text: When you get back, Rosimary looks at your grazes and wild eyes with alarm.
  
  "What happened to you?" she asks.
  
  You tell her everything. How you went to the wrong place, how you saw a strange person who seemed somehow magical, and how you believe they put a cures on you.
  
  "What a cruel joke to play on me," she says, tutting.
  
  "It's the truth, Mother. I swear. It's the truth!"
  
  She searches your eyes, and perceiving your honesty, stands up. "We need to go straight to the Temple."
  
  You begin to protest. Going to the Temple seems like an extreme course of action.
  
  Rosimary stops you, though. "Who else can help but the priests?"
  
  You understand she's right. You come with her to the Temple.
  
  Novitiate Murl, a teenage boy training to become a priest, tells you to wait for a few minutes while Mother Larissa finishes her prayers.
  
  "This is something only our head priestess can help with," he tells you.
  
  You glance nervously at Rosimary. Rosimary takes your hand and squeeze it. "It will be okay," she says.
  
  Eventually Mother Larissa, a short, bent-over old woman, comes out of the far room in little steps. She glances over your mother and you. "Mary and Rosimary," she mutters. "Mary and Rosimary." She smiles, revealing lots of white, crooked teeth. "You did well in choosing to come here. Something bad has happened to you, Mary, but it will be okay, it will be okay. Come with me to the altar and pray, and pray."
  
  She goes over to the altar on the other side of the room and kneels. You follow suit. As you pray, you feel a warmth settle over you.
  
  "A curse is over you," Mother Larissa says to you when you stand again. "And though it's already in place, it is yet to reach fruition." She turns to Rosimary and smiles brightly, looking down. "Hello there, little Sap."
  
  You turn around, and jump away in fright when you see a strange girl there, with no eyes on her face – only sunken in sockets. Her fingers are short and stubby, and her mouth is abnormally tiny, curled up in a semi-circular smile. Something about the way she looks makes you afraid, eerie. And she clings to Rosimary's hips, hugging her, and Rosimary hugs her back.
  
  "Who-" you begin.
  
  "Hmm?" Mother Larissa says to you.
  
  You point. "Who is she?" Why does she inspire such fear in you? Is it only her strange body and face? She rocks back and forth rhythmically.
  
  "What are you talking about?" Rosimary says. "This is your sister."
  
  The girl turns her face in your direction, still with that strangely circular smile.
  
  "No she isn't," you say.
  
  The girl's smile drops instantly, and her grip on Rosimary's skirt tightens.
  
  Mother Larissa watches you. "Do you have no knowledge of her? No knowledge?" It's a serious question.
  
  You nod. "I've never seen her before."
  
  "Well, then this is the curse, I do believe. I do believe. Sap has always been your sister, and now you have no memory of her!"
  
  You stare at the girl. A sister? But you've always been a single child. How can this be so? It's impossible.
  
  > Don't believe them.
  No. You know she's not your sister. That's impossible. How could memories that'd be so important to you be taken away like that?
  
  "You're wrong," you tell them all.
  
  "Don't say that," Rosimary almost hisses.
  
  "Mary, you have to see the truth," says Mother Larissa.
  
  You see you're not going to persuade them. You glare, and then march out the room.
  
  As you walk down the stairs, you hear Novitiate Murl's voice calling. "Mary! Let me walk with you."
  
  You pause, and let him catch up. You're not angry – you just don't know what to do, and it would be good to talk with someone who might listen.
  
  "How are you feeling?" he asks.
  
  "Fine," you reply. "But that girl is not my sister. That's impossible."
  
  "That's what you think," he says. "I'm not here to argue with you about that, though."
  
  You know he isn't. You keep walking steadily. When you get to the bottom of the stairs, he stops. "Think about it," he says. "Will you trust us, or no?"
  
  You say goodbye and go home. He doesn't follow you.
  
  The days pass, and no-one believes you about the girl. They are all convinced your memories are wrong. Sometimes you think maybe they're right, and you're losing your mind. But you don't think it's possible memories like that could be removed from your mind.
  
  The eyeless girl starts to avoid you. Rosimary tells you she's sad, but you can't see it in her lack of eyes. You're glad she stays away from you. The sight of her creeps you out. She stops going to her self defense lessons with the head priestess. Rosimary says it's because she's so sad. You know it's because she's not real.
  
  One day, your neighbor Brock runs to your house. "Something terrible has happened at the Temple. A fire!"
  
  You stop your weaving, and without even waiting for permission from Rosimary, run to the central chamber.
  
  The fire is bright yellow. It doesn't look like a real fire. There's no smoke.
  
  Westerly appears beside you, with his fiancé at his arm. "The talkers said there was the Pandrian emblem on the Temple this morn," he tells you in a rapid voice. "And the priests covered it up, but the fabric set on fire, and now it's the whole Temple on fire. The Pandrian emblem."
  
  "I'm scared, Westerly," says his fiancé, burying her face in his arm.
  
  He hugs her. "Don't pay any mind to what they said before," he tells her. "The priests will protect us."
  
  You hear a voice screaming from a distance away. "The end times are here!"
  
  Another: "Better to die now than live to be slaves."
  
  "Calm, calm!" beckons a huge feminine voice. Hovering in the air is Mother Larissa. "Have faith-"
  
  But you know she's not as powerful as everyone thinks. She didn't see Sap for what she was, after all. You turn back and begin to run home again.
  
  Just as you do, there's a huge flash of light. A deafening roar fills the cave, echoing everywhere, and a hideously metallic smell fills your nose. You run as fast as you can out of the crowd. There's more screaming behind you. It chases after you.
  
  When you get home, you see Rosimary and Tolmerrie starting to come out.
  
  "We need to get out of here," you say.
  
  "Where's Sap?" Rosimary asks, worried.
  
  "Forget Sap!" you cry. "She's not real!"
  
  Suddenly a male voice with a strange accent speaks from the shadows to your side. The magician. "She will fetch a good price at the slave market when I get back. A powerful magic bearer with no skill. That is unusual."
  
  "Where is she?" Rosimary yells at him.
  
  But he holds up a hand, and more of that yellow fire shoots from it.
  
  You awake to find yourself on your feet, marching. Your hands are tied in front of you to a horizontal pole. The pole also ties to it several people to your left and right. You are under a dark, grey sky, and water soaks your dress. It must've rained on you earlier. You are shivering and goosebumps cover your whole body.
  
  To your sides are Rosimary and Tolmerrie – and Sap, who has silver cloth around her hands. Suddenly you recognize her as your sister. Your memories of her flood back. Her birth, her early years, the expectation she would die and the delight you and your family felt when she made it to ten years old. You loved your sister. How could you have been so cruel to her when you refused to believe she was real?
  
  You've been taken as slaves by the magician, to be sold to the very nation your people escaped from generations ago.