The sound of something dropping into water reached his ears. His eyes shot wide open just as his senses returned.
A plain of endless shallow water stretched before him, seemingly stretching into infinity. The sky above was dark and starless. There shouldn’t have been any light around him, since there was nothing but water as far as the eye could see, yet there was light. Light without a source. Light that didn’t cast shadows.
Something dropped into the water again, forming faint ripples beneath him. He looked down to see blood gathering in his palm. Another drop escaped, falling into the pitch black water, tainting it with crimson.
Blood spread around him, turning black into crimson. It spread until it covered all the water he could see.
Then, he felt the ground move beneath him. The ankle-deep water remained impossibly still as the dark surface beneath it moved. He fell as if a carpet was pulled out from under him, onto the slimy surface at the bottom of the shallow water.
The ice-cold water sent shivers across his body. He quickly motioned to get up but froze as he noticed the oddly white ground beneath him, covered in some sort of thick slime. The white moved, he could feel it brush against the thick layer of slime.
A myriad of colours passed under him in an instant, before it all turned black again. It wasn’t like before though, now it was pure black, seemingly infinite. He felt like he was staring into oblivion.
It was utterly, completely terrifying. His body refused to move as he attempted to comprehend the endless abyss beneath him.
A small part of his mind screamed at him to get up. To move. To try and understand what was going on. Where was he? How had he come here? It demanded he seek these answers.
He shut his eyes close, and for a split second, felt as if his mind was freed from whatever had him frozen with fear.
He pushed against the slimy surface beneath him and stood back up. His heart raced as he opened his eyes again, and that terror returned almost instantly.
The endless black pit beneath him was surrounded by an iris of beautiful colours. Some were impossibly vibrant, while others were much calmer, or darker. Beyond that was white beneath the shallow water as far as the eye could see.
He looked down again as understanding began to dawn.
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Where had the blood gone? His hand was bleeding still, but the blood immediately sank into the bottom, and disappeared beneath the slimy surface.
Blood.
His lips parted in shock as he comprehended.
A sharp pain struck his left eye.
“No,” he shook his head as he stumbled backwards, pressing his hand against his eye. “My blood wasn’t worthy!” he shouted into the void, looking at the endless black abyss beneath him.
At the pupil of the eye he was standing on.
His blood wasn’t worthy. His soul was impure, it was the opposite of what the ritual would have needed! This must have been a dream. A nightmare, caused by blood loss and exhaustion.
Gravity suddenly changed, and he fell upwards. A scream escaped his lips as he flailed about. His chest tightened in terror as he fell into endless nothingness.
Desperately looking for something, anything to hold onto, he drifted away. Yet the eye was still utterly gigantic, filling his view completely. Its colourful iris was both beautiful and terrifying all at once. Just the mere thought of seeing the rest of this being’s body was enough to freeze the blood in his veins.
The eye moved ever so slightly, following him with its gaze as he drifted away. Things moved in the darkness. He couldn’t quite see good enough, only the vague silhouette of something moving.
His head hurt looking at it.
He noticed something move behind him with the corner of his eye. Something reached for him.
His heart skipped a beat as something cold touched his back. A silent scream escaped his lips. Tendrils wrapped around his limbs. He struggled, trying to break free, but it soon proved futile.
“Return to your slumber!” he shouted at the unblinking eye. “I’m not your guide to the waking world!”
The vast nothingness beyond the eye appeared to move again. It was moving. Awakening from its deep slumber.
He struggled to break free from the hold of the tendrils, but they continued to wrap around his body, rendering him immobile. They forced his right hand open, covering the wound on his palm and the back of his hand.
A shiver ran down his spine as he tried to pull his hand away. It felt as if the tendrils were trying to slither into the wound. “Go bac to sleep!” He shouted in desperation. His chest tightened with rising terror. “I’m not-“
His voice cut off with a gasp as one of the tendrils struck his left eye. Searing pain jolted throughout his body. Half his vision vanished in an instant.
A beastly cry of agony and shock escaped his lips as he pressed his hand against his left eye. His back arched as he squirmed from the sudden and immense pain.
“Alistair, help me out!” He heard a woman’s voice as a pair of hands pressed against his shoulders, pinning him to the ground. “Something’s wrong!”
Footsteps approached, someone held his legs. “Hurry!”
A soothing, warm sensation covered his body as the pain in his eye slowly subsided.
Someone forced his hand away from his eye. “Hey!” A woman’s gentle, yet worried voice reached his ears, piercing the veil of pain that had clouded his mind.
His eyes shot wide open, revealing the blue sky he was laying under.
A face entered his field of vision.
“…Alistair?” his voice was but a whisper that barely passed through his aching throat.
He had never felt so relieved to see someone before. Or to see the sky.
“Yeah, it’s me.” The young noble also seemed somewhat relieved. He glanced around before looking at Midhir again. “Can you walk? We need to get moving. It’s…” he hesitantly bit his lips. “It’s not looking good right now.”