Galena

Jace stood in the shower rubbing the bar of soap across his body. He was nervous about the dinner he was having with Emma and Marie in a few hours. He asked Emma to see Marie but now he was unsure what would happen to him and if he really was ready to have his memories back. He spent all week mentally preparing himself, but now that the time had come those talks he gave himself were pointless.

He finished washing himself off and turned off the water. He wrapped a towel around his waist and went to his room to pull on khakis and a white shirt. After running his hand through his hair, he left his room; only to find Maggie on the couch with books all around her and a cup of tea in her hands.

“Aren’t you going to the market?” he asked, grabbing his shoes near the door.

“I don’t always go to the market on the weekends,” Maggie answered, reading one of the larger books.

Jace laughed and adjusted his feet in his shoes. “I’m going to dinner at Emma’s. I don’t know when I’ll be home, but I’ll message you if it’s after curfew.” And with that he left the house and headed to the other end of Kent.

Once at Emma’s door, he took in a deep breath before knocking. He then rapped his knuckles on the door and waited. A moment later, Emma pulled the door open and greeted him with a smile. She wasn’t wearing her typical Galena clothes – today, she was in her element. She wore black pants with high, matching boots. Her jacket was buttoned halfway up, and her shirt underneath was ruffled on the chest and the sleeves, sticking out of the jacket. She had pulled her hair to the side and braided it.

Everything about her in this moment made Jace double blink to gather his thoughts.

Jace stepped into Vorik and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a kiss. “You look beautiful,” he complimented her.

“Thank you, and you look very handsome,” Emma answered, leaning forward to kiss him again. She smiled at him, “Come on, Marie’s waiting for us.”

Marie greeted them with a big hug and asked them to pick their seat at the table. She made a roast with vegetables and offered wine to drink with their meals.

As they ate, Marie started the small talk, “Emma tells me that your sister has Vivian’s journal.”

Jace nodded, “She can’t read it though. The languages are mixed up.”

“Maji is used very sparingly,” Emma added before taking a bite of her food.

“Can I take a look at it sometime?” Marie asked.

“If I could pry it out of her hands,” Jace laughed.

“Fair enough,” Marie said, glancing over at Emma, when she suggested, “Maybe she can bring it with her here. She’s more than welcomed to come to Vorik, Jace.”

Jace looked up at Marie and nodded, “I’ll tell her. I wonder how she’d react to the portal…” he added partially to himself. He took a few more bites of his dinner then said, “By the way, this meal is delicious.”

As they were finishing up, Marie mentioned, “Emma said you were looking to get your memories back tonight.”

“If we could, yes,” Jace answered.

“You understand that you may remember things you wanted to forget.”

Jace nodded, “I do, but I’m missing fourteen years of my life. I can’t keep waiting on these dreams.”

Marie looked him over then nodded. She finished cleaning up with Emma then asked for Jace to turn his chair to face her. She moved her seat closer to him and sat down. “Let’s see,” she said, moving to become comfortable. She looked at the mass over his head.

She knew what type of spell this was and knew that her magic, as a Mage, would be able to remove it. It was the only reason why she told him she could in the first place. She asked him to close his eyes and she rubbed her hands together. She took in a deep breath to find her center.

After another moment, she put her hands on his temple and began to chant, ”Verwijder dit blok. Stel hem vrij.[1]" Marie didn’t chant as softly as Diana had. She was demanding this block to be broken and for it to no longer exist.

Just as Marie began to sense the mass beginning to shift, Jace felt a sense of ease take over. She began to motion in front of him, coaxing the spell out and as it shifted to the front of Jace’s head, Emma could finally see the black mass that Marie had seen the minute she met him.

When she completely pulled the mass out, she yelled, ”Ole weg!” She clapped her hands to pop the darkness, repeating, “Be gone!”

When she no longer felt or saw the mass, she began to disconnect from him, but stopped. An image came to her of Jace wearing a Garzil uniform. She finally had a confirmation to what she felt the first day Emma brought him to Vorik. He became something his mother fought so hard against. But it wasn’t just the fact that he was a Garzil Knight, it was what had happened towards the end of his enlistment that saddened her the most. “Oh, child…” she let out.

“What is it?” Jace asked at the same time as Emma. “Is it gone?”

“Yes- yes, it’s gone,” Marie answered, trying to not alarm them. “Do you remember anything?”

Jace looked away and tried to think. “It feels like a blur.”

“Give it a few days,” she said and sadly looked at Jace. “Jace,” she said, taking his hands, “Remember what I said to you before I removed that spell.”

Jace looked back at her and nodded. From the look on her face, Jace knew she saw something. He thanked her and told her that he would let them know if he remembered anything. Marie gave him a hug goodbye and walked them to the door.

They went back to Emma’s and laid together on the couch. After a while, Emma looked up at him and asked, “Do you feel any different?”

“Kind of-” he answered, feeling lighter with the weight of the spell gone. “I think she did it.”

“So now we just wait.”

He nodded, “We wait...” He watched her eyes drop from him and he took her hand. “I love you,” he said, locking eyes with her. He knew she was becoming nervous again about the feelings he would remember for Vanessa. “Nothing is going to change that.”

Emma gave him a smile to assure him she was okay. Jace leaned forward and pulled her into a kiss. His mouth covered hers and they moved closer to each other, continuing their kissing. A moment into their intimacy, Jace stopped – feeling a strong emotion swell in his throat.

“What’s wrong?” Emma asked, becoming concerned from the look on his face.

“I feel like…” he said, trying to put words to the feeling, “I have a lump in my throat.”

“From what?”

“I- I don’t know. But I feel… upset about something.”

“Maybe it’s from what Marie did.”

“It might be…” he let out, suddenly feeling exhausted. “I should get going,” he said, leaning forward to kiss her cheek.

“You don’t want to stay over?”

“I would love to, but I don’t think I’ll be any fun. I’m sorry, Em.”

Emma walked him down the hall and kissed him again before he left through the portal. She left her house again to speak with Marie and ask what she saw.

Once Jace got home, he found his sister on the couch asleep. She had her notebooks around her and held onto their mother’s journal. He thought about inviting her to Vorik so Marie could help her translate their mothers’ book, but the longer he looked at his sister, the thicker that lump in his throat became. Then an overwhelming sadness replaced his exhaustion. He sadly smiled at her and headed upstairs.

As soon as he hit his bed, he passed out.

During the night, Jace woke up a few times. His dreams kept digging into the day Vivian was taken. He tossed and turned, eventually finding himself in a dream where he was standing on the street. It was dark and only the light post lit up the road. He heard a noise behind him and turned to see himself leaving his house, except it wasn’t his twenty-seven-year-old self, it was him at eleven years old. He had a bag over his shoulder and he was shutting the front door as quietly as he could. He watched himself hover close to the house and swiftly disappear into the darkness.

Jace looked up at the house and noticed a young Maggie standing at the window, watching him leave. Sadness and guilt hit him in the chest – he never knew that she saw him leaving. How was he going to face her in the morning?

Jace suddenly found the world move around him, fast forwarding him to a few months later. He was running through the streets of Galena. His clothes had become a bit tattered and he could see the dirt stuck on his face and hands. He remembered what happened on this day. He had just swiped jewls from a Knight and was being chased down. Jace watched his younger self running to the gates and just as he rounded the corner to head into Picco, he slammed into the Knight.

The Knight grabbed him by the shirt and raised him up. “There you are, you little shit!” he spat out.

Jace kicked at the Knight, yelling that he didn’t do anything.

“Then what’s this?” the Knight demanded, pulling the bag of jewls from Jace’s pocket.

“That’s mine!”

“You know what happens to thieves don’t you?” the Knight said, slowly pulling his sword from his hip’s sheath. He pointed the blade at Jace’s chest. “They-” the Knight said but began to choke. He dropped Jace and grabbed his throat, kneeling on the ground.

“I’m sorry, they what?” a boy asked, stepping next to Jace with his hand up in a choking gesture.

“You-!” the Knight forced out, looking up at this boy who came to Jace’s aid.

“From the looks of it, you were trying to punish my friend for just trying to survive.”

“You will pay for this-!” the Knight gasped, feeling the grip on his neck getting tighter.

“No, sir. I think you will be paying for this,” he said, his hand gripped closed. “And for our lunch,” he added, watching the Knight drop dead to the ground.

Jace stepped up next to the boy and stared at the dead Knight, amazed. “How did you do that?” he asked, wide-eyed and looking at the boy.

“Magic, stupid,” he answered, giving Jace a weird look. “Heath,” he said, sticking out his hand.

Jace took the boy’s hand without hesitation, “Jace.”

“Well Jace. I’d love to hang around, but his friends will be here soon,” he said, looking at the Knight before turning around and stepping away. He turned to look back at Jace, “Are you coming?”

Jace watched himself look over at his new friend and catch up with him. Jace remembered how strong their friendship became after that day. They fought for each other and protected one another whenever trouble came their way.

Jace watched his memories of them flash before him - one image struck him the most.

It was the day they spoke about their moms. Jace told Heath what happened to his mother and how he left his sister behind to not get her involved with what he planned to do, which was to somehow stop the Garzil. He remembered how Heath laughed at him for this idea but agreed that it was something he wanted to do the moment his mother was killed. Heath didn’t like talking about his mother, but he told Jace because he was his friend and he trusted him.

Leila was a priestess at the High Temple in Valo and during Mass with the royal family, a spirit took possession. She had gone through a soul retrieval, but was never the same afterwards. She met a Necromancer and had Heath, then was brutally murdered by a Knight when Heath was only five years old. Jace remembered the pain in Heath’s voice when he told him that he watched the murder in the back room and after the Knight forced himself onto his mother, he burned the temple and Heath fled Galena.

The world continued to fast forward around Jace as he could hear bits and pieces of this conversation. When the world stayed still, he found himself in the woods three years later. The boys had created a makeshift house in Picco, far off the path from everyone. They were sitting around a fire, discussing plans of revenge.

“We infiltrate the Garzil and destroy them from the inside,” Jace said, staring at the flames and throwing twigs in to watch them ignite.

“It could work,” Heath let out, sitting back on his elbows. “But this isn’t just about our moms. This is for Galena.”

Jace looked at Heath over the flames, “For Galena.”

The scene moved quickly and Jace watched the boys standing at the gates of Valo.

“No matter what happens from this point forward, I’ll have your back until I’m dead,” Jace said, looking over at Heath.

Heath smirked at Jace and hit his arm, “I’m half necro. I’ll have your back even when I’m dead.”

The boys laughed together, but instantly became serious when two Knights stood in front of them. They asked to be recruited into the Garzil and the Knights stepped aside for them to enter the gates of Valo.

Jace stepped up to the gates and continued to watch his younger self and Heath walk up the palace steps and the doors close behind them. His hands became fists seeing this. The memory of how cold him and Heath became once initiated drilled into him. Even though the two remained close, he could clearly remember losing himself. That uniform did something to him, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember how the Garzil spell was broken.