A memory

She was dreaming. No, not dreaming. Remembering. She hadn't always been suspended in a metal pod. She had a past. She had a name. Feeling her memories so close to the surface of her conscience, she dug deep to find them. "Ezra, you know how far you must go to achieve freedom!" A voice from a memory berated her. "You will be crushed by the other prospective courtesans, because you are weak and fearful! How pathetic you will make me look with your failure! I will not accept it! If you will not kill for victory then I will kill you and save myself the embarrassment! The only reason you are alive is because I have kept you safe. No one will mourn for you if you die!"

"No! Please! I will do anything to be free!!! Please, Lady Jadeen, teach me how to be strong!", A small scared voice of girl begged. The voice echoed off as consciousness came rushing back to the woman. Her head ached from where she has cracked it against a piece of furniture and her body only felt more overwhelmed and sore from running half hazardously around these ruins. But even with the new aches and pains a clarity began to fall over her. The memory brought recollections of her past. Her name was Ezra. Lady Jadeen, the woman who's voice berated her constantly named her, though she was not her mother. Ezra didn't think she had known her mother, but her memories were still incomplete. She recalled that the woman that named her had fallen out of favor with the court and the prince. The prince, the thought of him brought shivers down Ezra's spine. She tried to grasp for deeper memories but they were hidden from her. Ezra got to her feet and gathered her bearings. She wouldn't have thought cracking her head would have woken up some of her memories, but she guessed she was grateful to have gotten something from the lump on her head. The thought would've made her chuckle if she hadn't been so tired. The long hallway didn't seem so foreign to her now. This place was once home to her and the distinct style of these ruins almost brought comfort to her.