Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Oh, Ethat, Why?

Everyone looked at Korr. Korr looked nonplussed.

"You weren't the one carrying me," I said. "But I think... you were there. You were one of the voices. I think. Maybe. I'm just not sure... it... was you...?"

It felt like it had been Korr. It hadn't been him, but it felt like Korr. But Korr hadn't been carrying me. Someone else had been.

"I just... I wanted it to be over," I said as I felt around the memory/vision/dream. "I just remember being... done. But someone else was saying let it be done. Or was I saying that? I just... I was so..."

It was right there, right there, waiting for me to claim it and name it.

"I was done. I didn't want to be done. I was trying to... no, I wanted to, but I couldn't..."

"Exhausted?" Ormiss asked.

"No. No, it wasn't like that. It was...." It was hard to put myself back into the memory. It kept wanting to slide away. I fought to stay in the strange balanced spot where I could just barely touch it. "Done. that's the word. Done. And I... I don't think I wanted to be, but I...there was no fight left. I couldn't fight."

"Were you restrained?" Ormiss asked, carefully, like he knew I was delicately balanced within my mind.

I shook my head and let the memory go. "No. No. I was being carried. By someone. Korr was... there. I don't know where. There was a Song too, but I don't know who was singing. Or what they were Singing."

I sank away from the memory like I'd just been stretching to reach something on a top shelf and had to admit defeat.

"Have you ever been in this corridor before?" Asund asked.

"No, nowhere like it. It was very dark, very quiet, very, very wet. The rocks were wet. And it smelled... wait, no, I couldn't smell anything." That part of the memory was clear, because there was no memory. The cisterns down below the house had a smell. They smelled like rock, water, salt. Even the air around Ormiss' staff had a smell from the latern--like the air of a thunderstorm.

Korr had his chin in his hand, thumb digging into his cheek. Itek had the next question. "Were you an adult or a child?"

Another glance at the memory. "Adult. Definitely an adult."

"Did it feel like a dream?" Asund asked.

"What does a dream feel like?" I asked him, trying not to sound bitter. We still hadn't determined that the little pocket realm I'd been in hadn't been a dream of some kind. Even if I'd physically been in the dream. I couldn't be trusted to know the difference between a dream and reality anymore.

Ethat glared at Korr. "Where was this?"

"I have no idea. I've been in my share of underground corridors, but never one like she described," Korr replied, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Then why were you there?" Ethat growled.

"Are you accusing me of something?" Korr growled back.
"Should I be?"

"I didn't do this to her."

"You seem to be doing something."

"I am an Ice Dragon. I'm not intentionally doing anything to her. I'm not a Glass dragon or a Pantere Priestess."

"Bullshit! You know!" Ethat shouted. He surged up and lunged at Korr, driving his brother into the wall so hard the trimmings shook. Ethat grabbed Korr's wrists, bashed his hands into the wall, and snarled, "What have you done to her!"