25ish

Standing, she moved from her bed and walked silently across the floor. Throwing back the curtains in front of the window, she looked out upon a vast expanse of sand shining brilliantly in the noon sun. She stepped forward, feet crunching lightly on the sand. A silent wind ruffled her skirt, and as she reached up to shade her eyes she saw a hand that was brown, like the river clay, instead of burnt umber. A strand of dark hair fell in her eyes and she brushed it away. Far away, on the horizon, she saw a figure lying prone. She moved to the side of the figure, and saw that it was a child with hair as white as the sand. The scent of winecups filled the air though she could see no vines. She gathered the child into her arms and it was night. Lightning of red and green flickered across the gleaming dome of the sky, and she laid the child on a stone altar. Flames shot up, and the ground opened beneath her feet. As she fell, she looked up, and saw all the stars turn to green eyes that watched as she fell into her own bed…

Tsuda jolted in her bed, and gasped for breath. She thrust a hand before her eyes, and saw with relief that it was still the deep rich brown that she had always known. The hair that lay in tangles before her eyes was still white gold, and there was no window in her bedroom. Her breathing slowed, her heart began to beat more quietly, and in a few moments, she fell back into a dreamless sleep.

As Tsuda entered Mede’s garden the following day, Mede breathed a quiet prayer of thanks. She had been afraid that her rash speech had driven her friend away. “I’m so glad to see you, Tsuda,” she said lightly. “I was hoping you’d come, I had my father give me a loaf of sweet bread to share with you if you came.” She held out a crisp circle of flat bread, drizzled with honey.
Tsuda smiled, and set down the steaming jar that she had brought with her. “And I brought piji for us yesterday, and completely forgot to tell you. They may be a little ripe, but they should still be alright.” She handed Mede one of the long purple fruits, and began to apply hot cloths to the foot again. “You know, this is looking much better. I should think you’d be back on your feet in the next few days.”
“And I will be ready! I was always quieter than you, but this amount of restful solitude is about to drive me clear out of my mind!” She bit off the end of the piji, and chewed slowly, letting the sweet juice trickle down her throat. “I love piji fruit. Thank you, Tsuda, for getting it.”
“Well, I like it, too, and an invalid friend is a wonderful excuse for buying treats, so don’t think I didn’t have my own reasons.” She laughed, and dipped another towel into the hot water.
“Your hair is all wet, did you go swimming?”
Tsuda nodded, and ran a hand self-consciously through the water-logged locks. “My father thought it would be a good thing. He was right, of course.” She smiled, and her purple eyes shone in brilliant contrast to her skin.
The two girls sat chattering for a while, enjoying the warm afternoon sunlight, and the breezes that drifted into the garden. But during a long silence, Tsuda suddenly spoke. “Mede, I’ve been thinking about the things you said yesterday. No, don’t say anything yet. What you said scared me, and I still don’t know what to think about it. Surely if it was true we’d have heard of it before, but I had never even imagined such a thing. I told myself that it couldn’t be true, that you were either mistaken or simply imagining things.”
Silence fell over the garden again, and Tsuda keep her eyes fixed on the flowers on the far wall. “But I couldn’t lie to myself, either. You are very sensible, much more than me, and you’ve never been given to wild imaginings. You read all the time, and you often know things that I don’t. So I couldn’t believe that it was something you’d just made up and convinced yourself was real. But I still cannot believe that such a thing can be.”
She suddenly reached over to the hammock and grabbed her friend’s hand. “Last night I had a dream, more vivid than any other I have ever had, and…” Tsuda swallowed hard and continued. “I want to know how you would know if you had lived a previous life. You said that you could sometimes tell from dreams.”

Mede nodded, and squeezed her hand slightly. “Sometimes events are written down, and you can find things there.” She grabbed the basket of scrolls that still sat on the ground under the hammock. “That’s what I’ve been doing. My father has found some of the images from my dreams in histories, but it took a very long time. I have a memory of a place with lots of sand, and little brightly colored vegetables…there’s a garden shut away in a stone wall, and a large paved plaza. I think I saw a temple of white stone once too, but I’m not as sure about that one. Anyway, that bit I read to you the other day was from one of the scrolls that he brought me. I think I was there when the woman was executed for being a witch.”

Tsuda felt as if her heart were going to break against her ribs; the scenes Mede described matched hers too closely for any comfort. “I…I’ve had the same images. Or, some of them…Mine always end with looking into green eyes. When I see them, I am so afraid that I wake myself up. But I saw the stones on the plaza…” She was nearly in tears, and pressed her palms to either side of her head. “I don’t know, I don’t know…I…maybe I am going crazy?”

“Tsuda, dear, please, it’s alright. We don’t have to do this if it’s going to hurt this much. Here, I’ll put the scrolls away, and—“

“No.” The other girl shook her head, and swallowed hard. “No, I want to know the truth. These dreams are trying to tell me something and I’m afraid I really will go mad if I don’t find out.” She shuddered, and Mede pulled on her hand.

“Here, you don’t have to be alone. Come up here in the hammock. Some things are more easily faced with someone by your side.” Tsuda carefully climbed into the hammock, being careful not to jar Mede’s foot; Mede put her arm around her friend’s shoulders, and gently unrolled one of the scrolls. “Alright then, let me read a little of this to you. It’s the account of a trader who was passing through the village at the time of the execution. He has a little more to say than the village records did. ‘When we passed through Kemal, a woman was accused of summoning a hadji to dwell among the people. When she was brought before the people, she denied that she had ever summoned such a spirit, but swore her allegiance to strange gods. She spoke arrogantly and stood proudly; her appearance was strange, her hair pale as the sand, and I did not wonder that she was fey. She was executed as a witch, and her head was cut off there in the plaza for all to see.”
Tsuda shuddered. “I think I saw that one too, but it seems beyond all belief that we should both have the same memories and dreams.”
“Actually, my father says that it is not so unusual as you might think. We are none of us journeying alone, but we help each other along the way. Simply learning the lessons from life is not enough to be taken to live with the gods; each soul must help another learn as well, and only then can our souls take flight.” Mede paused, and examined her friend’s face. “I’m sorry, Tsuda, I don’t mean to badger you; you don’t have to believe as I do. I only told you because I think it is true; if your memories are coming up, there is a reason for it, and ignoring them or treating them as simple dreams won’t help at all.”
The other girl nodded mutely. “I know. I know, but…” She shivered. “Even if everything you are telling me is true, especially if it’s true, then things will only be harder. The priests are sure to find out, and they will punish me and my family…” She clutched her friend’s hand desperately. “But they won’t find out about you, I should just tell them that I heard some of the merchants talking of the idea.”
They lay in the hammock for the rest of the afternoon, and talked no more of strange memories of far away places.