A kiss or two for Sithis

3.

After collapsing into bed, Hemisk had fallen into a deep sleep. He dreamt he was falling through infinite blackness, but he wasn't scared. He just idly noticed the sensation of falling. This carried on for a while, this falling lucid dreaming. He couldn't stop it, but Hemisk knew he was dreaming, so he went along with it placidly. He was neither hot or cold, nor did he feel any sensation like hunger, thirst, boredom or fear. It was like this place was beyond all feelings or thought. After some time, he began to fall slower, and then came to a stop, hovering somewhere in this inky blackness of his dream. There then came the sound of bees... no... not bees... Hemisk strained his ears hard to make out the sound. It sounded like bees, but it wasn't. Instead of a faint buzzing of wings, it was an unpronounceable sound, one unheard of by most things upon Nirn. He could only describe this sound as a faint "Psjjjj". This sound, he would remember for the rest of his life, and long after he died, it would echo through his mind, conscious or otherwise.  The sound itself was all around him, it was in him, and it came straight through him, as if this sound penetrated all matter. Then came a single sensation that dawned in his mind.
Cold.
This place was cold.
So cold in fact, that Hemisk felt himself wishing he would wake up, and be in the bed he had rented, with food and drink if he wanted it.
With a sudden lurch of his chest, Hemisk felt himself pulled forwards through this darkness, pulled with immeasurable speed and force, towards something strange. Something terrifying. But still, Hemisk felt no fear. He just felt the cold seep into his bones. It reminded him of his journey to Windhelm, the journey through the snow. As he was pulled, he began to feel, with increasing desperation, a longing to wake up. He didn't want to be reminded of the journey from Winterhold to Windhelm. Of the mercenary in his company who had died so close to the city. As he went hurtling through this blackness, he began to feel a slight sense of unease. He came to a sudden stop, looked around, and saw the single most most terrifying sight Hemisk had, or ever would see. That was when something snapped in him. Fear. Cold, choking, black fear enveloped him. For facing him, was a pale snake, somehow skeletal, somehow alive, it's head reeling, it's body and tail twisting at impossible angles. A great shadow was forming around it, obscuring Hemisk's vision, and his view of the horrifying snake. The "Psjjjj" sound he had only faintly heard earlier was louder, so much louder. It seemed that the serpent was emitting the sound. It's tail began to thrash wildly, as a huge crack began to appear down the snakes abdomen. This crack then split open, and to Hemisk's horror, skulls began to tumble out of the gash in the snake. The snake began writing with pain... or was it anger? Hemisk didn't know. As the skulls tumbled down into the infinite blackness, the snake began to spit and choke, then great fountains of venom and bile began pouring from it's mouth. Through the cascade of venom and vomit gushing from it's mouth, the serpent began to screech a high, sustained note. This carried on for several moments, until it quietened. The toxic liquids still flowing from the snakes mouth, skulls still tumbling into the infinite abyss below, the snake spat out 7 words. Each syllable was pronounced as if it was poison on the serpents tongue, spoken with the upmost hatred and loathing.
"They shall know the wrath of Sithis."

With this, Hemisk woke. Cold, but very much alive and well. After a few minutes, in which time he had dressed and went for breakfast he had forgotten most of the dream. When he had finished breakfast, and was laughing uproariously at how Amar had managed to get his finger stuck in a mead bottle for a bet, he had even forgotten the snake. It was only when the tavern owner swatted a fly, with the comment of "Damn bugs.", did he remember the "Psjjjj" sound. But that was all he could remember, and he wasn't sure why he felt a sense of unease when thinking about the sound. He brushed it off, paid for his meal and his room, and went to go outside with the rest of his fellow mercenaries.