Hidden in the Blood - Part 1

[Kira Adia]

5/6?

How long have I been falling? Why am I spinning?

Kira struggled to orient herself. She couldn’t remember what she was doing or where she was. She distantly felt the cold press of damp earth, but she couldn’t tell if she was sleeping in the ground at camp, or long buried in her grave.

As she felt her way through the disorientation, she found herself on a porch at The Sanctuary, pounding on the front door and asking for someone. That’s when she realized what was happening.

Find that center point. Find a place to catch your breath and ride out the storm until you see the way out.

So, she was adrift in time. Her soul stretched out across time until her mind couldn’t make sense of where she was. It felt familiar, so this probably wasn’t the first time this had happened, but the fact it was happening for this long meant it wasn’t too long since she first split her soul.

In any case, James must have taught her how to get out of this. Somewhere in time, she reached into her pocket for the watch she always had on her. It had been specifically designed to be used as an anchor for her soul to avoid falling into the stream of time like this. She perceived herself coming out of the trance many times and waited to see what happened.

No change. She’d dropped the watch. Her anchor was gone, she couldn’t use it this time. Somewhere, she began to panic, and the memories of all those times hit her at once like a rushing tide. Before she could get swept away, she perceived a place in her mind that felt still. A place she built the moment she felt Luna enter her mind the first time she’d been stuck in this state.

She looked for that spot, fighting off the panic a little at a time. A voice came to her from her memories.

You’re in your own head, Kira. Don’t struggle against it. Just be still.

She was in that still place in her mind, watching the rush of awareness flood past her. The mental image of herself took a breath and relaxed.

She was aware of the times this had happened and would happen over the course of her life. The first trick was to find which one it was.

“Okay, I need to work my way out and ground myself back in the present. I don’t have the watch, and presumably I’m not with James. That narrows it down.”

Kira slowly began to focus. There was a musty smell, like moist earth, and the dampness of mist. A stream was flowing nearby. Somewhere, so distant it felt cosmic, a hunting horn blared, followed by the baying of hounds and wolves alike.

That was enough to trigger a memory. She was in the Wilds. It was just past Beltane, and Ettyn was leading a hunt for a great beast. Kira had been helping keep the periphery clear and keep other beasts from interfering.

She was on her way to help out at the fight. She remembered jumping the stream and landing in a clearing. A sudden fog blew over her, disorienting her. She started to feel a sense of panic.

How long have I been falling? Why am I spinning?

She struggled to orient herself, but then recalled the stable place in her mind, just in time. A sense of deja vous washed over her. How many times have I been stuck in that same loop?

She kept herself steady as the renewed sense of disorientation washed over her and passed her. Moments in time began to snap back into place. The edges of her mind, spread out until now across a span of awareness encompassing centuries of life lived and yet to pass, pulled back. Her thoughts took firmer shape.