Ur Ung Baen

Deep into one's mind

- Give me your hand.

Hogg looked confused. He turned his eyes to the Hound and then back to the goddess. Gaining his bravado back, he responded in his old bitter self.

- Han? Hell no!

- And yet... - Andrea pointed down to him with her eyes. So that he could see his right hand resting in her left palm.

Hoog took his hand away. Grabbing it out of impulse and backed a pace or two. The heck had she just done? He was sure he had not moved.

This was all too confusing. He hadn't felt like himself ever since he woke up. Something was definitely wrong here. His emotions were in turmoil he could not think clearly, he was acting strange, and somehow, he was... it was strange just heck damn strange! He needed to get out of there.

All sort of strange things and feelings were stumping over him like a brigade on a battlefield. Confusion ran over him and was taking control. He tried to compose himself, retracing his steps. There was just something not right in this picture since he woke up.

He looked at the goddess and the Hound, studying their calm and composed, slightly bored postures. Was he going crazy? How could she keep herself so calm when she was getting herself beaten up just a moment ago? How could he? Her Hound! Why had she told them not to attack? To spare their lives? She could at least have saved herself a couple of beatings, had she used them. It made no sense, strategically and logically.

He was a “war dog”. Most of his life had been spent on the battlefield, and he had yet to see a commander not willing to sacrifice his own, to save himself. Plus, the feeling in that salon didn’t feel right.

It was all weird and she was the weirdest of them all. A lunatic that was not capable of going against the gods that hunt him, but still shared no fear in her eyes or manner for them. Still... This time he had been damn lucky, but he could not be so the next.

Stop whining and give me your hand. - Her voice was no longer calm and collected. It was demanding. She was commanding him to obey, like a master would do to his pet dog. The most surprising thing, however, was that he was obeying.

- How am I obeying? You are not my creator. I had not...

- Yes, I am.

- What?

- I’m the judge of the gods, remember? I did tell you that. I did tell him that Braham. - she looked at the Hound as if he was not there. Talking to him like one who was telling their day to another half complaining of their uncanny destiny.

- I do believe you. - He responded with courtesy.

- Yes, of course. - She retorted. - Now, you should kneel. Braham help him! - the Hound forcibly but effortlessly grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to kneel.

- What are you trying to do with me? - Hoog asked, hopelessly trying to loosen Braham’s grasp.

- I need your memories. - she said. - You see, you are right, I’m kind of weird. I do not fear the gods, for I am their judge. But that doesn’t mean I want them to know my power. - she shrugged her shoulders. Leaning over, she grabbed his chin and directed it until they were eye to eye - And that is why you are going to be a good boy and not speak of what you have seen or will be seeing in this room to no one. - the words hit him like an order, an unbreakable and irrefutable order. He had no choice but to obey. He knew that instant that he would never be able to speak of it.

It was the strangest and most uncomfortable feeling. Nothing made sense. She still had not really answered him about how she could command him. The more she spoke, the more he wanted to flee. It was maddening and he was clueless. A growing feeling of uncertainty and fear started to sprout in him. Since he got there, all but strange feelings he did not know he had, had taken dominance over him.

- You still have not answered me. - he blurted out. His courage seemed to be intact. Then what had happened earlier?

- You talk too much. - she said before her eyes started to glow and Hoog saw himself falling into memory. His memories started to flow backwards like he was living them upside down. The goddess had entered his mind.

They were back at Aorumm’s temple. He was in prison, the fetid smell of manure, blood, and sweat invaded his nostrils. He felt all as if he was living it for the first time. The worst kind of nightmare, reliving.

The goddess was not only searching his mind, she was making him relive it, grabbing it from the forgotten dark corner of his mind, making him experience all of it once more. It was cruel. Hogg felt nauseated and angry as he relived his emotions.

The memory hit him like an arrow, piercing right through his heart. All was hurting, all was but pain and anger. Aorumm entered the room, he knew what came next, what had come next for the last three years of his life.

Ever since Aorumm had discovered him in Calustrácia’s bedroom and dragged him to that place, he had seen the god frequently and the outcome was always the same. Be it torture or lust, the god had made service of him fully. His hands started to sweat, his heartbeat fastened, his mouth got dry as sand.

The scene rewinded a bit more, taking him by surprise. The feelings, replaced with pleasure. He had forgotten how beautiful Calus looked to him at that time, the happiness of loving her. She was riding him on top of her cotton and silk white bed, half naked, plump breasts bouncing along with her movements, while she pushed him deep into her. Her eyes were in a trance, foggy, full of lust and hunger, her blond curled hair cascading along her shoulders dancing to the rhythm of her moans, and then he saw it. Ha... it had been that day that he stopped loving her. What a bittersweet memory... she was reaching for the whip, when...

The scene changed again. He was in a battlefield, about four days prior to their victory over the Melgrok, the eastern serpentine shapeshifting tribe of the Ghrath Mountains, God Arad’s loyal creations. Fierce warriors bred to be vicious killers, no honor, no mercy. They fought both in serpentine and humanoid form. Changing at will.

The war lasted for six years. He had lost a lot in that war, including the man beside him, covered in blood from head to toe. Smashed armor dangling, lying on the floor in an unnatural position. His sword was still in his hand. His dead eyes were looking at him. While his blond curled hair danced on the harsh wind.

Hogg smelled the blood, despair and revolt around him, brought forward by the cruel wind. The wind had always been cruel and sharp in the Ghrath Mountains, freezing creatures over in minutes.

He felt his body shiver.

He felt his mind drift to another memory. He was brought forward to the moment Galbarosh had died, his best friend, it was the death that had marked the end of the war. Gal was one of the Inrimni, the personal guard of Aorumm, He was protecting the god when a Melgrok got the best of him. In a swift movement, the Melgrok commander, Hannat, blocked Gal’s sword and stabbed him in the back with his dagger.

Hogg was running as he saw this scene unroll, and once more, even though he knew what was coming, once more, he was not able to behead that bastard before the dagger broke his friend's skin and perforated his heart.

- Why are we here?

Andrea appeared beside a very shocked, very frozen and very vivid memory of Aorumm.

- What? - he inferred.

- I did not bring forward this memory. - she retorted, her gaze looking around his frozen memory.

Hogg looked confused, the experience of Galbarosh’s death still vivid in him. For a moment, he had forgotten it was all but a memory.

- It does, however, give me a clue. - Andrea raised her hand, extending her index finger up to the level of her nose. A small firefly landed on her fingertip.

She focused her eyes on it. Suddenly, a bright light blinded him, and when he was once more able to see again, his memory had disappeared. They were now on a vast field of white nothingness.

Andrea reached over with her free hand and held what seemed to be nothing, where not the “nothing” that she seemed to be grabbing materialized into a flow of treads made of light coming from everywhere. She focused on a single tread for some time and then released it.

- Good, - she said, satisfied – You have been helpful. Now the fun begins.