The Wordless Mage
Chapter 36: Thrown From The Mind’s Edge

Chapter 36: Thrown From The Mind’s Edge

"But what shall we do now," she continued, looking to her side for any signs of movement or occupied space.

Gripping her grimoire, she closed her eyes to allowed the heightened senses allowed by its pages to fill her body, granting her sight unbeknownst to her by herself.

She could sense them--the growing number of presences floating off in the distance, each one with a different shape to its aether.

She wasn’t aware of what they were or their purpose, but she knew that whatever laid within them would be key to finding Rowan.

"First things first," she said, looking back down, "lets go through you guys."

She unfolded the two other papers that had covered her body, anticipation surging in her limbs as if another bright light were going to assail her retinas, but she only felt a mixture of disappointment and gratitude once she’d read normal, readable characters.

"Drew a blank there, huh," she joked to herself, invoking a slight burst of energy to release from her grimoire.

She nuzzled its cover like someone would a pet, looking back to the other papers.

"Don’t suppose we’ll have to go through all of them, will we?"

Only sighing at her own rhetorical question, she flew more softly to the other purple auras floating in the air, reading through them one-by-one.

Although they each were interesting poems, she hadn’t the time nor energy to ruminate in their writing, none of them possessing within them any symbols that wrought special effects.

After half an hour of this, she stopped to float to herself once more, resting her head on her hands.

"At this rate, we’ll never find Rowan. There’s just too many of these things."

She closed her eyes, dropping the weight on her mind for just a moment to get a few minutes of respite.

Thwip!

Her grimoire shoved her violently through the void, her eyes shooting open despite there being no throbbing pain in the point of contact.

"Hey, what was that for--" she almost asked, looking up where the grimoire had been floating.

There was a large black figure, almost blending in within the empty space behind it had there not been prominent white features such as its eyes and teeth sticking out from its face.

"What is that," she asked, twirling her tail to propel her body more upright.

"Foolish human," it bellowed, its teeth jagged to the point of almost biting into its own gums, "to trespass unto this mind and attempt to strip the boy free of me. It’s dishonest, and frankly, more selfish than anything I’ve done."

It laughed at its own words, kicking its feet in the air behind it to display its dominant aura.

"What are you talking about?"

"Ah, you mean to say you don’t remember?"

Liora thought back to the conversation she’d had with the demon before she entered Rowan’s mind, her mouth flying open from the instant gratification of understanding.

"You’re the demon occupying Rowan’s body!"

"Ding, ding, ding! Ten points for you," the demon responded, almost laughing through its own words, "or, that is how you other-worlders say it, yes?"

"How do you know about game shows on earth?"

The demon was quiet for a moment, sticking its finger out towards Liora’s chest, then up into the void above.

"How do I know...? Where do you think we are right now?"

It painted it as if it were making a statement, but the pause in its speech insinuated that it was waiting for a genuine response.

Liora pondered on its words, thinking back to what she’d encountered thus far.

’Within the mind,’ she thought to herself, really searching through Corien’s explanation and its meanings and implications.

"Ah," she gasped unwillingly, straightening her face once she remembered who it was she was talking to, "this is Rowan’s unconscious, isn’t it? Is that why it’s so blank, and I ran into so many poems?"

"Ding, ding, ding, 20 points this time! Correct, this is the pit where not only Rowan, but all humans discard their most unwanted or forgotten memories. Whether it be trauma, short-term memory, or a mixture of both, this is the garbage disposal of the mind!"

It threw both its arms in the air, the flamboyant flare far too unbecoming of its appearance in Liora’s view.

"Okay, but that didn’t really answer my question," she continued, floating above to meet its gaze at eye-level, "do you mean to say that you’ve been occupying his mind?"

The demon didn’t bother responding to her words, looking down in sheer boredom.

"Hm, anyway, mind telling me why you’re here--"

"No, answer my question!"

Liora’s yell echoed even despite the endless expanse surrounding her, although it did little to affect the demon’s expression.

"Well, if you really want to know so bad, yes, I’ve been trapped within this boy for quite a while now. Far before he was transported to this world."

"What," she questioned, the space between her eyes furrowing from her bewilderment, "how?"

"For reasons you may never know, nor need to. Especially since you’ll be dead in just a few minutes."

Its words were sharp, the laxity in its posture dissolving into one more hardened and volatile.

Liora gasped, the terror in her heart enforcing her tail to move before she even opened her mouth to respond. But it didn’t matter.

Without so much as a millisecond of time wasted, two of the demon’s fingers wrapped around her body, ignoring her incorporeality entirely and restricting her of any movement.

"Wait," she pleaded, wriggling one hand free to wave in its face, "don’t kill me, please. I don’t wish to expel you from Rowan’s body, just simply allow you the opportunity to take someone else’s."

She knew that she wasn’t serious, but she was sure that even in Rowan’s unconscious, the demon wouldn’t be able to distinguish the falsity in her intentions.

"Ah, don’t worry, I won’t kill you," the demon said, allowing a breath of relief to escape from Liora’s mouth, "I can’t, not in this space. Your form wouldn’t allow it. No, I’ll do something else instead."

Liora vigorously shook her head as she felt her body raise in an upward tilt, the demon’s hand raising above its head. She didn’t have the nerve to speak, not after understanding what getting lost in the void would mean.

"I’ll send you to a space far away from here, where you may never return."

Thwoom!

The void struggled to contain the force of the demon’s throw, Liora’s form almost drizzling off into single droplets from the sheer velocity.

She was whistling in the air like a bolt of lightning, her body a mere flash from the sheer speed of her descent.

She couldn’t see around her, no, she was too scared to keep her eyes open.

The only thing she could do was hold onto her grimoire as tightly as she could, the aura surrounding the demon beginning to die out not from its death, but from the insane distances being placed between the two.

Thwam!

After a few minutes of flying through the air uninhibited by air resistance, her body slammed into a field of green, providing the first signs of earth that she could feel in this space.

It was an endless expanse of floral and trees, the sky now blue and filled with clouds.

And yet, there was no sound--no signs of life or passing wind.

Just herself, and the infinite expanse.

She staggered to her feet, the stillness more haunting than the void had ever been.

"Rowan..." she whispered, her grip tightening on the grimoire. "I’m not leaving you again."