Chapter 4: Red Hair

The next few days were filled with reading and sleeping, mostly, and occasional snatches of memory, followed by strong headaches and more sleep. I stayed in my room for the majority of the time. Once Kalim found out I was interested in reading, he brought me books when I got bored. Occasionally, he’d accidentally bring me a book written in Fae, and I’d set it aside, hoping to learn to read it later.

I felt useless, cooped up in my room, but there was nothing else I really could do, unless I wanted to remember even more than I already had. At one point, I’d considered doing just that -- going out to the beach and letting every last memory come to mind. But I decided against it after going to the window and being swept off my feet by a wave of nausea. I stayed close to the bed after that.

Time was hard to tell in Libain. It seemed like some days were longer than others, but that may have been because of my strange sleep schedule. I’d often read myself to sleep, and that set my internal clock off. I was hardly ever hungry, but when I was, the half of the food was enough to fill me.

One day, Kalim took me down to the beach again, and I sat in the grass, just looking at the sand that turned into rolling hills on the horizon. The sound of the waves registered somewhere in the back of my mind, but I forced myself to stay relaxed. I closed my eyes against the summer breeze.

“You ok?” Kalim asked. He’d been concerned about me going outside at all, but I was getting cabin fever.

“There isn’t anything for me to do except at least try to remember. For the sake of you and Carrad, since you’re the ones taking me in, and for my sake, to get home. I have to be ok.” For some reason, this made him fight a smile, and he nodded. I put my head between my knees and let my mind drift. I found that if I thought about what I already remembered, more memories would follow. So I thought about the room with the glow in the dark stars.

Almost instantly, bits of memory wrapped themselves around my mind. I didn’t fight them this time, so they seemed to flow together instead of break into pieces. I saw the man and the women with dark hair again -- my mum and dad. They lit the candles on a cake, and the boy from before blew them out. My little brother… Aden. That was his name. Aden, the little pest that I had the joy of calling my brother. God, I loved him.

My mind went back to the room with the stars; it was my room. I could see that clearly, now. Aden wouldn’t have a leather-bound notebook on his night table, or a picture of me and… some girl… on his desk. All in all, the room wasn’t right for his age at all.

My memory latched onto the picture. The girl had her chestnut-colored hair pulled into two pigtails on the sides of her head, and a pair of glasses. No thoughts of her came, but she was very familiar. I’d come back to her later.

I was torn away from the room suddenly, thrust into a time much before Aden’s birthday. I was by the water’s edge. I was younger, at least ten or eleven. I was splashing in the waves that washed up on the sand. Behind me, I could hear a familiar voice, but I didn’t turn to see who it was. I continued to splash, until someone seized me by my waist and pulled me onto their - no, his - back.

I was suddenly aware of someone calling me. “…sa. Elsa? Elsa!” My eyes snapped open, and the world began to spin too fast. I doubled over, panting, ready to pass out. My vision was blurry, and I darkness was closing in around my line of sight. I could hear Kalim beside me, but I couldn’t make out words.

I didn’t remember blacking out. It seemed like I’d blinked, and suddenly I was laid up in my bed, Abin hovering over me, murmuring something incoherent. Her concentration broke when my eyelids fluttered open, and she gasped.

“Miss! Thank the gods!” She breathed a sigh of relief. She went over to the wall and rang the servant’s bell, then continued to attend to me. She continued her murmuring, and I gradually felt better. I felt my breathing grow even.

“How long was I out?” I mumbled, the words sticking in my mouth like peanut butter.

“Almost  a whole day, miss,” Abin broke her chant to answer. I bolted upright, and immediately regretted it. Abin helped me lower back onto my pillow.

“You haven’t been here the whole time, have you?” I’d read in one of Kalim’s books that healing was draining and dangerous for the healer over long periods of time. She shook her head, not letting her concentration break.

The door opened, and a man with hair nearly as red as mine walked into the room. It just barely covered his ears. He looked at me with hazel eyes, large and concerned. “Elsa, are you ok?” He asked in a quiet voice, like he was trying not to scare me. He walked and knelt next to the bed.

“…Kalim? What did you do to your hair?” Impulsively, I reached out to touch it, but my arm wasn’t long enough. He looked at me a little funny. “Wasn’t it blond before?” I asked. I could see the wheels turning in his head. He came to some sort of conclusion, but he didn’t answer my question.

“Are you alright? You scared all of us for a while.” I nodded and bit my bottom lip, slightly concerned about what he wasn’t telling me. I studied him for a moment. Now that his hair was red, he seemed almost familiar.

“Master, I beg your pardon, but if you would leave the lady alone for a bit, it would make her heal faster,” Abin mentioned meekly from the other side of the bed. Kalim nodded and started for the door. “I need to talk to my father anyway. I’ll be back to see you later, Elsa.” I watched the door close behind him, still dwelling on his red hair. I looked over at Abin. Her hair was still as brown as it had been the first time I’d seen her.

“Abin,” I broke her concentration again. She was looking worn-out, like she’d been trying to bring me to for too long. “Please, rest. I’ll be ok,” I promised, even though I felt paper-thin. “Some of that tea would help, I’m sure.” The girl looked me over for a moment before nodding. “I’ll be back in a moment,” she sighed and scurried out the door.

 I closed my eyes, trying to keep my head from pounding. I heard the door open off to my right, and I inwardly groaned. I just wanted a little time to myself, to think things out. It couldn’t be Abin, she wasn’t gone long enough to make it to the servant’s hall and back. I didn’t want it to be Kalim, since he’d have too many questions that I didn’t want to answer just yet. But I squinted, and through the slits I saw Kalim’s bright hair, along with a taller man with a darker red mop. I opened my eyes fully as they pulled chairs over to my bed, and I noticed streaks of gray running through the second man’s hair. I realized with a start that this was Carrad. I pulled on a lock of my own hair to make sure it was still the same shade it had always been. Ginger; it matched Carrad’s and Kalim’s.