NOVEL NEXT 62. An Old Memory
“Apologies for interrupting, I would be correct in assuming you are Miss Aurora Branford?”
Internally rejoicing, Aurora repositioned herself on the stool so she could see the man who had just spoken and smiled.
“Ah, Mr. Brewer, perfect timing. A pleasure to finally get to meet you. Shall we move to our private room?”
Never more thankful for the man’s promptness in her life, Aurora collected her sketches into her handbag, appreciating the size and extra pockets the women’s bag provided her compared to a small wallet. As a man, while she did have extra pockets, the carrying capacity compared to now being a woman where she could carry around a handbag in a size of her choosing was monumental, especially since she wouldn’t receive odd glances from others casually carrying such a bag.
Taking her drink from the bar, she slipped off the stall and adjusted the strap of her bag. With a sideways glance to the annoying man, she discreetly tapped her foot against the uncouth man’s stool, sending a slight electrical charge up through the seat which caused the man to noticeably flinch as she walked up to Gareth and shook his hand. She and Gareth were led to their private room by the waitresses from earlier, walking towards a corridor at the back of the upstairs section.
Once they were a distance away Aurora spoke in a lowered voice so Gareth could hear her.
“I appreciate your timely intervention. I have seen many men like him before, yet that was my first time having to deal with one hitting on me.”
Gareth raised an eyebrow as he looked over at her, apparently deciding that it would be inappropriate to say anything.
They were led into a nicely decorated back room with a table that could seat four as they sat opposite each other. The waitress poured them both a glass of water and placed the menu in front of them, then left after taking their drinks order.
With the room now silent, Gareth went to speak up before Aurora raised a hand to indicate him to stop.
“Please wait a moment for our drinks to arrive so we won't be uninterrupted. I will explain the current situation which is both simple and complex with a large dash of incomprehensibility thrown in. In the meantime, let us place our orders, better to do that before our conversation has us focused elsewhere.”
Gesturing to the menu she just opened Aurora let a smile play on her face as she spoke up again, glancing towards Gareth who looked somewhat taken aback by the casual tone she was using.
“Ah, they still serve the Challandais Duck Roasted with Dukkah spices, I would highly recommend it if you have not tried it before. It won’t be long until this restaurant closes down and honestly, they serve the best French cuisine.”
Seeing Gareth both perplexed and amused by her youthful enthusiasm, he finally spoke up, a hint of confusion still in his tone as their meeting had immediately gone differently than how he had expected it to play out in his mind.
“Is that so? Then I shall take your recommendation. I did get a recommendation from one of my new colleagues who swears by the Marseille-Style Shrimp Stew, but I shall try that next time.”
Aurora let out a slight giggle at Gareth’s words, the action becoming more natural as time passed.
“Oh, I would assume it was Sasha you spoke to then? Yes, she always ordered the shrimp stew when we ate here.”
Gareth now looked completely confused by Aurora's words since as her current identity she should have never had a meal with Sasha, causing a playful smirk to play on her lips as she found the whole situation quite amusing.
The waitress soon entered with their drinks which Gareth seemed somewhat relieved about, much to Aurora’s continued amusement, and left again after taking their orders.
Aurora then waved her hand, using her mana to manipulate the door's lock closed as she stood up.
“Ok, so where to begin then… I guess the first would be here…”
Aurora tapped her foot to the ground, spending a lot of the mana in her body to generate another small illusion within the room that showed the beginning of her and Gareth’s meeting from a few days ago. Her mana reserves had not fully recovered from the morning, with Earth's ambient mana being so low, her regeneration rate reflected that difference compared to in Caelus.
Gareth nearly fell out of his chair as the room around them changed into the office atop the 27th floor of the Shard, followed by another version of himself walking into the room and greeting Chester who had supposedly died two days ago.
After the illusion showed the two's meeting, the room changed back with the exception of a glowing white mist that hung around the room.
“What the hell was that? Explain Miss Branford.”
“Well, that was when we met nearly three weeks ago. Despite what I look like right now, inside is Chester Branford. As you can see-“
Aurora gestured to the white mist around her while letting little blobs of water and fire form and float around her hand.
“- magic exists and by extension the gods. As in the Roman ones, as well as a number of others.”
Gareth just stared at her, somewhat frozen in shock. Aurora let a couple of the balls of water fall into her wineglass to further prove her point, and watched the man as she gave him a few moments to somewhat compose himself before she began to speak again.
“The reason I’m a woman now was because it was involved in a form of temporal manipulation and its impacts required me to change identities. It has something to do with causality being altered or something, and also partly for the amusement of the gods? Well, either way, the gods gave me this body which is inhumanly beautiful, created me a new identity and killed off the old me.”
Aurora could see the conflicted thoughts on Gareth’s face as she spoke, his face twisting as he tried to get his head around all the new information that was being presented to him. She could see that he was still in a strong stage of denial, so made another push.
Aurora dispelled the little elemental orbs floating around her raised hand and manipulated the illusion again to show a different scene.
“Now this, this was around a year ago. Well, a year for me.”
Aurora gestured to the room that now generated the illusion of a couple of cars stopping on a dual carriageway that cut through a damaged town. The parts of the settlement that were in view on either side of the raised road showed few signs of its prior vibrant prosperity, with derelict storefronts and some buildings that had collapsed into piles of rubble. Aurora spoke up again as she began to narrate what was being shown around them.
“This was when we were taking a short trip together up to Nottingham in the summer of 2029. We had stopped due to those wyverns who had spotted us-“
Aurora gestured to the large black dots growing closer in the distance as Gareth stiffly followed the direction she was pointing to.
“-and spent a short time fighting them.”
The scene unfolded as Aurora, still as a man, got out of the car alongside Gareth and a few other men. The older man still sitting in his chair looked far more ravaged by time in the illusion, his hair starting to go grey from stress. The difference in appearance elicited a shocked intake of air from him as he watched himself with unbroken attention. The illusion showed them both summoning a staff into their hands while the other men who all wore light Kevlar armour, drew mithril weapons unsheathed from their waists or carried freely due to their size.
As the main mage types in the group, she and Gareth launched long range magic attacks, forcing the 2 wyverns to the ground.
Gareth had let out a silent scream when the illusory wyverns smashed into the ground around what they preserved to be twenty meters away, causing him to fully fall off his seat scared by the flying red scaled reptilians whose bodies were as large as a 4x4 with a wingspan of 10 metres.
The illusion continued as the two wyverns were swiftly killed by the close range fighters who had rushed forward and swiftly decapitated the writhing beasts before they had a chance to attack.
With everything she wanted to show Gareth using as much of her mana as she was willing to use given her limited amount, she let the illusion disperse into mist that also faded soon after.
Gareth remained sat on the floor, his hands slightly trembling as Aurora walked up to him, the clicking of her heels on the wooden floor ringing out particularly loudly only contested by Gareth’s deep breathing.
Offering the man a hand, Aurora spoke out.
“Sorry to scare you like that, but this is something you need to see. First, come sit down and catch your breath. Take a few sips of your drink, the alcohol will help, trust me.”
Gareth cautiously took the hand Aurora offered, getting up immediately and slumping down into his chair as his legs remained a little numb.
Aurora walked back around to her seat as she began to talk.
“let me tell you about what became known as the Great Upheaval…”
