire time it walked around the edge of the pool and sat down above.

“I’m Anna.” She corrected me, separating my hair into three sections. One down the middle and on each side.

“You are Anna,” I repeated. “The sorcerer? Did you know where he fell? I need to find the key and I can’t see very well without Clarus.”

“There is no sorcerer. You don’t know anyone named Clarus.” She said, her voice quiet but firm.

I had talked to the clear dragonfly, manifested the bow of wildfire, and burned the sorcerer in two, but she was right. I did not know anyone named Clarus.

They were memories.

“How do you know all of this?” I asked her, closing my eyes so I didn’t have to see the beast staring down at me with its tail swishing behind him. Some part of me felt that while it didn’t mean to harm me, it did not particularly like me.

“Because I know you.” She answered, taking the right section of my hair and continued to press the water out of it.

I believed her. She had to be one of my midwives, the one that had draped the sheet over me after Gresh carried me to the bed.

No. There is no baby. She is not a midwife. I repeated in my mind until it stood firm in the quieting storm. Those are my memories.

“I trust you. Why?”

For the second time in just a few moments, she answered. “Because I know you.”

“And I know you.” I said, feeling safe with her folded around me. There was a fondness for her I felt, something strong, a bond between Anna and I that I had helped create.

Suddenly, I raised myself onto the balls of my feet and spun around on the slick marble. “Are you the one who said I had nice tits?”

Apparently needing to jog her memory, she glanced down at my bare chest. Her face reddened with blush and she returned her eyes to my own.

“Don’t get all bashful now, it’s about whatever gets the job done, right?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “Wrong. You don’t have a job and I’m positive I have never told you that I think you have nice tits.”

“Damn. I thought I had it,” I said, turning and sitting myself back between her legs. I closed my eyes to avoid eye contact with the blue beast. “Keep playing with my hair.”

Anna did as I asked, her hands moving to the section she had separated on the left.

“We’re friends, right?” I said, furrowing my brows.

“You could say that.” She agreed.

“I did, but it didn’t feel right. We are closer than that. Are you a friend of Isla’s?”

Quiet but firm, like when I had mentioned any of my memories. “You don’t and I don’t know anybody named Isla. That’s-”

“A memory.” I finished her sentence. A memory, not my memory. The distinction felt important. It was a shame. I thought I loved Isla, but I believed Anna. I had never known her.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The storm still blew in my mind, but trying to remember how I knew Anna steadied my thoughts against the disorienting winds. “Are we sisters?”

“No, we aren’t that.” She said, starting on the largest section of my hair. The sensation of her fingers brushing against my scalp felt so familiar. She had done this to me before, I just couldn’t remember how or why.

“Then what are we?” I demanded, a small rise of frustration flaring up against the comfort I felt in her embrace.

A little laugh came from her and I felt it on the back of my neck. I wanted to hear it again. I wanted to hear it forever. It made me feel light, like I would float up to the blackened ceiling of the strange little room if she had not had her legs around me. “That’s something we should talk about when you actually know who you are.”

“I wanna know, so hurry up and tell me who I am.” I demanded.

“Your name is Autumn Aubrey.” She said with another little laugh.

I tried to shake my head in denial, but her hold on my hair was firm. “Hmm, I don’t think so. I don’t feel like Autumn Aubrey.”

“That was your name when you fell asleep holding me last night. I didn’t know it yet, but that was your name when you kissed me several months ago. That-”

“Was it?” I blurted out. I had kissed her?

She continued, speaking slowly as she took all three sections of my hair in her hands and began to weave them together. “-was your name when I did your hair and put you in the blue dress.”

“Do you always do my hair,” I asked, opening my eyes to see that the blue beast had sloped down the empty marble pool and sat an inch from the bottom of my feet. Still, I didn’t think it meant to harm me, but I got the impression that I had displeased it in some way. “What is that?”

“Samsara. He is your familiar,” She answered my last question first, her fingers working down my hair. “I could if you wanted. It’s so long, there are all sorts of things we could do with it.”

“It has gotten long. My mother said she would cut it today, but I think she has forgotten.” I said.

A different kind of laugh came from her, sounding more surprised than amused. “Who is your mom?”

“Idensyn Aubrey.” I said, wondering why Anna had asked. She knew my mother.

“Who is her daughter? Who does that make you?” She continued, finishing the long braid she had woven my red hair into and throwing it over my shoulder for me to see.

“Autumn?”

Silence. The last remnants of what had been a violent whirlwind in my mind died down and quieted.

I stood straight up, all the pieces of myself that Anna had collected suddenly braiding back into me like she had done with my hair.

Nami, Ola, Aster, Constance, angry red, gray girl, Zara Al Gareem. The list! The fucking list! Falling out of Mother Aster’s memory was what caused everything.

“Are you back now?” Anna asked.

I spun on the slick marble like I had before and threw myself on top of her, a jumble of words tumbling out of me. “Thank you! How did you know how to do that? I wouldn’t. . . I don’t think I would have come back to myself if not for you.”

“I’ve already told you twice,” She laughed, throwing her arms around me and hugging me tightly. “I know you.”

I pushed myself up until I was sitting on her flattened legs, feeling alive in a way I did not think I had ever felt before because of her. “Your dress, I mean my dress, is soaked. I’m sorry,” I remembered that I was wearing no one’s dress, because I was wearing nothing at all. I covered myself with my arm and hand. Taking in the drenched room and burnt ceiling through my eyes for the first time since I had woken in the empty pool. “What the fuck happened?”

Sam’s deep voice boomed in the small space of the well house, making me turn to him in surprise. “- your name?”

“Autumn Aubrey.” I answered my familiar. Unlike the two times I had come back from The Well and not been myself, there was no dream-like blurriness to my memories of what had just happened. He had asked me his first question twice already. I needed to give him my full attention if I did not want to be taken to the blue room he had dragged me into before.

“Who is Autumn Aubrey?” Sam continued.

“A Maiden of Zenithcidel, daughter of Idensyn Aubrey, thief and possessor of The Well and debtor to The Nine Mothers.” I answered he is the familiarity of the words bringing me pleasure after suddenly not knowing who I was.

“Who was Autumn Aubrey?” His final question came, needing a much longer explanation that I had ever had to give before.

The real question was who the fuck I had not been.

“Mother Aster, A sorceress named Haimi,” The first two came quickly and I remembered nearly all of the little glimpses into their lives I had gotten. I remembered the feelings, what it had been like to be the others, but the names took me longer. “Sunshard, uhm, Ten-Moons. Ferrodaine. No, wait. It was Ferrolaine not Ferrodaine. And, uhm, Fennel. I think that’s it.”

“Do you have to do this every time?” Anna asked from behind me.

I moved my hand from my front to my back. “Every. Single. Time.”

Sam relaxed the small amount he was capable of when he was not asleep. “How did this happen?”

I crawled out of the empty pool and helped Anna up after me as I explained to them the bombardment of books that had assaulted me. I told them about coming out of every memory not remembering where I was and the endless cascade of falling into memories. Wrapping a towel around myself, I told them about the floor shaking metallic thunks and the footsteps that had come after the books had disappeared above me.

“You are fortunate the mortal was near. If I had taken you into my domain, I would not have had the strength to hold you there until you returned.” Sam said.

I offered Anna a towel, but she refused. “Is that why you didn’t ask your questions? I’ve gotten too strong for you to deal with?”

“Do not insult me, child. I have already told you that I must hunt. My questions were asked. I suspended them when I thought the mortal could be of use. I have watched her bring you back to yourself not a week ago.”

“I did do that. Maybe I should be your familiar.” Anna said.

Sam crossed to the other side of the well house, looking larger than normal because of the humid air, and turned back to Anna when he reached the door. “Well done, mortal.”

The huge door of pink marble swung open, seemingly of its own accord, and Sam walked into the sliver of daylight that shone through.

“Hold on, you make me open the door for you all the time,” I called after my familiar, realizing he had just let himself out. “You can just open the fucking doors?”

Sam’s deep voice called back, the blue cat unseen. “Small rebellions, it is in my nature just as it is yours.”

I sighed, thankful that some of the steamy air was leaking out of the cracked door. Anna sat down beside me. “Sometimes, I wish you were my familiar.”

“If she continues to perform my duties, I will be unmade and you will receive your wish.” Sam said suddenly from the door.

Anna and I both jumped at his reappearance.

“Mortal.” Sam addressed Anna directly.

“Samsara?” Anna answered.

“My lady is not to be trusted. You must keep her from The Well while I am away.” My familiar commanded Anna. The sound of his no longer little paws trotting away from the well house at a rapidly quickening pace gave Anna no choice but to accept the duty he had given her.

Even still, the two of us waited for longer than we should to make sure the blue demon would not reappear. When nearly all of the steam had wafted out of the open door and the air had begun to cool, I thought it was safe to speak. “How did you know I needed you?”

“I didn’t. Your mom said she couldn’t have lunch with you today. I didn’t want you to go hungry, so I came down to bring you food. I was on my way when it sounded like one of the fireworks from the other night went off in her.”” Anna explained.

I sighed again, feeling very heavy. “I’m sorry you had to do that. With things being the way they are with your mother, having to pull me back together is the last thing you need to worry about.”

Anna shoved me. There was nothing friendly or playful about it. She glared at me with anger obvious in her almond shaped eyes. “Stop that shit. That’s how this is supposed to work. I get drunk and you hold me, you lose your mind and I help you find it. No more trying to not bother each other, okay? It makes me so mad, I’m going to wind up hurting you.”

This. I remembered her saying the night before when I had said a much less aggressive version of the same sentiment.

“Okay.” I said in agreement, thinking about what she had said to me at the bottom of the pool.

“Promise?” Anna said, raising her hand with only her pinky extended.

I wrapped my hand around it and shook. “Promise.”

“No,” She shook her head, pulling my own pinky and wrapping it around hers. “Like this. It’s a pinky promise. If you break it, I will break your pinky.”

I laughed. “Why does it not surprise me that you enjoy this type of agreement?”

“Because you know me.” Anna replied, unfurling her hand and holding mine properly.

My stomach felt like thousands of small insects were fluttering around within it, but it was not hunger. I was nervous in a way I never had been before. “I know who I am now, can we talk about what this is?”

Anna stood up and let go of my hand.

The small insects turned from fluttering to a panic inducing buzzing in a matter of seconds.

“Yes, but I need to go get some things first,” She said, turning for the door. “This place is a wreck and we need to clean it up before your mom sees.”

I watched her go, literally counting the seconds until she returned.