Book 3. Chapter 49
“What did you just say?” Aberfa blinked a couple times, as if waking up from a dream. They were still in a dream of course, though it was hard to say whose dream it was.
Brin didn’t want to be too obvious about calling her mother after he had made such a point of resisting it, so he only repeated the question. “I asked if you could show me what my life was like from before I lost my memories.”
Brin felt something shift in the Wyrd. Some key balance point in their relationship had moved in her direction.
Aberfa nodded slowly, then again more firmly. She smiled brightly and kept nodding. “Yes. Yes! I’d like that. Come. Come and see! I’ll take this memory from my mind. Here.”
Everything shifted, and they were walking down a busy city street. The sky was sunny and full of those big fluffy white clouds that were usually seen after a big rainstorm.
Aberfa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Alhaendra. The capital of Arcaena. I missed this place."
Brin looked around again with renewed interest. It didn't look like the dark and desolate land of misery that he'd come to expect. The homes he could see were square and extremely symmetrical with round doors and windows. The walls were all white plaster or stucco, and blended into each other to give it a very idyllic feeling. The sea was visible in the distance, with the sun sending glittering sparkles across the water where tall ships mixed with small fishing sailboats darted here and there across the water.
At least the castle looked like it should. In the other direction, on top of a hill, a black castle dominated the sky. It looked windowless, like a piece of sheer slate, and four towers rose from the main building like sharp knives.
They walked, and they seemed to move through the city at a pace outside of regular time. The people moved past them in a blur, walking past them at a hundred miles an hour while never really seeing them. He'd always pictured the Commoners of Arcaena as hunched over, miserable peasants, but these people walked with straight backs and chatted in the markets and basically acted like regular people, if a little oddly dressed.