Beth Milansky listened to what I laid claim to and gazing at me with an even look she stated, "Little Ariel. Grasping and pointing out that which she does not fully understand. Understand this, mind walker. I did not kill your family, nor could I. For I have been trapped in the form of an inanimate object, courtesy of this one," she points a finger at the boy and then adds, "And the third that is missing. To say that I killed your family is ludicrous and rather rude."
“I didn’t say you killed my family,” I just about shrieked shaking with anger. “I said that you killed Janet and her family. I didn’t get to tell Janet that I love her when she was alive.” At this I broke down crying. How could she think that I said she had killed my family? I thought I had spoken clearly. It was a few minutes before I calmed down enough to hear what anybody had to say.
"I did not kill her family," Beth said as she looked evenly at me. "How do you expect me to kill somebody that never existed in the first place? They were constructs that I put in place so that certain people would act in such a manner that would leave me with constant information on what was happening at the time. When Janet fulfilled her use, I removed the construct. The only person that I have ever come close to killing is the boy standing here with you, Tommy. And even I will admit that was a mistake based on the fact that this charade started by Isis and Inari had gone on so long, that I forget, sometimes, who is real and who is not."
“You’re lying,” I shouted, “Janet was real and I loved her. Then you go and kill her and her family.” How could this woman be so callous? Did she really expect me to believe her story about Janet being a construct she created? However she seemed to be telling the truth. But she couldn't be telling the truth could she?
Beth does not do anything at first to my outburst, merely staring at me as if she were watching something really fascinating. After a moment, she finally said, "I am not lying, my dear. If you find that you do not believe me, then I can offer some of the best proof out there. I will allow you access to my thoughts, memories, mind. There you can find the proof you need. But, be warned. What you find might cause you damage and leave you broken. You might walk away with a migraine. Or you may very well have a seizure. But one thing you and I will share, if you continue on this path, is several memories. Some not so pleasant. Unpleasant in the sense that they will haunt you for the rest of your life and leave you with nightmares that wake you and leave you gasping for air, ready to scream and call out, but paralysed and unable to do so."
Without waiting for a reply, Beth immediately turned her attention to include Tommy as well and explained, "The two of you shall be taken separately to be trained. Tommy, you shall learn to use the book and what it means to conjure spells, rather than choosing them at random. You shall also learn what the consequences are for each spell you recite. Ariel, you shall be trained in your ability to mind- walk and, I sense, possibly another power."
She blinks and then shakes her head and states, "Will go over what that is in our training. Either I or somebody else will be training you, depending on schedules. Ariel, if I do not train you, the others that you are used to dealing with will assist." I was about to ask a question but Beth held up a hand and said, "All questions will have to wait for a bit," and turning her attention to Tommy, she told him, "Feel free to make yourself at home. The white room is so much more than it appears. I am going to take Ariel aside to discuss a few things," and when Tommy nods at this, Beth turns her attention to me and said, "If you really are sure that what you want to do is look into my mind, come with me."
Turning about, Beth starts across the room, toward the three doors across the way, and stopping before one, she whispers something and then opens it revealing the inside of a tent beyond it. Looking back at me, she asked, "Coming?"
I was wary of going with her. If she got me alone she could possibly kill me. But I did have the ability to shapeshift so I should be alright. Then again she probably had magic which could mean trouble for me. In the end I decided to follow her into that tent and what would come would come. I just hoped that I survived.
I followed Beth into the tent where she sat on the canvas floor lotus style and closed her eyes. She began to breath evenly and slowly. I guessed that she was opening her mind to me. I decided I might as well sit down lotus style across from her. When I did she opened her eyes and in a flat, masculine voice told me, “Come at me mind-walker. I am ready.”
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This wasn't right. I should be seeing Beth's memories as a third person but instead I'm a cat collar being handed over to Isis. I found myself getting lost in Beth's memories experiencing them as if I had lived them.
Decades passed and I wanted to scream as I found myself at the mercy of the two I had worked my whole life to destroy. I watched helplessly as the two created their loyal followers, set up a place of worship and from there, start to spread their wicked crusade, all because they had fallen and nobody recognised them anymore as deities. The horror of being a sentient being trapped in the form of an inanimate object nearly drove me insane. I eventually found a way around it and I drifted off into the past.
I found myself in a house. The smell of something burning was sharp and unmistakable as elsewhere I could hear the sound of wood snapping and glass popping. Searing pain ripped through me and without having to look I know that I'm being burnt as the noxious fumes of smoke choke my lungs. A scream bubbles up in my throat but I'm unable to allow it to come out as my lips have fused together. Knowing that this is the price me and my family must pay for our defiance I…
I stood before a table looking at the ingredients before me. Picking up the spell book I flip through it, the feeling of it wanting to return to it's shelf and that it does not belong to me rippling through me like an electric charge.
Understanding that given the slightest edge the tome would return to it's shelf at Spelstorm manor forcing me to start over I begin to go over the ingredients before me, making sure that everything was measured properly and that I had made no mistakes in my preparations. Somewhere, possibly from one of the beakers on the table before me, a wailing noise could be heard, reminding me of somebody in distress.
Somebody is carrying me whispering words of comfort. My body aches and there is the smell of over-cooked meat assaulting my sense of smell. Attempting to speak I only manage a moan as every nerve ending in my body alights in a deepening pain. A voice tells me, “Hush. You need to rest.” I find myself drifting, my thoughts going to the Quondams that had started the fire that I know destroyed my house and killed my family, taking everything my eleven year old mind held sacred away from me. Those very same people that nearly killed me.
From these thoughts I drifted to the ones that control the Quondams, the two that dared to call themselves deities, masters over all that was before them, supreme rulers of the people, and silently, as I attempt to cry but cannot, I wish the very same misery and pain I was feeling onto them.
The thing, it didn’t even look human nor did it have any recognizable sex, crawled across the bio-bed making mewling noises as it forced it's way toward me. As it drew closer it began to break down, shedding itself in a violent manner, as a horrid smell began to emanate from it and for a moment I thought that I was going to be sick.
But then the thing stopped, dripping visceral material much like mucus would run from somebody’s nose when they had a cold, gazing at me it made that mewling noise a couple more times before finally falling apart completely, leaving me looking at a bio-bed covered in the remains of something that could have been human one day. Turning away, nausea overcoming me, I bent over and heaved the contents of my lunch onto the floor, mentally cursing my own failure.
“My name,” the figure explains, “is Da'Tal. I am to be, from the moment you are well enough, your teacher. What will I be teaching you? To put it simply, I will be teaching you how to fight the two deities. The ones that destroyed your home and your family, simply because your parents renounced these deities.”
Numb, barely able to move because of the sheet covering me, I gazed up from the bio-bed looking at the figure before me, question after question racing through my head. After a moment I attempt to say something but a lance of pain through my mouth and surrounding face kept me from forming my question. Above me Da’Tal said, “Rest. There will be time enough for questions when you are healed and you have begun your learning.”
I stared at the girl on the bio-bed, the same one I had used all those years ago to heal myself of the burns that had covered my whole body, thinking about what I must do and what those that had set themselves against me represented. After a moment, I checked the vitals and saw something flashing. When I inspected it, fearing that it was something telling me that my creation was dying once again after it had taken me six tries just to get this one right, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it was a part of the monitor that wanted to know specific information about the person using the bio-bed.
Thinking about all that I could fill in I decided to leave almost all of it blank, filling in the name Janet in the end. Turning my attention to the other bio-beds I watched as the other creatures on them continued to form, knowing that one would be Janet’s mother and another would be her sister.
------
I was forcefully pushed out of Beth's mind leaving me sitting there with her memories circling within my mind. I was sure that Beth experienced my memories as well. She had to have felt how much Janet had meant to me, the truth that she had created a golem that became Janet didn't change that. What I had read about golems was that once they had served the purpose for which they were created they return to what they were made from. That means Janet and her family were now puddles of goo like Beth's earlier attempts.
Beth placed her hand on mine and said, “I will be here to help if the memories get to be too much.”
Even though I was still hurt over Janet's "death" I smiled at her and said, "Thank you." It wasn't her fault that I fell in love with a golem. Isis and Inari were responsible for setting Beth on the path that led to her creating Janet and her family. Perhaps Isis and Inari will feel the pain they caused Beth.