Starlight Life Of The Sage

Cara sat down on a chair and pulled out a bottle of ink. She wasted little time in inscribing her thoughts. She started with the most basic ones.

'I have twelve disciples,' she wrote. 'Their names are Aria, Arc, … , Zhen, Ye, … , Little Seven, Lawrence, … , … , Zara, and Gen.'

Cara's eyes unfocused. She couldn't remember the names of four already, and the rest were fading from her mind.

Her hand shook as she put the quill to the parchment, and her handwriting looked like chicken scratch. Tears budded in the corners of her eyes. She could feel her mind slipping, as if under attack.

The shield was doing this, but Cara didn't know how to stop it. An attack on the soul was always difficult to defend against, but when only in the Zong realm it was nearly impossible.

Cara tried to recall her past with her students, but every memory slipped through her fingers like water, as if she was trying to grab hold of air itself. Rational thought started to leave her. Stress compounded on a Cara's delicate mind, and she blacked out. Her consciousness faded.

-

Cara woke up and stared at the ceiling above her. Her eyes were vacant and confused.

"Where am I?" She asked aloud.

"You're in your home," replied a woman sitting to the side of the bed.

Cara sat up and stared at the woman, admiring her long green hair. The woman was tall and wore a white robe. Her soft features felt familiar to Cara.

"Who… Who are you?" Cara asked, fumbling with the words. She felt that she knew this person.

"You don't remember me?" The woman asked, feigning hurt. "It's me, Harper, your best friend. I can't believe you forgot about me, Cara."

"Is that my name? Cara?"

"Yes, of course it is. Don't you remember?"

Cara focused but a wall of green energy sparked in her head. She couldn't recall much of anything. She was locked from her own mind by a forcefield. She battered against the verdant wall, smashing her mental energies against it, attacking with all the thunder of her being.

"I can't remember much of anything…" said Cara.

"Well, what *do* you remember, then?" asked Harper.

"I remember... "

Time stopped. Twelve sparkling colors drifted through the emptiness of the void. A Divine Will raged against the dying lights, its voice an echo of eternity. Fire danced on the horizon, a newborn star dawning, and all the world rejoiced.

Years of travel. Cara wandered the deserts and discovered ancient tombs. She traveled world after world, ever seeking, ever searching…

And she taught…

Who? She taught something. In her past life she was a teacher. But who did she…

"It seems you can't remember anything at all. Why don't we just take things easy. We can eat some food, relax a bit, and I'll ease you back into your own life. Things can go back to the way they are supposed to be," said Harper.

"That… That sounds nice," said Cara. She smiled but it didn't touch her eyes. Everything felt wrong. Visions continued to appear, cold apparitions letting her know the depths of her own mind. The woman, Harper, was lying.

Cara remembered pieces of her long life, of her time spent wandering alone…

And she remembered when that loneliness ended.

-

Harper lead Cara by the nose. The two sat down to a good meal at the well-crafted table in the center of the room. The wood felt like something long forgotten. Cara could tell that she made it herself. She didn't remember making it, but the wood never forgot. It sang to her its song during the meal.

"We're hunters who live here," said Harper. "We live in this forest called the Soldier Garden."

"We live together?" Cara asked.

"Of course. We do everything together."

It was another lie. Cara didn't like it. She didn't know much about herself anymore, but she knew she didn't like lies. This Harper woman wasn't even good at lying. Cara knew, in her heart, that Harper could do better. The first statement, the 'of course' wasn't outright a lie. It was a partial one. The second one was blatantly false.

Just who was Harper really? Why was she lying?

Cara couldn't feel any hostility. Quite the opposite, in fact. She could feel a tremendous amount of love and care from the woman named Harper. A twisted and confused love.

-

Cara followed Harper outside of the tree-home and into a second building, an 'office' according to Harper, a place of work and alchemy.

"Do you remember any of your alchemy skills?" Harper asked as she showed off several vials and potions. Behind the desk Cara could see the corner of a herb garden poking out. The smells in the building were nostalgic.

"The smells are familiar," said Cara. "But I can't remember doing any alchemy, or whatever…"

"That's okay, I can reteach you!" Harper jumped with excitement. She quickly plucked several herbs from the garden and grabbed a couple of tools.

Cara watched on almost in awe at the professionalism of her 'best friend'. Immediately, Harper jumped into describing specific herbs and how they react with others, as if she waited her entire life to teach someone else this knowledge.

Cara waited patiently, but found the lecture trite. The information, once it was presented, immediately bloomed in Cara's mind, as if it never left. The green fog over her consciousness lifted little by little, but only over the parts of her mind related to alchemical knowledge.

-

Time passed in a strange manner for Cara. She spent her days being taught by the woman named Harper, and each day felt wrong, as if the natural order of things wasn't being followed. Still, Cara allowed the situation to progress for the purpose of reclaiming her memories. Each lesson and each day's passing restored more and more of her original mind.

Large swaths of her memories remained untouched, blackened behind a wall of green, but the bits she could refresh and restore were brighter than the sun in the sky above, a calling card to Cara's soul.

She could see her years of meticulous study under the masters at the Dancing Spring Sect. She watched her fellow disciples prepare for a long war. She remembered those brave men and women who set off for the battle, and she remembered the faces of the ones that never came home.

She remembered her childhood, how her father and mother sent her off to the 'Land of the Immortals' without understanding anything about it. She remembered visiting them and finding, to her horror, that mortals lived short, effervescent lives.

She remembered crying at their graves and the words of advice from her peers to cut off all mortal ties.

And she remembered scorning those thoughts as weak, for The Sage was made stronger by the memories of family. If he could go back and undo his mistake, to visit them sooner, he would in a heartbeat. The love of a mother and father wasn't something that could be replaced by cultivation or the Dao.

-

Every piece of alchemy Cara learned was tied to her soul, to her memories, and to her past. Something as pathetic as a spell could not stain her history.

At this point Cara understood, well and true, that the person who cast this memory loss spell on her was the woman Harper, but she couldn't figure out why.

Why did Harper do this? Who was Harper, really?

-

Nightfall came. The forest relaxed and the songs of birds were replaced by the chirps of crickets. A cold wind blew from the north, carrying the smell of the city: a puff of smoke and wafts of manure.

Cara left her bed and, against Harper's strict orders, entered into the alchemy workshop.

Cara passed the tables and benches, running her fingers along the wood and glassware. She admired the every curve of the room, and her eyes danced along the numerous herbs and plants.

Finally, after walking to the very center, Cara came across a powerful Spiritual Restriction, an Array.

Memories stirred in her mind as she observed its structure. She knew how it formed and she knew how it worked. It was designed to keep a plant alive, and, judging by the price of the setup, the plant was exceedingly precious.

Cara thought it could be a clue to her past. She swiped her hand across the Array and it unlocked, opening up. There, in the center, sat a single flower, perfectly preserved. It was a daisy.

Cara's eyes widened and she held her head. A tremendous jumble of thoughts and memories slammed against the spell holding her mind hostage. The green colors strained under the load.

Cara screamed and fell to the floor. Her eyes rolled back and visions danced.

Cara watched a nobleite family throw their 'talent-less child' into the dungeons. Cara watched them torture the girl for no reason other than that she lacked meridians in her body. They beat the girl and abused her, using her flesh to train cruelty into her siblings, to make them ruthless and mean. They kept the talent-less child as nothing more than a piece of livestock, spare organs should the need ever arise for a transfer, insurance to keep safe the primary heir.

The child condemned her horrid life. She wanted freedom and she wanted to be loved. She cried in her cell and reached out for help, for a life above ground, for hope…

And The Sage reached a hand to that girl. The Sage grabbed pulled her out of the rubble of a torn-down home. A brief moment of pity sparked a lifelong journey, and the child became the 11th.

The little girl gave herself a new name, hoping to forget about the hell she lived before she met her teacher—a name that meant 'New Light' in the Xersan language...

"Zara."

-

Morning came. Zara walked into the room only to find her teacher waiting with a small daisy in hand.

"It was all a fabrication, wasn't it?" Cara asked. Her lips formed a straight line and her eyes were stern. She held the flower in a tight fist.

"W-what are you talking about, Cara?" said Harper.

"I don't have all my memories, but I finally remember you, Zara... "

"... You do?" Zara cast her eyes down and tears ran down her face. It dawned on her just what she had done, and her heart ached.

"You're not my 'best friend' or my 'lover'… You aren't even really a disciple, to me. I raised you from when you were just a child." Cara paused and took a breath. She looked down and met Zara's eyes. "You're my daughter."

The word 'daughter' seemed to freeze time. Zara's body stopped shaking. That was a word she hadn't been called in all her life. That was a word her disgusting family never called her by, and that was a word her Teacher never called her by in the past, even if he treated her like one...

Tears ran down Zara's face. Her expression crumpled.

"Teacher, I'm sorry," she said, her voice rough. "I just wanted to protect you, and this was the only way I could think of..."

"It's okay," said Cara as she stood up and wrapped her disciple in a hug. "I will forgive you, my foolish daughter. Now undo this evil spell. You can explain yourself after."

The wall of green around Cara's mind shattered like glass.