Totentanz

Book 2 Chapter X: Ansehen

ANSEHEN
German, "to watch; to look at"

But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that's going to be Human and isn't yet, or used to be Human once and isn't now, or ought to be Human and isn't, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet. -- C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

My head hurts, was Diarnlan's first and rather muzzy thought. She drifted closer to consciousness and promptly wished for oblivion. Her head didn't just hurt, it ached. It felt like someone was trying to prise her skull open with a crowbar from within. Gods above, how did I die this time?

Wait, that wasn't right. No matter how painful her deaths were the pain never lingered after death. She was faced with the very unwelcome realisation that she was alive.

What did I drink last night?

Her last clear memory was of the spell to make vegetables grow quickly. Everything after that was a blur. For some reason she'd been on a bridge. And was that a church?

Diarnlan risked opening her eyes. Then she squeezed them shut and groaned in anguish. The world was far too bright and colourful. And it was spinning.

Saungrafn? Saungrafn, what's happening? Where am I?

No answer. In fact Diarnlan couldn't sense her soul-weapon's presence at all. For the first time she felt a flicker of unease. Slowly she cracked open one eye. The confused blur above her head swirled and resolved itself into a collection of pale blue and orange stones stuck to the ceiling to form geometric shapes.

Diarnlan opened her other eye and squinted. This wasn't a style of architecture she'd ever seen before. Perhaps it was like the painted ceilings in the palaces of Iubia-Capreae. But how could she have gotten to a place that used the architecture of a country on the other side of the continent?

She sat up. That was when she realised she was lying on a very large mattress that covered the room's entire floor. No, wait. It wasn't a mattress. It was... a cloud? Diarnlan rubbed her eyes and looked again.

Whatever the thing spread over the floor was, it certainly did resemble a cloud. In appearance it was like one of the light, fluffy clouds that looked like wisps of smoke, but unlike them it was a strange bluish-greenish-purple. The colour changed every second and sometimes it was a shade Diarnlan had never seen before and couldn't find the words to describe.

She lay down again, took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. All right. Something had happened yesterday. Maybe she'd drunk too much and the hotel staff had put her somewhere until she sobered up. Whatever the reason, she'd fallen unconscious and been brought to this strange place. Probably she was still somewhere in...

Where was I last?

She tried to remember. Oh yes. She'd gone to Guraisi. And someone had watched her the whole time.

Diarnlan sat bolt upright at that memory. Suddenly the entire situation took on an even more sinister twist than simply getting drunk and being left to sober up. An invisible person had stalked her all around Guraisi. She had fallen off something. Was this a hospital? Or had her stalker kidnapped her?

She shoved back the heavy quilt. It was warm and soft, but an unpleasant smell clung to it. A smell almost like blood and rotten meat. Scale-like patterns covered it, changing colour like the walls.

The room was completely empty apart from the mattress and quilt. Its walls were covered with the same stone patterns as the ceiling. There were no lights anywhere and not even a tiny crack of a window. Yet there was light in the room; a sort of cold white light that seemed oddly artificial. It wasn't warm like a conjured light or a gas-lamp. It seemed to emanate from the walls themselves while also filling the air as if it was somewhere overhead.