"I'm wondering, how it looks like for you?"
Terry was laying down on her back, while Edith was sitting nearby with eyes closed and hand on the necklace, that was, in turn, laying on Terry's chest. She didn't move an inch, and seemed like she hadn't heard the question.
"I heard you," she replied a minute later, opening her eyes, "I just ignored you. No, I'm kidding!" exclaimed she with a chuckle when Terry frowned. "I just had to concentrate, so next time, please, just lay down in peace."
"So?"
"Well, it's challenging to explain." Edith looked at her seriously. "It's like a sixth sense of a sort, but to use it, I have to do something with my other senses. Easier is just to close my eyes, so I can start seeing it."
"Yeah, but still, if you can see it, why can't you picture it?"
"Ehhmm...you know what? Gimme a hand, let me try something. Eyes closed, please."
Terry closed her eyes and grabbed Edith's hand.
"Now, keep your eyes closed until I will tell you that you can open them. Keep closed. Look at me as if you had your eyes open, but keep them closed. Is it working?"
It was indeed working. "Oh. Wow. What is this?"
"I don't know what exactly are you seeing, but it should be my aura. I was afraid that there will be a positive feedback loop, but then I thought that you're not a witch — oh, my bad, you're a tea witch, how dare I was to forget — but not like a witch-witch. So it is working. Nice."
"Should it be so small?"
"Hey! That's rude! And, after all, size doesn't matter, but ability is."
Terry snorted.
"What?"
"No, nothing." She snorted again.
"Stop it! What's so funny? And you can open your eyes, by the way," and when Terry has opened them, she saw Edith's face dangerously close to her. She instinctively tried to move back, but there was nowhere to move. Edith smiled devilishly. "No-where to-run," she said in a sing-song voice, "now, what's so funny in my words?"
Terry decided to go offensive and quickly jerked forward to kiss her, but didn't calculate the movement right and they collided their foreheads.
"Ouch!" Edith sat on the bed and looked at her resentfully, rubbing her forehead. "You're a brick-head. Literally."
Terry was doing the same, laying on a pillow. "Look who's talking! I'm not sure who's ended up being more damaged!" They looked at each other for a couple more seconds and bursted into a laugh.
"Oh, dear." Edith finally ended giggling. "It's the first time I've seen someone who miscalculated a kiss."
"Interesting! How many kisses did you have then before me?" Terry glanced at her slyly.
Edith looked at her, horrified, and shut her mouth with a loud clack.
"So-o?" Terry continued to look at her. "Honesty to honesty? If you'd like, we can even yell the count at the same time," said she with an innocent smile.
Edith shook her head, still keeping her jaws tightly clenched.
"Oh, come on!" Terry raised her brow, Edith sighed. "Alright... I guess...it's so embarrassing."
"Nah it's okay! So-o...three, two, one..."
"Zero!"
"None!"
They exclaimed it at the same time and freeze, looking at each other with abashment. Edith recovered first. "Uhm...so... I was your first...and you were my first..."
"Sure looks like it...", in the same tone replied Terry. "Wow. So now what?"
"I dunno." They sat for a couple more seconds, looking at each other, and bursted in a laugh again.
"My stomach hurts," moaned Terry, "we need to stop it, I can't laugh anymo-ore!"
"Ugh..." Edith was laying across the bed, holding her stomach as well. "We definitely added several more years today, if the laughter is increasing lifespan for real."
"Oh, dear." Terry rolled herself to get closer, also across the bed. "But that was fun." Edith grunted affirmatively.
"So, what will my doctor say?" Terry glanced at her. "Any recommendations?"
"Well, you're looking better—"
"Walk? Pretty please? I almost forgot already how the world looks outside." Terry looked at her with a such a plea that Edith hasn't been able to resist.
"Alright, alright!"
"Woo-hoo! Dressing up, baby!" Terry jumped off the bed, but then just stood. "Ugh."
"Head spinning? Round and round?" Edith asked in a sympathetic tone. "That's what you get for jumping around in this condition." She grabbed her by the arm. "Let's go, disabled team."
***
Terry squinted at the sun, as she stepped hand-by-hand with Edith out of the hotel doors. All her life, she used to be outdoors at least for a couple of hours each day; her forced imprisonment was a new, quite unpleasant experience for her.
"Oh, dear," she said, "isn't it the best cure? Should've insisted on the everyday walk a long ago!"
"Walk, of course," snorted Edith in response, "forgot that I had to lead you to the bathroom for a couple of days?"
Terry pouted. "Still, it would have helped a lot."
"You just couldn't," said Edith, "trust me, I'm a doctor."
They went down by the street, in the direction of the sea, brightly sparkling ahead. Terry was walking and glancing at Edith occasionally; she was wearing a light-beige two-piece suit Terry bought her back in the days in Budapest, and she was absolutely gorgeous.
Still can't believe that this is for real.
Edith had caught her glance and squared her shoulders, Terry chuckled. "You're so beautiful," purred she, snuggling closer to her, and Edith slightly blushed. "Oh, stop it."
"Nope! Hey-y, we arrived!" Terry looked forward with excitement. "Last time I haven't seen much of the sea, since I just laid down to faint in peace," she giggled, "and when I awoke, it was a nighttime already."
They sat on the bench in the shadow of the conglomerate of bushes and trees growing out of the patch of the soil nearby, a light wind was blowing across the beach. "So peaceful," said Terry lazily, "but for some reason I feel that it's not for long."
"How do you know?" Edith was looking forward.
"I don't know. Just a gut feeling. Never mind," she took a breath, "now it's your turn. I want to know what happened to you since Budapest."
Edith made a loud sigh. "It's so embarrassing."
"I know, but don't you think that I should know?"
"Fair. Well, when I left Emily's office, I went directly to the airport..."
...
"You know what," said Edith, paused for a second with a thoughtful face, "recalling all that, I feel that something is off. It's... I mean, stupid decisions indeed, I can't deny that it was silly as hell, but..." She leaned forward and put her hands in her hair. "I can't remember what I've seen on the scheme."
Terry looked at her with an anxiety. "You can't remember, or you can't understand, how did you come to a conclusion based on the input you had?"
Edith felt in her mind even deeper. "I'm not sure. I need to sleep with it, I guess."
"Don't worry. We'll figure it out." Terry stood up. "Can we return to the hotel? My head is a bit off."
In the hotel, she sat on the bed and tightly put her hands on her temples, Edith kneeled before her. "Let me take a look," she asked, "come on, take off your hands, there we go." Then she shook her head with a visible discontent. "Told ya shouldn't be walking so long. Of course, nobody listens to poor Edith," she grumbled under her breath, and Terry involuntarily smiled.
"Sorry for that, I think it's the sun, that's it. A bit of a headache, it's fine."
"What a naughty girl," Edith looked at her sternly, "go ahead into the bed. I will find something to help you."
"You know," said Terry later, when they were laying in bed and looking at the ceiling, colored in dawn, "I'm thinking where is Adelhaide now."
"Somewhere on the road," replied Edith with a yawn, "my bad, well, if I understand that correctly, the method she is using is a multi-factor keying algo—", she stopped short, looked at Terry's face.
"Now please repeat in words that are actually exists?" Terry asked her with a grin.
"Ugh. Alright. Uhm. Look, imagine that she is locking her memory, and to remove the lock she has to see, hear, feel particular things in a particular order. I bet Alexander is the one who knows the exact sequence. Then, if everything goes right, the lock is removing, she remembers everything, and then she travels to Esztergom to take on the crown."
"How do you know?"
She hesitated. "Well, remember we were in the library?"
"Yeah?.."
"Well, I borrowed one book..."
"You did what?" Terry couldn't believe it. "You stole the book?"
She was visibly embarrassed. "Well, if you're looking at it that way..."
Terry deafeningly laughed. "Oh gosh! I didn't expect THAT for sure. Wow. Incredible," she shook her head, looking at Edith. "Don't forget to return it, alright? I bet that they didn't even notice it in the mess they called a library, but still, you have to return it."
"Of course I will return!" exclaimed she resentfully, "I just borrowed it."
"Good girl." Terry decided to ask another question. "But what if nobody knows how to unlock her memory?"
"Well," said Edith after a long silence, "then we all fucked."
***
Terry stood up in the middle of the night, awoken by some elusive anxiety.
Quiet. She looked around, and everything was, is seemed, as usual and even a bit familiar already, but she was still feeling this strange anxiety. Something off, but what?
Then, at all of a sudden, she understood. A scent. She almost forgot about it, and now she was feeling it again, not that prominent, as it was near The Circle, but way more prominent than in Esztergom. She sniffed, but just like before, was yet to understand what's this. Dammit. Could I live a little without inexplicable crap?
A chill ran down her spine, inexplicable as well. She suddenly felt like a ceiling moved closer to her, threatening to crush her right where she was, and she sank to the floor, unable to move her gaze out. Walls, it seemed to her, moved closer as well, and Terry felt that she couldn't get enough air; she breathed in loudly, almost hysterically.
"The fuck?!" Edith awoken by the noise and now rushed to her, sitting on the floor, looking without a blink at the ceiling.
"Look at me! Ah shit," Edith loomed over her, forcing her to look into her eyes instead of the ceiling, "alright, girl, look at me, come on...come on! Shit! Forgive me later, I have no choice."
Terry's consciousness went out.
She was laying on the floor, she moved slightly, looked around slowly. The whole body was in muscle pain, but besides that, she was feeling fine. Edith was sitting on the floor nearby, rocking back and forth.
"What—"
Edith raised her head, her face was white, lower lip bitten and a barely visible bloody trail was running from the lip down to her chin.
"Holy shit. You scared the shit out of me, again," she said slowly.
"But what happened?"
"You tell me! Sorry," she licked her lip, "dammit, didn't even realize that I had bitten it so hard. So, I heard a noise, stood up to look what's going on and imagine the picture, you're sitting on the floor, ossified, looking into the ceiling. I thought that it's a panic attack or something, but you were so out of here, I had to switch you off."
"Switch me off?"
"Yeah, quick shutdown, just to get you out of this...condition you were in. Nice little trick, doesn't work every time though." She breathed in roughly. "What's your version?"
Terry pictured everything until she got back out of the faint and found herself on the floor.
"Cryptic shit," concluded Edith, "hope it will not be the nice new family tradition." She was swearing much more than usual, being in visible disquiet.
"Ugh, all my body hurts." Terry stood up slowly, with a moan. "Can we return to the bed?"
"Do me a favor! And the next time, please, wake me up as well."
***
"Terry, where the hell are you? You should be on stage in five minutes!" Terry shuddered, completely spirited away. Shut the fuck up, dumbass.
"One second!" she shouted out at the top of her lungs into the open door of the dressing room, and coughed. Dammit, I need to stop smoking. Or at least do it afterward, not before.
She stood up and looked into the mirror, examining herself with a judicious gaze. Everything was ideal, from the bright makeup to the bottom of the petticoat. As always. Everything should be ideal. Terry went out of the room, by the long corridor, then downstairs by the three creaky steps, and to the anteroom of the stage.
"Finally!" Thomas overlooked her from the top to the bottom. "Why so long?" Terry bared her teeth. "None of your business as long as I'm here in time." He grimaced and went away.
Dumbass, may you die already? She stood by the wall, waiting for her out, looked around.
"Are you okay?" Grace's voice came from behind, she turned around, smiled. Grace was truly a light in the grim darkness of this panopticon, unbelievable lovely, petite, and very calm in any situation — Terry had never heard her swearing or even raising her voice.
"Oh, Grace. I saw a strange dream this night."
"Dreams are nice," she said with a mild interest, "I rarely remember them, though. What was yours?"
"Just imagine, I was a freaking fairy or something. And," she wrinkled her forehead, "I was traveling...sorta. With the other girl. Can't quite remember why is that—"
"Your turn! Move your ass and don't you dare—" Thomas grabbed her by the hand, but she shook it off.
"Take your hands off me, Thomas." Her voice was dead cold. She went to the stage.
And then she saw her. It was like a lighthouse light in the dark stormy sea of the uniform faces, merged into the dirty mess of obscure color. It was like a last ray of light broke through the ragged edge of the horizon, right before the sun finally gone down.
She was sitting at the edge of the row, tall, with a flaxen hair trying to escape from under the tall pointy hat. She was looking at her, directly into her eyes, as it seemed to her.
That was the girl from her dream.
Edith.