Rorrim

Bound to Power

When I woke up for the third time I was back in the original house. The old woman sat at the foot of my bed with a look of concern on her wrinkled face. I looked around, double, and triple checking my surroundings. Yes, the bed was on the left. Yes, the shelves were in the back, the bottles back to their normal ambiguousness! Yes! The counter was on the right with its bubbling alembics and dripping valves! The entire room was swept pristine and not a single thing was out of place. I snuggled back down into the cozy patchwork of the quilt. The warm weight of it gently encircled my entire body.

"What is wrong? You looked as if you were having a bad dream. Was it something I have done? Is there anything I can do?" The old woman asked, compassion and love evident in her melodious, angelic voice. I turned and looked at her.

"No, everything is quite all right. It was just a bad dream. It wasn't your fault and I don't see what anyone can do about a bad dream." I replied. I was unsure if any dream that had that gorgeous maiden in it could have been a bad dream. If it had been a dream why could I still taste the soup? And there on my shirt was a small stain. Had I dribbled some soup on myself? But that didn't make any sense. If I had been asleep there was no way that I could have affected the real world. Was there? Maybe I was just going crazy. Why did my head hurt so much? I hadn't really done anything to it had I?

"Please, tell me about your dream." She said, a feeling of incredible urgency filling every part of her voice. Her face, pitted and scarred though it was, was twisted with anxiety and concern as she asked me this.

"It was very odd. I woke in a cottage identical to this one yet everything was the perfect reflection. Where you are pristine they are filth, you in good repair they tatters, you sheltered and comforting they brutal and with an open grotesquery that chills the soul. Except for the woman that I found there. There was the most enchanting and bewitching woman you ever had the chance to lay your eyes upon. There was not a thing about her that was not exactly so. Except that not once while I was awake over there did she speak to me. Though I was awake and we together for some good time and despite my best efforts to initiate a conversation. She cooked for me and thrice tested my cup and yet not once did she partake of the food nor speak a word. It was all together quite odd." I explained to her as I wished to have someone else attempt to find the origin of this confusing set of developments.

"I see. I hope you don't find me impolite, but might I ask you some questions?" the old lady asked sitting next to me on the couch. Her tone had changed from caring to something quite serious and slightly sinister. Slightly taken aback by the forwardness of this turn and how markedly different she was from her earlier disposition that I sat up and searched her face trying to find in it some ulterior motive.

"Go ahead and ask but I warn you there are answers that I may not be at liberty to discus with you." I said, still wary of her true motives. She seemed mildly put out by that but resigned herself to the necessity of that. I wondered what need she had to ask me anything. It wasn't as if I was going to stay here very long, much to my dismay. I would've liked to see that beautiful young woman again. I had to figure out where I was and how to get back to the castle. I had to know if the king had made it out alive or if something dreadful had happened to them.

"First, let me ask you your name," she said in a matter of fact tone, "after all I must have something to call you." I was somewhat bemused. surely I had told her my name. I can't have been so discourteous as that. But thinking back I couldn't recall having told her.  Cursing my lack of manners I replied.

"My name is Richard..." Now that is curious. I can distinctly remember having a last name but I couldn't recall it for the life of me. 

"You must excuse me but I seem to have forgotten my last name. How odd." I furrowed my brow in puzzlement. She didn't seem terribly surprised by that which only increased my confusion. 

"That's alright Richard I quite understand. How long has it been since you woke up here?" she asked her face dead serious. 

"My lady, I don't understand what you mean. You have been with me the whole time I've been here. You know as well if not better than I when I woke up here." I stammered. What a confusing question.

" I see that I have not made myself clear enough. How long has it been since you woke up with a spike through your head." She said nodding towards the spike. I reached towards my forehead and felt again the spike which was thrust through it. I had completely forgot that it was there. Thinking back I tried to gauge the time that I had spent since waking up nailed to the tree. It couldn't have been more than a day wandering about in that skeletal forest. Then there was the half day spent following the trail to the cottage and however long I had spent inside it. 

"It can't have been more than three days. I'm sure of it." She seemed pleased to here this. I wasn't sure at the moment if that pleasure was in my best interest or to my detriment. I personally hoped that this knowledge would aid my cause in finding where I was.