Amara – Reunion

Author's note: this is from Aldus's point of view

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I found Serina in the library, sitting between two piles of books; one on her left and one on her right. She had a paper and a pen in front of her and one book whose pages she would flip on every three-to-four seconds.

"Mhm…", I cleared my throat to make my presence known because she didn't react when I entered.

She smiled but didn't lift her gaze or stop flipping the pages, which made me curious about what she was doing.

Serina's eyes moved over the pages filled with drawings and text, like she was looking for something, but it was too quick to be able to read more than a sentence or two.

"What are you doing?", I asked finally.

"Trying out something…", she mumbled, and a few pages later, she closed the book and handed it to me. "Ask me something from here."

Her smug expression told me she is up to something.

I flipped the book to see that it's an encyclopedia of plants that can be found in the Amazonian forest. Randomly, I opened it on one page. "What can you tell me about Heliconia?"

Serina looked at the paper in front of her for a few seconds before asking, "Thirty-seventh page?"

I nodded in response, and she closed her eyes.

After a few seconds, she started talking without opening her eyes, "Heliconia is a genus of flowering plants, known as lobster-claws…" She continued talking about the appearance of the plant, taxonomy, uses, ideal conditions to grow them and my eyes widened in surprise as I followed her every word, like she was the one holding the book and reading from it.

"You memorized it?", I wanted to confirm because there was no way that she could read it from somewhere. Unless she was reading my mind which was a quite unsettling thought.

"You can say that.", Serina responded with a mischievous grin. "I realized that I can access my subconsciousness and retrieve my original memories. I'm trying to see if I can use it to speed up my learning. The problem is that I recall every image that I saw previously, but I need to know what I'm looking for." She waved the paper that was in front of her. "This is my index which works great on a small scale, but it becomes a problem as it grows. I need to figure out something like a search engine for my memory that can give me all results for Heliconia because other than in that book, it appears also here…", she lifted the top book on her right. "…as a habitat for hummingbirds. I remember this only because I just went through this book, so it was a fresh memory. It probably appears in a few more books, but I forgot so I can't access that. In order for this to work, I need to know where the information is."

I blinked a few times while thinking about how Serina is finding shortcuts in her studies. What happened with good-old working long hours? Ah, youngsters. Always in a rush. There is nothing wrong with learning faster, but even if she finds the solution to pinpoint corresponding memories (search engine, how she called it), the real knowledge is something a person understands, and it is not something one can parrot out like reading from a book.

"That is why you asked me if it's on page thirty-seven.", I said.

Serina confirmed. "In my mind, I found memory of me looking at page thirty-seven and I could see it perfectly like the book is in front of me."

"Sounds more like a database of information than actual knowledge.", I voiced my thoughts while hoping that Serina will realize on her own the flaw of her approach.

"True…", Serina agreed. "But I don't need the actual knowledge of everything, as long as it's handy, it will be fine. However, I'm finding problems with this, and will need to optimize it."

I shook my head in disapproval. "I thought you are practicing your pheromone control."

"I was. My control is smoother, but I need Vesper to tell me what I can do about it. We are going to see her, right?"

"That's what I came to tell you. We are leaving after lunch for Paris and will see her this afternoon."

She bobbed her head happily. "Good, good. How are your experiments going?"

Three days ago, I made progress in stabilizing the solution I now call 'the serum of youth', so I told Serina that I found a use for her blood. Serina was interested to join me in the lab, however, when she found out that I'm using live specimens (and that they are dying rather quickly), her enthusiasm dwindled.

She understood that I would not use animals if there is any other choice, but she couldn't stomach it. And the fact that I was using her blood as one of the main ingredients, made the whole thing more gruesome, for Serina at least.

"I wish that we don't need to go to Paris." My statement had more than one meaning. I hated how despite all my preparation, my insides still churned at the thought of seeing Vesper. "I am close. The last dog survived for seven hours and eleven minutes."

Serina's brows furrowed. "I wish that animals don't need to die."

"Those are strays, and they would be euthanized anyway. Like this, at least they died for science."

"I don't think that is how they see it.", Seraphina said with a pout.

I gave her a tight smile, knowing that if I say anything, it will only rile her up. I really didn't care about creatures with such a short lifespan. How I see it, even if they died of old age, it would happen soon. But I knew that Serina sees it differently, and I didn't want to engage in an argument.

In time, she will realize that caring about mortals only brings an emotional burden. No matter what we do, they will perish. But that is a lesson she needs to learn on her own because every immortal deals with mortal creatures in his (or her) own way.

"Did you pack your things?", I asked Serina while changing the topic.

"Yes. I'm ready.", she confirmed.

"Instead of cheating your way through studying, you should practice pheromone control. Who knows, maybe we get that espresso on the street in Paris."

Serina's lips lifted into a smile at my words. Ah, she is easy to cheer up.

Just when I thought that I've got her, Serina narrowed her eyes at me. "Don't call it cheating in studying. It's a unique use of my ability. By practicing it, I am honing my skills."

I couldn't stop the incoming chuckle. "Is your ability to cheat? Since when is that a skill?"

"Not cheating.", she grumbled and leaned closer to me like she is about to tell me a secret. "Did you know that when you remember something, you are actually remembering the last time you remembered it?"

"Is that a new tongue-twister you are working on?"

Serina waved her hand dismissively. "No, no. I'm saying how only the first time when you remember the event, you will remember the original and at the same time, your mind will create a copy. Next time, you will actually remember that copy and create the next one. As time passes and you are remembering the same event, more and more copies are created while your brain will discard the old ones. With every copy created, a slight change will occur either due to your current mood, or experiences you accumulated in the meantime. That is why memories are not reliable; our brain changes them and there is nothing we can do about it."

I nodded in agreement and I knew where she was going with this. "But you are different."

Serina smiled smugly. "My ability is to tap directly into my subconsciousness. I tested myself by recording my recollection of the same event, and I confirmed that my recollections are always identical, no matter how many times I repeated the exercise. That means I am always looking at the original. It's something that humans call photographic memory, but other than just images, my memory includes all senses like sound, touch, scent. My ability is allowing me to relive my memories on demand without changing anything."

I thought that her words make sense. She obviously put effort into this and even experimented. However, other than finding ways to cheat while studying, I thought of another thing… "How far in the past can you go?"

Serina pursed her lips for a second before responding, "In my earliest memory, I was about four years old."

"If you can access your subconsciousness, you should be able to relive your time in your mother's womb."

"I see your point", she said thoughtfully. "But I can't remember anything from my early childhood, or my mother's womb." She ended with a sarcastic note.

"Don't worry about it.", I brushed it off because if I kept insisting, I might arouse her suspicion. "Do whatever you need to do before we leave. If things go according to plan, we will stay a week or longer. Take something to keep yourself busy, as I might be absent for a few days…"

I sat on the sofa and observed Serina as she returned the books that were piled on her left and right, and she picked a few to carry on our trip to Paris. She was humming a tune through the process.

I was thinking about her memory and why she couldn't remember her early childhood. If she was a human, it would be amazing that she can remember details of her life as a four years old girl. But she was not a human and she could recollect everything perfectly up to a certain point, and that made me suspect that maybe someone tampered with her memories so that she can't remember some events.

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