Innocent Madness

Chapter Three: Deja Vu

    Following the events at the foot of the Raisson he is returned to his room where he falls to sleep almost immediately, his dreams haunted once more by the memory of his parents death.

    The next two days are uneventful to say the least, aside from the voices now whispering in his head. He first notes them as he wakes. They are muffled, soft, and incomprehensible, but he can tell they are calling him, directing him somewhere, but where and to what end he does not know.

    Isn't hearing voices a sign of madness? As he lies contemplating this Rose opens the door and walks in.

  He sits up to see her standing there, needle in hand, asking if she can take a blood sample, to check his health Truith imagines. He obliges without hesitation.

    Truith looks up at Rose as she inserts the needle in his arm. I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask. He thinks to himself. "Do you hear anything?", blunt but it was better than asking her if she could hear creepy voices.

   She looks up and keens her ears. "Nothing unusual, no. Why do you ask?".

    "Just thought I heard something is all.", he responds, trying his best to sound inconspicuous. She accepts without complaint. A few seconds later she removes the needle from his arm and leaves, promising to return later in the day.

    Locked in the room and left to his own devices he tries his hardest to occupy his time, and drown out the nonsensical voices; practicing martial arts, physical training, running through his mother's lessons in his head, and when he can think of nothing else lying down and staring into oblivion.

    When Rose finally returns some twelve hours later she walks into the room to find him hanging from the ceiling, held there by nothing more than shear boredom and the binding seals attached to his feet. Slightly startled at first she goes on to apologize for not being able to come sooner. Upon Truith's return to his proper, gravity defined position she presents him with a glass of water and a pill, his meal. A meal that tastes like air and unfortunately is just about as filling.

    After his sad little dinner he and Rose talk, albeit only for an hour. Not having a wide range of subjects to choose from he begins to tell her of his father and mother, of their house in the woods, about the beautiful garden at its center, his mother's expansive library. He does not tell her of the memory of their death, the horrible nightmare, or the omnipresent whispers choosing instead to focus on happier things, though he is uncertain if he does so for her sake or for his own. Rose listens for as long as she is able, her usual warm smile never leaving her face.

    All too soon they part again. Truith, wishing not to but seeing no alternative, falls asleep only to find the familiar nightmares awaiting him.

    The second day there is no one to greet him when he awakes. As before he tries his hardest to fight his boredom and fend of the voices, but just as before he is beaten most brutally.

    An unknowable amount of hours later, though Truith would guess something like twenty,  the door opens to reveal Arch, looking as stern as ever. Using as few words as possible he insists that Truith follow him. Truith obliges, glad to finally be out of the room. Shortly he finds himself in a familiar office where he is seated in an equally familiar red chair. A few minutes more and a familiar odd man walks into the room wearing a rather weary expression.

    "You will have to forgive me." Artemis states, sitting down after reversing the chair's position, "I had intended to speak with you yesterday but the Courts meeting ran a little longer than expected.".

    "Meeting? About me?", Truith asks.

    "Yes, and no.", Artemis answers, "There are quite a few other issues on our plate, what with us being under attack and all.". His expression never changing.