Note: Hello, so yes I'm planning for at most three more chapters because I am on a deadline and I have sewing projects to work on but nonetheless I had way too much fun writing this. Again all constructive criticism is welcomed.
A Trip to Alagadda | The Anguished court
I found myself asleep once more, for what seemed to be in the prison of my own mind.
There was nothing far as the eye could see, eternal darkness wrapping the forever stretching length of what the mortal mind could muster. In the distance as if through a thin veil, I heard whispers in long dead tongues all merging together in a moment’s thought. Gentle child’s voices singing from far away, too near yet too far away to reach.
Perchance it all was a dream, that sea, that beach, that city. Perchance it was all a fragment of my exhausted mind, perhaps I would awake once more in that dark, cold cellar, face ink-stained, hair tangled in the incohesive ramblings of the ripped-out pages of my book.
But it all was eerily familiar, too familiar to brush off as a dream.
There was nothing to go to
I awoke once more but not in the damp, cold cellar. I instead found myself wrapped in silken sheets, so dark I thought I was swallowed up by that forsaken ocean. There was hardly any colour in the chamber, glimpses of moonlight too brief and too far between to make sufficient light.
From quick glimpses, the chamber itself looked like a dilapidated Cathedral, the marble cracked the painted ceilings derelict, the statues long forsaken. There was something almost ethereal about it, little bits of ash floating in the air.
The bitter air smelt of burned books, on its waves lingered the ancient smell of neglected olive pastures, of wine preserved with terebinth resin, of salty shores brushing on Greek sands…
He sat by the side of the bed.
The white porcelain locked in the face of permanent anguish, pain radiating in a could of misery surrounding him.
His raven robes flowed in the wind from a window left ajar.
The black holes of his eyes peered with utmost diligent patience.
“So you’re the Anguished Lord then,” I finally spoke, voice horse and tired.
He said nothing for a while determined to look at me.
“Good morning to you too mon cher,” He spoke, his voice echoing and cold.
“Cut the niceties how and why am I here?”
“No appreciation as always, I see,”
“No Dýo, you see I did not think we were on speaking terms after our last encounter, so imagine my utmost pleasant surprise when I find myself here for whatever reason, with no recollection of what happened, how I got here, where I am, who are these people. Yet, oh, how lovely one and only thing that is familiar here is you,”
“What do you need me here for Dýo?,” I asked bluntly.
“Up!” I put a finger to his porcelain lips. “No,”
“I–...” He struggled. “I…” It was clear the words he couldn’t muster. His pride-too big and hard to swallow.
“Go on,” I couldn’t hide a cocky smile.
“I may need you to perform a series of actions that in the likely event of their successful outcome will benefit me,”
The frustration on his unchanging face was palpable.
“... Zeus almighty… I need you. I need your help,” He put his hand on my leg, leaning in.
“You see… we’re all finding ourselves in a predicament here. There is a king– an idiot who can barely string a sentence together, but a king non the less, is gravely sick, and I and the other Lords have been tasked with finding someone who can cure him,”
“How long has this been going on for?”
“About… what a good year in human time… Here time passes differently,”
“Well… Many physicians tried many physicians failed. The other Lords have been shovelling them in like manure in the hope one can cure the king… well none can… doctors from everywhere– so far none can,”
“And… I’m rather afraid the answer as to what happens to those who can’t?”
“...Ugh… It’s hard to put into words eloquently enough for your human brain to comprehend,”
“Hmm, thank you for the sprinkle of condescension– but I digress. What makes you think I can help your… king? I am as you like to say but a mere mortal physician, you know colds, broken bones, fevers, plagues. I do find it unlikely that if physicians from countless worlds have been brought to aid and have subsequently failed I could succeed,”
“My darling,” He put his porcelain cold hand on mine. “Do you not think that if I thought you incompetent I wouldn’t have brought you here?”
“Well if that isn’t the greatest compliment you’ve ever given me,”
“You’re welcome,” He smiled.
“Well… is this where you’re actually from?” I broke the silence looking around.
“Pht! No of course not I told you–” Dyo put a hand on his chest flabbergasted.
“Well, it does seem more plausible than you being a gift from ancient Greek gods doesn’t it?”
“Why do you have to take the magic out of everything?”
“I’m a doctor I have to, you remember the plague and how far believing in magic got all the other doctors,”
“Such a bold statement coming from a you,”
“My faith has nothing to do with this discussion,”
“Ah, yes, pardon me Mr Jerusalem, how is your crusader armour fairing?”
“So, if not from here how did you end up here?”
“I’m sure your brilliant mind can condense it,”
“Well, when you pissed off back to France to rot away in whatever basement it is you live in, I decided to go back to England to write some plays with Billy. Did I tell you about how he completely stole my script for Othello, that bastard–”
“Dyo, don’t get sidetracked,”
Deep breath “Aaaanyway, I arrived only to find the theatre under partial restoration and completely empty! There were some beggars in the construction rubble and I was like ‘Where’s Billy’ And guess what the bugger has been dead for three years now! Did you know that? I didn’t. Right and so I go backstage to see if before his death he managed to steal more of my scripts, and maybe fiddle with some costumes– when like a speck of fire this thing catches my eye. In the corner, on the wall, there hangs a Japanese tapestry, and I’m like I hadn’t seen that before. And so I go up to it and I’m like that’s really strange, and so I peel it back, and guess what in the wall there is a passage downward, long spiralled stairs,”
Like an ocean wave, the image of spiralled stairs going downward into the dark oblivion hit my mind. Too vivid to be a dream.
“Right? And so I keep going, and going thinking damn what else has that bastard been hiding from me. And I get to the bottom, and there is this giant locked door, with some alchemy equation. And so I solved it because I am the single smartest –”
“Shhhhhhh,” He placed his finger to my lips. “And so I solve it and it lights up, sparkling ‘pshhhhhhhh… boom!’ and it swings open and as I step inside I find myself in this garb and in my mask, and the rest is history,”
“So this is where you’ve been the last five years?”
“It’s been five years? Good Lord the time here really does move quickly,”
“I’ve been searching for you,”
“Not like you’ve been missing me though?” I did not answer. “I didn’t think so,”
“... So I assume you did not bring me here to keep me in bed,” I sat up.
“Right, so are you willing to help me?”
“Supposing I am not annihilated, yes, however, I must ask what will I be getting out of this?”
“Well, assuming you’re not… and I know you wouldn’t be… I promise not to harass you for a full century,”
“Dyo I gave you my price take it or leave it’s up to you,”
“Fine, one hundred and fifty years I promise I will not defame you, try and kill you or in any way harm your personal possessions,”
“Deal,” I stretched my hand to him, he shook it and nodded.
“Now let me show you what you’ll be wearing,” He revealed a garment so pathetically laughable, it was hard to restrain.
“Listen I built my suit specially to prevent the spread and contamination, your clownish theatre garbs may work for theatre but they do not for actual working,”
“I’ll take that criticism to heart… But as a physician that I’m presenting to the king you must look the part,”
“Trust me next to you I’ll blend right in,” His face slacked. “Where are my sack and staff?”
“At least keep the shiny boots,”