Erta

Sharp pain shook my body as blood rushed out of my neck. I could feel each and every tooth of that ferru woman gnawing at my collarbone and then, darkness. Vast emptiness spread out infinitely in every direction.

“Great goddess, be praised your mercy! She’s alive!”

Pain and grogginess came into existence as suddenly as the darkness before it.

“Stay still. Much blood you have lost.”

The same one that almost killed us, came tending to our wounds.

I waved the memory away. Whatever he saw it was not there. Yet another reason to be wary of this human child. If he ever was a human at all? I have met many creatures during my hatchling years before I cast myself into the life of solitude, yet I have never witnessed one as twisted as him.

Loar came close perhaps. Insane, unpredictable, and powerful. Made me his plaything, his pupil, his companion, and he cast me away when he got bored of it. Me, a prideful dragon.

“Is it me or does that thing got bigger since last time?”

Kneeling before it, right in front of my terrified eyes, Galen poked the tiny bud sprouting out of the crystal ground. The abomination boobed back and forth sending waves of concentrated mana, rippling over this strange realm.

“Touch it again and I shall remove your arms, you dolt!”

Worse than a spoiled child. Should I take my eyes off him… I calmed myself taking a deep breath. I never enjoyed humanoid forms, too much of compression made my mana easily excitable. Although for now, such form seemed more convenient.

Obedient, Galen said nothing and sat with his legs crossed, facing me. His empty stare could unnerve a solid rock.

“I have checked what you asked me, several times, and there is nothing within your memory. You lost consciousness right after she bitten you. Enchants kept you from bleeding out.”

Perhaps this was not the answer he expected but this was the only one I could give. Unmoved, he kept his eyes on me. Had I not heard his thoughts I would not accuse him of having a conscious mind. Nothing about this man would betray he was more than an empty shell.

“Have you looked in between?”

He spoke after a thought clarified itself within him. To look in between memories. To look at the darkness.

“I am able to do so but what would be the purpose? It is not a place nor time…”

“Please do it.”

Galen, the boy that did not care, silenced me with a wave of his hand.

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“Very well.”

I pulled the memory again and sunk into it. Pain. Darkness. More pain. Nothing I have not seen already. Why was he so adamant about me watching this memory? And then it dawned on me. Those were not two separate memories like you would expect from a loss of consciousness. I could feel no sharp cut between the time he fainted and the time he awoke. The memory was intact. One, single, continuous memory.

“How peculiar.”

“Did you find something?”

“Nothing. I found more than a day worth of nothing. What else are you not telling me human?”

Galen blinked, perhaps for the first time since he came here. His eyes judged me for a moment then he averted his gaze towards the imposing orb of mana spinning calmly above our heads.

“Ever since I could remember, ever since I was a child. I had suffered something my parents called episodes. Time and time again I would feel, hear or witness things that were not real. Or so I was lead to believe my whole life. Now? I'm not so sure anymore.”

“Sometimes during an episode, a happening would take place. Items breaking or missing. People witnessing… some unexpected phenomena.”

“Like a kiss from an inhuman entity. It seemed so, material, so intimate. I could taste her lips and feel her tongue brush against mine. Even my hearts raced as she did so.”

Galen put his eyes back on me.

“So, assuming I did not lose my conciseness, where does it take us? Did my mind skip somewhere else? Someplace, somehow linked to me? Does that make any sense?”

Asked a man that crossed the borders between words. I have never met a creature less trusting of its own senses.

“It is possible. Many great magicians and sorcerers could project their mind outside their body, over a great distance. For some, it happened on a subconscious level. Take a seer for example. It is a common occurrence for them to experience what you described.”

But a seer he is not. I would know that.

“What about time? The woman I met during my recent episodes, implied we have met already. Also, one of the undying, I think that was the name she used, called me a traveler. So far only you did that.”

My horns itched at that name and shivers went down my spine.

“Galen, can you describe those undying you speak of?”

“Tall, slender. Hooves instead of feet. Odd eyes with horizontal iris. The one I tasted, was sweet. Does anything like that exist? “

“Oh yes. They do exist. Or at least they did some time ago and from your description, I can say we met the same creature. Well, maybe except for the taste part. The one I ate was slightly burned so I cannot say anything about their sweetness. But, let’s not digress. Whatever you saw, I can attest that at least a grain of truth was within those visions.”

“Visions… Can we not call it that? That name implies something that might happen, and I’d prefer if it didn’t. At least not the other half.”

For the first time since I met him, Galen appeared genuinely troubled. Was this as close to an emotion as he could get?

“Ever since I was a child I had a recurring… dream of a woman sitting on a throne of blood, devouring souls. It felt like she would lay waste to the whole world just to sate her hunger.”

He looked away.

“I saw the same people being sacrificed over and over again. Whenever I close my eyes I could hear their screams.”

That I did not see within him. How come there was no sign of such struggle? All I could see, all there ever was… the darkness between memories. How low should I fall to realize my foolishness!

Again and again, I could see the same pattern forming within his mind. As if somebody or something blocked me from reaching certain parts of his mind. The more I pressed on the more apparent and forceful it became. As if another presence fought against me. No, not fought. It toyed with me!

“Erta? Is that your doing?”

Cold and crimson mist gathered around us while the air crackled with electricity.

“No human. That is not me. “

A thick cloud of bloody miasma surrounded us and somewhere from above, mana rippled ever so slightly.

“Enough of the mushy stuff,”

Came a cold female voice somewhere from beyond the mist.

“We are being moved. Wake up.”