Zodiac Story

Yellow Kites In A Tornado Of Our Own Making Part 4

A sister? The girl was an orphan. There were no records of any living siblings. "How could you be my sister?"

"Now that's a long and complicated story." The woman perked up, a smile growing. "Do you want to hear it, Castor? Like the old days?"

"Castor? Like the mythical twins?"

"Why yes, that is your name. It's the same with me, I'm Pollux, but I go by Helen so that people don't give me weird looks and get confused about how to spell my name. You can go by Clytemnestra if you want." That smile was genuine...so the woman wasn't joking.

"Sure." Names are like clothing, you used them in certain situations and discarded them when you no longer required them anymore. "I'll go by Clytemnestra." Between keeping her identity and appeasing a mind reader with unknown abilities, appeasement was the better option.

The woman chuckled. "You have an odd attitude to names. Reminds me of the time we were flying kites after I summoned that tornado. I don't know why, but I kept it." Her eyes started to water. "By then, I couldn't find you, so I guess it was a nice memory."

That was in her dreams, Clytemnestra thought. "I don't remember that."

"Of course not, you lost consciousness and your memory's half-erased. Besides, that was four hundred years ago, give or take a decade."

"I'm sorry, four hundred years ago?! How the hell are we twin sisters?! How old are you?!"

The woman shrugged. "I don't know how old I am. The only one who would know is the Timewarden, and I don't know where they are. All of us are long-lived, but if we are significantly injured, we enter a period of stasis for recovery."

Clytemnestra examined Helen. No obvious scars. "How was I injured? Why?"

Helen paused. "I...wasn't there. All I know is that our connection was severed, and I could no longer sense your presence." Her gaze drifted off to the sunny sky outside the window, eyes cast downwards.

"Are there others?" Other than the Timewarden.

"Yes, including you and me, there are twenty-five of us, scattered around Earth. The database in the Eleventh House or the wall on the Eleventh Gate is our best chance of finding the others.  Considering the current state of both, it would be too dangerous to enter, unless you want to have a near death experience.  Either that, or we keep searching."

"How long have you been here?"

"Can I elect not to answer?" Helen put up both of her hands, palms facing out.

Clytemnestra probed Helen's mind. There were memories of her and Helen watching butterflies and catching them in a small net, the one with the tornado, and a curious one of Helen twirling a white and gold pen like a baton. Most of Helen's memories were tinged with nostalgia, especially with Clymnestra, however, some of them seemed inaccessible.

"...if you were going to do that, I should have mentioned that half of my mind is blocked off. Apparently, this is a side effect of being in this world." Helen coughed.

Blocked off? Could Clymnestra do that on her own? She imagined a large filing cabinet, like the one her boss has, except with each drawer labelled properly. Sorting this cabinet, she placed certain parts of herself inside, locked it, and threw away the key.

"I'm surprised you could do that easily. I remember we used to play those little games where you would try and hide your thoughts from me. You know, you always lost to me." She chuckled. "Maybe after all this is over, we can play a game, just you and me."

"Yeah, sure." Clymnestra had no clue what Helen was talking about, but some part yearned to be closer. "What else did we do together?"

"Outside of games? Well, we collected knowledge. You had this book that you were always struggling to carry, I had this pen that I was quite good at using. Oh, and there was the time we broke the energy in our home."