“There are different forms of Antiquity?” I frowned. All of this new information was leaving me increasingly rattled. Everything I thought I knew was apparently just the tip of the iceberg.
“Have you ever touched something like a building, or a specific item that belonged to someone and then experienced brief visions?” The mermaid statue off the coast of the Outer banks, the Spiti of Achilles and the incident when I had accidentally touched Aphrodite’s Rock erupted through my mind.
“That was Antiquity?” I gasped. “I didn’t even mean to do it. It just…happened.”
“So you have? Oh, that’s wonderful!” she celebrated. “As you’ll learn, Antiquity is most easily described as accessing memories; whether that’s by accessing the memories of your ancestors, other people, or a particular object. All are forms of Antiquity.” The second type stuck out in my mind. Was that what I’d been doing when I saw Nadia’s memories during class the first day I met her? And on the beach in Cyprus when I had seen those images from Carmen’s mind?
“Objects have memories?” Phoebe furrowed her brow; puzzled by the theory.
“Of course! Just like everything has essence,” Zara affirmed passionately. “The memories are just energies imprinted on the objects’ essence. Stasia has the ability to access them.”
“That’s pretty cool,” Olivia breathed, studying me with wonder. I pictured myself stuck in a cage at the zoo, as overzealous parents snapped countless photos of their children pointing at me in fear. I vowed to steer clear of all zoos from that point on.
“It sure is.” Zara chuckled and pulled something shiny out of her pocket. She handed it to me.
“I’d like for you to hold this in your hand and concentrate on feeling its essence. I want you to try to access any memories that have been imprinted on it.” It sounded easy enough, but I also knew my track record. My best efforts usually only showed themselves when I least expected it. Pile on the pressure and the failure rate increased exponentially. Not to mention, that I had no idea how it worked. Taking a shot in the dark, I held out my palm and inspected the piece of small pottery. Upon closer inspection I realized it was in the shape of a small dog, no bigger than two inches long.
I held my focus steady as I concentrated my energy and attempted to ‘feel’ anything from its essence. Instantly, a hot, panting breath warmed my face and I instinctively held the piece of pottery farther away. An image of a slobbering pink tongue flashed in my mind, and I realized that the hot breath was coming from the owner of a long brown snout. The tongue disappeared, replaced by an image of a brown nose that twitched back and forth. I peered up at Zara with an amused smile.
“I believe this poor specimen was the unlikely victim of a dog’s tongue,” I giggled.
“It doesn’t matter how many times I yell at her, Twiggy loves that thing,” Zara retorted proudly. I couldn’t tell if she was proud of me or her dog.
“Twiggy?” Carmen asked and Phoebe covered up a laugh.
“One of my boxers. She has more in common with a two year old than her canine siblings.”
She shook her head as I handed the small pottery puppy back to her. “Excellent work, Stasia. Let’s move on to something a little more challenging. Face Olivia.” I did as I was told, but Olivia wasn’t quite as obedient. She shot a weary look at Zara. Somehow understanding Olivia’s adverse reaction, Zara’s green eyes softened.
“I’d like for you to allow Stasia to access your memories.”
“Can I just pick a memory to show her?” she pleaded; crossing her arms in contempt. “I don’t really want her thumbing through all my memories like a freaking book.”
“Unfortunately Antiquity doesn’t work that way. All of your memories will be fair game.”
“I didn’t know I was signing up for this,” Olivia scowled. “I don’t want anyone rifling around in my brain.” She started to stand, but Zara folded her hand around Olivia’s. She stared down at their entwined hands; shaken.
“Having trust in your future leader is of utmost importance right now, Olivia,” Zara declared; gazing into Olivia’s defiant brown eyes with fervor. “She needs you.”
“Okay,” Olivia agreed quietly. Her body relaxed and her unyielding pride fell away, as she reclaimed her seat on the couch beside me. Obviously, her unyielding bitchiness didn’t get the memo.
“I hope you know that you’re the only one I would do this for,” she informed me. Beneath her defenses, I could see that trusting me was extremely difficult for her; but she was willing to try, so I decided to be patient.
“I’ll try not to stay too long,” I grinned in thanks. “I’ll even take my shoes off so your mind won’t get muddy.” Her hard face crumbled into a smile, and she chuckled in spite herself.
“My mind’s already pretty dirty, so it’s okay,” she laughed.
“Maybe you should take a mop and some bleach then,” Carmen snickered, making everyone laugh and diffusing the tense mood. Zara’s features tightened as she concentrated on the task at hand.
She faced me and I sensed the significance of what I was about to attempt.
“The eyes are the quickest route to memories, so you need to shed your heart of any judgment, feelings, or greed. Your energy has to be pure when accessing someone else’s memories, or it will not work.”
Olivia and I sat up straighter and looked into each other’s eyes. After the longest minute in history, Olivia fidgeted and Carmen cleared her throat to disrupt the uncomfortable silence. I regrouped, took a deep breath and cleared my mind. I could do this! I concentrated my energy on Olivia’s dark eyes and allowed my internal walls to crumble, along with my fear of failing this exercise. I felt a slight pulling sensation on my essence, and then everything around us melted away until her eyes were the only thing I could see. That’s when it happened.
Hazy and abrupt at first, I began to see images flash across my field of vision. Moving pictures starring Olivia’s roommates, the inside of her suite, the same Son she’d gone to the Ball with a couple of months ago, a smiling blonde haired guy, a younger dark haired girl in the hospital, a graveyard at dusk, an older woman, a purple birthday cake with ten candles on it; smiling faces all around. The images continued to pour out of her mind, and I could tell that I was moving farther and farther back into her memories as time went by. An image of a younger Natasha caught my attention and I fought to keep the memory from passing.
The image shifted slightly as Natasha spread a blanket out on the beach in the sunshine. She smiled up at a blonde haired woman with pale streaks in her hair and beautiful blue eyes; I recognized her from one of my mother’s memories - the one where they were discussing my fate. Which meant that this was the second Nereid who had known of my birth. I felt Olivia’s happiness as Natasha and the blonde woman showed her how to build a sandcastle and write her name in the sand. An odd sadness filled my heart, and I tore my eyes away from hers with effort.
“That was way too weird.” Olivia shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut as if my presence had knocked something loose in her mind. A tear slipped down my cheek and I wiped it away before anyone could see it. Unfortunately Zara’s watchful eyes were quicker than my hand.
“What did you see, Stasia?”
Olivia’s eyes zeroed in on me with dread and I smiled to ease her anxiety. “I saw one of Olivia’s good memories. She was on a beach with Natasha and a blonde…”
“Amphitrite,” Olivia finished for me nostalgically. Her voice turned childlike as she described the memory I had seen. “We had a picnic. They taught me how to make really cool sandcastles – the ones where you dribble wet sand on top and make those little….” She trailed off when she noticed Carmen and Phoebe gawking at her, then she cleared her throat and lifted her chin before continuing. “Anyway, it was fun.”