Passengers

Fred's viewpoint then lurched to the right as the sorceress turned to the shelf, to the coil of rope that had mysteriously crawled up there moments ago. Gods, where am I? thought Fred. Am I......inside her?

His thought was interrupted by another. The sorceress was.....speaking to the rope.

How hard did she struggle?

Now, a new thought-voice, this one mechanical and strange. Some words Fred sensed were a form of weird crossbreed, comprising two or more words, yet all with the same intention.....

Mistress/God. The Prisoner/Captive/Woman Had No Opportunity/Chance to Escape/Break Free. However/But Her Resistance Attempts Were. Were. This One. This One Felt/Experienced/Remembered. This. This. Th

Another thought-voice interjected. But still Fred could hear the crossbreed voice, very faint, repeating endlessly its last word.

~She has fire, Mistress. Her heart burns with memory. It burns with.....incompleteness. Hers is a fractured past.~

(sssWeEt Mistress, SHe mADe mE reMEMBeR! sHe MAde Us ALL RemeMBeR!)

The two new voices couldn't have been more different - the first was eloquent and calm, the second frantic and disturbed.

You do not remember, children, intoned the sorceress. There was nothing before me. You were nothing before me. I am your past, your future, your eternity. Do you understand?

There was no hesitation. Even the crossbreed voice ceased its repeated 'This. This. This....'.

(YES Mistress.)
Yes Mistress/God.
~Yes Mistress.~

Then I am pleased, children.

Fred felt his vision turn once more as the sorceress moved away from the rope. Then it suddenly stopped. Fred felt something new. It was a notion of uncertainty, but it did not come from him. The sorceress was.....confused, ever so slightly. It felt as if she were trying to remember something important. She soon dismissed the notion, however, and turned back to Astra. But the hesitation gave Fred hope that perhaps their enemy was not as all-powerful as she seemed to imply. He wished he could call out to Astra, who was beginning to fully regain her senses.

The sorceress waved her arms in a complex motion, twisting her fingers into eye-watering configurations. She accompanied these movements with a low whistle that seemed to echo in Fred's mind (and considering that all that seemed left of Fred was his mind, it could not go unnoticed). Within a minute, a large black circle appeared on the floor beneath Astra, and she sank into it like quicksand. The black circle faded from view, and Astra was gone. Fred felt a jolt of panic, but tempered it with reason. Surely the witch had not untied and healed Astra only to kill her anyway?

And now, Fred heard the sorceress say, it's time, Fred. Time to assign you to your new home.

.......

Astra blinked. She tensed for a moment, expecting the pain of the bonds to return, but realised she could now move. Carefully she reached up and felt her neck. Nothing. She was alive, the rope was gone.

Standing up, she looked to her surroundings. A vast cavern lay around her, the ceiling impossible to make out, such was its height. Around her, a circle of round stones, each no more than a couple of feet high, appeared to have been deliberately placed around her. Light came from a hanging lamp above her head.

Where am I now? thought Astra.

:never: mind: that: where: the: hell: am: i:!?

1. "No!" screamed Astra. How could the Voices have followed her?
2. Back amongst the bookshelves, Fred could only watch helplessly as the sorceress walked towards a new room.....

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