The mother’s name was Daniela. She worked for a time as a guide at Machu Picchu. She was well-known for telling stories of the entities that lived in the mountains there. She had the reputation for speaking truth to power, not unlike Dominique’s quest in her work.

Dominique had heard of split souls—souls with a power so huge they needed more than one personality within which to bring forth their purpose—the same soul that needed to occupy more than one human being in any given lifetime. There were even souls that had many splits. Could it be that each of those on this journey were part of the same soul? Was this the insight to which they were being led?

“We’ve been here before, haven’t we?” she asked Ja’far.

A sweet, orange wind stirred through the ancient killing field. The scent jolted Dominique’s memory back to an earlier time. A time of rescue, and ointments Bedouin had used to heal her when she was dying in the desert of an earlier life. It was this fruit she smelled, and this life she saw.

“It was you who helped me,” she said in calm awe. “They were your hands that applied the ointments that cured me.”

“Yes. I was one of the tribe who took care of you here. Inside this place is where you were saved.”

“The Cave of Memory,” she said, remembering when she’d walked in the monotone of the desert, from a land to which she’d been banished. Walking upon sand with this tribe of which Ja’far had been part. The same sand she and Julian had walked on in their escape from the desert. The same sand that was on her bare feet in the cold of that night when they were saved. She’d been saved in many lives. Now it was her turn to save others.

“Yes. We have been here before,” Ja’far said.

The arc of the warm cream moon illuminated an unseen opening along a vertical line of rock.

Ja’far moved his hands along the surface of the rock, along a seeming invisible line until he opened it enough for a human being to move through.

Julian approached him, curious as to what he was doing. He saw the opening.

“Did you move that rock?”

“It wasn’t me alone. Now we must go inside.”

Ja’far took out a small flashlight from his pocket and squeezed through the portal in the rock.

Julian and Dominique followed.

The scent of roses seeped from the pores of the ancient cave.

Dominique remembered…