Silent Symphony

Chapter Twenty-Two: Look Into The Glass

"Jack," I muttered and threw the last of my hand down onto the floor.

Aldyth sighed and gathered up the cards sluggishly. "You know, other guys would have let me win by now."

"Do you want me to let you win?"

"No."

"Then do you see my dilemma?"

"I suppose."

Taurus hadn't yet returned when we made it back to the inn, nor when we brought our dinner up to the room. We pulled a blanket down onto the floor so we could sit in front of the fire while we waited, but as the sky grew darker, so did our fears. "Do you think he left us?" Aldyth murmured as she dealt out a new hand.

"I don't know," I admitted as I stared down at my cards.

"And if he doesn't come back?"

"I'm going after the East," I flipped a card over and set it down on a pile between us.

Aldyth looked up. "That's a rather rash, conclusion, don't you think?"

"What's rash about it?" I set another card down on the floor and hovered my hand over the deck. "I'm sitting here, playing jack with you while my Ismay...and Barric, and my mother." I closed my eyes slowly and rolled my lips over my teeth. The encounter with Simon haunted me like knucklebones with a prophecy. The events rolled behind my eyes as I drew a new hand from the deck. We honestly hadn't given him the time to speak.

I peered up at Aldyth over my cards. Her face was smooth...and much calmer than one would expect after the all that's happened in the last couple days. For a moment the fire seemed to find an earnest yearning to leap and dance, basking its amber warmth upon her fluid features. Her eyes flashed up at me and suddenly the cards slipped through my fingers.

It was like no pain I had ever experienced before -- as if my soul was getting crushed into the deepest cores of the Earth. My vision twisted out from under me as I fell to the short distance to the floor, clutching my ears. Without any plausible mean or reason, my heart raced forward, rallying to the deafening cracks that sounded like my head was combusting from the inside.

As quickly as I fell, my sight disappeared into an abyss of black and soft spoke whispers, for the first real time, all was silent -- or very nearly so. I could hear Aldyth professing alarm somewhere above me, but it sounded so muted, so distant, that it didn't seem to matter very much.

Whispered voices surrounded me and murmured listless babel that reminded me of water in a creak. It took a moment to realize that my eyes were squeezed shut and that the dark was a product of my own doing. After a long our breath, I parted my lashes and was startled to find myself gazing back through a broken shard of glass that was so large that I wondered how it could still be described as broken. It hung before my face as if awaiting command.

Look into the glass, young one.

My head whipped around at the sound of the ominous voice. It came from everywhere, yet nowhere all at once. "What? Why?"

Look upon the surface to find what you seek. Look beyond the surface to seek what you need.

"Who are you!?" I demanded and forced myself up to my feet.

A name matters little an eternity of time.

"I doubt I'll be alive that long. Who are you? Where am I? And what is this?"

Hellfire! I don't have the time for you moronic questions. Look into the glass. Be content with what you see there --

Suddenly the voice seemed a lot less omniscient and much more like that of a young man.