The Little Voice in My Head
{Perhaps it is the Elves. Perhaps it is something in Khamul’s own mind, changed by a thousand years of bonding with another. But one morning he wakes and there is somebody back into his mind. But even at the very moment of waking the presence is… different, both in quality and in quantity. It is not as all-compassing, just at the fringe of Khamul’s thoughts rather than in the very middle of all of them and also it is… warm. Loving. Soft in some way. Rahal is still asleep next to him, strange and rare. And in a moment of shook, Khamul realizes. It is the Wanderer’s own mind bonded to his.}
The hole is-- well, not filled, but not empty any longer, either. It is more that a centuries-old oak tree has been uprooted, and in the gaping hole of its roots someone has planted a little garden.
Where once there had been Master, there then had been nothing. And that was probably supposed to have felt right, but after centuries of having another voice and will and presence in his head, having nobody else had been jarring and uncomfortable. He had tried to adapt and accept it, but it felt like one person living alone in a five story mansion.
Now there is a presence again. It isn’t as powerful as Master’s, it doesn’t dominate his mind and weave through his every thought and curl its desires into his own. It is gentle and soft and small, sitting in that empty void at the base of his skull, and he closes his eyes to simply experience it for a bit. What does it want of him? Was it intentional?
He takes a moment to carefully censor his thoughts, just as he sometimes tried when Master was in his head. Then it had been thoughts of rebellion or disgust or dismay, thoughts of loving someone else or wanting something more; now he censors the memories of Master, the parts of him too raw and too pathetic for anyone else to see.
Then he smiles and rolls over to curl around Rahal, snuggling close and pressing against him. He waits, watching inward for any sign that Rahal feels this too, that he isn’t hallucinating or dreaming or going mad in some bizarre form of separation anxiety.