[ForgottenCode]

"Wait a second. You just contradicted yourself. If no one remembers what really goes on in the Shadowlands, than how exactly is it that you remember it to pass it on to us?” Lauren asked, looking genuinely confused.

Marcos’ smirk smoothed out into an actual smile. At least someone was paying attention. He knew by looking at the yearbooks that he’d been a student of the school at the same time that Lauren had. He even vaguely remembered her, but she’d been a geek then, and he hadn’t been.

He still shook his head when he thought back on those years. Playing sports, chasing girls, and being downright mean to anyone who didn’t fit in with his group of friends. He’d been such a tool. He remembered being so excited to be Prom King, to get the dance with Cadi, who at the time was the queen of the school, and all of that seemed so long ago.

His life had changed so dramatically after those years, that now if he could go back, he’d probably have been friends with Lauren, rather than someone who would have locked her boyfriend in a locker for the night. But hindsight as they say and all that.

He nodded to her and said, “Well done. I was hoping someone would see that. You’ve unearthed the first rub. Not everyone is subject to this ‘enchantment’ for lack of a better word. Anyone who has an affinity for the five other planes of existence can cross the border and have nothing happen to them.”

“Luis Pea is another who has such an affinity. His Gifts are different than mine, of course, as I’ve never met anyone in all my years who’s Gifts are exactly the same, but he can move through and survive in all five planes. He also remembers the true nature of the place.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “If he remembers then why did he write his text the way he did? Why lie and keep everyone in the dark?”

Marcos shrugged. “Think about it from the so called Shadow King’s perspective for the moment. He has a problem. Some people can pass through his borders and still remember. However, those people are few and far between. After all, even if a person has a Gift like mine or Luis’, most of them will avoid the Shadowlands due to its reputation. So, the best way for him to deal with this problem is to stop those people from passing the word on, right?”

Lauren nodded, slowly and sceptically.

Marcos continued. “He’s already shown that he can’t affect these people directly, so how does he do it? Let me show you.”

He reached into his pack and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen. “Alright. I’m going to write on this sheet of paper what I’ve seen in the Shadowlands, as a brief description. Then, I’ll pass the sheet to you, and you can read it to the rest of us, alright Lauren?”

When she again nodded, he started to write. A few minutes later he passed the sheet on to her. “Read it, please.”

She scanned the page and then looked up at him with questions in her eyes. “This is nearly exactly what is written in Mr. Luis Pea’s works. A text that you’ve said is fiction. I don’t get it.”

He took the notepad back from her. “And now you see the second and more sinister affect of the ‘enchantment’. Any word that I write down about what I’ve really seen is changed on the paper itself. I’ve tried figuring out a way around it, but it’s impossible. This is why Luis and I laughed about his book. Part of his Gift is that he never makes mistakes when writing, so he never checks over his work. He wrote the section on the Shadowlands and sent it off to his publisher without realizing what had happened.”

“When he received the published copy, he blasted his editor, saying he’d never written these lies – he had seen the true interior of the Shadowlands and lived to tell the tale. Then his editor showed him the manuscript and Luis was flabbergasted. This wasn’t what he’d written at all, and yet there it was, on the page, written in his style, as if those were really the words that he’d put down on paper.”

Lauren grabbed the pad back and stared at it in wonder. “If that’s true then…” She traced the letters with her index finger. “Can I take this sheet? I’d like to study it.”

He shrugged again. “If you like.”

Charles said, “Alright, you’ve been there, so I trust this is the way of things. What does this mean for us?”

“All of you will forget this whole conversation when you enter the Shadowlands. While you’re inside, you’ll be completely normal in every way, except with this small memory loss, and when you leave, you’ll remember what’s on paper in Lauren’s libraries and what I just wrote.”

Lauren folded the piece of paper and placed it into a pocket. “I only have one more question. If you knew we were going to forget, why bother telling us in the first place?”

Marcos pursed his lips. “Because this way, until you enter the Shadowlands, your mind will be at peace. At first I wasn’t going to say anything, but its better this way. And before you ask, Lauren, I’m going to have this entire conversation again when we pass through. Maybe I’ll be surprised and someone else among you will remember. We’ll see. In any case, we’ve got some travelling to do tomorrow, so get your rest people. I’ll take the first watch and wake up Dr. Zorbino in two hours.”

“Call me Colin,” the doctor said.

Marcos nodded and smiled again. “Alright, then I’ll wake Colin up in two hours. Good night everyone.”